Who Is Reading Anna Kepner's Final Snapchat?

**Tony Brueski** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:11)
Prosecutors say Anna Kepner sent her last Snapchat message at 8:14 p.m. She was 18 and on a Carnival cruise with her family. She shared a cabin with her younger brother and her 16-year-old stepbrother, Timothy Hudson. Court filings show Hudson allegedly left that cabin at 10:13 p.m. and returned at 11 By the morning of November 7, 2025, Anna was dead. Her body was found under the bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life preservers. And the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by mechanical asphyxiation, which means she was physically kept from breathing. Court filings that have been made public in August 26 show federal prosecutors handed Anna's Snapchat records to Hudson's defense team. The package included a forensic extraction of her account, which means a complete copy of all the data investigators pulled under a search warrant. It also included fresh FBI reports and grand jury materials. All of it sealed under a protective order. The Snapchat records anchor the government's timeline. Prosecutors say the account went silent at 8:14 p.m. and reports say ship cameras captured who entered and left the cabin and the hours had followed. Earlier turnovers went further. Court documents obtained by TMZ in April 26 listed FBI files, Carnival records, the full medical examiner report, body camera video, and phone extractions piece by piece. The defense has received nearly the whole federal investigation. So the last words Anna typed to her friends, sit now in the hands of lawyers defending the boy accused of killing her. And once before anybody boarded that ship, people say they warned her family about him. The warnings had names attached. What has to happen before ignoring a warning costs the people who ignored it? That's a fair question.
As we go through this, your thoughts, I certainly welcome. Substack YouTube, wherever you're watching or listening. Anna's family was blended. Her father, Christopher Kempner, is married to Chantel. Follow along, it's the Brady Buncher. And Chantel's teenage son became Anna's stepbrother. In November of 25, the family sailed together on the Carnival Horizon. So she's put in a room with her now stepbrother. A stepbrother that allegedly had a bit of a history of having some uncomfortable moments with Anna. That allegedly were not taken as seriously as they should have been. Chantel testified in a Brevard County custody case that a travel agent suggested the sleeping arrangement. Blame the travel agent. Well, the travel agent says, jump off the cliff. I guess you're going to do, right? I mean, go ahead. Why not just put the teenage girl, the 18 year old and the 16 year old boy who's got a thing for her in the same closed off cabin on a cruise ship. Seems like a great idea. I got news for you, Chantel. The travel agent is going to tell you whatever they need to tell you to make this booking possible at the price that's going to be agreeable to you. That's their job as a salesperson. It's yours as a parent to make educated decisions on where you put your kids to sleep.
That's on you, not the travel agent to see what's appropriate, because some families that arrangement might be just fine and dandy. For yours, with a documented history, not probably one of the best choices you've made as a parent.
But it was what it was. The three teenagers took the one cabin. The parents stayed across the hall with the younger children. Family members said Anna told them the night before she died that she wasn't feeling well and went back to her room when she missed breakfast the next morning. That's when the search began. Hudson was charged as a juvenile on February 26th and indicted as an adult in April by a federal grand jury on first degree murder and additional serious federal charges. He pled not guilty and he remains presumed innocent unless a jury decides otherwise. The case is a federal case because the ship was in international waters when Anna died. Crimes at sea against Americans fall to the FBI and federal court and the Carnival Horizon docked at Port Miami on November 8th. That's why a Florida teenager faces a federal indictment instead of a state one. Hudson was first released to an uncle with an ankle monitor. Remember that? Went out and did some landscaping work till the judge reversed that decision in June and ordered him held until trial, which is now set for September. The warnings, though, came first. Stephen Weston is the father of Anna's ex-boyfriend. He told Inside Edition that Hudson was obsessed with Anna and pursued her, even though the two were being raised as step siblings. Weston also said Anna was scared of Hudson because the boy always carried a large knife. That's her fear, described by a named adult on the record, before any charge existed. The creepy boy that you're now supposed to be a step brother of, wants you and he carries large knives. Who wants to go on a cruise?