A judge looked at the charges against Anna Kepner's accused killer and admitted something stunning: if the defendant were an adult, he'd already be behind bars. Then the sixteen-year-old walked out of a federal courthouse a free person while cameras rolled. Anna Kepner was eighteen — a high school cheerleader on a Carnival cruise with her blended family — when she was found dead in the cabin she'd been sharing with her stepbrother. Hidden beneath a bed. Concealed. On a ship in international waters, which is why the FBI took the case. A federal grand jury indicted Timothy Hudson as an adult on first-degree murder charges. He's facing life. Prosecutors fought to keep him locked up until trial. The judge called this case "a different animal." And then he ended the hearing without deciding — and Hudson walked out the front door. The detail that has people most upset isn't the courtroom. It's where he's living. Under the rules of his release, he's not supposed to be alone with anyone underage. Two minors reportedly live in the home where he's been placed. Prosecutors raised exactly that alarm in open court. Unsealed court records lay out the evidence: security footage tracking his movements that night, a phone that ended up smashed in a trash bin, and DNA testing that reportedly points hard in one direction. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer spent a career handing cases to prosecutors. When the file looks like this and the suspect still walks, she has a reaction — and it's the one you'd expect from an agent who's worked exactly these kinds of cases. A criminal defense attorney breaks down why Hudson's age is changing everything, what the release conditions actually require, and the move that may explain why this teen wanted out of the juvenile system in the first place. Working a crime scene at sea is one of the hardest investigations there is — the ship sails into port and thousands of people walk off it. Coffindaffer explains what it takes to build a case under those conditions and why the FBI's evidence collection on a vessel matters more than it would on land. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #AnnaKepner #TimothyHudson #CarnivalHorizon #CruiseShipDeath #FederalCourt #JusticeForAnna #FBI #JenniferCoffindaffer #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime