BURLINGTON, VT — In a stunning and emotional interview, the woman who lived directly next to 27-year-old Anna Kepner has broken her silence for the first time, claiming that the condition in which Anna’s body was found was so disturbing that her parents initially refused to release the details to anyone — not even extended family.
The neighbor, who requested to be identified only as “Marisa”, said she was among the first to learn the truth after speaking privately with Anna’s mother the week after the official announcement of her death.
“She wasn’t just… gone,” Marisa said, visibly shaking. “There was something about the way they found her that I have never stopped thinking about. It wasn’t how a person looks after an accident. It was… staged. Like someone wanted to send a message.”
According to Marisa, Anna’s parents originally told friends that she had simply “collapsed on the train.” But behind closed doors, they allegedly shared a different version — that Anna’s bracelets had been removed and placed in a perfectly straight line next to her body, and that a small piece of fabric had been tied around her wrist, as if intentionally.
The family’s silence, she said, was not out of denial, but fear.
“Her parents were terrified,” Marisa continued. “They kept saying ‘we don’t want to make this worse.’ They truly believed someone might come after the rest of them if they spoke up.”
This revelation comes just days after investigators reclassified the case as a homicide and confirmed that newly released CCTV footage from inside the train suggests the presence of an unidentified passenger who followed Anna moments before she vanished.
When pressed on whether the family had received any threats, Marisa paused before responding:
“All I can say is — they said they got a phone call. And after that, they stopped answering the police.”
Local detectives refused to comment on the interview, but an internal source close to the investigation told reporters that the FBI has now taken special interest in items missing from the scene, including Anna’s phone case, a silver ring she always wore, and her train ticket — all believed to have been removed post-mortem.
The Kepner family remains silent, issuing only a brief statement last month:
“We are cooperating fully, but we ask for privacy. Anna deserves peace.”
But as more insiders break rank, pressure is mounting for the family — and investigators — to reveal what really happened in that narrow corridor between train cars.
Marisa ended the interview with a sentence she said she “could no longer keep inside”:
“Her parents know more than the public has ever been told — and the reason they’re keeping quiet is the same reason Anna’s gone.”
