Newly revealed text messages have surfaced amid a custody dispute involving the stepmother of a teenager who was discovered dead on a cruise ship. These messages have added a disturbing layer to the ongoing investigation.

Eighteen-year-old Anna Kepner from Titusville, Florida, was tragically found deceased on November 7 aboard the Carnival Horizon. Her body was discovered wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by life jackets, hidden beneath a bunk in her cabin.

The incident has been classified as a homicide, with mechanical asphyxiation cited as the cause of death, according to court documents. The FBI continues to investigate the case.

Documents from the court proceedings indicate that Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother is under investigation as a potential suspect. However, no charges have been brought against him at this time.

The recently uncovered text messages, spanning over 100 pages of court records, reveal the efforts by the boy’s parents to shield him from media attention while also safeguarding their 10-year-old daughter.

In one of the messages, Shauntel Kepner, Anna’s stepmother, urgently reached out to her ex-husband, Timothy Hudson, stating, “I need you to call me asap it’s an emergency,” as reported by Florida Today.

It came at 7.34pm following the discovery of Anna’s lifeless body, which was located across the hallway from the cabin Shauntel was sharing with Anna’s dad, Chris Kepner.

Timothy then offered to take the couple’s daughter as the media scrutiny grew over the case – but Shauntel shut down the suggestion, saying the girl was already traumatized and ‘did not need to be moved.’

Anna Kepner, 18, from Titusville, Florida, was found dead wrapped in a blanket covered in life jackets, under a bunk in her cabin by staff members onboard the Carnival Horizon on November 7

Disturbing newly released text messages reveal how Kepner’s stepmom, Shauntel (pictured center) tried to shield her 16-year-old son from media scrutiny following her death

The messages were revealed in court documents as Shauntel’s ex-husband, Thomas Hudson, fought to get custody of their youngest child 

‘She doesn’t know anything about [her brother],’ Shauntel responded on November 8. ‘The only thing I told her is that he was having a hard time coping with losing Anna so he’s getting checked out by the hospital.’

The following day, Shauntel said that she was able to briefly speak with their teenage son, who was being held at a facility for a mental health evaluation.

‘He just keeps repeating over and over he can’t remember anything’ she claimed, to which Hudson said he just wants his son ‘to know that he isn’t just dead to everyone.

‘Regardless of everything at the moment, he needs his parents,’ Hudson said. ‘I know you know that.

‘I just would like to have a chance to talk with him as soon as possible.’

Shauntel then reassured her ex that the family told the boy he wasn’t alone.

Later, the pair discussed speculation swirling around on social media, as other relatives started to claim Anna had been ‘murdered.’

‘OK I know everything is supposed to be hush hush for now, but I’ve seen that it is still getting out with post and comments between Facebook, TikTok and stuff,’ Hudson wrote in an eerie exchange. 

‘I just want to make sure until things are certain that he doesn’t get an[y] unnecessary comments towards her.’ 

Kepner is pictured with her 16-year-old stepbrother who was described as suspect in her death in court papers for a custody battle between his biological parents

He is now in the custody of a family member on Florida’s west coast 

But Shauntel insisted ‘nobody knows anything’ about their son. 

‘He is a minor and has been completely out of it. We have not said anything to anybody,’ she reassured her ex.

She then said they would ‘know exactly more when the autopsy is done’ at which point, Shauntel said, it would be determined whether the teenager would be ‘booked on these charges.’

By November 11, the pair had finalized an agreement to turn the teenager over to the care and supervision of a family member on Florida’s west coast.

They then discussed the prescription medications the 16 year old was on – which include medication for ADHD and insomnia – and gave the family member the power of attorney to allow him counseling and medical treatment when necessary, Fox 35 reports.

But Hudson pleaded in the texts to talk with their young daughter – despite Shauntel’s insistence that the child, who was close to Anna, did not want to talk. 

‘I let her know that you care about her and that you love her.’

Minutes later, though, Hudson expressed growing concern about his daughter’s emotional state.

‘I want to hear it from her with everything going on Shaun,’ he pleaded. ‘I need to hear her.’

The girl was later given counseling through the Florida Department of Children and Family Services, shortly after Anna’s November 20 memorial service.

Shauntel is pictured with Kepner’s father, Christopher

The text messages were revealed in court filings as Hudson tried to gain custody of his 10-year-old daughter.

