A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.
Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government.
Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last year with her family. Before the ship was scheduled to return to Florida, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room she was sharing with two other teenagers, including the younger stepbrother.
Photo: AP
The cause of Kepner’s Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.
Anna Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner, released a statement, saying that the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity.”
“At the same time, we are deeply troubled that, despite the seriousness of the charges, he has not been taken into custody... The situation is deeply painful and complex for the entire family,” Christopher Kepner said.
E-mails seeking comment from Hudson’s attorneys about the charges were not immediately returned on Monday.
Hudson has remained free in the care of an uncle since his arrest in February.
“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family during this unimaginable loss,” US Attorney Jason Reding Quinones said in a written statement. “A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging serious offenses that allegedly occurred aboard a vessel in international waters.”
Anna Kepner was a cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 65km east of Orlando. At her memorial service in November last year, family members encouraged people to wear bright colors instead of the traditional black “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.”
Teenagers are rarely prosecuted in federal court. Hudson pleaded not guilty when he was initially charged in February, although the proceedings were not public because of his age, and neither were court documents. He was seen at the courthouse wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie pulled tightly around his face.
A judge on Feb. 6 said that Hudson must wear an electronic tether while living with an uncle. The order was changed to allow him to join his father for a few days last week at a landscaping business, newly unsealed court records showed.
Prosecutors objected to Hudson’s release, citing dangerousness, and asked a judge to revisit that order now that he has been charged as an adult. Defense lawyers have a week to respond.
“He committed these crimes against a victim with whom he had no apparent relational strife, and whom he was being raised to view as a sibling,” Assistant US Attorney Alejandra Lopez said in a court filing.
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