{"id":48340,"date":"2025-11-22T06:07:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48340\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T06:07:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:07:20","slug":"anna-kepners-vicious-cause-of-death-revealed-after-teen-found-dead-on-carnival-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48340\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Kepner’s vicious cause of death revealed after teen found dead on Carnival cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Florida cheerleader killed on a Carnival cruise\u00a0<\/a>was allegedly strangled to death in a bar hold, according to a report.<\/p>\n

Anna Kepner died from asphyxiation from the vicious move \u2014 an arm across her neck \u2014 and had two bruises on the side of her throat,\u00a0a source close to the investigation told ABC News<\/a>\u00a0Friday.<\/p>\n

\"AnnaAnna Kepner was allegedly strangled to death in a bar hold after she was found dead aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

\"AnnaAnna Kepner (left) died from asphyxiation from the move \u2014 an arm across her neck \u2014 and had two bruises on the side of her throat. Instagram\/@anna.kepner16<\/p>\n

There were no apparent signs of sexual assault, nor were there drugs or alcohol in her system, the insider said.<\/p>\n

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

Kepner was found dead aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Nov. 8, officials previously said. She was under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered in life vests, ABC reported.<\/p>\n

Both the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner\u2019s Office and the FBI declined to comment on the new details.<\/p>\n

There is still no word on who carried out the gruesome act \u2014 and then wrapped Kepner\u2019s body in a blanket, covered her in life jackets and stashed her under a bed \u2014 though her step-brother was previously questioned by the FBI.<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s blended family had been on a six-day Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Horizon when a maid made the horrifying discovery Nov. 7.<\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s 16-year-old stepbrother allegedly had a creepy obsession with Kepner and relentlessly pursued a relationship with her \u2014 even once caught climbing on top of her while she slept.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was scared of him because he always carried around a big knife,\u201d the father of Kepner\u2019s ex-boyfriend, Joshua, told \u201cInside Edition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0like\u00a0infatuated, attracted to her like crazy. He always wanted to date her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s ex tried to warn the girl\u2019s parents, but they apparently didn\u2019t believe the concerned teen.<\/p>\n

The family was rife with tension, most of which stemmed from the parents.<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s stepmother,\u00a0Shauntel Hudson,\u00a0and her ex-husband were involved in a bitter custody battle over their two kids \u2014 who Hudson claimed were physically abused by their father.<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s own mother claimed she was barred from attending her daughter\u2019s funeral due to long-standing family tensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to wear a disguise, I\u2019m going to put a wig on and wear some really tall shoes because I\u2019m 4 foot 9,\u201d the determined mom, who was divorced from her daughter\u2019s father 13 years ago, told \u201cInside Edition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kepner\u2019s celebration of life was held Thursday. <\/p>\n

An obituary written by her loved ones described the teen as a girl who \u201cloved 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<\/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

The 16-year-old, whose family affectionately nicknamed \u201cAnna Banana\u201d had \u201cbig dreams for her future,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0including plans to join the US Navy after graduation and eventually become a K9 police officer.<\/p>\n

The high school senior was set to graduate in the spring from Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida.<\/p>\n

A devout Christian who was baptized in May, Kepner\u2019s family wrote that they take \u201ccomfort in knowing she is now in heaven, laughing, being the center of attention, and enjoying fries with ranch \u2026 just as she loved here on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Florida cheerleader killed on a Carnival cruise\u00a0was allegedly strangled to death in a bar hold, according to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8570,16004,1015,5970,24224,5546,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-48340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-caribbean","9":"tag-cruises","10":"tag-deaths","11":"tag-fbi","12":"tag-fbi-investigations","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-news","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48340","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=48340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}