PORTMIAMI – It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime: a five-day Carnival Horizon cruise to the Caribbean, paid for by grandparents, filled with poolside selfies and all-you-can-eat ice cream. Instead, it became the backdrop for one of the most disturbing family tragedies to rock South Florida in years.

On November 7, 2025, just 24 hours after the ship left Miami, 18-year-old Anna Marie Kepner was found dead in the cabin she shared with her father, stepmother, two step-siblings, and grandparents. Her body was discovered stuffed under a bed, wedged between suitcases, by a housekeeper at 11:15 a.m. By the time the ship docked the next morning, the FBI had taken over the case and ruled it a homicide by “mechanical asphyxia” (someone deliberately cut off her air).

Now, three weeks later, no arrests have been made, but court filings and interviews with family members paint a portrait of a deeply fractured household where suspicion has replaced grief.

The prime suspect, according to documents unsealed this week in a Brevard County custody battle, is Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother, identified only as T.H. He shared the cramped inside cabin with Anna and his 14-year-old sister. Sources close to the investigation tell Fox News the FBI is zeroing in on electronic keycard logs, hallway surveillance footage, and the stepbrother’s phone (seized the day the ship returned to port).

Anna’s father, Christopher Kepner, gave a gut-wrenching interview to People magazine on Thanksgiving eve: “I can’t say he did it, but I can’t say he didn’t. If the evidence shows it, he has to face the consequences.” He described the siblings as once “thick as thieves,” but admitted tensions had been building for months.

The stepmother, Shauntel Hudson Kepner, invoked the Fifth Amendment during a November 25 virtual hearing when asked point-blank if she had any knowledge of what happened in that cabin. Her ex-husband, Thomas Hudson (the biological father of the 16-year-old suspect), fired off an emergency custody motion the same week, writing in bold: “The minor child T.H. is believed by federal law enforcement to be responsible for the murder of his stepsister.”

Anna’s biological mother, Heather Wright, learned of her daughter’s death not from family, but from a Google alert while the ship was still at sea. “He never called me,” she sobbed to local station WESH. “I found out my baby was gone from the internet.”

Preliminary autopsy results show no drugs, no alcohol, no sexual assault. Just bruising consistent with a chokehold. The medical examiner placed time of death at approximately 11:17 a.m. (two minutes after the exact moment Anna’s Apple Watch stopped recording heart rate data).

Carnival Cruise Line has remained tight-lipped, citing the active FBI investigation. Passengers on the same deck, however, tell a different story: muffled arguing from the cabin the night before, a teenage boy seen pacing the hallway in tears at 3 a.m., and a grandmother frantically knocking on doors asking if anyone had seen Anna.

The custody hearing resumes December 9. Judge Jessica Recksiedler has already denied a motion to seal the case, meaning Christopher Kepner and possibly the 16-year-old suspect himself could be compelled to testify in open court.

Anna’s memorial page on Facebook is flooded with blue hearts (her favorite color) and tributes from classmates who remember a straight-A cheerleader who dreamed of becoming a Navy K9 handler. “She lit up every room,” one post reads. “How does someone so full of life end up under a bed on a cruise ship?”

As the holidays approach, the Kepner and Hudson families are spending Thanksgiving apart, under a cloud darker than any Caribbean storm. Anna’s grandmother Barbara told reporters outside the Titusville church where a candlelight vigil was held: “We just want the truth. Whatever it is, we can’t heal until we know.”

For now, Cabin 2325 on Deck 2 of the Carnival Horizon remains sealed with FBI tape (a floating tombstone on what was supposed to be a celebration of family).

Somewhere in the evidence lockers of the Miami field office sits a keycard, a phone, and a pair of teenage hands that may hold the answer to the question haunting two shattered families:

Was this a vacation gone tragically wrong… or a murder hiding in plain sight among the people who were supposed to love her most?