395: Anna Kepner: He Was Obsessed with His Stepsister | Breaking Down The Disturbing New Details

>> Hey true current besties, welcome back to an All-New Episode of Serialist Week.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to an All-New Episode of Serialist Week. With me, your host, and your true crime bestie, Annie e-Leas. Now, I know what you're thinking, you're like Annie, it's Friday.

What the heck are you doing? Why is there an episode out today? You give us episodes on Monday Tuesday and Thursday. What's going on? Well, let me just tell you what's going on.

Occasionally, this is why it's important that you've subscribed to YouTube,

or follow the podcast if you're not already, because occasionally,

I will release an episode outside of the regular release calendar. And the reason why is maybe there's a breaking case, maybe there's a press conference, maybe there's a case that I think needs a lot of awareness. Whatever the reason, maybe sometimes these episodes will drop in outside of the regular release calendar.

“And that's why I'm here today, because we have an all-new episode of a case”

that we definitely need to talk about. Now, if you are a loyal listener to seriously and listen every Monday and Thursday, you know Thursdays are my headline highlights episodes, where I go through everything that's happening that week in true crime, news, updates, trials, whatever's happening that week. And over the last several months, we have been talking a lot about the Anna Keppener case.

For those of you who are a bit unfamiliar or don't know all of the details, I'm going to give you a quick little synopsis. But Anna was a beautiful 18-year-old girl who went on a family cruise ship for a family vacation, a family get together, and was found not only murdered, but just callously discarded and stuffed underneath the bed inside her cruise ship cabin.

Now, details have been coming out for months of what happened to Anna, who's responsible, who's been arrested, what happened leading up to the cruise.

And so, I've never done a full deep dive into this case.

I've only covered it on headline highlights, because it's an ongoing case, and there's news.

“Not every week, but almost every couple of weeks, and so it feels like that's a natural place for it to live.”

But so many of you have messaged me about this case, or have followed up after a headline highlights being like, "I feel like we need more context. Like, what was the story like?" And the relationship like between Anna and her stepbrother before they went on this family cruise, what were some of the allegations that she had made in the past, all sorts of things.

And so, I decided today to release this episode where I'm going to walk you through all of it. So, whether you are familiar with the case or completely unfamiliar, I want to walk you through everything that we know in this case so far, because a lot of news also has just come out in the last couple of days from Anna's family, saying they're not even going to attend this trial.

And we've now received photos of her stepbrother, which, and I'll get to that in a bit, it's a little controversial. He's a minor, technically, and so with that, because he is a minor, people have been very reluctant to say his name. In fact, he's only been referred to with the initials of TH,

and there have not been many photos of him shared. And I'm kind of indifferent to that. I kind of feel like, you know, I get it innocent until proven guilty, but you're charged with a pretty heinous crime. You're being charged as an adult.

“I think it's okay to float your photo out there,”

and I know not everybody will agree with me. It is out there in mainstream media too. I'm not the only person who's gotten my hands on it. But anyway, my point to be, my point to be, my point in all of this, is that that's the purpose of today's episode to really walk you through all of it,

especially if you are familiar just to give you the updates, so that all of the information and all of the details in this case can live in one place. So let's start with a little bit of the background and the family dynamics, and I've got all of my notes here. I've got some court documents here.

We're going to be going back and forth between the notes, and the court documents, and I'm just going to, you know, we're just going to be talking together. So as I mentioned, Anna was a beautiful 18 year old high school senior. She was a cheerleader, and she was also described as being incredibly close with her family,

particularly her now blended family. Now to give you a little bit of backstory on how that family became blended, and what that all entailed, Anna was born on June 13th, 2007 to her parents Chris and Heather. However, the two of them divorced when Anna was just four years old in 2011,

she says that she was, quote, "purposely left out of Anna's life."

“So Anna was primarily raised by her father Chris,”

alongside her paternal grandparents Barbara and Jeff.

Then Chris ended up marrying his second wife, Tabitha,

shortly after his first marriage ended in 2011. The two of them shared two children together. And according to Tabitha, once she married Chris, she ended up becoming the primary caretaker of Anna, and she raised Anna as if she were her own daughter.

However, this marriage, too, ultimately ended in divorce in March of 2023. This was after 12 years of marriage, and because of, I mean, I guess not because of the lengths of marriage, but for whatever reason, it resulted in a very lengthy,

very heated divorce with a custody battle as well.

