Florida cheerleader Anna Kepner was “always happy” and “never complained,” her heartbroken mom has said in her first words after the 18-year-old’s killing onboard a Carnival cruise ship.
“She was a really good child. She never really complained about much. She never really cried that much as a baby and as a teenager she was the same. Just always happy,” Heather Kepner told FOX 35.
“She was always trying to make everybody smile. An extremely happy child,” Kepner said, speaking ahead of her daughter’s funeral on Thursday.
The FBI is questioning Kepner’s 16-year-old step-brother as a “suspect” in Anna Kepner’s killing, according to family court filings by the boy’s family.
Heather Kepner hadn’t seen her daughter regularly in years since moving to Oklahoma, but was proud of Anna, who had dreams of joining the US Navy and eventually becoming a K-9 police officer.
The senior was set to graduate in Spring from Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, after earlier attending Titusville High School, where she was a member of the varsity cheer team.
Kepner died onboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship at 11:17 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 7, according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner.
She had gone on the six-day cruise with her father, her stepmother, her 14-year-old brother and 16-year-old stepbrother.
The stepbrother is currently a suspect in Anna’s murder, according to court documents filed by her stepmother, Shauntel Hudson.
Here is the latest on Anna Kepner, cheerleader found dead on Carnival Cruise
The ship was traveling back to PortMiami at the end of a six-day Caribbean cruise when the death took place.
Anna’s body was found stuffed under her bed in her cabin covered in life vests, sources told the Mail Online.
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