A Florida Family’s Cruise Turns Tragic: Killing on DECK 8

ANNA KEPNER LIVED FOR THE SUN, THE BEACH AND CRUISES. BUT THE 18-YEAR-OLD WAS FOUND STRANGLED ON THE LAST LEG OF A CARIBBEAN VOYAGE

- SAMIRA ASMA-SADEQUE,CHRIS SPARGO

The autumn sun was bright at the Port of Miami when Anna Kepner, 18, and eight of her relatives from Titusville, Fla., boarded a cruise ship bound for the Caribbean on Nov. 2. Since 2024, when Anna’s father, Christopher, 41, married third wife Shauntel Hudson, 36, and brought together her children Andrew, 18, Timothy, 16, and Brooke, 9, with his kids Anna, Connor, 14, and Kylie, 9, members of the large blended clan had taken as many as four vacations together. Christopher’s cruise-loving parents, Jeff, 59, and Barbara, 63, paid for the tickets and also came along. Nobody was more excited than Anna, a high school senior and cheerleader who loved the sun and the ocean. She had joyously chronicled a cruise in May to celebrate her birthday on TikTok, writing, “I wanna go back.”

The family’s six-night voyage, however, ended in a shocking tragedy. On Nov. 6, as their ship, the Horizon, was headed back to Miami, they gathered for dinner. Anna, who had complained that her braces were painful, returned to the stateroom she shared with brother Connor and stepbrother Timothy because she wasn’t feeling well. She later went to the ship’s casino, where she told her grandparents good night close to 7 p.m.

At about 11 a.m. the next day, a public address announcement called for medical assistance in one of the cabins. “I recognized the number immediately,” Jeff told ABC News. Back at Anna’s cabin her grandfather and father were told the horrifying truth: A housekeeper had found the teenager dead under a bed, her body wrapped in a blanket and covered with life preservers. Anna’s family has said a medical examiner determined that her death was caused by asphyxiation, possibly from a “bar hold,” an arm across the neck.