So then, third time's a charm in December of 2024,

Chris married his third wife, Shantel Hudson. Shantel entered the marriage with three children of her own, a 16 year old, or 15 at the time, unclear, named who were going to use as his initials, TH, and two younger children.

Those are also the siblings who were all on the cruise. So, like I said, Anna lived in this blended household with her father, her stepmother, alongside multiple steps siblings, including the 16 year old stepbrother, who later would be identified as the suspect in her murder.

And I have to say, the family dynamic overall really became, I guess you would say, paramount or central to this entire situation, because apparently, custody disputes involving the stepbrother's parents did reveal early concerns, and, you know, I want to be careful to say, early concerns about his behavior,

but also a lot of tension that it caused in the household, because of the custody disputes, because of some of the court filings, and some of the disputes included concerns not only about his behavior, but about him needing more supervision, citing behavioral issues, possible need for more of like a watchful eye,

family disagreements about how to handle him. And so it seemed like already there was something brewing under the surface that appeared to have some behavioral issues and some struggles. And there were warning signs when Anna was a part of this blended family as well, because she took note of all of this, she saw it, she noticed it,

and this wasn't just with his family dynamic. Anna started expressing concerns as well,

“now that she was a part of the mix, it was all a blended family, remember.”

And she reportedly expressed fear and discomfort surrounding this step rather of hers, and this was all prior to the cruise ship incident. According to statements from her ex-boyfriend's family, she had shared a lot of concerns about him and his behavior, saying that there were very inappropriate things that he would do,

or remarks that he would say that he became infatuated with her, that he was obsessive, that he would watch her spy on her, make unwanted advances and so much so that it really bothered her and made her uncomfortable. And she vocalized that to a lot of the people closest to her,

which I have to say, and I have said this before, for any women listening, young or old or in the middle, wherever.

Your intuition is there as your first line of defense.

It is so incredibly important that you listen to it and vocalize it, and I know in Anna's case she was, she was speaking out to a lot of people close to her, but also I could see where maybe she was a little bit more timid to speak out to her father or to make it a really big issue because she didn't want to rattle things at home, she wanted to appease everyone,

make it pleasant, make it a nice, co-blended family, all of these things. But if something like that is affecting you and you're noticing it, it is absolutely imperative that you do speak up and that you vocalize that. And I'm not saying she didn't do it the right way.

“I think she did it the best she knew how she was only 18 years old”

and she did confide it, confide in people. But I can't help but wonder if it had escalated. And if that concern escalated, given his history of already there being some concerns around his behavior and him needing more supervision, maybe there could have been a different outcome here possibly.

I don't know, there were also reports according to the New York post that he had been previously caught attempting to sexually assault her once before. So you now have this really messy situation and messy blended family

is that Anna had already been opening up to people close to her about him.

It expressed that her behavior made her feel uncomfortable and that something about it just did not feel right. And while we of course don't have every detail of those conversations, I mean, it's clear that all of this leading up to the cruise, it wasn't happening out of nowhere.

There was a pattern of escalation one could argue. So then fast forward to November of 2025 and this was a little less than a year since when her dad Chris married this new woman and inherited this family. And I don't know how long they had dated prior to that,

but I'm talking marriage and maybe they all lived together before that who really knows. But this is less than a year after they got married. So the family decides that they're going to go on a family vacation, a cruise. So they board the carnival horizon cruise ship. Now because there were many siblings, many members of this family,

they had to bunk up, right? They had to share cabins.

So Anna shared a cabin with her stepbrother and her younger sibling.

“And I think she was a little uncomfortable about this.”

I know there have been reports out there, nothing verified, but her saying, again, not the most ideal situation, but also didn't want to create any sort of tension within the whole family. And I think there were some reports saying she was even looking forward to being with her younger sibling. So nothing outright worry some immediately.

But then November 6th rolls around. They had already been out at sea for a couple days at that point, I believe. And that night Anna reportedly told her family members that she wasn't feeling well. So she went back to the cabin early. And there are reports that at some point during that night or in the early morning hours,

somebody heard yelling or disturbances coming from the cabin. So she goes back early. She goes to sleep. She says she's not feeling well. And then there are some sort of disturbance that is overheard. Fast forward to the following morning, November 7th, and Anna didn't show up for the family activities.

I don't know, again, details are a little vague. I don't know if that was breakfast. If that was some sort of meet-up by the pool deck or some other deck or what it was. But she didn't meet up for the family activity. So she's reported as missing.

