{"id":229968,"date":"2026-04-13T16:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229968\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T16:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T16:44:07","slug":"florida-teen-charged-as-adult-in-killing-of-stepsister-anna-kepner-on-cruise-ship-doj-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/229968\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida teen charged as adult in killing of stepsister Anna Kepner on cruise ship, DOJ says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 16-year-old stepbrother of Florida teenager Anna Kepner has been officially been charged as an adult in her killing after she was found dead aboard a cruise ship in 2025, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdfl\/pr\/titusville-teen-charged-adult-killing-stepsister-cruise-ship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the U.S. Department of Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to court records, the Titusville teenager was traveling on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/cruise-ship\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carnival Cruise Line<\/a>&#8216;s Horizon with Kepner and other family members in November 2025 when the incident occurred, according to the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators said that while the ship was in international waters en route to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/miami\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Miami<\/a>, the teenage stepbrother allegedly sexually assaulted and intentionally killed Kepner, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/united-states-department-of-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DOJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office later determined the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our hearts go out to the victim&#8217;s family during this unimaginable loss,&#8221; U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release. &#8220;A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred aboard a vessel in international waters. We will present the evidence in court and pursue this case with professionalism and care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Qui\u00f1ones went on to say that Kepner&#8217;s stepbrother is presumed innocent unless or until he&#8217;s proven guilty.<\/p>\n<p>The teenager was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/anna-kepner-cruise-ship-death-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">initially charged as a juvenile in February<\/a>, and the case remained sealed until U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom ordered it transferred for adult prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, Kepner&#8217;s stepbrother was charged with first degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse.<\/p>\n<p>If he&#8217;s convicted in her killing, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/news\/carnival-cruise-horizon-death-investigation-miami-fbi\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">FBI Miami is investigating the case<\/a>, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alenjandra L. L\u00f3pez is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 16-year-old stepbrother of Florida teenager Anna Kepner has been officially been charged as an adult in her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10261,14183,2364,28,30,29,123,1064,807,33738],"class_list":{"0":"post-229968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-cruise","9":"tag-cruise-ship","10":"tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-miami","15":"tag-miami-dade","16":"tag-south-florida","17":"tag-united-states-department-of-justice"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229968","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=229968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}