He claimed in an emergency court hearing that his son, who he revealed was a ‘suspect’ in Anna’s death, did not have permission to go on the six-day family cruise, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

‘The 16-year-old’s future has been put in jeopardy because of the choices made by [his mother],’ Hudson argued, according to Click Orlando. 

‘The youngest child is at immediate risk of abuse, abandonment or neglect in the care of [her mother].’

Shauntel has denied the allegations and asked a judge to reject his requests.

At a December 5 hearing, she testified that her teenage son had not taken the insomnia medication for two nights on the cruise – including the night before Anna’s body was found.

She also claimed that Kepner, the teenage suspect and her 14-year-old son insisted on sharing a cabin together, rather than join their grandparents in a different room a few decks above.

‘They wanted to stay together,’ Shauntel testified. ‘The three of them, like the Three Amigos, are best friends.’

Kepner is pictured on the cruise with her grandparents, Jeffrey and Barbara Kepner

She then went on to say she last saw the teenagers as she was headed to bed at around 7.30pm the night before Anna’s body was found.

A judge ultimately sided with Shauntel on December 17, when he denied Hudson’s emergency custody request.

The judge ruled that there was no emergency to move the young child from Shauntel’s custody ‘as long as the other child remains out of the home.’

But Jamie Copenhaver, a former sheriff’s detective investigator, told Fox 35 that the text messages make it seem as if the family were more concerned about PR optics and protecting family members than of Anna’s death.

‘I’m going to say 100 percent they know more than what they are telling,’ he claimed, accusing Shauntel and Thomas of saying: ‘We are going to protect you. We are going to keep you out of the light. Let’s stay off social media.’ 

Anna poses on the Carnival cruise the six-day Caribbean getaway went between Mexico and Florida

Kepner posted a TikTok video from on board the ship six months ago saying how much she wanted to return

Others who knew Kepner have told how she had a strained relationship with her stepbrother and ‘felt increasingly uncomfortable in her own home.’

Her aunt Krystal Wright told the Daily Mail that while she does not know exactly what happened onboard the cruise ship, she is adamant that Anna’s reluctance to travel and her private fears about her stepbrother should not be dismissed as the investigation continues. 

‘Anna wasn’t really wanting to go on the trip,’ said Krystal, whose daughter would regularly Facetime with Anna. ‘Because the boy (stepbrother) was going.’

She said she believes the stepbrother had been a source of discomfort throughout much of the year that the blended family had lived together.

‘I had found out that she was sharing the room with the boy,’ she continued. ‘And I can see her… you know, not comfortable with it, but I guess putting up with it.’

According to her, this kind of emotional calculus was typical of how ‘sweet natured’ Anna navigated the strife of her blended home.

‘She just… she wasn’t comfortable with the boy,’ she said. ‘She was worried about him. She had worries.

‘It’s been (like that) almost the entire time they’ve lived together.’ 

Josh Tew, who broke up with the 18-year-old cheerleader six months ago, claimed he witnessed her stepbrother climb on top of her during a FaceTime call

Anna’s ex-boyfriend Josh Tew has also claimed that he witnessed her stepbrother climb on top of her during a FaceTime call.

‘She was too scared to tell anybody. Because that one time that he said that if she said anything about getting on top of her he’d do something to her.

‘She told me that she was uncomfortable with them [his step relatives] being at the house because she didn’t fully know who they were.

‘That their dad had just met this woman, not even like a year ago, and she doesn’t really like her… she has an attitude most of the time and was very controlling over her. But I told her, they’re going to be your parents at the end of the day, you know.

Anna slept in the dining room of the house. ‘But most of the time she did sleep in her friend’s beds and stuff because of her being uncomfortable with him being at the house,’ he added.

But while Tew accused the stepbrother of being obsessed with his ex, Anna’s aunt claimed he believed she lived a better, easier, more favored life, and he resented her for it.

Wright firmly believed that in his eyes, Anna represented something that had been taken from him… stability, attention, or affection he thought he deserved.

‘He felt she was the one that had ruined his life,’ Krystal guessed the boy may have thought. ‘Whether it was because his mom and dad divorced, or were divorcing, or what,’ she guessed.

Anna had been in the custody of her father since her parents split when she was four, and Anna’s mother felt pressure not to pursue custody.