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Rotten Mango

Missing Teen Girl On Cruise Found Under Mattress & Main Suspect Is 16 Yr Old "Obsessed" Step Brother

23 Dec 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What happened to Anna Kepner on the Carnival Horizon cruise?

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Bada bing, bada boo.

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3.105 - 29.498 Stephanie Soo

The guy in the bright red tomato Hawaiian shirt and a 20 foot long shipping container filled with cocaine are probably headed to the same exact place. It's a place called Port Miami. Welcome to this tiny floating piece of land in Miami, Florida, where half of it is like a giant international airport, but instead of airplanes, you have mega liners, cruise ships,

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ushering passengers on and off their cruises, making sure that they go through security, immigrations, customs. And then on the other side, you've got massive ships filled with shipping containers.

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Sometimes, a lot of times, millions of dollars of illicit drugs being smuggled into South Florida to the point where the vice admiral of the Coast Guard based in Miami has stated in public messages to the cartels, We own the sea, not you. We will find you. We will hunt you before you harm anyone on our shores.

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That coupled with the fact that it is one of the many busiest shipping ports in the United States, it's not going to be the most shocking thing when you see FBI agents, federal agents in Port Miami. I mean, they've also nicknamed Port Miami the cruise capital of the world. In 2025, the Port Miami saw, I believe, close to 8.6 million cruise passengers coming in and out of the port.

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It is one of the few cruise terminals that can handle multiple mega ships at once. I think they can accommodate 12 vessels at once.

Chapter 2: What details emerged about the cruise environment and logistics?

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which sounds not like a lot, right? But then you realize that these mega cruise ships are essentially skyscrapers, lay them down on their side, and there's just 12 skyscrapers from New York City lined up in the water, taking you out to an all-you-can-eat buffet out on the deep sea. And it's really cutthroat. They have something called the turnaround day.

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It's when a cruise ship disembarks one set of passengers, restocks and embarks a new set of passengers within the span of eight to 12 hours. And then sometimes out of the 12 mega liner spots that they have open, there could be like half of them that are doing a disembark day. So you've got 8 to 12 hours to get everybody off the ship. That alone can take 3 to 5 hours.

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Each ship, some of these big ones, they have 4,000 people on there, 4,000 passengers. That's not including crew.

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Wow.

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There would be about 70 to 80 massive truck trailers pulled up to the terminal to deliver provisions for the next trip. Sometimes you see like 30,000 pounds of just meat going into one ship. Near the end of November this year, there was one point where 10 ships were docked simultaneously and they had more than 320 trucks coming in to help restock supplies for these cruise ships.

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But because of how many cruises take place daily and just the sheer logistics of being out in the water with as many good backup plans as a major corporation would have, which is never a lot, a lot of things go wrong on a cruise.

Chapter 3: Who are the key family members involved in Anna's case?

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And a lot of the times, it's the cruise's fault. And that's like a very bold statement. It's merely an opinion. And by cruise, I don't mean the crew. I mean the corporation. Like the poop cruise. The Carnival Cruise takes off. It's the Carnival Triumph. And it's a 4,100 passenger type ship. So there's a lot of people on board. This is their vacation. A fire breaks out in the mechanical room.

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All electrical systems are down, which means no Wi-Fi, no entertainment, no AC, no fan.

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filtered air pumping through generously no heater but the most prevalent malfunction is the fact that there are no working toilets anywhere on the ship passengers toilets are just buckets at this point until they start overflowing are you talking about this is the one that happened like last year or the year before yeah a few years ago there was a documentary that was released on that right yes so i mean they turned from poop buckets to just poop fountains poop fecal matter spasms

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spraying into the state rooms, into the hallways, everywhere. It was likened to fecal lasagna floating on open seas. There's much more to the entire story with Carnival Triumph and Carnival trying to suppress the media attention. The crews actually knowingly sailed past a fuel leak, which probably should have alerted them to something being wrong with the vessel.

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The whole poop cleanup itself cost $115 million. So if you're ever on Carnival Sunrise, just know that's the poop cruise. They renamed it. Yeah. But it does make sense because I believe the vessel is itself worth closer to $650 million. I mean, these are massive ships. And although, I mean, I would say that these are the most common occurrences.

