TITUSVILLE, Fla. — As the FBI investigates the mysterious death of an 18-year-old Florida cheerleader aboard a Carnival cruise ship, her stepmother’s courtroom fight with an ex is exposing new details — and may force her to testify against her son.

Friday marks two weeks since the aspiring Navy sailor Anna Kepner was found dead in her room aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship.

Authorities have not yet announced a cause and manner of death or an arrest, but a court battle between her 16-year-old stepbrother’s parents revealed that he is a suspect.

CRUISE SHIP DEATH MYSTERY: CHEERLEADER’S FINAL POSTS HINT AT HEARTBREAK AND RESILIENCE AS DAD BREAKS SILENCE

Krystal Wright, Anna’s aunt, confirms to Fox News Digital that Anna was found “wrapped in a blanket, covered in life jackets and stuffed under the bed.”

“It’s all just so crazy because this is in Florida, and I’m in Oregon,” she said. “Anna’s dad won’t say anything to me. I think it’s bulls— that he says he doesn’t know what’s going on or what happened because he absolutely does know.”

Two vehicles, a Dodge truck and Chevy SUV, were parked in the Kepners’ driveway Thursday, but no one answered the door, and her father and stepmother have not responded to other attempts to reach them.

One of the Kepners’ neighbors told Fox News Digital Thursday that their street has been quiet since Anna’s death. He said the Kepners are a friendly family.

NO CAUSE OF DEATH FOR CHEERLEADER FOUND DEAD ON CRUISE SHIP AS REPORT REVEALS REMAINS FOUND HIDDEN UNDER BED

Kepner’s stepmother, Shauntel Kepner, asked a judge overseeing a custody dispute between her and her ex-husband, Thomas Hudson, to delay a hearing in that matter until after the criminal investigation comes to a close.

That dispute could put the stepmother in a legal bind, according to Donna Rotunno, a Chicago-based criminal defense lawyer and Fox News contributor. Shauntel’s Fifth Amendment defense could disappear if prosecutors offer her immunity while going after the teen.

“The mother does not have any privilege to not testify against her son,” Rotunno told “FOX & Friends” Thursday morning. “So, a court could compel her to testify, or she could be held in contempt. And if they believe the mother was involved in any way, they could give her immunity in order to get her to speak.”

Hudson accused Shauntel of alienating their two younger children from him, including the 16-year-old. Their oldest son, 18, went to live with his father after an alleged “violent altercation” involving Shauntel and Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner.

“The [16-year-old]’s future has been put in jeopardy because of the choices made by [Shauntel],” Hudson wrote to the judge Monday.

The teen’s current whereabouts are unclear. According to the filing, he has been released from custody and is staying with an unnamed third party.

Shauntel, in a filing of her own, denied that their oldest son had been involved in any altercation with her new husband but conceded “there is an open FBI investigation involving” the 16-year-old.

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A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital Wednesday that authorities have recovered surveillance video from the cruise ship showing Kepner with a “suspect” and that the FBI is reviewing hours of additional footage from the cruise before her death. Authorities also have access to records of room key swipes aboard the vessel, the source said.

The FBI’s Miami office is handling the investigation.

Nicole Parker, a former Miami-based FBI agent and Fox News contributor, used to handle maritime cases.

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“One thing that I realized as an investigator is that people think, ‘Oh, you know, if I commit a crime out at sea, no one’s ever gonna find out,’” she told “FOX & Friends” Thursday morning. “And little do they know and many times they’re shocked. It’s actually FBI’s jurisdiction.”

Before the ship returned to port, she said, the cruise line’s own security team would have secured the scene after Kepner was found dead Friday at around 11 a.m.

“Our evidence response team would be boarding that ship — in this instance, it would have been that Saturday morning and multiple interviews would be conducted,” she said. “I would be first asking for, I want all the CCTV, I want all the video surveillance footage. I also want the key-lock records, which indicate who went in and out of that ship cabin at the time that the potential crime may have occurred.”

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Agents would also interview everyone in the surrounding rooms, she said.

A memorial service for Kepner is scheduled for Thursday evening in her hometown of Titusville, Florida.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently released photos of the deadly Nov. 5 plane crash at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) in Kentucky, capturing the moment a UPS cargo plane’s engine fell off and burst into flames shortly after takeoff.

The images were released in the NTSB’s preliminary report, which notes SDF surveillance video showed the left engine and pylon separating from the wing shortly after airplane rotation, with a fire igniting on the left engine.

The left engine then crashed onto the ground, and a fire ignited near the left pylon attachment to the wing, which continued until the plane plummeted into a nearby storage yard and two buildings, according to the report.

