FL - Anna Kepner, 18, dies aboard Carnival cruise ship traveling from Miami to Caribbean, FBI launch probe, 7 Nov 2025

[Sleuthster]

Video date Nov. 13.

Time of death already known. That's surprising, moo.

Anna died on the Carnival ship "Horizon" at 11:17 a.m. according to the Miami-Dade medical examiner.

I am surprised family didnt sound an alarm that she was missing since she would not have been seen all day and then into the next day when she was found

 

[steeltowngirl]

https://fb.watch/DsQF8URXIU

https://twitter.com/x/status/1990950652831314301

 

[midwestmom98]

I am surprised family didnt sound an alarm that she was missing since she would not have been seen all day and then into the next day when she was found

Unless she was sharing a room with the step sibling and they told the parents she still wasn't feeling well and wanted to sleep?

 

[Elley Mae]

Stepsibling of Florida cheerleader found dead on Carnival cruise being eyed by feds: court docs

Stepsibling of Florida cheerleader found dead on Carnival cruise being eyed by feds: court docs

Federal authorities may be investigating the stepsibling of the Florida high school cheerleader whose lifeless body was found wrapped in a blanket and stuffed under a bed on a Carnival cruise ship,…

nypost.com

 

[Lebowski]

so, based on allowed sources, it seems fair to say the following:
-------------------

IMO, her body was hidden. if so, this is rare to unheard of in accidents, suicides, and deaths from natural causes. the only other logical possibility is homicide. ... also, AIUI, the fact that law enforcement was initially cagey about cause of death and other facts of the case strongly suggests it was not natural causes nor obviously accidental. ... furthermore, young people tend not to die of natural causes.

IMO, this is likely to be a homicide.

------------

the timeline is

11/6, dinner time - she is not feeling well and goes back to her cabin
11/7, 11:17 am - time of death

11/? - ??:?? ?m - she/her body is covered and put under the bed

.......

i had suspected her not feeling well might be related to her cause of death (drugged, voluntarily or involuntarily), but that seems like a long time (16 hours or so??) between the two for them to be directly related.

i'm having trouble imagining what happened overall, but i wonder if she was still alive when she was put under the bunk and concealed, and only expired later. if it was still possible to save her and she just didn't get medical attention because the only person who knew where she was didn't want her to be found... boy, what a devastating thought.

 

[Elley Mae]

FOX 35 Orlando has obtained an emergency motion filed in an unrelated case connected to Kepner's stepmom, which indicates that the FBI could be launching a criminal investigation into one of the stepmom's children – potentially one of Kepner's step-siblings.

"The respondent has been advised through discussions with FBI investigators and her attorneys that a criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children," reads the document.

Anna Kepner update: Step-sibling may face charges in Florida teen's death aboard Carnival cruise ship: Filing

The FBI could be launching a criminal investigation related to the death of Anna Kepner, the Titusville high school student who mysteriously died aboard a Carnival cruise ship.

www.fox35orlando.com

The Daily Mail, citing unnamed sources, revealed grisly details on Kepner's alleged death. Federal nor state officials have not confirmed any of those details.

 

[nao]

Moo...if she did ingest some toxic substance, it is possible she became paranoid/scared and hid under bed

Moo...no I was wrong...that is not what happened

 

[lcookster]

Main Stream Media catching up to Social Media, which all looks consistent. I am heartbroken about this lovely young woman, who had so much promise. I pray justice is done but a family will be torn apart.

 

[nao]

Moo...I worked with a wedding photographer for a few years. It was very uncomfortable making children/teens stand next to (their new family) and telling them to smile. Fear, distrust, anger OMG..just everybody smile. I as a child was part of 3 marriages plus some in-betweens..call him dad.

 

[Kemug]

Unless she was sharing a room with the step sibling and they told the parents she still wasn't feeling well and wanted to sleep?

Can't imagine that would have been the case.

