{"id":146801,"date":"2026-02-07T01:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146801\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T01:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T01:29:11","slug":"stepbrother-of-florida-teen-killed-on-cruise-ship-appears-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146801\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepbrother of Florida teen killed on cruise ship appears in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida teen named in court documents as a suspect in his stepsister\u2019s death aboard a cruise ship <\/a>appeared in a Miami court Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old teen appeared before a federal magistrate in a locked courtroom with public defenders, prosecutors and U.S. Marshals, according to NBC 6 in Miami.<\/a> The docket for the judge was sealed and any charges the teen may face have not been publicly released.<\/p>\n

No one has been publicly charged in the death of Anna Kepner. The 18-year-old high school senior <\/a>was found dead under a bed in the cabin she shared with her stepbrother on a family cruise in November.<\/p>\n

The stepbrother had been mentioned as a possible suspect in a Brevard County court during custody hearings involving his biological parents and shortly after the death of his stepsister.<\/p>\n

What happened when Anna Kepner\u2019s stepbrother appeared in a Florida courtroom?<\/p>\n

After the teen appeared before a federal judge Feb. 6, he was seen walking to another courthouse and into a probation office where defendants are processed for pretrial release, according to NBC 6 in Miami.<\/p>\n

FBI officials acknowledged the agency is investigating the case but would not release any information. The Miami Dade Medical Examiner\u2019s Office<\/a> has not released Kepner\u2019s cause of death, but court documents state she was strangled and her death was ruled a homicide.<\/p>\n

Documents also show the stepbrother was taken to a facility following the cruise where he stayed for an undetermined amount of time. He then went to live with a relative in another part of Florida where his mother said in a court hearing he was undergoing therapy.<\/p>\n

Who was Anna Kepner?<\/p>\n

Kepner, an \u201cA\u201d student at Temple Christian School<\/a> in Titusville, Florida, was described by family and friends as “pure energy: bubbly, funny, outgoing.”<\/p>\n

She received her boaters license before she could drive and had plans to join the U.S. Navy after her high school graduation next year with long-term plans to become a K9 officer. A lifelong gymnast, Kepner was active on her school’s cheerleading team.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people showed up for her celebration of life Nov. 20. In the days after her death, loved ones turned her car into a makeshift memorial with flowers, balloons and messages.<\/p>\n

Michelle Spitzer<\/a>is a journalist for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. As the network\u2019s Rapid Response reporter, she covers Florida\u2019s breaking news. You can get all of Florida\u2019s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https:\/\/floridatoday.com\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida teen in court 3 months after stepsister killed on cruise<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida teen named in court documents as a suspect in his stepsister\u2019s death aboard a cruise ship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33099,71050,40617,14183,41719,28,30,29,37598,71049,25771],"class_list":{"0":"post-146801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-anna-kepner","9":"tag-brevard-county-court","10":"tag-court-documents","11":"tag-cruise-ship","12":"tag-federal-judge","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-florida-headlines","15":"tag-florida-news","16":"tag-hearings","17":"tag-stepsister","18":"tag-u-s-marshals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146801","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=146801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}