{"id":146561,"date":"2026-02-06T21:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146561\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:47:11","slug":"anna-kepners-stepbrother-appears-in-court-after-cruise-ship-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146561\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Kepner’s stepbrother appears in court after cruise ship death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anna Kepner’s stepbrother appears in court months after Florida teen found dead on cruise ship<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WESH<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 4:25 PM EST Feb 6, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe stepbrother of Anna Kepner appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday, according to News 6 South Florida.Anna Kepner, 18, was found dead under a bed aboard a cruise ship on Nov. 7. Her stepbrother \u2013 who is not being named because of his age \u2013 is 16 and was named a suspect in late November. News 6 says the criminal docket for the magistrate judge shows a sealed case was on his agenda and that case number remained sealed Friday afternoon, so any charges he may face have not been publicly released.Anna was a student at Temple Christian School in Titusville.TimelineNov. 7: Anna died at 11:17 a.m., according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. She was on board the Carnival Horizon cruise ship with her father, stepmother, grandparents and siblings.Nov. 8: The cruise ship returned to PortMiami, where Carnival confirmed the FBI had begun investigating the death of a guest.Nov. 20: An attorney for the 16-year-old\u2019s father said in a court hearing that Anna and her stepbrother were staying in the same room on the cruise ship.\u201cWe feel there are some circumstances regarding the 16-year-old and the mother\u2019s judgment regarding that cruise that would affect, you know, obviously, her ability to care for the minor child, the 9-year-old,\u201d attorney Eric Smith said.Later that night, family, friends and classmates gathered at the Grove Church in Titusville for a celebration of life for Anna.Nov. 24: The Medical Examiner\u2019s Office for Miami-Dade told WESH 2 that the report for Kepner \u201c\u2026 is currently part of an ongoing investigation or criminal proceeding and, therefore, cannot be released at this time. Once the investigation or proceeding has concluded, the records may become available \u2026\u201dNov. 25: Attorneys for the 16-year-old\u2019s father filed a subpoena asking for Anna\u2019s father, Chris Kepner, to testify in the divorce and custody case involving his wife, Shauntel Hudson.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The stepbrother of Anna Kepner appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday, according to News 6 South Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anna Kepner, 18, was found dead under a bed aboard a cruise ship on Nov. 7. <\/p>\n

Her stepbrother \u2013 who is not being named because of his age \u2013 is 16 and was named a suspect <\/a>in late November. <\/p>\n

News 6<\/a> says the criminal docket for the magistrate judge shows a sealed case was on his agenda and that case number remained sealed Friday afternoon, so any charges he may face have not been publicly released.<\/p>\n

Anna was a student at Temple Christian School in Titusville.<\/p>\n

Timeline<\/p>\n

Nov. 7: Anna died at 11:17 a.m., according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner. She was on board the Carnival Horizon cruise ship with her father, stepmother, grandparents and siblings.<\/p>\n

Nov. 8: The cruise ship returned to PortMiami, where Carnival confirmed the FBI had begun investigating the death of a guest.<\/p>\n

Nov. 20: An attorney for the 16-year-old\u2019s father said in a court hearing that Anna and her stepbrother were staying in the same room on the cruise ship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel there are some circumstances regarding the 16-year-old and the mother\u2019s judgment regarding that cruise that would affect, you know, obviously, her ability to care for the minor child, the 9-year-old,\u201d attorney Eric Smith said.<\/p>\n

Later that night, family, friends and classmates gathered at the Grove Church in Titusville for a celebration of life for Anna.<\/p>\n

Nov. 24: The Medical Examiner\u2019s Office for Miami-Dade told WESH 2 that the report for Kepner \u201c\u2026 is currently part of an ongoing investigation or criminal proceeding and, therefore, cannot be released at this time. Once the investigation or proceeding has concluded, the records may become available \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Nov. 25: Attorneys for the 16-year-old\u2019s father filed a subpoena asking for Anna\u2019s father, Chris Kepner, to testify in the divorce and custody case involving his wife, Shauntel Hudson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anna Kepner’s stepbrother appears in court months after Florida teen found dead on cruise ship Updated: 4:25 PM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3429,33099,6275,8219,70911,41589,19762,28,70907,30,29,8597,1210,70909,115,1093,70910,70908,15447],"class_list":["post-146561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-16-year-old","tag-anna-kepner","tag-attorney","tag-court","tag-criminal-proceeding","tag-cruise-ship-death","tag-father","tag-florida","tag-florida-cheerleader-cruise-ship-death","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-friday","tag-life","tag-miami-dade-medical-examiner","tag-news","tag-nov","tag-ongoing-investigation","tag-stepbrother","tag-titusville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}