Anna Kepner, an 18-year-old cheerleader, tragically died on a Carnival cruise ship, leaving her mother, Heather Wright, pointing fingers at her ex-husband over the circumstances surrounding Anna’s death. Wright has publicly criticized Christopher Kepner, Anna’s father, for allowing her to share a room with her stepbrother, who is now a suspect in the investigation. “Why am I the bad guy? He put them in a room together,” Wright expressed in an interview with Fox News, highlighting her concerns about her ex-husband’s decision.

Anna was on a cruise accompanied by her father, stepmother Shauntel Hudson, and her stepsiblings when the tragedy occurred. On November 7, Anna was discovered deceased during the voyage between Mexico and Florida. Her body was found wrapped in a blanket and hidden under a bed in the cabin she shared with her stepbrother. The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation via a bar hold, which involves an arm across the neck, as reported by ABC News. Wright, who had not been in contact with Anna or her ex-husband for several years, learned of her daughter’s passing through a Google search and attended the funeral in disguise after being banned by Christopher.

In an interview with NewsNation, Wright recounted how her youngest son first heard of Anna’s death from a peer at school, who then informed Wright via text. In a desperate attempt to reach her daughter, Wright searched online for “18-year-old died on cruise ship” and was met with news articles featuring her daughter’s image. Wright admitted that her estranged relationship with her ex-husband had prevented her from being a part of Anna’s life, revealing that she only reached out on special occasions like birthdays and holidays. She was unaware that Anna was living with stepsiblings at the time of her untimely death.

Wright told NewsNation that her ex-husband had remarried a woman named Tabitha after their divorce. She added that Tabitha had primarily raised her daughter. Wright had no idea that they were divorced, and that Kepner had remarried again to Hudson. ‘Christopher and I do not talk whatsoever, and he made it extremely difficult for me to even have a relationship with my daughter,’ she told NewsNation. Her fraught relationship with her ex-husband forced the grieving mother to disguise herself so she could attend Kepner’s funeral.

Christopher Kepner had banned Wright from the service, threatening to have her arrested over unpaid child support. ‘They said I never went, but I did,’ she told Fox News. ‘I didn’t want to be seen, so I made sure no one seen me – plus they can’t stop me from going anyway.’ Wright, who now lives in Oklahoma, added: ‘She was my daughter, and I loved her with all of my heart and soul.’ The investigation into Anna’s death remains ongoing, with no official charges having been made yet. Barbara Kepner, Anna’s grandmother, told ABC News that the two step-siblings were ‘just like brother and sister.’

‘I know that those two kids cared about each other in the right way,’ she added. Anna’s stepbrother was said to be the only person seen going in and out of the cabin before her body was discovered, the outlet reported. ‘The two younger girls stayed with the parents, and then the three teenagers – they decided amongst themselves they wanted to stay in the room together,’ Barbara Kepner claimed. ‘But we had a larger room, and we made it very clear that at any time if they weren’t getting along, they didn’t want to be together, we had an extra bed in our room that they could come to.’

However, she said she couldn’t accuse Anna’s stepbrother of anything ‘because I don’t know what happened in that room.’ Barbara said that the 16-year-old boy ‘in his own words’ didn’t remember what happened on the ship and was ‘an emotional mess.’ ‘He couldn’t even speak. He couldn’t believe what had happened,’ she said. However, Anna’s ex-boyfriend, Josh Tew, 15, previously told the Daily Mail that her little brother heard yelling and chairs being thrown in the cabin before she was found dead. Josh added that Anna had been in the cabin with her 16-year-old stepbrother, who Daily Mail previously reported was being investigated in connection with her death.

‘And that’s when he knew something was going on. There was screaming going on. Something was banging around, like chairs were getting thrown around in the room,’ Josh said. ‘But he wouldn’t talk to me any more. He said the FBI told them that if they talk they’ll get arrested because it’s tampering with an investigation or something.’ Josh said he called the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report what he was told. He added that the 16-year-old stepbrother was obsessed with Anna, and he even caught him trying to get on top of her one night while they were on FaceTime together. ‘He [the stepbrother] walked in there and tried to get on top of her … but he got caught by me in the process of it. I was like, “What the hell are you doing in her room?” Then he got scared and ran away. And I heard his footsteps running through the house because he got caught.’

‘She told me that she was uncomfortable with them [his step relatives] being at the house because she didn’t fully know who they were,’ Josh said. He added that Anna’s father met her stepmother less than a year before the two families began living together. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner lists Anna’s time of death at 11.17am on November 7, but has not revealed its findings. Police haven’t filed charges against Anna’s stepbrother or publicly named him as the suspect in her death.