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Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Behind Closed Doors: What Happened Before The Cruise Ship Murder Of Anna Kepner?

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

True Crime Today

True Crime, News, News Commentary

3791 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner aboard a cruise ship has left behind a trail of conflicting stories — and at the center of it is a blended family dynamic that now looks very different depending on who’s doing the talking. Parents and grandparents describe harmony, closeness, and three teenagers who were “the three amigos.” Yet teens who actually lived inside that home describe something else entirely: aggression, chokeholds, tension, and behavior reframed by adults as “just playing.”

On today’s episode of Hidden Killers, psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins us to break down what these contradictions reveal about denial, family image-management, and the difference between outside perception and lived experience.

Shavaun explains why teens often have a more accurate read on the emotional temperature of a home than parents do — especially in blended families where adults may be overly invested in a narrative of unity. She walks us through the psychology of minimizing aggression, why “roughhousing” becomes the excuse of choice, and the gender dynamics that shape which behaviors get dismissed and which get flagged.

We also look at why an outsider — in this case, Anna’s ex-boyfriend — might actually provide a more reliable account than adults with emotional or reputational skin in the game. And how cabin assignments made by a travel agent, not the kids themselves, may speak volumes about parental blind spots.

This segment is a deep dive into credibility, emotional truth, and the patterns families cling to long after red flags have been waving in plain sight.

#AnnaKepner #HiddenKillers #ShavaunScott #TrueCrimePodcast #FamilyDynamics #BlendedFamilies #CruiseShipCase #TonyBrueski #PsychologicalInsight #TeenPerspective

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels.

0:08.6

Let's move on to another story here.

0:11.0

18-year-old Anna Kempner died on a cruise ship.

0:13.5

Her 16-year-old stepbrother is the suspect in the months since we've heard from grandparents saying,

0:20.0

everyone got along great parents describing

0:23.3

three teenagers as the three amigos but then you've got the ex-boyfriend the other stepbrother

0:30.5

people who were actually in that house day to day who were actually of that age describing

0:37.3

something very different, aggression,

0:39.8

tension, dynamic, the adults either didn't see or didn't want to see.

0:44.8

So who's telling the truth?

0:46.5

Psychotherapist, Yvonne Scott, is here to help us understand what is really going on and why kids

0:53.0

often see family dynamics in a very different way

0:56.9

than the adults around them. And that's a very interesting thing in this case, because you really

1:04.2

have three different perspectives being pushed out there right now. We saw the grandparents

1:10.3

and they're, oh, everybody gets along.

1:12.6

We don't say step grandkid. Everybody's, everybody's equal. Very rosy picture. I don't fault them.

1:19.3

Their grandparents are seeing it through their prism. And then you have the parents who we're seeing

1:24.7

in a custody hearing. This is how we're getting so much information

1:28.1

as this custody hearing, saying, oh, you know, they were the three amigos. They all got along great.

1:33.5

Well, who picked the room arrangements for the kids? Well, that was our travel agent. They didn't

1:38.8

allegedly necessarily talk to the kids, but they said that they did offer. They did say, hey, you know,

1:43.7

if you don't want to stay in here, you can go stay with grandma and grandpa in but they said that they did offer. They did say, hey, you know, if you don't want to

...

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