Anna Kepner’s death aboard a Carnival Cruise ship has led to new federal charges against her younger stepbrother, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday, as court records tied to the case were unsealed after a judge ordered Hudson be treated as an adult.
The DOJ said Timothy Hudson, 16, was charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner aboard the Carnival Horizon. Prosecutors said the alleged crimes occurred aboard a vessel in international waters, a framing that placed the case in federal court rather than state proceedings.
The Justice Department said Hudson was initially charged in February and later indicted on March 10, but that the breadth of the case was not known publicly until a seal was lifted Friday. The government’s decision to seek adult prosecution came earlier, after U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami ruled that Hudson would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of prosecutors.
According to the DOJ description of the events, Kepner had been traveling with her family in November on the cruise ship, including time before the vessel was scheduled to return to Florida. Before that scheduled return, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room she was sharing with two other teens, including the younger stepbrother.
The DOJ said the cause of Kepner’s Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which involves a physical force or object stopping someone from breathing. In a statement, Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner, said the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity,” while also saying the situation was deeply painful and complex.
In his remarks, Christopher Kepner said he was “deeply troubled” that, despite the seriousness of the charges, Hudson had not been taken into custody at the time of the statement. Email and voicemail messages seeking comment from Hudson’s attorneys about the charges were not returned Monday, according to the report.
U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones said in a written statement that a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred aboard a vessel in international waters. Quiñones also said the family’s loss was met with sympathy from federal prosecutors, adding, “Our hearts go out to the victim’s family during this unimaginable loss.”
The report said Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Orlando, and that the family encouraged people at her memorial service to wear bright colors rather than the traditional black. Hudson pleaded not guilty when he was first charged in February, but the initial proceedings and related documents were not public because of his age.
Court records unsealed last week also described changes to conditions of Hudson’s pretrial release. A judge on Feb. 6 ordered Hudson to wear an electronic tether while living with an uncle; later, the order was changed so Hudson could join his father for a few days, including at a landscaping business.
Prosecutors objected to Hudson’s release, citing dangerousness, and asked a judge Monday to revisit the order now that he has been charged as an adult. The defense was given a week to respond.
In a court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra López said Hudson “committed these crimes against a victim with whom he had no apparent relational strife, and whom he was being raised to view as a sibling.”