The court proceedings for a young teenager accused of the tragic murder of his cheerleader stepsister, Anna Kepner, have been postponed once more.

Sixteen-year-old Timothy Hudson finds his trial date pushed to November 2, following the alleged November Carnival Horizon cruise ship incident, after a Florida judge approved his attorneys’ request for additional preparation time, according to WOFL.

Originally set for June 1, Hudson’s trial was first deferred to September 8 before this latest rescheduling.

Federal public defense lawyer Hector Dopico appealed for the delay, citing the need to complete an in-depth investigation into pertinent issues that could significantly affect the case’s outcome, as revealed by court documents.

Dopico elaborated in the filing that despite substantial time spent examining the evidence and exploring relevant legal angles, the defense team’s review remains incomplete.

The “seriousness of the offenses alleged” and Hudson’s “status as a juvenile” were two factors that influenced the delay motion, according to the court documents.

Hudson is being tried as an adult on murder and aggravated sexual abuse charges – and faces up to life in prison if convicted for allegedly killing Kepner. He has until Oct. 23 to plead guilty to the charges.

Dopico also said the defense needed more time because of “the unique – and very unfortunate – family dynamic that has resulted from the allegations here.”

Prosecutors didn’t oppose the defense’s request and Hudson’s trial was pushed back.

The trial now looks set to get underway almost a year after Hudson allegedly sexually assaulted and killed Kepner on the ship. 

Kepner, 18, was strangled to death inside a cabin she shared with Hudson and her 13-year-old brother.

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Kepner was alone with her stepbrother, who is said to have had an obsession with her, between 7:51 p.m. and 11:21 p.m. on Nov. 6 – the day before her body was found.

Her Apple Watch, which monitored her heart rate, stopped working during the three-and-a-half-hour period – a timeframe prosecutors suspect the crime occurred. 

Kepner died while the ship was in international waters and FBI agents were unable to find her watch when they boarded the vessel after it docked in Miami.

Hudson allegedly mechanically asphyxiated her in a bar hold and stashed her body under her bed – while her younger brother unknowingly slept mere feet from her corpse.

Kepner had a bruised neck and bruises and blood were also discovered around her ear.

At around 10:13 p.m., Hudson poked his head out of the cabin room to see if anyone was there before leaving, prosecutors said. 

He went into the room two more times between 10:23 p.m. and 10:49 p.m. 

Hudson then went into the cabin room at 11:31 p.m. before leaving and returning 13 minutes later.

Kepner’s body was found around 12 hours after Hudson returned to the cabin for the final time.

Hudson “did knowingly and unlawfully perpetrate” the “wilful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing of [Kepner] with malice afterthought,” a grand jury wrote in its indictment earlier this year. 

Kepner, a straight-A student who had aspirations to join the military, was killed just six months before she was set to graduate from Titusville’s Temple Christian School.

Her dad, Christopher, accepted her diploma at the commencement ceremony, which was held in May.

An increasing number of states are facing measles outbreaks, as the country experiences its highest incidence of the disease in over three decades.

Maryland has reported a measles outbreak across three counties, with 14 new cases confirmed just this Monday, raising the state’s total for 2025 to 31 cases.

Out of these, 27 infections are in individuals who have not been vaccinated, all occurring within the last six weeks.

The outbreaks are distributed among St. Mary’s County with 13 cases, Carroll County with eight cases, Cecil County with five, and Charles County with one case.

“Measles is highly contagious, and we are actively coordinating with healthcare providers and local health departments to assist affected areas, manage cases, and prevent further spread,” stated Dr. Meena Seshamani, Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health.

‘The overall risk remains low if you are fully vaccinated. We ask that Marylanders join us in our effort to help keep our youngest safe and protect those who are most at risk. Checking your vaccination status and getting vaccinated if you are not up-to-date is the simplest and most effective way to do that.’

No public exposures have been identified in the 14 new cases in Maryland, however, a growing outbreak in Iowa may have potentially exposed thousands at nearly a dozen locations across the state. 

