Anna Kepner's Stepbrother Charged w/Murder, Sexual Assault in FL Teen's Cruise Ship Death

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Monday, April thirteenth, and we just got an update on a story that's been making headline for months. An eighteen year old Florida cheerleader found dead on a carnival cruise ship during a family vacation. Well now her stepbrother, her sixteen year old stepbrother, has been charged with murder. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. The name is Anna Kapner. I'll say that some people will remember it, and I say the brother has been charged with murder, But Rode, this is now not the only charge and suggests an unimaginable, even uglier situation.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Look, when this headline came out late today, it was shocking, and it's not shocking that her stepbrother has been charged with murder. We were anticipating that, But there are two caveats here. He's sixteen years old, and he has now been charged as an adult with murder, but also with aggravated sexual abuse. That is not something that we had heard of. I hadn't even heard any rumblings around the idea that this could have been something this horrific, that she was sexually assaulted and then killed, that was not on my radar.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: And again we're finding out more about this now roads because like you just mentioned, he's being charged as an adult. We do understand this young man against sixteen years old, had been going through part of the legal process road, but we weren't that aware because he's a juvenile, because they're limited in what they can release. Well, now this has moved over to adult court. A grand jury has brought back this indictment now, and that is why we do know these additional details that reminder she was found November seventh, coming back on that cruise ship. But Robes. The Attorney's office put out a statement today giving us more details than we have seen officially on the record about this case. And it's just damn girl. I mean, just you think about the family dynamics. We'll talk about some of that in a second, but first we'll at least tell you all what the Attorney's office had to say.

00:02:16
Speaker 2: Yes, this is the official press release from the US Attorney's Office the Southern District of Florida. It reads as follows. A sixteen year old has been indicted as an adult by a federal grand jury on charges of murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the killing of his stepsister, according to court records, and they're referring to him as t H. Th sixteen of Titusville, was traveling aboard Carnival Cruise Lines Horizon with Anna Kepner and other family members on or about November sixth to November seventh, twenty twenty five. During that time, while the ship was in international waters en route to Miami, Thh allegedly sexually assaulted and in intentionally killed Kepner. The Miami Dade Medical Examiner's Office later determined the cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation. Our hearts go out to the victim's family during this unimaginable loss, said US Attorney Jason A. Reading quimionis for the Southern District of Florida. A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred a board a vessel in international waters. We will present the evidence in court and pursue this case with professionalism and care. As in every case, the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Thh was initially charged as a juvenile by information on February two. The case remained sealed until U S. District Judge Beth Bloom ordered it transferred for adult prosecution. Thh is again charged with murder in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse. If convicted, defendant faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

00:04:01
Speaker 1: And reminder here as we go back, this cruise were a family cruise bought Anna Kipner's dad, and now this young man who's been charged. Different mom and daddy. Here, mom and dad. Their mom and dad essentially married. So that's why Anna Kipner and her stepbrother were sharing a room. Now, Rose remind me because I'm getting a little mixed up. It was mom and dad, then it was grandparents, was it not? In how many kids altogether?

00:04:28
Speaker 2: I believe there were at least three so here, so Anna Keepner, it was her biological father and her stepmother. Her stepmother was the mother to t who is now being charged with her rape and murder. So she was sharing a cabin with her stepbrother Thh, who is now charged, and a half sibling. So all the kids got in a room together and we heard from the grandparents. And these were her paternal grandparents, and they had talked about how they let the kids decide they had a little extra room in their cabin, and they even asked, does any one of the kids want to stay with us? And they all had agreed, no, no, we all want to stay. The kids wanted to stay in the same room together, and so the parents and the grandparents allowed it. They had three cabins among this family groups. The grandparents had a cabin, Mom and step sorry, I would just say dad and stepmom had a cabin, and then the three kids had a cabin together.

00:05:29
Speaker 1: So I want to remind folks as well. She was found rogues in a state where it didn't look like a lot of care was taken in trying to cover up the crime. You can't just stick a body under a bed on a cruise ship and think nobody's going to find it. And it was it life preservers or blankets or something that were put over the body. So that's how she was actually found. We have known for some time robes that the young man was under investigation. Did I get that from official investigators on this case? Actually got it from a child custody dispute that his mom's going through with his actual biological dad, and they made the suggestion in some of those court filence. That's how we knew at least he was under suspicion. Wherebes I think a lot of people we were trying to leave room. I think in conversations I had with you, you use the word horseplay. You tried to leave room for something possibly accidentally happening, and he panicked. I didn't. Intentional murder and sexual assault was not something I was standing by to here.

