← Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Florida Cheerleader Found Dead & Stuffed Under a Cruise Ship Bed: What Really Happened to Anna Kepner?
00:15:43
Loading summary
Transcript19 lines
- [00:05]
A
Hey, everyone. I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is drop dead serious. And if you haven't seen one of my podcasts in a little bit, I have some bad news and definitely a big change, and that is that Atlas will no longer be a part of the podcast. I lost Atlas this week at 15 and a half years old, and it has been just a gut wrenching experience. I have my shit together right now, but it has been a brutal four days, and I wanted to let you know because he's been such a big part of the podcast. We have the Atlas Cam. I mean, many of you have commented on how much you love seeing him during the podcast, but for this episode, I have a little memory on the Atlas cam. It's his bowl, which I haven't emptied yet, and it's his collar, which still smells like him. And it's his leash, which is super old. I mean, I've had that same leash for over 10 years. And two little cookies, his favorite cookies. He loved Mother Hubbard cookies so much, and they're not my sponsors. I just. He used to eat the little mini ones all the time, and I would feed him, like, six in a row, and then these are the bigger ones, and he'd get one of those. But, you know, on the day he died, he had a whole bunch of these big ones and an ice cream sundae. The vet made an ice cream sundae for Atlas. Peanut butter and chocolate and whipped cream and ice cream. And it was a very, very hard day. And I'm not gonna lie, it's been a really hard time. And I'm so sorry that we're not gonna have him part of this podcast. He is in the studio with me all the time, and when we're not in the studio, he was at my side all the time. He used to follow me into the bathroom. I mean, the dog never left my side. And so this is. This is a big. You know, it's just a big a change for me. So. But I'm going to forge ahead. And in this episode, it's the case of the Florida cheerleader who vanished on board a Carnival cruise ship until the cleaning staff found her body stuffed under her bed. She was found in the stateroom that she shared with her two brothers, one a biological brother and one a stepbrother. And I'm going to start with something the investigators haven't said out loud, but everybody close to this case is certainly whispering. Anna Kepner's death on the cruise ship may not have been some tragic and random collapse in A cabin. Something was brewing long before this ship ever left port. Anna Kepner was 18 and a senior in high school in Florida. She came from a blended family and was on vacation with her brother, her dad, his wife and her two kids. But tucked into that same family vacation was somebody who did not seem to treat her like a stepbrother should. Although the FBI isn't telling us much, people close to Anna are more than happy to share the dysfunction that seemed to plague Anna's family. The father of Anna's ex boyfriend tells Inside Edition that Anna's stepbrother pursued her relentlessly, was obsessed with Anna despite the fact that they were actually family. And her ex's father says his son witnessed one particularly disturbing incident during a FaceTime call with Anna. Have a look.
- [03:42]
B
He saw her stepbrother come in the room when she was sleeping and get on top of her.
- [03:51]
A
He says that Joshua warned Anna's family what had happened.
- [03:55]
B
He said that I tried to tell the parents that this was happening and they didn't want to believe me. He's like infatuated, attracted to her like crazy. He's always have to date her.
- [04:05]
A
The ex boyfriend's dad also says that Anna was scared of her stepbrother because she said he always carried around a big knife. Inside Edition also spoke with Anna's biological mother. She lives in Oklahoma and says that she hasn't seen her daughter in years. The woman says that Anna's father didn't even tell her that their daughter was dead and says that she was banned from Anna's memorial service in Florida today, but was intent on going anyway, dressed in a disguise. I'm going to put a wig on.
- [04:41]
C
And wear some really tall shoes because.
- [04:43]
A
I'm 4 foot 9. There's also this word of surveillance video from just outside the cabin that Anna shared with that 16 year old stepbrother and her 14 year old biological brother. The FBI isn't releasing that video or any other information, but quoting sources, the Daily Mail reports that Anna is seen returning to the cabin alone on the evening of November 6, having excused herself from dinner because she wasn't feeling well. The Daily Mail then says that the footage showed Anna's cabin mates, the 14 year old brother and the 16 year old stepbrother rose, returning to the cabin, though not necessarily at the same time. The younger boy, her brother then leaves again reportedly to take pictures of the ship and comes back later for the night. But sources say he never saw his big sister when he got back to the room, but thought that maybe she'd gone out. And so he went to bed, off to sleep on his bunk bed, never knowing that Anna's body was stuffed underneath her own bed, just mere feet away from him. She was covered in blankets and life jackets. It was a cleaning worker that made the awful discovery the following morning. Earlier on my News Nation show, I talked to somebody who knows everything about this case. Josh Boswell is a senior reporter for thedailymail.com and he had even more disturbing information about what Anna's 14 year old brother said he heard happening inside that stateroom right before Anna died.
- [06:27]
C
Josh, you know, I keep wondering, it's such a mystery as to how this young girl died and what the condition of her body was when it was discovered by the cleaning crew. Do we have any information at all on how she died, cause of death or the manner in which she was discovered?
- [06:45]
D
No, that is one part of this that remains a real mystery. And you know, it's worth pointing out that the FBI has not declared that this is a murder and they haven't said that she was killed. You know, just her body was found. She was found dead. We don't know what exactly she died of and the coroner has not released any details about the cause of death yet.
- [07:08]
C
Then just, you know, speaking of this surveillance video and the patterns of who walked into that room and when and who walked out of that room, do we know if Anna died in that room?