Two more cases have been confirmed in the southern Iowa outbreak, bringing the number to 17. 

And there are now nine locations where people may have been exposed to the virus, including Natural Grocer’s Clive and Menards in Clive, Iowa; Vero Health Center and Office Depot in West Des moines, Iowa; Menards in Des Moines, Iowa; Pizza Ranch in Ottumwa, Iowa; and Wells Hometown Drug, JR Feed and Supply anad Sunnyside Grocery, in Bloomfield, Iowa.

The outbreaks come just as the first deaths of 2026 from the measles were reported on Tuesday.

Officials reported the two deaths occurred in unvaccinated patients in Pennsylvania. They are the state’s first measles deaths in 35 years.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed both individuals were residents of Lancaster County, about 60 miles outside of Philadelphia. No additional details about those who died were provided.

‘My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,’ Dr Debra Bogen, the state’s secretary of health, said in a statement.

‘Because measles was largely eliminated in the Commonwealth for more than three decades, people are not familiar with this disease and don’t fully understand the potential severity of the illness.’

Pennsylvania has recorded 393 measles cases across 28 counties so far in 2026. Nationwide, cases have reached their highest in more than three decades.

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As of August 20, the CDC has recorded 2,777 confirmed cases of the measles. This is the most cases recorded since 1991, which saw 9,643 cases.

Last year, there were 2,289 cases and three deaths, according to the CDC.

The vast majority of cases in both 2025 and 2026 were in individuals who had not received both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

The shot is typically given once between ages 12 and 15 months and again between ages four and six. Two doses slash the risk of measles infection by 97 percent, according to the CDC.

For unvaccinated people, nine in ten of those exposed to the virus will get infected.

‘We want to ensure every Pennsylvanian has the information they need to protect themselves, their loved ones and their communities,’ Bogen said.

‘As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles.’ 

Measles, which is highly infectious, is characterized by cough, fever, a distinctive blotchy rash that starts on the face before spreading down the body and tiny white spots inside the mouth called Koplik spots.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infectious droplets or through the air. Patients with a measles infection are contagious from four days before the rash through four days after the rash appears. Enclosed areas like airports and planes are extremely risky locations for disease transmission.

It first invades the respiratory system, then spreads to the lymph nodes and throughout the body. As a result, the virus can affect the lungs, brain and central nervous system.

While measles sometimes causes milder symptoms, including diarrhea, sore throat and achiness, it leads to pneumonia in roughly six percent of otherwise healthy children, and more often in malnourished children.

Though the brain swelling that measles can trigger is rare, occurring in about one in 1,000 cases, it is deadly in roughly 15 to 20 percent of those who develop it, while about 20 percent are left with permanent neurological damage, such as brain damage, deafness or intellectual disability.

Measles also severely damages a child’s immune system, making them susceptible to other potentially devastating bacterial and viral infections they were previously protected against.

Before MMR vaccines became available in the 1960s, measles caused epidemics with up to 2.6 million global deaths every year. By 2023, that number had fallen to roughly 107,000 deaths.

Nationwide, 92.4 percent of kindergarteners are fully vaccinated against measles, below the CDC’s 95 percent threshold for herd immunity. In Pennsylvania, the MMR vaccination rate is 94.6, while rates in Maryland and Iowa are 96 and 90 percent, respectively.

Exemptions are also on the rise at 4.2 percent, up 17 percent from 1.6 percent just over a decade ago.

Authorities made a significant interception on Tuesday, halting a shipment of approximately 1,800 pounds of what is suspected to be black-market marijuana from California. This substantial haul was reportedly on its way to two major cities: Atlanta and Orlando.

According to the Butts County Sheriff’s Office, the haul began its journey in Sacramento, a place where recreational marijuana use is legal. Sheriff Gary Long stated that roughly half of the confiscated marijuana was destined for Atlanta, while the other half was meant for Orlando.

