Anna Kepner's grandmother said her stepbrother was an "emotional mess" following her death aboard a cruise ship earlier this year.
Barbara and Jeffrey Kepner were aboard the Carnival cruise ship along with other family members when Anna Kepner's body was found on November 7. The couple expressed disbelief to ABC News over what had happened.
"We were all having a great time," grandmother Barbara Kepner recalled of the trip. "I couldn't fathom why anyone would wanna hurt my baby."
Kepner's death has been ruled a homicide, ABC News reported. The network said that she died of "mechanical asphyxia" on November 6.
The Daily Mail reported that Kepner's body was found the next day, around 11:17 a.m., by a maid who was cleaning the cabin. The body was reportedly stuffed under her bed, wrapped in a sheet, and covered with life jackets.
Kepner's grandparents told ABC News that Kepner, her 16-year-old stepbrother, and her 14-year-old brother decided to stay in a room together.
"The two younger girls stayed with the parents and then the three teenagers, they decided amongst themselves they wanted to stay in the room together. But we had a larger room and we made it very clear that at any time if they weren't getting along, they didn't want to be together, we had an extra bed in our room that they could come to," Barbara Kepner said.
According to Barbara Kepner, the kids all got along well. She described Anna and her 16-year-old stepbrother as "two peas in a pod."
NBC News has reported that a court filing related to the previous marriage of Kepner's stepmother, Shauntel Hudson, indicated that the FBI was investigating the 16-year-old stepbrother.
The network reported that the court filing asked for a pause in the unrelated case, stating that Hudson "has been advised through discussion with FBI investigators and her attorneys, that a criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children of this instant action."
"I know that those two kids cared about each other in the right way," Barbara Kepner told ABC News. "I can't accuse him because I don't know what happened in that room."
When the ship returned to Miami, the FBI began its investigation.
"He was an emotional mess. He couldn't even speak. He couldn't believe what had happened," Barabara Kepner said of the stepbrother's reaction, according to ABC News. The brother was hospitalized for psychiatric observation after the ship returned.
