Anna Kepner, the teenager discovered mysteriously lifeless on a Carnival cruise ship earlier this month, was like “two peas in a pod” with the stepbrother now reportedly suspected in her demise, her grandma mentioned Monday.
The tragic 18-year-old Florida high-school senior had been touring on the Carnival Horizon ship with members of her blended household when her corpse was discovered stashed beneath a mattress — wrapped in a blanket and coated with life jackets.
Authorities haven’t confirmed who could have been behind her demise, however court docket paperwork from an unrelated case have indicated that Kepner’s unidentified 16-year-old stepbrother, who was sharing a room with the teenager on the time, is being eyed as a suspect.
Kepner’s grandmother, Barbara Kepner, mentioned in an interview with ABC Information that authorities instructed the household the stepbrother was the one individual seen going out and in of the room earlier than the grim discovery was made Nov. 8.
However Barbara insisted the stepsiblings cared for one another and had been “identical to brother and sister.
“I do know that these two children cared about one another in the suitable method,” the grandmother mentioned, including that the teenagers had been “two peas in a pod.”
On the household journey had been Anna, her grandparents, their son, who was Anna’s dad, his spouse, Anna’s 14-year-old brother, the stepbrother, and her youthful sister and stepsister, studies have mentioned.
“The 2 youthful ladies stayed with the dad and mom, after which the three youngsters, they determined amongst themselves they wished to remain within the room collectively,” the grandmother mentioned. “However we had a bigger room, and we made it very clear that at any time in the event that they weren’t getting alongside, they didn’t need to be collectively, we had an additional mattress in our room that they might come to.
“I can’t accuse him as a result of I don’t know what occurred in that room,” Barbara added of the stepbrother.
She mentioned he later instructed her “in his personal phrases” that he doesn’t recall what occurred on the ship.
“I imagine, to him, that’s his reality,” the grandmother mentioned. “He was an emotional mess. He couldn’t even converse. He couldn’t imagine what had occurred.”
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After the cruise ship docked, Anna’s stepbrother was hospitalized for psychiatric commentary and later launched to a member of the family.
The outcomes of the cheerleader’s post-mortem are nonetheless pending, however sources mentioned she possible died from asphyxiation. There have been no obvious indicators of sexual assault, nor had been there medicine or alcohol within the lady’s system, based on sources.
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It beforehand emerged that Anna’s stepbrother allegedly had a creepy obsession with the teenager and relentlessly pursued a relationship along with her — and was even as soon as caught climbing on high of her whereas she slept.
“She was frightened of him as a result of he at all times carried round a giant knife,” the daddy of Anna’s ex-boyfriend, Joshua, instructed “Inside Version.”
“He’s like infatuated, interested in her like loopy. He at all times wished up to now her.”
Anna’s ex tried to warn the lady’s dad and mom, however they apparently didn’t imagine the involved teen, the person claimed.
The developments had been laid naked in court docket final week throughout an unrelated custody matter tried to the divorce of Anna’s stepmother and her ex-husband.
Anna’s stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, and her ex-husband are concerned in a bitter custody battle over their two children, who Hudson claimed had been bodily abused by their father.
