The aunt of a teen girl found dead on a cruise ship has claimed her final days were marred with fear amid longstanding family tensions.
Cheerleader Anna Kepner, 18, from Titusville, Florida, was found naked and wrapped in a blanket covered in life jackets, under a bunk in her cabin by staff on the Carnival cruise ship on November 7.
Her death has been deemed a homicide and court documents show the cause has been ruled as mechanical asphyxiation. An FBI investigation is ongoing.
Court documents revealed that Anna's 16-year-old stepbrother was being investigated as a potential suspect. No charges have yet been filed.
Speaking to Daily Mail, Anna's aunt Krystal Wright claims the family dynamic was 'fractured long before the vacation,' and was marked by strained relationships and quiet anxieties from Anna who 'felt increasingly uncomfortable in her own home.'
Anna was on a six-day Caribbean getaway with her blended family. Her father, Christopher Kepner, and stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, had taken her on the trip in international waters between Mexico and Florida.
She was sharing a room with her 14-year-old brother as well as her stepbrother, who cannot be named for legal reasons. The two boys had bunk beds and Anna was in her own, a source previously told Daily Mail.
Krystal, who is the sister of Anna's biological mother Heather, spoke to Daily Mail in an emotional interview about how the family has been plunged into turmoil.
Beloved cheerleader Anna Kepner was found dead on a family cruise trip
Anna's biological brother (pictured with her) who was sharing a room with both Anna and their stepbrother on the cruise
Anna's aunt has spoken about the blended family's dynamics and says they were 'fractured long before the vacation'
Krystal says she does not know precisely what happened on board but she is adamant that Anna's reluctance to travel, and her private fears about her stepbrother, should not be dismissed and are relevant to the investigation.
'Anna wasn't really wanting to go on the trip,' Krystal, whose daughter would regularly Facetime with Anna, explained. 'Because the boy (stepbrother) was going.'
Krystal believes the stepbrother had been a source of discomfort throughout much of the year that the blended family had lived together.
'I had found out that she was sharing the room with the boy,' she continued. 'And I can see her... you know, not comfortable with it, but I guess putting up with it.'
'She only has to sleep in the bed at night,' Krystal imagined Anna telling herself, 'and the rest of the time she could avoid him.'
According to her, this kind of emotional calculus was typical of how 'sweet natured' Anna navigated the strife of her blended home.
'She just... she wasn't comfortable with the boy,' she said. 'She was worried about him. She had worries.
'It's been (like that) almost the entire time they've lived together.'
This account is also synonymous with Anna's ex-boyfriend Josh Tew's recollection.
Tew told Inside Edition he had witnessed Anna’s stepbrother climb on top of her during a FaceTime call.
While Tew had put it down to obsession, Anna’s aunt propositioned a slightly differing hypothesis.
According to her, the stepbrother believed Anna lived a better, easier, more favored life, and he resented her for it.
She firmly believed that in his eyes, Anna represented something that had been taken from him... stability, attention, or affection he thought he deserved.
'He felt she was the one that had ruined his life,' Krystal guessed the boy may have thought. 'Whether it was because his mom and dad divorced, or were divorcing, or what,' she guessed.
Anna had been in the custody of her father since her parents split when she was four; Krystal claimed Anna’s mother had felt pressure not to pursue custody from Christopher’s family.
Wright’s account of a complex family life stands in stark contrast to that of Anna’s paternal grandparents’—Barbara and Jeffrey Kepner—who spoke exclusively to ABC News.
Anna’s aunt described how her niece was ‘not wanting to go on the trip’
Barbara portrayed the image of a harmonious blended family and a ‘close relationship’ between Anna and her stepbrother in particular.
She described the teens as having been ‘two peas in a pod’ and claimed they were ‘just like brother and sister.’
Krystal proclaimed that the public deserves to know that such descriptions, in her view, do not align with the private reality.
Krystal claims that Christopher told Anna that her mother was not trying to contact her.
'He would tell Anna her mother wasn't reaching out,' Krystal said. 'But Heather was trying. She tried on every platform she could.'
She also mentioned that her daughter was in frequent contact with Anna as Chris allowed them to have contact over messenger on the condition they didn't tell Heather.
Since Anna's death, tensions reached a breaking point at her memorial service, where Heather, was 'banned from attending' as she alleges Anna's father did not want her there. Heather had to disguise herself with a wig to sneak into the service.
'She (Heather) had no interactions with anybody at the memorial. She stood in the back. You know, just kind of put her head down so she wasn’t noticed by anybody that might recognize her,' Krystal stated.
Anna poses on the Carnival cruise the six-day Caribbean getaway went between Mexico and Florida
She added: 'She didn't want to be there for... to make Christopher mad. It wasn't any about that'.
Last week it emerged at a custody court hearing that the stepbrother has been sent to live with another relative 'to ensure the safety of the youngest child of the parties,' Anna's stepmother Shauntel wrote in court papers.
Shauntel told the court hearing that Anna's stepbrother was currently receiving psychiatric help.
'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,' according to a November 13 document filed in the custody case on December 5.
The next custody case is to be conducted on December 17 intending to further discuss custody arrangements between Hudson and her former husband, who is angling for custody of their shared youngest child, a nine-year-old girl. He claimed she was at risk of abuse or abandonment.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Christopher Kepner, Barbara Kepner and Heather Wright for comment.