Anna Kepner's cellphone led investigators to slain teen's stepbrother
· Toronto Sun
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Information from Anna Kepner’s cellphone led to the arrest of her stepbrother for her murder, according to an FBI agent’s testimony.
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Timothy Hudson, 16, is accused of killing and sexually assaulting his stepsister during a family cruise trip in Miami, Fla., last November.
The 18-year-old girl’s body was found under the bed of a cabin she shared with Hudson and another teen.
Police were able to zero in on her stepbrother as a suspect after family members told investigators the teen girl was never without her phone, according to a transcript of an FBI agent’s testimony obtained by PEOPLE magazine.
Cruise ship staff found phone
Investigators combed the Carnival Horizon for her phone, and stumbled upon it after checking the ship’s lost and found, FBI Agent Andrew del Valle testified.
Del Valle said a crew member found the phone in a trash can, stating that it was “seriously damaged, as if it had been smashed, and the screen was broken.”
He said FBI agents were still able to download the phone’s contents and trace how it went from Kepner’s cabin to the trash can where it was found on the other side of the ship.
Evidence connecting stepbrother to missing phone
Del Valle testified that Kepner’s phone connected to four different routers in a period of 20 minutes, with surveillance footage from the ship showing Hudson was at all four locations.
Del Valle noted that one piece of footage showed Hudson spending 22 seconds by the trash can where his murdered stepsister’s phone was found.
He was then seen returning to his room, at which time his cellphone connected to another router, but Kepner’s phone did not, del Valle said.
The FBI agent testified that investigators also looked at data from Kepner’s Apple Watch, which was never found.
Del Valle said the watch stopped reporting her vitals sometime between 7:50 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the night of Nov. 6.
Teen charged as an adult
Hudson was initially charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse as a juvenile, but a federal grand jury indicted him on the same charges as an adult in March.
If convicted of both charges, he faces the possibility of two life sentences.
He’s currently in the custody of a family member after a judge rejected a motion from prosecutors to remand him into custody at a detention hearing in late May.