The 16-year-old stepbrother of Anna Kepner, 18, who was found dead on a Carnival Cruise in November, is set to be tried as an adult, the Department of Justice revealed on Monday.
Timothy Hudson, whose identity had previously been withheld because he is a minor, has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse for the murder of his stepsister.
The Department of Justice also revealed that Kepner was sexually abused before she was killed.
Kepner was on a family trip to the Caribbean on the Carnival Horizon cruise when her dead body was found by cleaning staff. While en route back to Miami on November 8, Kepner’s body was found stuffed under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life vests.
According to federal prosecutors, Kepner was assaulted and killed by her stepbrother on either November 6-7, and died from mechanical asphyxiation. A source who spoke to ABC News last year stated that the 18-year-old cheerleader was put in a bar hold, an arm across the neck, prior to her death.
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family during this unimaginable loss,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in the DOJ statement.
“A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred aboard a vessel in international waters,” Quiñones added.
Kepner’s stepbrother was allegedly obsessed with the 16-year-old girl, according to Inside Edition.
Steven Westin, the father of Kepner’s ex-boyfriend, told Inside Edition that Kepner was “scared of [her stepbrother], because he always carried around a big knife” and that he believed “[her step-brother] always wanted to date her.”
Kepner had dreams of joining the U.S. Navy and eventually becoming a K-9 police officer. “Anna was pure energy: bubbly, funny, outgoing, and completely herself,” her obituary said.
Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner, married Hudson’s mother, Shauntel Hudson, in December 2024.
