Released text messages disclosed a new detail in the case of an 18-year-old girl who was found dead on a Carnival cruise ship last month.
Local media outlets in Florida reported that the teenage step-brother of Anna Kepner repeatedly told his mother that he didn’t remember anything from that night. Kepner died by “mechanical asphyxiation,” according to her death certificate, obtained by ABC News.
Text messages between the boy’s mother, Shauntel Hudson-Kepner, and her ex-husband, Thomas Hudson, show what the unnamed 16-year-old told his mother while he was in a facility, Fox 35 Orlando reported.
“I was able to talk to him last night for under two minutes briefly he just keeps repeating over and over he can’t remember anything,” Hudson-Kepner, who is Anna’s step-mother, said in a Nov. 9 text exchange.
“I don’t even know if they were allowed to let me talk to him or not but the nurse was very nice and let me talk to him just to tell him that you and i love him,” she added.
The released texts also showed that the family was attempting to protect the boy’s potential connection to the murder from news outlets and social media.
“OK, I know everything is supposed to be hush hush for now but ive seen that it is still getting out with post and comments between facebook tiktok and stuff … i just want to make sure until things are certain that he doesn’t get an(y) unnecessary comments towards him,” Hudson wrote on November 9.
“Nobody knows anything about him,” Hudson-Kepner replied. “He is a minor and has been kept completely out of it we have not said anything to anybody and we are going to try out best to keep it completely out he is a minor so his name shouldn’t be anywhere and when we talk to the fbi again we will reiterate that we do not want his name out there everything that’s been posted on tiktok and social media nobody knows anything and everybody’s just speculating.”
Anna was found dead under her bed on Nov. 8, wrapped in a blanket and covered in life jackets, in a cabin she was sharing with her two step-brothers, 14 and 16.
Authorities ruled her death a homicide, and her 16-year-old step-brother was named a potential suspect in her death by the FBI.
In a Dec. 5 court hearing, Hudson-Kepner said her son took medication for ADHD and insomnia, and had neglected to take it for two days during the cruise—including the night before Anna’s body was found.
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