A 16-year-old from Florida has reportedly been charged with homicide as a minor in the death of his stepsister, Anna Kepner, in November on a Carnival cruise ship.
News of the charges against the teen boy surfaced in court documents first reported on Monday by the Florida news outlet Wesh 2 News. CBS News also reported having seen the documents.
Kepner, an 18-year-old high school senior from Titusville, Florida, had shared a stateroom with the homicide suspect during the vacation, which also included her father, stepmother and two other step-siblings. Investigators determined she died of asphyxiation from a bar hold – an arm across the neck – and noted two bruises on the side of her neck.
Soon after her death, which was reported to have occurred on 7 November, her stepbrother was identified as a suspect. He had been allowed to drink because the ship was in international waters, according to an attorney involved in a custody dispute between his parents.
The FBI and the US attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida have not commented publicly on the case, which came to involve federal authorities because it unfolded on a cruise ship travelling internationally.
CBS News reported that a housekeeper found Kepner under her bed on the day the Caribbean cruise returned to Miami on 8 November. Kepner, a cheerleader, had told family members the night before that she wasn’t feeling well. She didn’t arrive at breakfast, which prompted a search for her.
Kepner’s ex-boyfriend, Jim Thew, told Wesh 2 News that he was not surprised the stepbrother was suspected of her killing.
“There were signs before this,” Thew said. “She complained about … being uncomfortable around him.”
After months of speculation, the public learned that the stepbrother had been charged because of a court filing in the custody dispute. The filing reportedly maintained that the US attorney’s office in southern Florida had “charged” Kepner’s stepbrother in her homicide, citing “social media” from the victim’s family on 3 February.
In November, Kepner’s grandmother, Barbara, told ABC News that the suspect was an “emotional mess” after the killing. “He couldn’t even speak – he couldn’t believe what had happened,” Barbara Kepner said to the network. “He also said he did not remember what happened.”
Barbara Kepner added: “I know that those two kids cared about each other in the right way. I can’t accuse him because I don’t know what happened in that room.”
As reported by Wesh, the more recent court documents quotes “social media from the Kepner family [which] indicated that they want the ‘nails in the coffin’ of [the stepbrother]”.
An obituary for Kepner stated that she “loved her siblings deeply and made sure they always felt it whether it be taking them to the park, … or just out for fun, because that’s who she was: thoughtful, nurturing, and always thinking of others”.
“She had a big, beautiful heart, often sending random ‘I love you’ messages or little gestures that made someone’s day.”
