{"id":229964,"date":"2026-04-13T16:41:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229964\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:41:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:41:30","slug":"florida-teen-charged-as-adult-for-allegedly-sexually-assaulting-killing-stepsister-aboard-carnival-cruise-ship-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229964\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida teen charged as adult for allegedly sexually assaulting, killing stepsister aboard Carnival cruise ship – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI (WSVN) – A 16-year-old Florida boy has been indicted as an adult on federal charges in connection with the killing of his stepsister aboard a Carnival Cruise Line ship last year, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida.<\/p>\n

The defendant, identified only as T.H., is from Titusville and faces charges of murder and aggravated sexual abuse<\/p>\n

According to court records, T.H. was traveling aboard the Carnival Horizon with his stepsister, Anna Kepner<\/a>, and other family members on or about Nov. 6-7, 2025. <\/p>\n

While the ship was sailing in international waters en route to Miami, T.H. allegedly sexually assaulted and intentionally killed Kepner. <\/p>\n

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner\u2019s Office determined her cause of death<\/a> to be mechanical asphyxiation.<\/p>\n

T.H. was initially charged as a juvenile in February<\/a>. The case remained sealed until a federal judge ordered it transferred for adult prosecution. A federal grand jury then returned the indictment.<\/p>\n

The defendant faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (WSVN) – A 16-year-old Florida boy has been indicted as an adult on federal charges in connection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-229964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229964","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=229964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}