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The family of Anna Kepner, a Florida cheerleader who tragically died under mysterious circumstances on a Carnival cruise ship earlier this month, has shared new insights regarding potential suspects in her death. Despite these revelations, authorities have yet to make any arrests or file charges in connection to the case.
Anna was discovered lifeless in her cabin on the Carnival Horizon at approximately 11:15 a.m. on November 7, as reported by the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office. While the specific cause and manner of her death remain undisclosed, her grandparents have revealed that the FBI has indicated asphyxiation is suspected.
In a tangled custody dispute between Anna’s stepmother, Shauntel Kepner, and her former husband, Thomas Hudson, Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother has been named a “suspect,” according to legal documents filed in the case.
“Chris knew about the unsettling behavior of the stepson,” Krystal Wright, Anna’s aunt, shared with Fox News Digital, referring to Anna’s father, Chris Kepner.
Anna Kepner was publicly identified by her family as the passenger who passed away aboard the Carnival Horizon. Her story has been shared widely, including on her Instagram account, underscoring the impact of her untimely death.
She said Anna’s ex-boyfriend informed the family earlier this year of an encounter he witnessed over a FaceTime video call, in which Anna fell asleep, and her stepbrother allegedly came into the room and climbed “on top of her.”
The teen boyfriend recounted the incident himself to the media after Anna’s funeral last week, saying that he shouted at the stepbrother, who ran out of the room. He said Anna felt “uncomfortable” around her stepbrother.
Still, Anna and her stepbrother were staying in the same room aboard the cruise ship, family members have said in multiple interviews.
Anna Kepner, her father, stepmother and several siblings in a family photo. (Shauntel Kepner/Facebook)
“He was in a room with her,” Anna’s grandmother, Barbara, told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Monday morning. “He was the only one seen coming and going.”
Investigators have recovered surveillance video and key card records from the ship.
“I can’t accuse him, because I don’t know what happened in that room, but the summation would be that he did something,” she added.
She said she heard him say in “his own words” that he doesn’t remember what happened, and “he was an emotional mess” after Anna’s death.
The 16-year-old stepbrother has not been charged with a crime as of Monday morning.
When asked what justice looks like for the family, the grandmother replied that it’s “whatever the law says.”
Jeff Kepner arrives to a memorial service for his granddaughter, Anna Kepner, at the Grove Church in Titusville, Florida, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. The 18 year-old cheerleader was reportedly found dead under a bed on a Carnival Cruise on Nov. 7. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
“I’m not gonna look for anything more or anything less, and that’s for the courts to decide,” she said.
In a TikTok video, Anna’s biological mom, who moved to Oklahoma when her daughter was 4, called the decision to leave Florida the worst mistake she’d ever made. She said Anna’s father, Christopher Kepner, made it “extremely hard” for her to keep in touch with her daughter over the years, to see her or to be part of her life.
“I loved my daughter — let me get that straight right now,” Heather Wright said. “My children are my world. And even though I wasn’t in her life, it doesn’t mean I didn’t think about her every day.”
Anna Kepner’s estranged biological mother, Heather Wright, has opened up about her daughter’s mysterious cruise ship death in a series of TikTok videos. (Heather Wright/TikTok)
In the caption of another post, she wrote that Anna’s father and stepmother didn’t even contact her after their cruise ship returned to Miami the morning after she’d been found dead in her room, hidden under the bed.
Her sister, Krystal Wright, told Fox News Digital that their side of the family learned about Anna’s death through the news and that Heather had been told not to go to her daughter’s memorial service last week.