Death of Florida teenager on Carnival cruise ship ruled a homicide
[November 26, 2025]
By KATE PAYNE and JEFF MARTIN
The death of a Florida teenager on a Carnival cruise ship earlier this
month has been ruled a homicide, the latest development in a case that
has drawn international attention and sparked intense speculation on
social media.
Anna Kepner's cause of death was “mechanical asphyxia," according to a
copy of her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which said the
18-year-old “was mechanically asphyxiated by other person(s)."
Mechanical asphyxia is when an object or physical force stops someone
from breathing, according to Stephen Nelson, a chief medical examiner in
Central Florida who is not involved in the case.
“In some way, shape or form, your airway has been cut off,” said Nelson,
a former chair of Florida's Medical Examiners Commission.
A family vacation that ended in tragedy
A high school cheerleader from Florida’s Space Coast who was set to
graduate next year, Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon
ship with her father, stepmother, her stepmother’s two children and her
grandparents.
The night before she was found dead, Kepner had spent time with her
grandparents in the ship’s casino, her grandmother Barbara Kepner told
ABC News.
“She said, ‘Meemaw, I love you guys. I’ll see you. ... I’ll see you
later’,” Barbara Kepner recalled. “We never saw her again after that.”
The next morning, a medical alert blared out over the ship's broadcast
system, directing first responders to the room Kepner was sharing with
two other teens, including a younger stepbrother.
A room attendant found Kepner's body “concealed under the bed,"
according to her grandmother.
“I just screamed. I couldn’t stop screaming,” Barbara Kepner said.
Teenager's stepbrother identified as a suspect
Kepner's death aboard the ship that sailed from Miami has remained
shrouded in mystery with the FBI and medical examiner’s office in South
Florida refusing to disclose any information about the case for weeks.
The teen’s 16-year-old stepbrother has been identified as a suspect in
her death, according to court documents filed by his parents.
The disclosures — contained in motions filed in an ongoing custody
dispute — offer the clearest public indication that federal
investigators are scrutinizing a member of the victim’s own blended
family.
As of Tuesday, a final autopsy report had not been released and the
Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office has not responded to recent
messages left by the AP.
Kepner’s time of death was 11:17 a.m. on Nov. 7, according to the
medical examiner’s office, and the ship returned to PortMiami on Nov. 8
as scheduled.
Carnival Horizon cruises the Western Caribbean with stops in Cozumel,
Grand Cayman, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, according to itineraries posted
on the company’s website.
Lawyers who practice maritime law say they’re not surprised that nearly
three weeks have passed with no charges filed in the case.
“When I’ve had international marine deaths — deaths on a vessel in
international waters in the high seas — it can take quite some time to
get the final autopsy reports,” said Houston attorney Marcus Spagnoletti.
“It’s not unusual.”
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A ‘highly suspicious’ death
Nelson, the medical examiner, said he considers Kepner's death
“highly, highly suspicious” and said the reports that her body was
concealed support the homicide finding.
“The concealment part alone is very troubling,” Nelson said.
Kepner's family has been told that preliminary information indicates
there were no signs of sexual assault and that there did not appear
to be drugs or alcohol in Anna’s system, ABC News reported.
Nelson, who has not been briefed on the case, said there are a range
of deaths that can be defined as asphyxia, including drowning,
strangulation and hanging.
The language stating that Kepner “was mechanically asphyxiated by
other person(s)" is fairly standard language, Nelson said, and an
acknowledgment that Kepner had been sharing a room with other
people.
“It would be up to law enforcement to narrow down what role, if any,
each of those other people in the room played,” Nelson said.
The challenges of a floating crime scene
Determining who has the authority over a criminal investigation can
be complicated since cruise ships are registered in one country but
often travel through many others, all while carrying thousands of
passengers and crew members from around the world, according to the
FBI.
On the open ocean where U.S. law, international law and the laws of
other nations might be involved, cooperation is critical to any
investigation.
The nature of a floating crime scene can also make investigations
challenging because it can leave a small window of time to
investigate before the ship departs on its next voyage.
“You have a short amount of time to do the best you can to solve
this case or collect all the evidence you need to solve this case
and then your crime scene leaves,” FBI Special Agent Matt Parker
said in the FBI document.
Preserving the integrity of the crime scene can also be a challenge,
“given that law enforcement wouldn’t even have had access to the
crime scene until they were in port,” said David Edelstein, a South
Florida lawyer.
“They don’t have the same safeguards that they do when law
enforcement is in charge of the crime scene,” he said. “It’s really
imperative that the scene be secured, otherwise the evidence could
be contaminated.”
Crimes on cruise ships
A federal law, the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act, requires
that most cruise ships operating out of U.S. ports report certain
types of serious crime to the FBI.
In 2023, the FBI received 180 reports of alleged criminal activity
on cruises, ranging from thefts to sexual and physical assaults to
missing persons cases, the agency said. No suspicious deaths were
reported during the period, according to data from the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
“They’re almost like small cities, so anything that could occur in a
small city could conceivably happen onboard one of these boats,
including violent crimes,” Edelstein said. ___
Martin reported from Atlanta. Payne, who reported from Tallahassee,
Florida, is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for
America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a
nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local
newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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