00:06:37
Speaker 2: No, Because no, you think about blended families, and I hadn't realized that. I mean, they might have been together for a while, but they had only been married mom and dad for since December of twenty twenty four. So this was the idea was behind this cruise ship, according to the grandparents, a way for all the family to come together, to keep that blended family, to kind of create an annual treeition. And so this is what they were set out to do. And by all accounts, the kids got along. When you blend a family, that's the scariest, hardest thing. Are the kid's going to get along? And that was actually the thing that they said was working really well. So no one was even insinuating that there was any issues between Anna and her stepbrother, or any concerns about the two of them being in a room together. So yeah, we never jumped to any conclusion other than wow, she ended up asphyxiated or dead. Maybe they were horsing around. I've seen sixteen year old boys wrestle with their sisters, stepsisters, and maybe the thought was that it just got a little out of hand. But that is not what these charges suggest. These charges suggest something menacing and horrific and awful in a way that I don't think many people who were following this case, based on the information we had, thought it was going to turn in this direction.

00:08:00
Speaker 1: It's just some of the things they describe now Robes are not things I can understand from a sixteen year old child. Yes it's a boy, yes sixteen, still a teen, this is a child. Still, So it's just hard and whatever evidence they have, they're not sharing it. At this point, we do not know what robes. It is just tough. Didn't see that this was a tragedy for this family, for this blended family, no matter what. But now, I mean, that's not for us. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes. For Robes, this is just a gutting, gutting thing for a family to go through. Your child potentially responsible for the death of your spouse's child.

00:08:44
Speaker 2: Ooh. And when you hear how federal prosecutors described this crime and their indictment, they said that, and this is their words, was involved in quote the most serious, egregious, and violative crimes one person can inflict upon another. He committed these crimes against a victim with whom he had no apparent relational strife and whom he was being raised to view as a sibling. Furthermore, he carried out these crimes without any warning he could commit such atrocious acts and despite an apparent supportive family environment.

00:09:23
Speaker 1: Who's that from?

00:09:24
Speaker 2: That is from federal prosecutors. They wrote this in the charges in the indictment they talked about I mean, they took their time and they again, as you pointed out, gave this to a grand jury, and they took all the steps to make sure they had all their teas crossed, all their eyes dotted. And this is now where these charges are. We've heard from Chris Kepner, that is Anna Kepner's father, and he said justice needs to be served. That was his response, and he said this is that is where the family stands, and he is making an argument because I didn't really this. I knew that he was allowed to stay with a family member. But now that these charges have come, now there is a motion, a move now federal prosecutors are asking that he now be actually held in federal custody. He hasn't until now because he was a juvenile most likely, but right now he is still with this other family member. He is not behind bars.

00:10:26
Speaker 1: No, we'll see what happens in that regard. But what an update to this story that we have now. Anna Keepner, I'm eighteen years old. Against she was found dead November seventh on that cruise ship. And the devastating news we are getting today is that, yes, her stepbrother has been charged. But stay here. We have been hearing from various family members throughout this case over the past few months, and we did hear something at some point a little curious from the parents. Stay here, all right, we continue here on Amy and TJ. Just an update on the Anna Kaepner story. The eighteen year old who was found dead on that Carnival cruise ship during a family cruise. Our step brother that she was sharing a cabin with has now been charged with murder and also with aggravated sex abuse. That is something that is new, had not been rumored, had not been talked about, did not know that was something that was coming, but authority say it intentionally caused her death. Her family members have at times spoken out and for the most part rose We did hear that, yes, they were they got along, and the family got along. They got along well enough that they were out and a cruise together. But then every once in a while we heard some people percolates, a few things pop up and raised questions about the kid and what their relationship really was like.

00:12:04
Speaker 2: Do you remember, well the grandparents actually described Anna Kaepner and her stepbrother as two peas in a pod. That is how they described him. However, immediately following the discovery of her body, he went into an immediate what they called an emotional mess. Do you remember he actually had to be hospitalized because he was in such an emotional state, and that certainly caused some eyebrows to be raised. He went into a into a state where he had to be seen by doctors, and that certainly was not the way he typically acted, or it was something so unusual that they felt like he needed medical attention. They said he couldn't even speak, and we heard his mother even say this in court documents, that he would not speak to her, he would not tell her what happened. That he literally stopped talk and that was alarming to so many people in the family. And he said, according to his mother, according to the grandparents, that he did not remember what happened. And so that was what we were left with. But prosecutors are saying, after reviewing all this evidence, he is in fact a danger to others. But to think that that was unknown, that wasn't even suspected up until this alleged violent act, or at least this unbelievable violent act he's being accused of right now, that's so frightening. It just to think you don't know what someone that young even is capable of, takes your breath away.

00:13:46
Speaker 1: Um, at this point, the sixteen year old is innocent in a sent until proven otherwise in the court of law. But right now facing them really ugly charges some of the most heinous stuff you can come up with, quite frankly ro the two of the ugliest crimes we have on the books, murder and sexual assault and this is upon a family member, and this is among teenagers or hopes that just so many parts of this are just devastating, unbelievable and outright sad. So hearts go out to that family, which is going to take a long long time to get to anything probably that feels like healing. So just wanted to hop on and give you the update because that's when a lot of people have been waiting on for months. Banana Koepner's sixteen year old step brother now charged in her murdering with that, we appreciate you spending some time with us, folks. I'm TJ. Holmes on behalf of my dear Emmy Robot will talk to us.