- [07:23]
D
So that's what we can surmise because what we've learned, and my, my colleague Ben Ashford on my team at Daily Mail has done some fantastic reporting on this. He got from sources close to the family and a source who has been briefed on the investigation that there is CCTV footage that it shows Anna going back into that room and never coming out again. And then her body was discovered. So we can deduce from that that she was, she died in that room. And we' got the, the biological brother and then the stepbrother coming into the room. But there is also another very disturbing allegation. I want to stress it's just an allegation at this point, but again from that ex boyfriend. He was speaking after the memorial service that was held this evening in Titusville, Florida, her hometown. And he was saying that he had spoken to the younger brother, the biological brother, after all this had happened and what that 14 year old had told him was that he had heard shouting, screaming, what sounded like furniture being thrown around. He tried to get back into the room and the stepbrother blocked his way and told him to leave. So that's an extra development here that kind of adds a nuance to this, that there was perhaps some conflict going on there. But again, this has not been verified. And this is just the ex boyfriend saying what he was told, allegedly by the younger biological brother.
- [08:52]
C
So if we're to believe what the ex boyfriend says he was told by this younger biological brother, this confrontation, the yelling, the screaming and the blocking of not being able to get back into his room, this happened prior.
- [09:09]
A
Right.
- [09:09]
C
Prior to the death or days before or what was the timeline of that confrontation, the timeline for this?
- [09:17]
D
According to that ex boyfriend, Josh Tew, that was the night that she went into the cabin and never emerged. What we have from the coroner in Miami is the date of death being declared at 11am the next morning. But that doesn't seem to be when she actually died. It seems like she may have died at some point during that night of November 6th. She certainly didn't show up for breakfast the next morning, November 7th. That's when the family was alerted to her being missing, something being wrong. But also this younger biological brother, 14 year old, was saying that he never saw her. When he came back to the room, he didn't see her. He went to bed and got up and she still wasn't there. So we don't know exactly when she died. We don't know exactly when her body ended up underneath her own bed wrapped in this blanket. But we know that it's in the timeframe of between when she left in the evening for dinner, she left dinner early from the rest of the family on November 6th and at some point later that evening when the younger brother, if we are to go on his reported testimony to what he's telling other family members, what he's allegedly told the ex boyfriend sometime later that evening. That's what I think we're piecing together right now.
- [10:32]
C
And important to note that this is the FBI handling this, not the Miami police, because it was out on the open seas in international waters and that's why it may be more difficult to get this information. I'll just ask you this last question. I'm pretty sure you don't have the answer, as most of us don't. Do we know if toxicology is being performed on Anna's body and if there's going to be any results announced anytime soon?
- [10:55]
D
We don't have any information confirming that. But I think, you know, one can assume that the investigators on this case are going to try every method they can to find out what happened to her. It may be that there's something more obvious, something physical on the body that would help determine the cause of death. But we don't know that right now. And if I'm an investigator on this case, I would want to pursue every avenue.
- [11:20]
C
Yeah. Unless there's something so incredibly obvious about the, you know, condition that her body was found in. Gosh, Josh Boswell, thank you so much for this. I hope you'll come back as we continue to try to figure this mystery out.
- [11:33]
A
So appreciate it. And so that's where we leave it. The FBI, they are lead on this case. And that's hard. Everyone who goes on a cruise should know it ain't the same when you're on the high seas. When you're in international waters, you don't get the same kind of policing you would if something happens here at home, if it happens in another country, whole other ball game entirely that's not even the FBI. They can visit, but they're not lead. So right now on this case, the FBI is lead. And if you know true crime, you know how tight lipped the FBI is, you can barely find information. And what is even more fascinating is that if this 16 year old stepbrother ends up charged or embroiled in some kind of litigation regarding this case, the federal system offers even more protections for youth, which means it will be even more difficult for us to get information on the case. And then you know how it works, right? Sometimes you can be adjudicated, go to juvie and then have everything scrubbed clean when you turn 18. I'm jumping way ahead of my skis here. The only reason we know that this kid is a suspect at all in this case is not from the FBI, is not from the authorities. It's from custodial filings. Yeah, the 16 year old's dad and mom are fighting over custody of him and his 9 year old sister. So the 16 year old is on the cruise with his mother. Right. Mom is now married to Anna's dad, but mom of the 16 year old is fighting her ex over custody and they're filing all these competing custodial papers with the court. And that's where we learned from both sides that their kid is being targeted as a potential suspect. That they say the FBI has told them so and they put it in a court document as they fight each other. And I'm starting to think, have you two fucking idiots lost the plot? You really fighting over custody at this point? You might want to join forces because your 16 year old kid could be up on murder if that's where this case is going to. In any case, they're still bitching and moaning about who gets the 9 year old. What we're told is that the 16 year old isn't even staying with either of them right now, but is with another family member. It is a mess, y', all, but hopefully there'll be some resolution soon. We don't know a cause of death. We don't know the condition of Anna's body. We don't know what they know and what they don't know. But here's what I know. After being in this business long enough, kids who are 16, they're not very good criminals. They don't do things real well. They don't cover their tracks. They do stupid shit like stuffing a body under a bed and thinking, there you go, nothing to nothing more to see here. And so typically when investigators get involved, if kids are the perpetrators, it's a lot easier to solve. And let's hope that's the case. If in fact the 16 year old has something to do with this. Once again, we do not know that to be the case. We know that the parents themselves have said so, that the parents of the 16 year old, while fighting with each other have said in court papers they don't want to discuss this case right now because they could incriminate themselves or the child because the FBI's told them that he might be a suspect in this case doesn't get more serious. So we're going to keep watching it. I do think you should subscribe because these developments come fast and furious and I'm dropping these podcasts like they're hot and I don't want you to miss any developments. So make sure you hit subscribe as always. I'm Ashley Banfield. I'm so thankful that you're here. I really appreciate you. So from Atlas and me, thanks for watching, thanks for listening and remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead seriously.