The Sheriff’s office has kept details about the interception under wraps, including the precise location and method of capture, any arrests made, or potential charges filed.

Long used the seizure to make his case that legalizing marijuana does not eliminate illegal sales.

“But here is the reality: the black market isn’t going away,” Long said in a press release announcing the seizure.

Marijuana laws vary among the three states connected to the shipment. California allows recreational marijuana, while Georgia and Florida allow marijuana only for certain medical uses.

“The illegal marijuana trade does not stop at the state line,” Long said.

Long said Mexican drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups continue to move large amounts of marijuana across state lines. The sheriff’s office did not say the shipment seized Tuesday was connected to a cartel or any other criminal organization.

The sheriff also argued that illegal sellers can undercut licensed marijuana businesses because they don’t pay taxes or licensing fees or have to follow testing and other regulatory requirements.

“As long as there is demand and money to be made, illegal dealers will continue to operate,” Long said.

Long urged Georgia lawmakers to look closely at what has happened in states that have legalized marijuana before making changes to Georgia’s laws.

He pointed to California, which has changed its cannabis tax and regulatory system while continuing to fight illegal marijuana sales. He also cited past ballot initiatives filed in Colorado seeking to repeal constitutional provisions that legalized recreational marijuana, though those efforts did not reverse legalization.

“That should be a warning to Georgia,” Long said. “We should learn from the experiences of states that have already gone down this road instead of repeating the same mistakes and then spending years trying to fix them.”

Long said his statement was not meant to settle the question of whether marijuana should be legal. Instead, he argued that lawmakers need to consider how illegal sales and trafficking would fit into any changes to Georgia law.

“Georgia, let’s get it right the first time,” Long said.

Dear Abby: I’m a 63-year-old man caught in a romantic quandary. Over the past four years, I believed that my 57-year-old fiancée and I were in an exclusive relationship. However, I’ve recently discovered she has been spending time with another man, a friend she chose not to tell me about. They frequently meet for lunches, dinners, and various activities.

She insists they are simply friends and reveals that he is her attorney, who has shown interest in pursuing a romantic relationship. Her omission feels like a breach of trust, and I’m struggling with both her honesty and our relationship’s future. She doesn’t see the incident as significant. What do you advise? — Simmering Suspicion in Florida

Dear Simmering Suspicion: For someone who’s engaged, interacting privately with a man keen on romance is far from appropriate. Her secrecy and trivialization of the situation only escalate its seriousness. Caution: If you decide to take this relationship down the aisle, you may find yourself needing legal counsel sooner than you’d like.

Dear Abby: My marriage of 34 years has faced a unique strain for the last decade. My husband and I took in his brother “Clay,” now in his 60s, after long-term effects from PCP left him needing care. Living with Clay has transformed our home life into a constant challenge.

Clay has driven away one of our pets, and his behavior is erratic and disruptive. He’s dishonest and has a habit of stealing from us. Basic hygiene eludes him, he refuses to tidy up, and he leaves all household chores to me, the only woman here. His expectations have long been ingrained, and his indolence is exasperating.

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I want a divorce. My husband will not put Clay into an assisted living facility or a mental institution. I love my husband, but I refuse to be disrespected by anyone. I told him I wouldn’t ever allow any member of my family to disrespect him the way I, our marriage and our home have been disrespected by his brother. Abby, would you divorce your husband for subjecting you to this daily living hell for 10 years? — Done in Montana

Dear Done: I certainly wouldn’t have put up with your mess of a brother-in-law for an entire decade! Still, if you are considering divorce, you must mention that to your husband. Offer him a final opportunity to make other arrangements for his brother. Be clear that if he continues to value Clay’s comfort over yours, the marriage is over.

