VIERA, Fla. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy being investigated in the death of his sister on a Carnival cruise ship last month has no memory of what happened, according to text message exchanges between his parents filed in a Florida custody court case.
The boy’s mother told her ex-husband that the young man kept repeating that he doesn’t remember anything when asked, according to court documents obtained this week by local media in central Florida.
Anna Kepner’s death has been ruled a homicide. Her death attracted international attention and sparked intense speculation on social media.
Kepner’s cause of death was “mechanical asphyxiation,” according to a copy of her death certificate obtained by ABC News, which said the 18-year-old “was mechanically asphyxiated by another person(s).”
Mechanical asphyxiation is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.
A high school cheerleader from Florida’s Space Coast who was due to graduate next year, Kepner was traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship with her father, grandparents, mother and her mother’s two children, including her 16-year-old son.
Kepner’s death aboard the ship that sailed from Miami remained shrouded in mystery with the FBI and the medical examiner’s office in South Florida refusing to release any information about the case for weeks.
The 16-year-old’s 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, along Florida’s Space Coast. The disclosure offers the clearest public indication yet that federal investigators are scrutinizing a member of the victim’s own blended family.
An attorney for the 16-year-old’s mother, Shauntel Hudson, who was Kepner’s wife, did not respond to an email inquiry Wednesday, nor did an attorney for the boy’s father, Thomas Hudson. Their youngest son currently lives with Shauntel Hudson, and Thomas Hudson has accused his ex-wife of violating the time-sharing agreements. The 16-year-old was sent to live with a relative of Shauntel Hudson after returning from the cruise.
In the most recent court documents, the ex-spouses discussed via text the news of Kepner’s death that went viral on social media and how to protect their 16-year-old son from public scrutiny. Thomas Hudson also said that he wanted his son to know that he was loved despite what happened.