A 16-year-old boy has been charged with sexually assaulting and killing his half-sister during a family holiday on a Carnival cruise ship in November, prosecutors said.
The U.S. Justice Department alleges the boyfriend sexually assaulted and intentionally killed 18-year-old Anna Kepner while the Carnival Horizon liner was in international waters.
The half-brother, who has not pleaded guilty, was initially charged as a juvenile but was later charged as an adult with first-degree murder and burdened sexual assault, according to prosecutors.
According to her family, Kepner was a cheerleader, was set to graduate from a Florida high school in May and wanted to join the military.
Her body was found under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered with life jackets, ABC News reported.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she died of mechanical asphyxia, which is strangulation.
She and her half-brother were travelling with several family members, including her father and stepmother. The Capners’ grandparents were also on board.
‘We were all having a great time,’ her grandmother Barbara Kepner told ABC News late last year. – ‘I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to hurt my child.
The grandparents previously said the relationship between Anna Kepner and her half-siblings was good, adding that there is no such thing as step-siblings.
It’s the whole family. Yes, it’s a blended family, but our family is not like that,” grandfather Jeffrey Kepner said. – Our dynamic is that we’re all just family.
According to court documents, the 16-year-old entered a plea of not guilty in February when prosecutors first charged him as a juvenile with murder and sexual assault.
If convicted, he could face life in prison, the Justice Department said.
He was not taken into custody on the condition that he stay with his uncle in Florida and agree to location monitoring, according to court documents. He was also banned from being around the child without adult supervision. BBC on comment.
The victim’s father, Christopher Kepner, told the AP this week that he trusted the justice system to establish the truth with care and honesty