Obviously, this is alarming. This is unlike Anna. She shows up for everything. This was a red flag. Meanwhile, a crew member, specifically a housekeeper, enters the cabin in which she was staying,

her cabin where she was sleeping, and they discover her body underneath the bed. She had been stuffed under the mattress and then covered, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets. As if somebody thought that that was going to conceal her body

and nobody would ever find her. And in some accounts, her father, even later, had confirmed that he saw this traumatic discovery himself. So now, you have this discovery of this 18-year-old girl on this cruise ship. Stuffed under this bed, covered, and concealed in life jackets,

trying to figure out what the heck happened here. So of course, they're like, "Well, who was what last with her? Who else was staying in this cabin? Who last saw her? Who last spoke to her?" And the stepbrother was in that same cabin at some point overnight.

There was also no confirmed report of any sort of forced entry or an outsider that came in and was an intruder.

“So that's why the investigators immediately zeroed in on,”

it had to be someone inside that room. And not only had Anna been murdered inside that room that she stayed shared with her stepbrother, but the prosecutors alleged that she had been sexually assaulted, and then her method of murder was mechanical exphyxiation,

specifically by a chokehold or a bar hold,

which a bar hold is basically if you use your whole forearm

and all your the strength you can in that high amount of pressure to suffocate somebody. So everybody's to straw, right? People on the ship are to straw her family. They're trying to figure out what happened here.

They're not responsible. What's going on? Obviously there wasn't an intruder. It had to be someone in. Could he really at 16 years old be capable of this?

What's the truth? Meanwhile, the stepbrother just completely shuts down.

“Claims, he doesn't remember anything that happened.”

He blacked out. He doesn't remember things. He's not really showing any sort of concern or remorse. He's also not taking any accountability.

He's saying things details are fuzzy and he doesn't remember anything. And he starts to just shut down pretty much. So much so that he ended up being removed for psychiatric evaluation shortly after

Anna's body was discovered. And that's because the authorities and or his guardians either viewed him as unstable or his behavior required a media evaluation.

how much interaction he had with other people on the ship afterward. So as he's saying he doesn't remember anything and that it's all fuzzy and he shuts down. Reports indicate that he had not taken prescribed medication

for sleep in Somnia. Nothing like that during the course of the crew. So it's not like he took an ambient and blacked out and doesn't remember or if you've ever taken a sleep it, aid where it's fuzzy and you don't remember the details

and you kind of hallucinate a little bit. Nothing like that. So as I said, he was later evaluated psychologically and then after the ship docked and everybody disembarked, he ended up moving

and shuffling between relative to relative after this. And I have to say,

because the incident, first let me start here,

because the incident happened at sea. The ship contacted federal authorities before they docked because this was obviously, it happened at sea. It was a maritime crime. It was something that they needed the FBI to get involved in.

And the stepbrother was not immediately arrested. However, he was treated as a key person of interest from the very, very start. Because he was the one sharing a room with her. He was the last one who had been with her.

He starts shutting down. He's not talking. He's not remorseful. He's not sharing information. There are these reports in the past of him being obsessed

with her and making moves on her. And now you find her. She sexually assaulted and dead coincidentally in a room she shared with him. It's not looking good, right?

So he starts shuffling from family member to family member he's staying and he's free, but under a high level of scrutiny, not only from the public, but also from the authorities. So this goes on for a couple of months. And then for everybody pretty much knows he's the guy

“family even is speaking out saying why haven't they arrested him yet?”

Meanwhile, they are all building their case. And it's like this weird limbo period for how many months was that? November, December, January 3 months about where he's free has been arrested. The family pretty much knows that he is the one who did this.

He shuffled between family members and there is some family who is trying to be there for him as a family member, but then other family who was speaking out saying why hasn't he been arrested? Why aren't the police doing their job? What is going on here?

Like what's happening? So then fast forward to February of 2026.

He was finally arrested and he was charged.

But initially, this was handled as a juvenile case, because he was only 16 years old. And that enraged a lot of people from the very start. Myself included, because it seemed to me that there was a pattern that there was escalation.

I get it 16 years old, but if you have the wear with all, to not only commit such a heinous crime and a sexual assault, on someone close to you on anybody, but on someone close to you, then try to conceal her body, cover it up, then personally shut down, evade questions,

not cooperate in any regard. That shows planning. That feels a little methodical to me. So when it was first announced that he was going to be, it was going to be handled him as a minor.

