Officials were unable to locate two crucial pieces of evidence while investigating the murder of Anna Kepner, an FBI agent testified.

Anna Kepner, Timothy Hudson.Credit : Anna Kepner/Instagram; Romain Maurice/Getty

Anna Kepner was never without her cell phone.

Family members told law enforcement officials this as they began investigating the murder of the 18-year-old high school senior aboard a Carnival Cruise in November 2025, according to testimony FBI Agent Andrew del Valle gave in federal court, a transcript of which PEOPLE obtained.

According to del Valle’s testimony, Timothy Hudson, Anna’s 16-year-old stepbrother and accused killer, destroyed and disposed of the cell phone. Or so he thought.

Anna Kepner.

The search for the device began as FBI agents boarded the Carnival Cruise Line’s Horizon on Nov. 8 in Miami, Fla., to begin their investigation.

After initially failing to locate the device, del Valle testified that he and his fellow agents eventually decided to check the lost and found — where they found Anna’s phone.

A crew member said they discovered the phone in a trash can aboard the ship, according to del Valle, who testified that the phone “had been seriously damaged, as if it had been smashed, and the screen was broken.”

Despite the damage, del Valle said the FBI managed to download the contents of the device and agents were able to trace how and when it went from Anna’s cabin to a trash can on the other side of the ship. He testified that once agents were able to determine the phone’s location in the hours after Anna’s death, agents began to to look at surveillance footage from the ship to see who else was in the same areas at the same time as the phone.

That footage showed that Anna’s phone connected to four different routers in a period of 20 minutes on the morning of Nov. 7, 2025, and confirmed Timothy was in all four of those locations, del Valle testified.

Timothy is seen on the footage spending 22 seconds by the trash can where the phone was found that morning before returning to his room, at which time his cell phone connects to another router but Anna’s does not, according to del Valle.

Anna’s phone was not the only piece of missing evidence, however, as FBI agents were also unable to find her Apple Watch.

Del Valle said that the watch never turned up but agents did determine that it stopped reporting Anna’s vitals sometime between 7:50 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the night of Nov. 6.

Timothy Hudson.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

Timothy — whose mother Shauntel Hudson married Anna’s father Christopher Kepner — was first taken into custody in early February, at which time he was arraigned as a minor on charges of murder and aggravated sexual abuse.

A grand jury then indicted him on those same charges, which were then refiled so that he could be charged as an adult. As a result, he is now facing the possibility of two life sentences if convicted of both crimes.

The grand jury wrote in the superseding indictment that Timothy “did knowingly and unlawfully perpetrate” the “willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing of [Anna] with malice afterthought.”

It was further stated by the grand jury that this occurred during the “perpetration” of an “aggravated sexual abuse.”

Timothy has been in the care of a maternal uncle since his arraignment and will stay there after a judge rejected a motion from prosecutors to remand him into custody at a May 27 detention hearing.

SOURCE: https://people.com/anna-kepner-stepbrother-accused-of-destroying-evidence-after-killing-teen-11993540