What started as a dream vacation soon thrust a tight-knit blended family into shock and anguish when one of their own, a beloved teenage girl, was discovered dead on a cruise ship earlier this month. Even more baffling and heartbreaking, her grandparents said in an interview with ABC News, the person authorities told the family is suspected of Anna Kepner’s death: her stepbrother. “We were all having a great time,” grandmother Barbara Kepner recalled of the trip.
“I couldn't fathom why anyone would wanna hurt my baby.” The grandparents of the 18-year-old who was found dead on a cruise ship sit down with ABC News.ABC NewsHer grandparents said 18-year-old Anna Kepner had her whole life ahead of her.She was an independent and “mighty” young woman, set to graduate high school in May and aspiring to join the Navy, the Kepners said.
Those hopes came to a screeching halt when Anna's body was found aboard the Carnival Horizon, where she and eight other family members were on holiday.A cause of death has not been announced by authorities, but the Kepner family says the FBI has told them Anna apparently died from asphyxiation, possibly caused by a bar hold -- an arm across the neck.Teen found dead on Carnival cruise died by asphyxiation resulting from a bar hold: Source“We were looking forward to seeing her grow,” grandfather Jeffrey Kepner said. “The cruise itself wasn't what made me excited.
It was the fact that I was gonna get to spend another week with my youngest son and his family and all the grandkids.” The FBI on Sunday continued to decline to comment on the ongoing investigation, and ABC News has not independently confirmed the details of Anna’s death. 'No such thing as steps'The Kepners, their son, his three children, including Anna, his new wife, and her children from a previous marriage, took the trip together.It was to be a new tradition they were looking forward to keeping, Jeffrey Kepner said.
The three generations had three s...