TEEN'S DNA REVEALED IN ANNA KEPNER'S ASSAULT KIT
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nancy Grace uncovers the horrific reality aboard a Carnival cruise ship where 18-year-old high school cheerleader Anna Kepner was found sexually assaulted and choked to death. Hidden beneath a stateroom twin bed under a pile of life jackets, Anna’s body went unnoticed for 16 hours while her family roamed the ship. As a complicated web of family secrets spills out through an unrelated custody battle, a federal grand jury officially charges her 16-year-old stepbrother, Timothy Hudson, with first-degree murder to be tried as an adult. Nancy Grace and her expert panel dissect the critical FBI DNA testing, cruise ship surveillance footage, and the heartbreaking signs of danger that were tragically ignored.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Robert Crispin - (Ft. Lauderdale) Private Investigator “Crispin Special Investigations”, Former Federal Task Force Officer for the United States Department of Justice, DEA and Miami Field Division. Former Homicide Detective and Crimes against children investigator with Coconut Creek Police Department in Florida. Former SWAT officer. Facebook: Crispin Special Investigations Inc.
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Spencer Aronfeld - (Miami, FL) Trial lawyer and Founder of Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, Author of illustrated children's book "Sara Rose, Kid Lawyer," Facebook: Aronfeld Law, Instagram: @Aronfeld_Trial_Lawyers
- Joseph Scott Morgan - (AL) Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet,' Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan," Instagram: @JoScottForensic
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Dr. Kendall Crowns - (Ft. Worth, TX) Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Host of Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue," Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University
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Crystal Wright - Anna Kepner's Aunt, Sister of biological mother, Heather Wright
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Nick Giddens - Cruise passenger who captured "Last Dance" video of Anna
- Susan Hendricks – (Atlanta, GA) Investigative Journalist, Author: “Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi," Instagram: @susan_hendricks, X: @SusanHendicks
- Michelle Spitzer - (Melbourne, FL) - Florida News Reporter for USA Today, USAToday.com
- Shannon Butler – (FL) Investigative Reporter at WFTV Channel 9 in Florida
- Dave Mack – Investigative Reporter, Crime Stories
- Sydney Sumner – Investigative Reporter, Crime Stories
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:03.4 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:05.8 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:11.8 | This dream vacation ended in such a nightmare. |
| 0:20.5 | Where's Anna? Everybody on that ship such a nightmare. Where's Anna? |
| 0:21.6 | Everybody on that ship is a suspect. |
| 0:24.6 | How did she die? How did she literally slip through the cracks? |
| 0:28.6 | Family protects family. |
| 0:30.6 | Rat mummy style in a blanket and stuffed under a twin bed. |
| 0:33.6 | It's a floating crime scene. |
| 0:36.6 | I want to know what are his demons. Do not care about his |
| 0:41.4 | feelings. I care about her dead body. Straight out to crime stories investigative reporter Dave Matt. |
| 0:47.6 | What's the latest? Nancy, we've got shocking news coming out on the Anna Kepner case. It is amazing to find out that through the investigation, now, there was a detention hearing |
| 1:00.8 | last week, and a 145-page transcript of this hearing has been made public. |
| 1:08.0 | And, oh, my gosh, we found out that the FBI tracked down another person |
| 1:17.7 | with being looking for the DNA of another male on board that cruise ship this is as shocking as |
| 1:26.5 | it gets we didn't see it coming i didn didn't anyway. We have Anna Kepner, |
| 1:30.2 | 18 years old, sharing a cabin with her stepbrother. They both go into the cabin. Only one comes out, |
| 1:40.0 | and it's not Anna. Now the defense for Timothy Hudson is trying to prove that it could have been somebody else. |
| 1:47.4 | And according to what came out of the detention hearing, there is a possibility that Anna Kepner |
| 1:53.5 | was involved sexually with somebody on the ship, so much so, that the FBI tracked this male minor. |
| 2:05.5 | They're calling him a mystery minor, but they tracked down this guy and got his DNA so that they |
... |
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