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I will say that whenever a crime or a missing person on a cruise ship happens, it does make headlines for weeks. But it doesn't occur as often as I guess we are inclined to believe. I mean, usually it's some minuscule variation of a poop cruise. Like typically these are the mishaps on cruises. It's like a small backup toilet that's not flushing well.

Chapter 4: What were the circumstances leading to Anna's death?

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Or there's some sort of malfunction and it inconvenienced a small group of people in a small way. Or a drunken fight where everybody is still physically okay, but it was a fiasco.

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But we also talked about a few cases, right? That people just got missing on the cruise.

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I will say that a lot of people do die on cruises every year. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that cruises are a preferred form of vacation for elderly people. So a lot of them will pass away on board. But it's not anything sinister or nefarious. And it's not like a shocking number.

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Yeah, yeah.

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But I'm still inclined not to go on a cruise just because I get a little freaked out. But It doesn't happen as regularly as we are conditioned to believe, but it does happen. November 8th, 2025, a small group of people at Port Miami, they see this small SUV drive up to the Carnival Horizon cruise ship that just docked.

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The SUV in comparison to the cruise ship looks like a tiny little ant, but I feel like the SUV is scarier because it just thick letters on the side of the car. It reads Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner, not ambulance, medical examiner. You don't call a medical examiner until you have a body.

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Soon after, FBI agents are seen bringing what appears to be a cadaver transport carrier off the cruise ship and into the FBI vehicle. Immediately, people online are trying to piece together what happened, and two things start popping up.

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One, it's stated that just the day before, while still out at sea, while they're still sailing back to Port Miami, Carnival issued letters to passengers in a specific deck in a specific hallway of staterooms. So if you're staying on this level, on this floor, in this hallway, you're getting a letter on your door. The letter reads, with the Carnival letterhead at the top, dated November 7th, 2025.

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Dear Carnival Horizon guests, we have made arrangements for you to have priority debarking on tomorrow morning. Authorities will be joining the ship first thing upon arrival to complete an investigation and will be in the area of your hallway. It could be noisy and disruptive, so we kindly ask that you be out of your stateroom by 7 a.m.

Chapter 5: How did the family react to Anna's disappearance?

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She starts off the video by describing her experience on the cruise ship thus far, and she's been having like back-to-back nightmares, which is not the point, but she's just saying it's just been a weird trip. She's on the same cruise, Carnival Horizon, and she says, we woke up and they're talking about somebody got killed on my floor, the eighth floor, like down the hall.

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So somebody got murdered on the cruise ship. There's security standing in front of the door. The body is still in the room. The body won't be off until tomorrow when we go to Miami, when we get off. FBI has to come and investigate. The body is still on the same floor that I'm sleeping on. I will note that it's highly unlikely that the body is kept in the state room.

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It's more likely that security and medical staff respond, notify the captain, notify shore authorities. Usually they'll photograph the entire room and how the body is discovered along with anything else of importance before moving the body to the morgue because every cruise ship has a morgue. But it's likely that security is stationed outside.

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Every cruise ship has a morgue?

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Every single cruise ship has a morgue. They don't have, you know, a morgue attendee or anything like that.

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But it's for like incidents.

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Yeah. And usually the doctor on board, I believe, will be the one taking care of the morgue. And again, a lot of them have gone on to Reddit because I was intrigued by this. And I went down a rabbit hole. A lot of them say it sounds sinister. It sounds creepy because of all the news that we see. But a lot of the times it's elderly people.

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wow which is still sad nonetheless and they actually advocate that if you are a senior citizen going on a cruise you should definitely get travel insurance because they can cover and help your family cover transport of your body back home huh which would be different than if you were to well my parents going on a cruise okay yeah

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Wow, interesting.

Chapter 6: What evidence suggests the stepbrother's involvement?

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She says that she's not even going to leave her room for the rest of the 24 hours, and she's just going to keep her scissors nearby just in case. She doesn't know what's going on. So you have someone on TikTok claiming that someone was potentially killed on their floor.

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An alleged carnival letter issued to passengers of that floor advising them that they're going to disembark earlier than the others. Then you have federal agents showing up to the vessel once it's docked along with the Miami-Dade County medical examiner. What the hell happened on the Carnival Horizon cruise ship?

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Just 24 hours before docking, a room attendant had walked into one of the state rooms. A lot of people will call them like maids, housekeepers, room attendant. And there were three teenagers staying in this specific room together. You have 18-year-old Anna Kepner. You have her 14-year-old half-brother. So they have the same dad. And then you have her 16-year-old stepbrother.

