Nov. 22 (UPI) — Anna Kepner’s 16-year-old stepbrother is a suspect in her strangulation death after her body was found beneath a bed on a Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Nov. 8.
She died by asphyxiation and had two bruises on her neck that likely were caused by someone placing an arm across her neck, ABC News and The Guardian reported.
An initial report says there were no indications of a sexual assault, and no traces of drugs or alcohol in her system, but autopsy and toxicology reports are yet to be filed to confirm those findings.
Kepner was a high school senior and cheerleader from Titusville, Fla., but her dead body was found wrapped in a blanket beneath a bed, with life vests piled on.
The FBI has confirmed it is investigating Kepner’s “sudden death,” which occurred while she was on a vacation cruise with her family.
Kepner shared a stateroom with her stepbrother, while her father and stepmother shared another room while they were on the cruise ship.
The stepbrother was taken to a hospital when the cruise ship docked in Miami, and his mother, Shauntel Hudson, filed a family court request to delay a custody hearing because one of her children might be charged with a crime, according to KLTV, ABC News and The Guardian.
Kepner’s ex-boyfriend Jim Thew did not express surprise that the stepbrother might be charged with a crime.
“There were signs before this,” Thew told KLTV. “She complained about him being uncomfortable or her being uncomfortable around him.”
No arrests have been made as of Saturday, but the investigation is ongoing.
Stepbrother might be charged in Anna Kepner’s death on cruise ship