I was like, this is bullshit, because also in Florida, and I get that this is a federal case, but in Florida, one of the main things in a lot of cases I've covered is that if somebody is tried as a minor,

“if they are convicted, they are out by, I believe it's,”

is it 21, it's either 21 or 23, no matter the crime. So what this guy could be in for four or five years, and then be out after a sexual assault and a murder, it did not sit right with me. But then things started escalating.

And on April 13th, 2026, a federal grand jury

indicted him as an adult on first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault.

So that made the case move to adult court, which that made a lot of people happy, myself included, because now there can be some real accountability here, some real justice for Anna. So as of now, the stepbrother is currently scheduled

to go on trial on June 1st, 2026. This is going to be in federal court in Miami, Florida. He has pleaded not guilty by his lawyers, but get this. He's out. He's released.

He's on bond. He's out there walking freely, which also angers me, because I get that he's young. But if somebody now is getting notified that they're being charged as an adult, and the walls are closing in.

Who's to say he's not going to a, try and flee? B, try and Brian Launder, Brian Laundry himself, and take his own life because he's too much of a coward to face the music.

“Who's to say that you're going to actually get justice for Anna here?”

And that's been a lot of what's been in the media lately, because the prosecutors are pushing back saying like,

You need to hold him while the defenses are using."

“No, he should remain out while he's awaiting trial.”

The trial is scheduled, though, to start, as I said, June 1st, which we are planning to attend. It's a little bit more difficult being a federal trial, but we are doing our best right now to get everything in line so that we can attend that.

Now, in the meantime, over the next several weeks, there have been, and there will be even more hearings and motions and all sorts of things, because, of course, the custody status, jail, verse release, because this is a federal case. It's going to be a lot more complicated as well,

because it's maritime jurisdiction. It didn't happen on land, it happened on a cruise ship. And I think one of the biggest things that people are holding onto

is the fact that he's being tried as an adult,

despite being 16 years old. But if convicted, because he's being tried as an adult, he could face life in prison. Now, the families response to all of this. They have not spoken out in a big way, at least not many of them.

“And that's why a lot of details in this case have been hard to come by,”

because there's a minor involved. Families not really speaking, a lot of things have been sealed. The majority of the information will come out during the trial. However, Anna's father has publicly said that the trauma of finding her body, that it's too painful to relive.

And so, because of that, the family plans to honor her life rather than attend the trial. Which I think is a pretty big statement, and kind of actually is reminiscent of what happened with the Idaho murders, some of the family members, not all,

but some of the family members of the four students, who were brutally murdered by Brian Coberger, had said, even while the trial was still scheduled to take place, that they would not be attending. Because they didn't want to remember their loved ones that way,

they didn't want to give Brian the attention, and that they prefer to just honor their lives.

“And so, this is something that we have seen in the past.”

Now, let's talk more about the issues leading up to this, because family members had told news outlets that Anna and her brother, her stepbrother, were, quote, two peas in a pod, just like any other brother and sister. She also said that she knew that the two of them really cared about each other

in what she says is the right way, interpret that he want. But going more towards the allegations that Anna made against her stepbrother, her ex-boyfriend Joshua, said that the relationship between Anna and TH was far from perfect. He mentioned that in the time he dated Anna,

she confided to him multiple times that she was afraid and very uncomfortable being around her stepbrother. According to her ex-boyfriend Joshua, the stepbrother was obsessed with Anna, and she would often sleep over at her friend's house

because she was too uncomfortable to be around her stepbrother. And get this nine months before Anna was murdered, there was a very disturbing incident involving her stepbrother during a face-time call. During the call, her stepbrother entered Anna's room

and then inappropriately tried climbing on top of Anna. Joshua, the boyfriend at the time, confronted him about the incident and he allegedly ran away. Now, a younger sibling who was staying in the same cabin as Anna and her stepbrother allegedly told the ex-boyfriend

that there was a heated altercation in the room involving the stepbrother, where there was quote yelling and chairs being thrown inside the cabin. According to Josh, the younger sibling though stopped talking to him after the FBI intervened and warned the family about speaking out about the investigation.

And that's probably because they don't want to tame the evidence and like I said, we're going to learn so much at trial. But Steven, Joshua's father, told a new source inside addition to be specific that Anna was scared of her stepbrother, not only because of his advances that were obviously not wanted,

but also because he quote always carried around a big knife.

He also reiterated his son Josh, the ex-boyfriends claims, that he allegedly caught Anna's stepbrother climbing on top of her. So a lot of things that, again, in my opinion, look like clear escalation and repeating patterns and a predator. But it's going to be interesting what comes out in the trial.