 

[steeltowngirl]

The newly obtained court documents confirm that the FBI is formally involved in the case and that the legal action concerns a delay in family court proceedings due to the criminal investigation’s potential impact. And while no charges have been filed publicly, the motion explicitly states the possibility of charges against a minor sibling. “She has not identified herself as a target of a criminal investigation. She basically said she’s afraid that anything she said could be used against her children,” said Adam Pollack, a defense attorney who reviewed the case. “I think Miss Hudson has now propelled her children into the news spotlight needlessly. The FBI was not broadcasting that they were conducting a criminal investigation of the children.”

Brevard County motion reveals new details in FBI investigation into teen’s death on cruise ship

New court filings reveal details on federal investigation into the death of 18-year-old Brevard County woman on a Carnival cruise ship.

www.wftv.com

 

[OldCop]

When this story broke I initially thought that AK may have feigned illness to excuse herself from the table to go and meet someone who she met during the cruise.
With the new information coming out about the step sibling, I wonder if perhaps this minor had obtained an illicit drug and provided it to the victim. This minor then panicked after the victim became ill/died and stuffed the body in the blanket under the bed and covered it with the life jackets to try and avoid detection; maybe hoping that everyone would think she had gone overboard.
Although the step sibling is allegedly a minor, they may be 16-17 years old, not a young child.
By now, the FBI knows how many times the cabin door was opened and closed, the time of death if she was, in fact, wearing an Apple Watch, and they have interviewed all the family members who were on this trip. It appears something said by a family member or seen on the ship’s cctv, caused the FBI to zero in on this step sibling.
After reading the post by @steeltowngirl above, I’m surprised the defense attorney basically threw the stepmother under the bus for outing her child as a POI.

 

[Elley Mae]

In an emergency motion filed on Monday, November 17, in Brevard County, Kepner’s stepmom, Shauntel Hudson, requested to delay divorce proceedings from her ex-husband because of the “extremely sensitive and severe circumstance.”

Court Filings Point to Step-Sibling in Cruise Death of Anna Kepner

According to new court filings, Anna Kepner’s step-sibling is now a suspect in the teen’s suspicious death onboard Carnival Horizon.

www.cruisehive.com

 

[Elley Mae]

The filing, submitted on Monday, seeks to postpone a scheduled court hearing on unrelated family-law matters, arguing that Hudson cannot testify without risking self-incrimination or jeopardizing the minor child in the federal probe.

New court filing reveals FBI investigation into 18-year-old found dead on cruise ship may involve minor traveling with her - WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale

MIAMI (WSVN) - Newly released information is shedding more light on the mysterious death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner as a court filing confirms the FBI<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

wsvn.com

 

[Elley Mae]

In that filing, Anna’s stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, who was on the cruise with Anna, her father, and the children, requested that a custody hearing be postponed, citing that “a criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children.”

New details released in death of Florida teen on Carnival cruise ship, sibling may face charges

The newly obtained court documents confirm that the FBI is formally involved in the case and that the legal action concerns a delay in family court proceedings due to the criminal investigation’s potential impact.

www.actionnewsjax.com

https://html.scribdassets.com/785bjuts3kg4qvvt/images/1-905f282355.jpg

 

[steeltowngirl]

In an emergency motion filed on Monday, November 17, in Brevard County, Kepner’s stepmom, Shauntel Hudson, requested to delay divorce proceedings from her ex-husband because of the “extremely sensitive and severe circumstance.”

