The mother of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, whose disappearance aboard a Carnival cruise ship has captivated the nation, has disclosed a chilling new detail: the final text message Anna ever sent.
According to the family, the message arrived at 2:19 a.m., just 27 minutes before investigators believe Anna vanished somewhere between Deck 9 and the midship stairwell — the last place she was captured on CCTV.
Anna’s mother, Marlene Kepner, says she hesitated for days before revealing the contents of the message, fearing it would “change everything people thought they knew” about her daughter’s final moments.
But on Thursday, she confirmed that the text — only seven words long — immediately raised red flags.
“She never wrote something like that unless she was scared,” Marlene said. “And she was scared.”
Authorities have not publicly disclosed the exact wording, but sources close to the investigation confirm the message contained a descriptor Anna had never used before — one that “strongly suggested she was not alone, and not comfortable with the person she was with.”
Investigators now believe this brief message may be the first direct clue linking Anna’s final minutes to someone already on the ship, potentially someone she knew.
A senior law enforcement official, speaking on background, said the language Anna used revealed a behavioural cue consistent with distress:
“It wasn’t what she said — it was how she said it. Those seven words told us she had recognized something was wrong.”
The FBI and ship security teams are reportedly re-examining passenger movement around the time the text was sent, cross-matching digital timestamps with door logs, hallway cameras, and internal WiFi pings.
Family members say they hope releasing this information will prompt passengers who were awake around 2 a.m. to come forward.
“Someone saw something, even if they don’t realize it yet,” Marlene said. “Anna was trying to warn us. That message was her only chance to leave a trail.”
Authorities are expected to update the public later this week as they continue to analyze Anna’s phone data — including the final outgoing text that may ultimately identify her killer.
