VIERA, Florida — A 16-year-old teenager is under investigation. death of his half-sister on the Carnival cruise ship last month, he has no memory of what happened, according to text message exchanges between his parents filed in a Florida custody case.
The boy's mother told her ex-husband that the teenager repeatedly said he didn't remember anything when asked, according to court documents obtained this week by local media in central Florida.
Anna Kepner's death was ruled a homicide. Her death attracted international attention and sparked intense speculation on social media.
Kepner's cause of death was “mechanical asphyxia”. according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which states the 18-year-old “was mechanically strangled by another person(s).”
Mechanical asphyxia is when an object or physical force stops breathing.
A high school cheerleader from Florida's Space Coast who was expected to graduate next year, Kepner was traveling on the Carnival Horizon with her father, grandparents, stepmother and her stepmother's two children, including a 16-year-old boy.
Kepner's death aboard the ship out of Miami remains shrouded in mystery as the FBI and the South Florida medical examiner's office have refused for weeks to release any information about the case.
The teen's 16-year-old half-brother has been identified as a suspect in her death, according to court documents filed by his divorced parents over custody of their youngest child in Brevard County, on Florida's Space Coast. The revelations are clear public evidence that federal investigators are scrutinizing a member of the victim's blended family.
An attorney for the 16-year-old boy's mother, Shontelle Hudson, who was Kepner's stepmother, did not respond to an emailed request Wednesday, nor did an attorney for the boy's father, Thomas Hudson. Their youngest child is currently living with Shontel Hudson, and Thomas Hudson has accused his ex-wife of violating their time-sharing agreements. A 16-year-old boy was sent to live with a relative, Shontel Hudson, after returning from a cruise.
In recent court documents, the former couple discussed in text messages the news of Kepner's death, which went viral on social media, and how to protect their 16-year-old son from public scrutiny. Thomas Hudson also said he wants his son to know he is loved despite what happened.
