THE stepbrother and suspect in the slaying of teen cheerleader Anna Kepner has been sent away to live with a relative for his “safety”.
Anna, 18, was found suffocated, wrapped in a blanket, covered with life jackets and stuffed under her bed on the Carnival Cruise Line ship on November 7.
The tragic teen had been sharing a room with her stepbrother, who had allegedly thrown chairs and screamed at her in a violent fit the night before her death.
Now, the 16-year-old suspect’s mother wrote that he has been sent away to “ensure the safety” of the child, according to the Daily Mail.
A November 13 court document read: “All parties agree that (the teen’s) location will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone other than his parents and law enforcement authorities.”
Shauntel testified that Anna had been sharing a cabin with her 14-year-old biological brother and stepbrother, and that the three were “like best friends”.
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But Anna’s ex-boyfriend Joshua Tew, alleged the 18-year-old was “uncomfortable” being at home with the boy.
Joshua claimed that the youngest sibling on the cruise heard a violent altercation between the older teens on the night of November 6.
The suspect’s biological father has accused Shauntel of failing to supervise their son.
Shauntel claimed that the children were staying across the hallway from her and Anna’s dad, but had failed to check in on the three after 7pm on the night of the alleged murder.
She also revealed that her 16-year-old son takes a daily cocktail of medication for ADHD and insomnia.
He had skipped two doses of the insomnia drug prior to Anna’s death, she added.
The boy had fallen asleep without needing it the first night and Shauntel had gone to sleep without giving it to him on the second.
Anna returned to her cabin on the night of the alleged murder after telling her family she wasn’t feeling well.
The FBI obtained footage from inside the vessel that showed Anna walking as she headed back to her room.
A short while later, the minors also reportedly returned to the cabin.
Footage reportedly captured the youngest sibling leaving the room and wandering the vessel, capturing photos.
The young child noticed Anna was not in the room when they returned but assumed she was up late with other family members.
However, when the family gathered for breakfast on the morning of November 7, she never showed.
Anna was declared dead in international waters between Mexico and Florida at 11.17am the following day.
The beloved high school cheerleader died of asphyxiation, according to a copy of the death certificate obtained by ABC News.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office has not publicly disclosed her cause or manner of death.
It was potentially caused by a bar hold – an arm across the neck or face area, the outlet reported.
The reported gruesome details surrounding the teenager’s violent death exhibit a potential close connection between Anna and her killer.
“This is a very violent death, it’s very personal, because if we are to believe what we have been, at least at this point, told, we’re talking about probably quite a bit of blunt force trauma – it almost seems rather savage,” Joseph Scott Morgan, a forensic science expert at Jacksonville State University, told The US Sun.
“Anytime we go out on a scene that is a death investigation, one of the things that we look at is the status of the remains.
“And in this particular case, we have to assume that her face was covered because she’s wrapped. If her face was covered, many times that’s an indication that the perpetrator knew the victim.
“There’s something psychological between parties that goes on when there is an intimate connection, and I don’t mean that in a sexual way.
“I mean that like in a familial way. It is very difficult for these perpetrators to look into the face or into the eyes of the deceased.”
