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They’re supposed to be lifesavers — but in this case, the best they may do is point investigators toward a killer.
The life jackets found covering 18-year-old Anna Kepner’s body on the Carnival Horizon cruise ship when staff discovered her dead two weeks ago may be key, according to a veteran detective who is following the case. They are stored in the closet, not under the bed, so someone moved them.
“They’re gonna test the life jackets, blankets, whatever else they found in the room, plus Anna’s body,” said Pat Diaz, a former Miami-Dade County homicide detective and now a private investigator.
And everything could contain important clues.
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Anna Kepner, 18, was found dead aboard a Carnival cruise ship on Nov. 7, during a vacation with her family. (Anna Kepner/Instagram)
A preliminary investigation found evidence Anna had been asphyxiated in a chokehold, ABC News reported Friday.
Digital has not independently verified the report. An official cause and manner of death have not yet been determined, according to the medical examiner’s office. But a source with knowledge of the case said toxicology and other lab testing had not yet been completed but said bruises had been found on the body.
But if someone worked up a sweat during a murder, they would have left DNA all over the room, the victim and anything they used to cover the body, according to Diaz.
As the FBI continues its investigation into Kepner’s mysterious death aboard a cruise ship, forensic experts are likely still analyzing DNA and other evidence for clues that could determine whether foul play was involved, experts say.
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Anna Kepner was identified by her family as the passenger who died onboard the Carnival Horizon. (Instagram/Anna Kepner)
Friday marked two weeks since the aspiring Navy sailor was discovered dead in her cabin around 11 a.m. on Nov. 7.
Her remains were transferred to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office after the vessel returned to port the following day. But the forensic pathologist on her case has not yet revealed a cause and manner of death.
Diaz said that at this point, it’s too early for results from toxicology and other lab testing.
“Not only are they doing DNA to try and match the 16-year-old, they’re probably also trying to rule out the 14-year-old,” he told Digital. “And nothing’s happening fast because they’ll show what they get to a grand jury.”
Anna Kepner, her father, stepmother and several siblings in a family photo. (Shauntel Kepner/Facebook)
Kepner came from a large blended family with eight siblings.
No one has been charged with a crime in connection to Kepner’s death, but her 16-year-old stepbrother’s parents have both said in court filings that he is being eyed as a “suspect” by the FBI.
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The FBI declined to comment, citing the active investigation.
But others close to Anna have accused the 16-year-old of inappropriate behavior, ranging from climbing “on top of her” in the middle of the night as she slept to reportedly scaring her with a knife.
Her ex-boyfriend, speaking to reporters outside her memorial service Thursday night, said he was on a 3 a.m. FaceTime call with her when she fell asleep. Then he claims he caught her stepbrother slide into the frame.
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Christopher Kepner (center, red hat) arrives at a memorial service for his daughter, Anna Kepner, at the Grove Church in Titusville, Florida, Thursday, November 20, 2025. The 18 year-old cheerleader was reportedly found dead under a bed on a Carnival Cruise on November 7. (Mark Sims for Digital)
“I was like, what the hell are you doing in her room?” he said. “Then he got scared and ran away, and I heard his footsteps running through the house ’cause he got caught.”
If investigators are really eying him as a suspect as his parents suggested, then they’re going to focus on the evidence in the cabin, Diaz said.
The stepsiblings were staying in the room together, Anna’s stepgrandfather, Chris Donohue, told Digital previously.
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“They’re not going to rush this one,” said Nicole Parker, a former Miami-based FBI agent who worked in the same office that is now investigating Kepner’s death.
And they don’t need to, because if the juvenile is indeed the suspect, as his parents have claimed in court filings in a bitter custody battle, minors are less of a flight risk, Parker said.
“[Juveniles] can absolutely be charged, but the federal Bureau of Prisons, they can’t house minors,” she said. “So if I’m gonna charge a juvenile, they have to be put in a special housing system. For that reason, sometimes the feds will give it to the locals.”
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That’s unlikely in a case of this magnitude, however, she said.
“They could charge him federally, and they could potentially charge him as an adult,” she said.
