For Barbara and Ronald Kepner, the phone call came at 3:17 a.m. on November 12. Their granddaughter Anna, the bright-eyed high school senior who had just celebrated her 18th birthday with a surprise graduation trip aboard the luxurious Celestial Harmony, was gone. Found unresponsive in her interior cabin on Deck 5, the teenager who had never touched alcohol before the cruise was declared dead before the ship even reached its next port in St. Maarten.

Now, for the first time, Anna’s grandparents, who raised her since she was four years old after her parents died in a car accident, are speaking publicly about the chilling details authorities have quietly shared with them, details the cruise line has yet to acknowledge.

“She was fine,” Barbara says, her voice cracking over the phone from the couple’s modest home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “We FaceTimed her the night before. She was in her pajamas, showing us the little chocolate they leave on the pillow, giggling about how she and her best friend Madison had won bingo and got a free bottle of champagne. She said she was only going to have ‘one tiny sip’ because she’d never tasted it. That was Anna, always the rule-follower.”

According to Barbara, Bahamian authorities, who have jurisdiction because the ship flies a Bahamian flag, told the family that Anna’s autopsy revealed a blood alcohol level of .28, more than three times the legal limit for an adult, along with traces of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy. The toxicology report, which the family says they were allowed to read but not keep, also showed bruising on her arms and a small laceration on the back of her head.

“That’s not our Anna,” Ronald interjects. “She was terrified of drugs. When her friends tried vaping in 10th grade, she came home crying because she didn’t want to lose them but wouldn’t do it. And that alcohol level? She was 105 pounds soaking wet. How does a girl who’s never had more than communion wine end up legally dead from alcohol poisoning in a locked cabin?”

The official cause of death listed on the preliminary report: acute alcohol poisoning complicated by blunt force trauma. The manner: undetermined.

But what disturbs the Kepners most is what cruise security allegedly told them in a private meeting two days after Anna’s body was flown home.

“They said the cabin was locked from the inside,” Barbara whispers. “The keycard logs show only Anna and Madison’s cards were used after midnight. Madison says she left around 1:00 a.m. to go to the teen club because Anna said she had a headache and wanted to sleep. The next time that door opened was 9:42 a.m., when Madison came back and found her… on the floor between the beds, cold.”

Security footage, which the family says they were briefly shown, reportedly captures Anna stumbling down the hallway alone at 2:07 a.m., using the wall to steady herself, before swiping into her room. No one else is seen entering or leaving until morning.

Yet the grandparents remain unconvinced.

“There were fingerprints,” Barbara says, lowering her voice as if someone might still be listening. “Not just Anna’s and Madison’s. Multiple unidentified prints on the champagne bottle and on the bathroom doorknob. And the laceration on her head? They said she must have fallen and hit the desk. But Anna was 5-foot-2. The desk came up to her waist. How do you fall upward?”

Even more bizarre: the champagne bottle the girls supposedly won at bingo was not the complimentary house brand given as prizes. It was a $450 bottle of Dom Pérignon Vintage 2012, something the bingo host insists was never handed out that night.

“Someone brought that bottle to our baby,” Ronald says, his fists clenched. “Someone was in that room.”

The cruise line, Celestial Cruises, released a brief statement expressing “deepest sympathies” and insisting they are cooperating fully with authorities. When asked about the unidentified fingerprints, the champagne discrepancy, or reports that several crew members were seen drinking with underage passengers in the crew bar earlier that night, a spokesperson repeated that the investigation is ongoing and declined further comment.

Madison, Anna’s best friend and roommate on the cruise, has not spoken publicly. Her family hired a lawyer the day the ship docked.

As for the Kepners, they are left with a bedroom frozen in time, graduation decorations still taped to the wall, and questions no one seems willing to answer.

“She was supposed to start community college in January,” Barbara says, dissolving into tears. “She wanted to be a nurse. She wanted to help people. Whoever did this took away the kindest soul I’ve ever known. If they can sweep this under the rug because it happened in the middle of the ocean… what does that say about all our children?”

The Bahamian police have classified the case as “death under inquiry.” The FBI, which has jurisdiction over potential crimes against U.S. citizens on the high seas, confirmed they have opened a file but would not comment further.

For now, two heartbroken grandparents wait, clinging to the last text Anna ever sent them at 11:47 p.m. the night she died:

“Love you guys so much. Best trip ever. See you in 4 days! 💕”

Four days never came.