Dear Abby: I am a boy in South Korea who likes boys. When I was in middle school, I loved girls just like everyone else, but it changed after entering high school. When I see boys in school now, I have started to feel the charm of them. These days, I’m scared that if I reveal it, I’ll be mocked by my friends and others. What should I do? — Not Straight in Seoul, S. Korea

Dear Not Straight: If you don’t feel comfortable or safe coming out to your friends, it’s OK to wait. All of this gets a bit easier after you graduate, especially if you are able to attend a university. For now, focus on your studies so you can make that happen. To find gay or gay-friendly people to talk to outside your school, look up an organization called Dding Dong at ddingdong.kr.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren. For nearly four decades, Jeanne Phillips penned the column, which was founded in 1956 by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at or P.O. Box 270135, Kansas City, MO 64127.

Actress Justine Bateman didn’t mince words, calling the courthouse supporters of Lindsay Clancy, a mother accused of murder, ‘broken’.

On Tuesday, the 60-year-old actress addressed the troubling situation by posting heartfelt photos on Instagram, depicting her tender moments with her own children. Her post coincided with a groundswell of backing for Clancy, visible both at the courthouse and across social platforms.

She captioned the post with a message: “In light of the unsettling and grim case, along with motherhood and baby-themed ‘support videos’, consider this an alternative narrative,” she expressed.

“Mothers who genuinely adore their children vastly outnumber the troubling instances we’ve recently witnessed. #ILoveMyKids,” she continued.

Justine Bateman, the sister of fellow actor Jason Bateman, shares two children, Duke and Gianetta, with her husband Mark Fluent. The couple has been together since their marriage in 2001.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Bateman for comment. 

The actress is known for her outspoken views.

Last year she accused Meghan Markle and Prince Harry of being ‘disaster tourists’ after they popped up as volunteers during the Los Angeles wildfires.

Bateman rose to fame as a teenager on the sitcom Family Ties, starring as the Keaton daughter Mallory for seven seasons from 1982 until the show ended in 1989.

Her television career also includes her work on Men Behaving Badly, Californication and Desperate Housewives.

Her latest post comes as Clancy’s trial nears its conclusion.  

Clancy, 36, killed her children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023.

She strangled the children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but her efforts failed and left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life.

Clancy has admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis, and is seeking to be committed to a state mental health facility rather than face a prison sentence.

Prosecutors, however, claimed that Clancy carefully planned the January 2023 killings and contrived to get her husband out of the house so she could carry them out. 

On Tuesday, the final witness took the stand as Clancy waits to learn her fate after five weeks of grueling testimony.

FBI forensic psychiatrist Dr Gregory Saathoff testified as the prosecution’s last rebuttal witness in the murder trial.

Judge William Sullivan then called for the jury to be dismissed for the day.

He advised that the evidence will likely conclude on Wednesday, and then he will meet with the attorneys.

Sullivan anticipates closing arguments on Thursday, after which the jury will begin deliberations.

Last week around 400 women gathered in solidarity with Clancy in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and cheered and clapped as a sheriff’s department van carrying the defendant rolled past.

Some had driven overnight from New York City with their young children. Others traveled seven hours from Maine to attend what is being dubbed ‘America’s saddest murder trial.’

One pregnant mother who attended with a friend and their three small children told The Daily Mail: ‘The healthcare failed her, and that’s just tragic.’

‘We’re both mothers and both experienced postpartum anxiety and depression,’ she said. 

‘It’s scary to speak out. You don’t want to get judged and you don’t want somebody to take your child.’ 

Several women said they felt they could have been Clancy. Many had struggled with postpartum depression or anxiety and said the mother-of-three’s experience of reaching out for help only to feel unsupported was painfully familiar.

The obsession with criminal trials is not new, but it is a growing phenomenon. In recent years, other high-profile trials have drawn devotees to social media and courthouses.

Last year, in nearby Canton, when Karen Read went on trial for a second time over the death of her boyfriend, Boston officer John O’Keefe, she came to symbolize a revolt against police corruption.

When Bryan Kohberger was sentenced last summer, another group of women who travel to trials together camped outside the courthouse from 9pm the night before.

And during the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, fans dressed as pirates outside the Virginia courthouse.