Florida Teen Found Dead Aboard Carnival Ship, FBI Investigates

Anna Kepner was discovered in her stateroom on the Carnival Horizon on November 7, 2025 as the ship returned to Miami. Authorities said her body was found under a bed wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets. The Miami Dade medical examiner recorded an official time of death of 11 17 a.m. that day, while the final cause and manner of death remained pending as investigators awaited complete autopsy and toxicology results.

The FBI Miami field office is handling the case because the incident occurred aboard a U.S. based vessel in international waters, a jurisdictional trigger that shifts primary investigative responsibility to federal agents. Carnival and federal investigators are cooperating as forensic teams process the scene, interview passengers and crew, and collect evidence from the stateroom and other areas of the ship.

Preliminary forensic reporting shared with media outlets indicated asphyxiation and bruising consistent with a hold to the neck, but officials have not publicly released autopsy findings or toxicology results at this stage. That lack of final medical conclusions has left many questions unanswered for Kepner’s family and for observers following the case closely.

Complicating the inquiry are filings in a separate family court custody dispute that suggested a minor in the household may be implicated and reported that the FBI had advised a criminal case could be initiated against one of the minor children. Media reports since have named a stepsibling as a person of interest, though the FBI has not confirmed suspects publicly and declined to provide operational updates. Prosecutors face legal and evidentiary challenges when minors are involved, and those constraints will inform any decisions about charges and public disclosures.

Kepner’s family and her community in Titusville have held memorial services while authorities continue forensic work and investigators review testimony and surveillance. For the true crime community and hobbyist investigators, this case touches on several familiar but important issues. Jurisdictional questions about crimes on cruise ships, the timing and release of autopsy and toxicology results, and the special procedural protections surrounding juvenile suspects are all likely to shape how the investigation proceeds and how the public learns of its outcomes.

As federal investigators proceed, the community and interested observers should expect a careful but potentially slow flow of official information. Final medical findings and any charging decisions will be pivotal for resolving outstanding questions about what happened in that stateroom and for determining whether this case will move into the criminal justice system.