{"id":59824,"date":"2025-11-25T05:20:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T05:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59824\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T05:20:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T05:20:16","slug":"anna-kepners-cruise-ship-death-ruled-a-homicide-as-certificate-confirms-she-was-strangled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59824\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Kepner’s cruise ship death ruled a homicide as certificate confirms she was strangled"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death of Florida\u00a0cheerleader Anna Kepner<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 whose body was found under a bed in her cruise ship room \u2013 was formally ruled a homicide, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Kepner, 18, \u201cwas mechanically asphyxiated by other person(s)\u201d on Nov. 6 while aboard the Carnival Horizon with her family, according to her death certificate issued Monday and obtained by\u00a0ABC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Confirmation that Kepner was killed comes as federal authorities have reportedly been looking into her 16-year-old stepbrother as a \u201csuspect\u201d in the case that has captured national attention.<\/p>\n

It was also revealed last week that Kepner was\u00a0allegedly strangled to death in a bar hold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anna Kepner\u2019s death has been ruled a homicide. Facebook\/Chris Kepner<\/p>\n

Federal authorities have reportedly been looking into her 16-year-old stepbrother as a \u201csuspect\u201d. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

A formal autopsy and toxicology report have not been released yet.<\/p>\n

Kepner was on the voyage with her grandparents, father, stepmother, siblings and stepsiblings when she was slain.<\/p>\n

Her body was\u00a0found under a bed, stuffed in a blanket that was covered by life vests<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s 16-year-old stepbrother\u00a0was named an FBI suspect<\/a>\u00a0in court documents.<\/p>\n

Kepner was vacationing with her family on a cruise. Facebook\/Shauntel Kepner<\/p>\n

Her body was\u00a0found under a bed, stuffed in a blanket that was covered by life vests. TikTok\/@fl.anna18<\/p>\n

Her 14-year-old younger brother reported overhearing \u201cyelling\u201d and \u201cchairs being thrown\u201d while Kepner and her stepbrother were alone in their stateroom, which the three siblings shared during the cruise.<\/p>\n

He unknowingly\u00a0slept feet away from Kepner\u2019s concealed corpse<\/a>\u00a0the same night she was killed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The family realized Kepner was missing the following morning, and her body was later found by one of the staff members who was cleaning their room.<\/p>\n

Joshua Westin, Kepner\u2019s ex-boyfriend, claimed she confessed\u00a0she \u201cdidn\u2019t feel safe around\u201d her stepbrother<\/a>\u00a0months before her death.<\/p>\n

Westin also accused the stepbrother of sexually harassing and\u00a0having a creepy obsession with Kepner<\/a>, but said she stayed quiet \u201cbecause she was scared that he would do something to her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Westin\u2019s father also alleged that the stepbrother \u201calways carried around a big knife.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s body was found hidden in her room on the cruise ship. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

Her heartbroken family described her as a \u201cbeauty\u201d who \u201clived every day with her whole heart\u201d. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like infatuated, attracted to her like crazy. He always wanted to date her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kepner, a devout Christian who was just baptized in May, was set to graduate from the Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida this school year.<\/p>\n

From there, she\u00a0aspired to join the US Navy<\/a>\u00a0and eventually become a K9 police officer.<\/p>\n

Her heartbroken family described her as a \u201cbeauty\u201d who \u201clived every day with her whole heart\u201d in\u00a0her obituary<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a big, beautiful heart, often sending random \u2018I love you\u2019 messages or little gestures that made someone\u2019s day,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The cheerleader\u2019s biological mother\u00a0found out about her<\/a>\u00a0daughter\u2019s death via news reports.<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s grieving mother lambasted her ex-husband for not even \u201ctry[ing] to contact [her]\u201d to let her know their daughter had died.<\/p>\n

She claimed she was even\u00a0banned from attending Kepner\u2019s memorial service<\/a>\u00a0as her ex-husband threatened to have her arrested if she \u201c[stepped] foot in Florida.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death of Florida\u00a0cheerleader Anna Kepner\u00a0\u2013 whose body was found under a bed in her cruise ship room…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6819,28,30,29,4538,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-59824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-cruises","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-murders","13":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59824","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=59824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}