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Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

What Do the Custody Filings Reveal About the Family Behind Anna Kepner’s Death?

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

True Crime Today

News, True Crime, News Commentary

3.3907 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2026

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary


The federal murder charge against Timothy Hudson in the death of his stepsister Anna Kepner has dominated coverage. But the filings in a separate custody battle between Timothy’s biological parents tell a story the criminal case never will. Shauntel Hudson is Timothy’s biological mother. She married Anna’s father, Christopher Kepner. After Anna was found dead on a Carnival cruise ship, court filings show Shauntel and Christopher expelled Timothy from their home. His biological father, Thomas Hudson, placed a text exchange into the record alleging Shauntel told him she couldn’t risk her marriage to support her son. In the first forty-eight hours, Shauntel was relaying Timothy’s condition from a medical facility and telling his father she’d said “I love him.” Weeks later, filings allege she wanted him “buried.” Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, with more than thirty years in forensic mental health and trauma recovery, joins Hidden Killers to dissect the family dynamics at the center of this case. She examines the impossible position Shauntel occupies — biological mother of the accused, stepmother of the deceased, wife of the grieving father — and whether one of those identities always wins or whether a person simply breaks trying to hold all three. Scott addresses whether Christopher Kepner’s public statements may be setting the conditions for Shauntel’s alignment, and what a nine-year-old stepsister is absorbing about loyalty in a household that expelled her brother.


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#AnnaKepner #TimothyHudson #HiddenKillers #CarnivalHorizon #ShavaunScott #CustodyBattle #ForensicPsychology #TrueCrime #BlendedFamily #FederalCase

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brewski and Robin Drey.

0:07.8

Let's talk about this case. Anna Kempner was 18 years old, a high school senior in Titusville, Florida.

0:14.0

In November of 2025, she boarded a carnival cruise ship with her blended family.

0:19.7

The fun ships. Her dad, Christopher, her stepmother,

0:23.5

Chantelle, her grandparents, and Chantel's two kids from the previous marriage, including a 16-year-old

0:29.1

stepbrother named Timothy Hudson. Anna and Timothy weren't blood-related. They were part of the

0:33.9

blended family. Chantel is Timothy's biological mother and Anna's stepmother.

0:39.0

Pay attention to the roles of people here because it gets confusing.

0:42.2

Say one more time.

0:42.9

One more time again.

0:43.4

Okay.

0:44.0

Shantel is Timothy's biological mother and Anna's stepmother.

0:49.0

So she's the mother of the alleged killer, the 16-year-old.

0:53.4

She's married to Anna's father.

0:56.7

On that cruise, Anna and Timothy were placed in a cabin together without the parents.

1:02.3

Anna was found dead under her bed, wrapped in a blanket covered with life preservers.

1:07.0

Timothy Hudson has since been charged as an adult in federal court with first-degree murder and aggravated

1:12.6

SA crimes in connection with her death. He's pled not guilty. But today we're not here to talk about the criminal case. We're here to talk about what happened inside this family afterward and before. Because the court filings tell a story that raises questions

1:28.9

a jury will never be asked to answer joining us to discuss psychotherapist shivan scott um chauvin i

1:37.1

i want to uh to set the table here with the family structure and i know i just kind of went over it

1:42.2

you got shantelle hel Hudson, Timothy's biological

1:45.5

mother here. She's also Anna Kempner's stepmother. She's married to Anna's father, Christopher

...

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