VIERA, Fla. (Court TV) — A custody hearing in Florida revealed new details about what happened on a cruise that ended with an 18-year-old dead and her 16-year-old stepbrother a suspect.
Shauntel Kepner testified at a custody hearing on Dec. 5, 2025. (Court TV)
Anna Kepner‘s death was ruled a homicide by asphyxia after she was found inside the cabin room she was sharing with her stepbrother and younger brother on board the Carnival Horizon. A new court filing reviewed by Court TV reveals Anna was “found asphyxiated under the bed.” The parents of the 16-year-old stepbrother, identified as T.H. in court documents, have acknowledged that the FBI has identified him as the sole suspect in Anna’s death, though he has not been taken into custody or charged.
Thomas Hudson, T.H.’s biological father, had filed an emergency petition asking for custody of the 9-year-old daughter he shares with Shauntel Kepner, T.H.’s mother, who took him on the cruise. Shauntel is Anna’s stepmother and was on the cruise with Anna’s father, Christopher Kepner, and their other children. The petition claimed the 9-year-old was in danger due to the circumstances surrounding Anna’s death.
Shauntel testified at the hearing that the room Anna had been assigned was directly across the hall from the cabin she stayed in with her husband and the family’s two 9-year-olds. She denied allowing any of the children to have access to alcohol, despite the ship being in international waters, and said that Anna chose to stay in the room with two teenage boys after she was given the alternative option of staying two floors above with her grandparents.
Thomas Hudson testifies at a custody hearing on Dec. 5, 2025. (Court TV)
After hearing testimony from Hudson and Shauntel, as well as the couple’s adult son, Judge Michelle Pruitt Studstill refused to grant the petition, noting that the 16-year-old suspect has been removed from Shauntel’s home and has been staying with a maternal relative since leaving the cruise.
“He’s not coming back to the home,” Shauntel said when her ex-husband’s attorney asked if she or Christopher would allow the 16-year-0ld to return.
Shauntel also revealed that all the children in her home had been unenrolled from their school due to the media attention the case has received.
