The family of a teen girl found dead under a bed on a Carnival cruise ship in November has confirmed her stepbrother has now been charged with murder, court documents show.
Federal officials have not publicly named a suspect or announced charges in Anna Kepner’s death, which was deemed a homicide by asphyxiation, but filings show her 16-year-old stepbrother is believed to be responsible.
The court documents, copies of which were obtained by CBS News, revealed an emergency filing dated February 20 from attorneys for Thomas Hudson, the stepbrother’s father.
“According to social media from the Kepner family, on February 3, 2026, the Petitioner/Father’s son, TH, was charged by the United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida for the [redacted] and homicide of Anna Kepner,” they said in the filing.
The documents emerged as part of an ongoing custody dispute between Thomas Hudson and Shauntel Hudson, who is also referred to in reports as Shauntel Kepner. The pair finalized their divorce in 2023, prior to the cruise where Anna Kepner died.
According to CBS, there is an “ongoing case against the teen that is currently under seal and being overseen by Miami federal judge Beth Bloom.”
The stepbrother, who is not being named because he is a minor, appeared in federal court in Miami on February 6, CBS reported, but the media were not allowed in the courtroom.
“If it’s a juvenile you won’t know until he’s charged as an adult,” Dave Aronberg, a former Palm Beach state attorney, told the network.
On November 7, midway through the family cruise, a maid found Anna wrapped in a blanket and covered in life jackets underneath a bed in a room she shared with her stepbrother.
Prior to the alleged charges and arrest, there were multiple indications that Anna’s stepbrother was a focus of the investigation into the death aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise, which was bound for the Caribbean at the time of the Florida teen’s death.
The FBI has jurisdiction in the case because Anna was a U.S. citizen and her death occurred in international waters.
Chris Kepner, the suspect’s stepfather, has previously suggested his daughter’s stepbrother could be responsible.
“I want him to face the consequences … I will be fighting to make sure that does happen,” he told People last year.
“I cannot say that he is responsible but I can’t decline,” he added. “He was the only one that was in the room and the FBI has an ongoing investigation in which they will have to provide the evidence to say that he did do it or did not do this.”
The teen’s mother told her ex-husband that the boy had no memory of events surrounding Kepner’s death, according to text messages submitted to the court as part of the dispute.
Shauntel Kepner testified in December that the teens were good friends and wanted to room together, along with Kepner’s biological brother, rather than stay in a room with their grandparents.
“They wanted to stay together,” she said, News 6 reports. “The three of them, like the Three Amigos, are best friends.”
Kepner, of Titusville, Florida, was set to graduate from high school this year and dreamed of being a cheerleader for the University of Georgia. She had considered joining the military or serving as a K9 police officer after school.
Carnival Cruise Line has said it is cooperating with the investigation.