Court Filings Point to Step-Sibling in Cruise Death of Anna Kepner

According to new court filings, Anna Kepner’s step-sibling is now a suspect in the teen’s suspicious death onboard Carnival Horizon.

www.cruisehive.com

Shauntel must be divorced from her ex already. There’s a marriage record with Chris Kepner from Dec. 2024 in Brevard County. Brevard County Clerk of Court

 

[lonetraveler]

We have been on 7 cruises, 2018-2025, 6 on Royal Caribbean ships (4 different ships) and 1 on Norwegian. On most cruise ships, including all 5 that we have been on, guest life jackets are not stored in guest rooms under the beds. They are stored in large cabinets at muster stations. All guests are assigned a specific muster station that you are to go to if the emergency signal sounds. That is thought to be better practice because if there was an emergency guests could be anywhere on the ship so to make them go back to their room to get their life jacket then on to their muster station would take A LOT of time and would be a lot more dangerous than having guests go directly to their muster station.

The cabinets that the life jackets are stored in can only be opened by staff. There may be life jackets stored in other places on the ship. For example, I don't know if the staff's life jackets are the ones in the muster station cabinets or if they're located in a "behind the scenes" location(s).

Anything being thrown overboard, for instance a body, is going to be seen by security immediately. There are hundreds of cameras, and I believe as an added safety measure there are alarms if anything goes overboard. You would need a massive conspiracy involving a large number of staff for a body to go overboard during a cruise and not have an alert immediately occur.

IMO it would be possible for a body to be transported from one location to another without being seen. The challenge here is that it has been reported that her body was discovered at 11:xx am. That is prime time for people moving around the ship. If we were talking 3am it's possible to move around the ship without seeing many people. This ship had around 3900 guests, likely around 1100 crew. I don't see any plausible way a body could be moved around at that time of day. Of course the other thing is that at that time of day the movements of one or a couple people will blend in with everybody else. At 3am security cameras could practically follow a person anywhere on the ship if they wanted to.

One question I have is "was she sharing a cabin with another person or persons", and if so what were the movements of all of those people on that morning. The vast majority of cruise passengers are in double occupancy rooms or suites. This ship likely has around 1900 guest cabins, and I suspect less than 25 of those are designed for single passengers. Some single guests will book a double room. But this being a family trip I'd be surprised if Anna was in a single room.

I suspect this will be solved pretty quickly. LE will focus on the cameras for that corridor of the ship, find out if she entered that room alone or with someone else, and see who went in/out of that room in the 24 hours around when her body was discovered.

My thoughts have been that she and someone else was sharing the cabin. It would be nice if we had confirmation of who all in the family was on that cruise. Are there other stepbrothers or sisters then the two small children in the photos?

 

[lonetraveler]

Shauntel must be divorced from her ex already. There’s a marriage record with Chris Kepner from Dec. 2024 in Brevard County. Brevard County Clerk of Court

Thank you for posting this. I wanted to discuss the stepbrother angle but didn't know if we could.

 

[lonetraveler]

According to Google, the Carnival Horizon ship has passenger life jackets stored inside the cabin closet for each guest.
There are also additional life jackets at the muster station.

I would presume the life jacket found on top of the body was the one from inside her cabin's closet.

Why would the apparent perp gone through the work to get a life jacket, anyway?

A quick Google reveals the Carnival Horizon has 1,450 crew members. I wonder if any of them are missing.

Does anyone know which kind of cabin she was in?

On the Norwegian cruise ships I've been on, life jackets are in the stateroom.

 

[lonetraveler]

<respectfully snipped> I've been thinking about this since I read earlier about AK's body being found under a bed, wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by life vests. I've been on at least 30 cruises since the mid-1980s and don't recall passenger life jackets ever being stored under beds. In most cases, particularly on Princess ships that we mostly sail these days, the life vests are stored in the closet area of the stateroom where they can be quickly accessed in case of an emergency. I can't imagine having to get down on the floor to get a life jacket under the bed. Precious time could be lost if the vests are not easily retrievable if they get pushed too far under the bed. Elderly passengers would be especially vulnerable to falling and not being able to stand up once they are down on the floor. There are also additional life vests stored along decks with lifeboat access for guests who might be unable to retrieve their life jackets from their staterooms.

Under the bed in my staterooms, it's full of my "too many" suitcases I bring.