Number one, I absolutely think that they're going to be text messages shown. If not from before the cruise and showing Anna's discomfort and what she invited and people certainly probably from that night. And phone calls she made or text messages. I also think that his digital footprint, TH, the 16 year old stepbrother,

his digital footprint is going to come into play in a very large way. What had he been searching? What had he been Googling? What kind of porn sites was he watching? What kind of how often was he visiting her profiles?

snuck on his phone and would record of her in secret?

There is going to be so much that comes into play. Not to mention the actual act itself, the sexual assault, the DNA evidence, the DNA left behind from his skin cells if doing the bar hold allegedly if it was him,

“which I think we all collectively know it was.”

But, you know, innocent and total proven guilty, I get it. I think that there is going to be a lot of evidence. So with that too, if he knows or even has any sort of inkling and I get it, 16 year olds are immature, but if he has any sort of idea, the amount of evidence

that they have against him, wouldn't that be all of the more reason for him to Brian laundry himself, too, and like not show up? So the fact that he is walking free right now and take all of that aside,

I don't know what the court order has been.

I've seen mixed reviews, what the court order has been about him being around his other siblings or step siblings. There has been, I can't speak all that entirely because there have been mixed sources out there, but this kid, who is being tried as an adult. So arguably, you could say it doesn't even matter that he's a kid.

This person is allegedly a predator, a child predator. So the fact that you are allowing him to just walk freely on the streets who's to say he's not going to do this again, who's to say he's not thinking in his mind, I'm going to go away, life in prison. Might as well get my kicks in now while I can.

But like, this is a danger to society and to other children. Why would you allow him to just walk around? And maybe there's something that I am totally missing that is way over my head because I'm not a lawyer which fair totally get that. But this just seems grossly irresponsible in my opinion.

“It truly does, and where is the justice for Anna and her family and all of that?”

As I said, we are going to learn so much more when the trial comes. I will be keeping you updated with that in real time as it's happening. But right now, there are a lot of key takeaways from all of this. There were clear warning signs before the crime itself. There was fear, there was alleged prior assault.

There was alleged obsession and infatuation. We know that this crime also occurred in a very enclosed shared space.

That cruise ship cabin, making the timeline and the access critical in this case.

And it's also very complicated. You have blended family dynamics. You have this juvenile suspect being treated as an adult. You have conflicting early narratives. Him saying memory loss.

It was medication. It was this. And you have Anna's outcry from previous prior to the cruise. So how is it all going to be wrapped together? I'm sure the prosecution obviously has their game plan in place.

But it's going to be interesting to see what else we learn as this continues to move forward in the court system. But like I said, I wanted to just have it all here for you in one episode so that you can be fully caught up with the case. All of the details. And look, I know not a lot of people are going to agree with naming him or showing his photo.

I haven't said his name on here, although I know it. But I am, I have shown a photo. And the reason why is very similar to Aiden Fuji with Tristan Bailey, another case in Florida. He was a 14 year old boy who murdered his 13 year old classmates. stabbed her over 100 times in the woods.

And he was tried as an adult as well. His photo, long released before and snapchat videos and everything, long released before he ever was convicted. Because, you know, I don't even know. Like, it looks obvious. And I get it, air on the side of caution.

But like, look, other mainstream media outlets have published it. So what's problem with little me if I'm publishing it to. And not for nothing, but when you see his picture, especially a side by side with Aiden Fuji, it feels very similar at least to me, which if you're listening to the podcast version of this maybe screwed on over to YouTube.

So you can see the side by side. It feels way too close for comfort for me. Anyways, I will keep you posted on what happens in this case. Let's all hope that Anna and her family get the justice they deserve. And this predator, in my opinion, this alleged predator.

I'll just say that. They're on the bone. It's taken off the streets. So that no other person is harmed by him. Or so that Anna gets justice and he doesn't offer himself. Like, coward ass Brian laundry. All right, guys. I know this one was a little bit sloppier than usual,

because I had my notes, my tablet, all of the things going at once. But appreciate you listening. And as a reminder too, these episodes that come out as bonus episodes, not in the regular release schedule.

“The only way you'll get notified of them is if you are pressing the button to follow the podcast.”

Or if you're watching on YouTube, press the subscribe button. So go push that right now, because these do come up pretty often. All right. Thank you so much for listening today and until the next one. Be nice. Don't kill people. Don't be a creep.

All right. Bye. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]