{"id":45492,"date":"2025-11-20T00:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45492\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T00:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:51:11","slug":"slain-cruise-passenger-anna-kepners-stepbrother-16-is-suspect-in-her-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/45492\/","title":{"rendered":"Slain cruise passenger Anna Kepner’s stepbrother, 16, is ‘suspect’ in her killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida cheerleader\u00a0Anna Kepner\u2019s 16-year-old stepbrother<\/a>\u00a0is an FBI \u201csuspect\u201d in her killing, according to court documents \u2014 as troubling allegations emerged about her blended family.<\/p>\n

The revelation came from a messy custody dispute between Kepner\u2019s step-mother\u00a0Shauntel Hudson\u00a0and her ex-husband \u2014 both of whom have filed legal briefs attempting control custody of the two minor children they share.<\/p>\n

Chillingly, Shauntel accused her ex Thomas of domestic and physical abuse against their two youngest children \u2014 including the boy who is now being questioned by the FBI in the high schooler senior\u2019s mysterious death, according to an emergency motion filed in court on Monday and seen by The Post.<\/p>\n

Anna Kepner, 18, was reported dead while aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on November 8, 2025. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

She said Thomas is the subject of an active Florida Department of Children and Families investigation, according to the docs.<\/p>\n

The stepbrother, who idenified as \u201cTH\u201d in documents,\u00a0remains in the care of one of his mother\u2019s relatives as the investigation into Kepner\u2019s death on board a Carnival Cruise ship on Nov. 7 continues, according to the legal filings in a Brevard County family court.<\/p>\n

Thomas fired back, accusing Shauntel of\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cviolent altercation\u201d with the couple\u2019s oldest son, who is an adult. The fight allegedly involved\u00a0Shauntel and her new husband, Christopher Kepner \u2014\u00a0Anna\u2019s father,\u00a0according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The allegations, which\u00a0Shauntel\u00a0disputes, came to light after she went to court to try to postpone a hearing scheduled for December to address custody issues with her former husband, from whom she divorced in 2023.<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s stepmother Shauntel Hudson accused her ex-husband Thomas of domestic and physical abuse against their two youngest children. Facebook\/Thomas Hudson<\/p>\n

Thomas also blames his 16-year-old son\u2019s legal trouble on his ex-wife\u2019s decision to keep him away from his father, saying his\u00a0\u201cfuture has been put in jeopardy because of the choices made by\u201d\u00a0Shauntel.<\/p>\n

Shauntel Hudson and two of her children set sail on the Carnival Caribbean cruise that would end in tragedy\u00a0Nov. 2, along with Christopher and Anna.<\/p>\n

Anna was reportedly found dead in her room<\/a>\u00a0wrapped in a blanket and covered in life jackets on the tail-end of the six-day cruise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thomas Hudson with his children Andrew, Brooke, and Timothy in an undated Facebook photo. Facebook\/Thomas Hudson<\/p>\n

The\u00a0ship returned to the Port of Miami the following day as scheduled.<\/p>\n

Here is the latest on Anna Kepner, cheerleader found dead on Carnival Cruise<\/p>\n

Despite the apparent family strife, Anna\u2019s memory was honored in a touching tribute published in the wake of her death.<\/p>\n

Despite the apparent family strife, Anna\u2019s memory was honored in a touching tribute published in the wake of her death. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

She was remembered\u00a0by her family as a \u201cbeauty\u201d who \u201clived every day with her whole heart,\u201d and who hoped to become a K9 police officer after joining the US Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loved the sun, the water, boat days, island days, and beach days, anything that let her soak in the light she so easily radiated to others,\u201d the family wrote in the obituary, in which they referred to the 18-year-old by her nickname, \u201cAnna Banana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe never had a filter, and that was part of her charm,\u201d they heartbreakingly recalled. \u201cShe had a big, beautiful heart, often sending random \u2018I love you\u2019 messages or little gestures that made someone\u2019s day,\u201d the missive read.<\/p>\n

Thomas Hudson and Shauntel Kepner in an undated Facebook photo. Facebook\/Thomas Hudson<\/p>\n

The FBI\u2019s Miami Office, which is investigating the death because it took place in international waters, gave no further updates Wednesday.<\/p>\n

No official cause and manner of death has been given by the Miami-Dade County medical examiner\u2019s office, which is handling the teen\u2019s autopsy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No charges have yet been filed in the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida cheerleader\u00a0Anna Kepner\u2019s 16-year-old stepbrother\u00a0is an FBI \u201csuspect\u201d in her killing, according to court documents \u2014 as troubling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8570,25246,16004,1015,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-45492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-caribbean","9":"tag-carnival","10":"tag-cruises","11":"tag-deaths","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}