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They have no blood relations. Okay, so the stepbrother's mom just married Anna's dad.

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Got it.

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Okay.

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rest of their family are also on the cruise they have two other rooms on the ship and it was supposed to be this blended family cruise ship they wanted to make it an annual thing and then november 7th 2025 anna is found by the room attendant under the mattress wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets she had been killed and the main suspect so far it appears might be her 16 year old

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stepbrother. And her dad, her stepmom, they're all just being very suspicious. This is the current ongoing case of Anna Kepner and how every single adult in her life is being oddly weird about her passing, about her murder on this cruise ship.

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So

Chapter 7: What are the implications of the family's dynamics in this case?

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All of their names are going to be redacted. There is also a very crazy custody battle that's in the works. So please watch with caution and take breaks if you need to. Today's episode is also currently ongoing. I'm sure many of you guys have been following the news, the updates, the investigations. So this is going to be everything we know up until the release date of this episode.

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For updates past that, you can probably look for a pinned comment. I'm going to try to follow up as quickly as we get more developing news. No one has been found guilty in a court of law as of right now. I mean, these are all just allegations being shared by the police, the news, the media, and then some of them by the parents themselves. So with that in mind, let's get started.

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May 6th, 2025, a message is sent from a woman named Chantel Kepner. Chantel is very important. Chantel is the stepbrother's mom. Chantel. She's the stepmom. Chantel the stepmom.

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Chantel was Chantel on the ship?

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Yes, Chantel was on the ship. So this is six months before they get on the boat. Chantel is texting her ex-husband, Thomas. And there's going to be a lot of names, but I'm going to try to make it clear. Thomas, the ex-husband. Now this text message reads, Good afternoon. I wanted to give you a heads up that we have a family trip planned from November 2nd to November 8th.

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We'll be going on a cruise that departs from Miami and stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Mexico before returning to Miami. In order to move forward with the necessary travel documents, could you please send me your current mailing address so that I can send you the passport forms that need to be signed? And I'll include a prepaid envelope for returning them. Thanks in advance, Chantel.

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Chantel and her ex-husband, Thomas, they share two kids together.

Chapter 8: What are the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding Anna's case?

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a 16-year-old son, the stepbrother, and a nine-year-old daughter. She's going to take them both on this cruise. And she wants permission because, you know, that's how custody works. About a month later, the ex-husband, Thomas, he still not sent the forms back. He just responds, I'm not sure if I'm willing to sign the forms. I'm not okay with my kids going out of the country.

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Until we can find some common ground and set something up, I'm not okay with them leaving the state. Being that I have not talked to or seen my kids in so long, I will talk to my attorney and see what can be done. Maybe we can agree on something that benefits the kids having both parents in their lives. Chantel will take the kids on the trip anyway.

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And by the end of it, her 16-year-old son is going to be a suspect in the murder of Anna Kepner. Nearly 32 hours after Anna Kepner is murdered. Chantel is going to text her ex-husband once more. I need you to call me. It's an emergency. There are apparently five main categories for cruise liners.

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You've got mainstream, premium, luxury, ultra luxury, and expedition, which expedition is essentially a cruise where you go through the Drake's Passage and end up in Antarctica or some other remote location. You're not really there for the all-inclusive buffets and the casinos. You're there for the thrill. You're there to jump out of a helicopter and see a penguin.

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Obviously, price point is going to be one of the main, if not the main thing about choosing which category of cruise liner you're going to end up on. I mean, there's a different energy and vibe on each cruise, even just by the brand. Even if it's in the same category, if it's a different brand, it's got a different energy.

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So starting with ultra luxury, think Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, Seabourn, Silversea. It's intimate, perhaps only 200 to 750 guests on a boat. I imagine a much more older demographic. I've actually heard of a lot of people who are like, I'm going to splurge and go on a honeymoon on one of these ultra luxury yacht trips, like the Ritz Carlton and by heard of people, I mean on Reddit.

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And they say that they regret it because you're just with a bunch of 60 year old rich retirees and there's no fun. It's just a lot of fine dining.

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So that's the most expensive one.

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Yes. Unless you're chartering a yacht, which is not really a cruise at that point.

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