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A 16-year-old boy being investigated in the death of his stepsister on a Carnival cruise ship last month has no recollection about what happened, according to text message exchanges between his parents filed in a custody court case in Florida.
The boy’s mother told her ex-husband that the teenager kept repeating that he didn’t remember anything when asked, according to court documents obtained this week by local media in central Florida.
Anna Kepner’s death was ruled a homicide. Her death has drawn international attention and sparked intense speculation on social media.
Kepner’s cause of death was “mechanical asphyxia,” according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which said the 18-year-old “was mechanically asphyxiated by other person(s).”
Mechanical asphyxia is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.
A high school cheerleader from Florida’s Space Coast who was set to graduate next year, Kepner had been travelling on the Carnival Horizon ship with her father, grandparents, stepmother and her stepmother’s two children, including the 16-year-old boy.
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Kepner’s death aboard the ship that sailed from Miami has remained shrouded in mystery with the FBI and medical examiner’s office in South Florida refusing to disclose any information about the case for weeks.
The teen’s 16-year-old stepbrother has been identified as a suspect in her death, according to court documents filed by his divorced parents over custody of their youngest child in Brevard County, along Florida’s Space Coast. The disclosures offer the clearest public indication that federal investigators are scrutinizing a member of the victim’s own blended family.
An attorney for the 16-year-old’s mother, Shauntel Hudson, who was Kepner’s stepmother, didn’t respond to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday, and neither did an attorney for the boy’s father, Thomas Hudson.
Their youngest child currently lives with Shauntel Hudson, and Thomas Hudson has accused his ex-wife of violating time-sharing agreements. The 16-year-old boy was sent to live with a relative of Shauntel Hudson after returning from the cruise.
In the most recent court documents, the ex-spouses discussed via text the news of Kepner’s death going viral on social media and how to protect their 16-year-old son from public scrutiny.
Thomas Hudson also said he wanted his son to know that he was loved despite what had happened.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
