Anna Kepner’s teenage stepbrother claims he has no memory of what happened on the fateful Carnival cruise ship where she was strangled to death while vacationing with her family last month.
The 16-year-old, whose name has not been revealed, is the FBI’s primary suspect in Anna’s death, which has been ruled a homicide by “mechanical asphyxia,” according to her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which specifies the deadly act was done “by other person(s).”
In a series of text messages with his parents, Shauntel Hudson-Kepner and her ex-husband Thomas Kepner, the boy repeated over and over again that he didn’t remember anything, according to local media reports.
Anna, 18, was found dead in the cabin she shared with her stepbrother and her 14-year-old brother. Instagram/@anna.kepner16Anna, 18, was found dead in the cabin she shared with the 16-year-old and her 14-year-old brother. Her stepbrother, an insomniac, neglected to take his medication during the cruise.
The night she was killed, her youngest brother overheard “yelling” bellowing from the cabin while she was locked inside with their erratic stepbrother.
The 16-year-old was booted from his family’s Florida home as feds reportedly considered charges against him in connection with his stepsister’s death.
The teen was sent to live with relatives to avoid the “risk of any danger” to the other children in the family home, Kepner’s attorney, Millicent Athanason said in an emergency custody hearing last month, according to People.
Thomas Hudson and Shauntel Kepner with their three children in an undated Facebook photo. Facebook/Thomas HudsonAnna’s aunt, Krystal Wright, vented her frustration that the boy hasn’t yet been charged, lamenting in a November interview to FOX 35 Orlando that Anna “fought for her life.”
“We don’t understand why, if the boy is a suspect, why has he not been charged yet? What’s happening there?” Wright fumed. “It’s turmoil. We’re just sitting here waiting.”
Here is the latest on Anna Kepner, cheerleader found dead on Carnival Cruise:
- Stepgrandma of Anna Kepner, killed on cruise ship, wants teens’ dad to be charged: ‘Recipe for disaster’
- Anna Kepner’s smashed cellphone pointed straight to stepbrother in her sex assault, murder: filings
- New questions raised in Carnival cruise murder case after DNA from unknown male minor found
- Judge issues surprise ruling in cruise ship murder case against Anna Kepner’s stepbrother
The teen was reportedly “obsessed” with his slain stepsister, and relentlessly pursued her despite their newly-blended family, Steven Westin, the father of Anna’s once-boyfriend, told “Inside Edition,” citing conversations he had with his son.
“She was scared of him because he always carried around a big knife,” the alarmed father told the outlet in an interview last month.
Westin added the creepy detail that his son, Joshua, once “saw her stepbrother come into the room when she was sleeping and get on top of her” during a FaceTime call.
He said he had tried to warn Anna’s parents, but “they didn’t want to believe me.”
