Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Case: What Did Prosecutors File That Changed the Judge’s Mind?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dreeke.

**Tony Brueski** (0:16)
Let's go to one more case this morning. 18-year-old Anna Kempner was found dead aboard the Carnival Horizon, hidden under a bed in a stateroom she shared with her 16-year-old stepbrothers, charged as an adult with first-degree murder. The parents were sleeping across the hall, three teenagers who weren't raised together in a single room, and no adult checked in for hours. The question that has consumed the case since November should be, or is, should the parents face charges? Are they going to face charges? It's getting louder by the day. But between that demand and the federal courtroom, there may be a jurisdictional wall that makes that nearly impossible. Hudson's step-grandmother went on CBS and said the parents should be charged. Called the whole cruise thing a recipe for disaster.
Jennifer Coffindaffer, retired FBI special agent, and Robin Dreeke, retired FBI special agent, also, with us to break this down. It is a recipe for disaster. There was a lot of warning signs ahead of time, allegedly, from friends, from other family members, that she was not feeling very safe around this young man. Another family says, oh, well, she could have went and slept with grandma and grandpa, and she chose not to, throwing it back onto the victim.
I don't know. I've been looking at this thing. You guys have been looking at this thing for a very long time. You know, emotion certainly takes over a lot, and you look at these parenting decisions and you go, what the hell? Just like with the crash in Mackenzie Sharilla. Yeah, but is there any legal levers to pull? Have any laws truly been broken? Is there any criminal behavior other than just, you know, not the greatest parenting at the end of the day? Jennifer, let's go to you. Do you think there's any route or any road where we're gonna see charges come against any of the parents here in this situation?

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (2:10)
Well, this is the deal, and you hit on it at the end.
I remember sitting in the chair across from Dick Ludwig, my boss, a Hooverite guy, and the number one thing he wanted to know when I was going to open a case is, you gotta give me the violations. What do you see happening? What are you gonna have to prove? Step by step, get out the CFRs, and let's go through it right now as a baby agent. And that's the thing, when you're sitting here, I'm in the chair, and I'm trying to answer that question to Ledwood. I can't answer it, because there aren't CFRs. Remember, this is a federal case. It happened aboard a cruise ship. There is no CFR that supports that, any charges. Because the parents being bad parents, being stupid, having this adolescence together, male and female, with all of that going on, it's horrible parenting. It's sick, it's immoral.
But I can't find a law to support the rest.

**Tony Brueski** (3:14)
Let me ask one more follow up on that quick. If this happened at the La Quinta in Orlando, would that be a different scenario because it all would have happened on US soil, or does something with it being in international waters on a cruise ship change that equation, or is it the same either way?

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (3:32)
Well, you have a lot more statutes with the locals, a lot more statutes. What did the parents do in that case? Did they drive the child or you're just saying they're all in a hotel room and then they go out to the bar and meet the two kids in the hotel room and something like this happens. I still say, I don't know a statute that fits even a local for being a stupid parent.

**Robin Dreeke** (3:55)
So I don't know these statutes well either, Jen, but say that during the investigation, the prosecution uncovers a lot of text messaging and other evidence that says that the daughter was informing the parents that, hey, this is a problem, this is an issue, or not just a, yeah, or the, yeah, the parents or other people are letting the parents know that this is an issue and you can prove that they're aware that she was intimidated by the stepbrother, didn't feel safe around the stepbrother. Does that change the dynamic at all?

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (4:26)
I still don't think it meets the law. I still can't even think of a charge. It's not aiding and abetting, it's not harboring.