The MD-11 has three engines — two on the wings and one on the tail. Each wing engine is attached by a pylon connected to the wing through forward and aft mounts.

DRAMATIC VIDEO SHOWS ‘CATASTROPHIC’ UPS PLANE DISASTER THAT LEFT AT LEAST 3 DEAD, 11 INJURED 

During the incident, the left pylon’s aft mount broke when both supporting arms snapped, causing the engine to detach, according to the report.

Investigators found the failure began with hidden internal cracks that spread until the metal broke apart.

The NTSB also found tiny cracks that grew over time around boltholes in the mount, until investigators said it failed under normal stress.

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Black box data showed the plane only reached about 30 feet above ground level prior to the crash, which killed 14 people, including the three pilots, and injured 23 others.

The report noted a similar failure happened on May 25, 1979, when American Airlines Flight 191 crashed at Chicago-O’Hare International Airport.

Officials determined the 1979 crash was caused by the separation of the engine and pylon, which also led to catastrophic loss of control, according to the NTSB.

Flight 191 crashed into an open field, and the wreckage scattered into an adjacent trailer park, killing all 271 people onboard the flight and two people on the ground and injuring two others.

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Two days after the Nov. 5 crash, UPS grounded its entire MD-11 fleet.

An FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive issued a day later grounded all MD-11/MD-11F aircraft until inspections were completed.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has said the Democratic Party needs to “focus on” corruption in American politics and that the “vast sums of corporate and billionaire money in our political system” is the reason why Americans are so ill-served by Congress.

But the vulnerable senator up for reelection in 2026 has received nearly half-a-million dollars from billionaires, including more than $154,000 just this year, a Fox News Digital review of Federal Election Commission filings found.

“Much of the American public has lost faith in our political system, and with just cause. Since Citizens United, this political system has been corruption on steroids, and that is a big part of why policy doesn’t serve ordinary people,” Ossoff said on the popular left-leaning “Pod Save America” podcast.

“We can’t just become mere guardians of the status quo. We have to be about change and reform and money in politics is, like, the root of all of this,” he continued. “We have to focus on that, you know, the vast sums of corporate and billionaire money in our political system, with or without Trump, are why ordinary people are so ill served by elected officials and by Congress.”

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Several contributors from the billionaire class to Ossoff’s campaign include members of the Soros family, tech billionaire Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn co-founder and a tech billionaire in his own right, Reid Hoffman, co-owner of the Atlanta Hawks, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and owner of Cox Enterprises, James Cox-Chambers, billionaire hedge fund manager Henry Laufer, and dozens of others. 

In total, Ossoff’s campaigns have received contributions from over 70 billionaires since 2017 when Ossoff first ran for Congress. Ossoff has touted his refusal to accept corporate PAC money, but according to election finance watchdog Open Secrets, some of Ossoff’s top individual contributors come from major corporations like Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta. 

Open Secrets also shows that in 2023–2024 Ossoff received thousands of dollars from PACs representing lawyers and lobbyists, miscellaneous businesses, agribusiness and labor.    

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In addition to his comments during the “Pod Save America” podcast, Ossoff has repeatedly ripped the influence of the “wealthy political donors” and said they have no place in politics.

 “As power becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and wealth becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands…wealthy and powerful groups can spend limitless amounts in secret…to manipulate elections,” Ossoff said in 2019.

Ossoff, who was endorsed by End Citizens United in July, said Citizens United “unleashed the torrent of secret, corporate, and billionaire money that has deeply corrupted Congress and our political system.” However, he is still taking campaign cash from billionaires and just last month he featured Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzer, whose estimated net worth is over $3.5 billion, on a fundraising email soliciting donations for his reelection campaign.

Ossoff declined to provide a response when reached for comment on this story.

Described by CNN as the nation’s “most endangered Senate Democrat,” Ossoff has touted “an unstoppable grassroots coalition” amid his reelection efforts heading into 2026. 

The Georgia senator, in a press release following his campaign’s most recent quarterly filing with the FEC, touted that his “re-election juggernaut” was “overwhelmingly” powered by small donors with an average of $36 from approximately 233,000 donors. 

But, more than 80% of the money he raised during the last filing period came from out-of-state, not Georgia, FEC records showed. Meanwhile, over half of his maxed-out donors hailed from California, New York or the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region. If a donor has not given an aggregate of at least $200, that donor’s contribution remains undisclosed in FEC filings. 

Ossoff is running for re-election in a state Trump won in 2024, albeit by a thin two-point margin. He first arrived in Congress in 2021 after defeating incumbent Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in a razor-thin election that required a runoff. 

During that first election cycle, Ossoff reportedly raised 60% of his contributions from outside the state of Georgia.