VIERA, Fla. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy being investigated in the death of his stepsister on a Carnival cruise ship last month has no recollection about what happened, according to text message exchanges between his parents filed in a custody court case in Florida.
The boy's mother told her ex-husband that the teenager kept repeating that 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 has drawn 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 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.
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, grandparents, stepmother and her stepmother’s two children, including the 16-year-old boy.
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 divorced parents over custody of their youngest child in Brevard County, along Florida's Space Coast. The disclosures offer the clearest public indication 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 stepmother, didn't respond to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday, and neither did an attorney for the boy's father, Thomas Hudson. Their youngest child currently lives with Shauntel Hudson, and Thomas Hudson has accused his ex-wife of violating time-sharing agreements. The 16-year-old boy 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 going viral on social media and how to protect their 16-year-old son from public scrutiny. Thomas Hudson also said he wanted his son to know that he was loved despite what had happened.
FILE - Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Horizon cruise ship is shown docked at PortMiami, April 9, 2021, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
An explosion in Moscow on Wednesday killed three people, including two police officers, Russian investigators said, days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking general not far away.
An official from Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as the GUR, told The Associated Press that the attack had been carried out as part of an agency operation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Russian authorities did not comment on who may be behind the attack. Since Moscow invaded nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them.
On Wednesday, two traffic police officers were approaching a suspicious individual when a device detonated, Russia's Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. The officers and another person standing nearby died from their injuries.
The Interior Ministry named the officers as Lt. Ilya Klimanov, 24, who joined the Moscow police in October 2023, and Lt. Maxim Gorbunov, 25. Gorbunov had a wife and a 9-month-old daughter, the statement said.
The blast took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday. Sarvarov was the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.
Investigators have said they are looking into whether Ukraine was behind that attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year. Ukraine has not commented on it.
Ukraine — which is outnumbered by Russia’s larger, better equipped military — has frequently tried to change the course of the war by attacking in unexpected ways.
In August last year, Ukrainian forces staged a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region even as they struggled to stem Russian offensives elsewhere. Moscow’s troops eventually drove them out, but the incursion diverted Russian military resources and raised Ukrainian morale.
In June, swarms of drones launched from trucks targeted bomber bases across Russia.
Moscow has also blamed some assassinations on Ukraine. Just over a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
In April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building just outside Moscow..
Days after Moskalik’s killing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes” although he didn’t mention Moskalik’s name.
Meanwhile, Western officials have accused Russia of staging a campaign of disruption and sabotage across Europe as part of an effort to sap support for Ukraine. Moscow has denied the claims.
Associated Press writer Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
This undated photo, distributed by official telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, shows official portraits of Russian police officers Lt. lya Klimanov and Lt. Maxim Gorbunov, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow, on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (Official telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia via AP)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
