Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / SHOCK RULING: Accused Carnival Cruise Killer to Remain Free Ahead of Murder Trial | Crime Alert 05.28.26

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SHOCK RULING: Accused Carnival Cruise Killer to Remain Free Ahead of Murder Trial | Crime Alert 05.28.26 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alart hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Sidney Silvanni.
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  Speaker 1: A teenage stepbrother accused of a horrific crime on the
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  Speaker 1: high seas, will remain free while awaiting trial, a move
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  Speaker 1: that has sparked absolute outrage from the victim's family. Timothy
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  Speaker 1: Hudson is facing charges of first degree murder and aggravated
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  Speaker 1: sexual abuse in the death of his eighteen year old stepsister,
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  Speaker 1: Anna Kepner. The tragedy occurred back in November twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: aboard a Carnival cruise ship heading to Miami. Yesterday, a
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  Speaker 1: federal judge ruled that Hudson can remain out of jail
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  Speaker 1: on bond with electronic monitoring while he awaits his September trial.
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  Speaker 1: Alongside this ruling, prosecutors unsealed a chilling, minute by minute
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  Speaker 1: timeline of what allegedly happened inside cabin eighty three forty
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  Speaker 1: three on the night of November sixth, Anna left dinner
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  Speaker 1: early because she was feeling unwell. CCTV footage shows Hudson
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  Speaker 1: entering her cabinet seven thirty five pm, followed by Anna
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  Speaker 1: three minutes later at seven fifty one. Anna's biological brother
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  Speaker 1: briefly enters the room, later telling investigators Anna was fine
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  Speaker 1: at that time. Prosecutors say she was never seen alive
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  Speaker 1: again for over three hours. Kepner and Hudson were alone.
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  Speaker 1: Later that night, Hudson was spotted checking the hallways, hanging
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  Speaker 1: a privacy sign, and even blocking Anna's thirteen year old
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  Speaker 1: brother from entering the room, claiming he was changing. The
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  Speaker 1: next morning, ship Wi Fi tracked Anna's missing phone, moving
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  Speaker 1: along the exact path as Hudson, eventually leading authorities to
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  Speaker 1: a trash bin where it was discarded. Shortly after cabin
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  Speaker 1: attendants made the grim discovery. Anna's body was wrapped in
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  Speaker 1: bedding and stuffed under the bed, hidden behind a box
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  Speaker 1: of life vests. The forensic evidence is staggering. FBI lab
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  Speaker 1: testing revealed male DNA and sperm inside the cabin. According
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  Speaker 1: to prosecutors, the DNA match is one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: sextillion times more likely to belong to Hudson than any
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  Speaker 1: unrelated person. Despite the prosecution's fierce argument that Hudson poses
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  Speaker 1: a severe danger to the public, especially since he currently
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  Speaker 1: lives in a home with minors, US District Judge Edwin
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  Speaker 1: Torres denied the motion to detain him. The judge pointed
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  Speaker 1: to Hudson's age as the deciding factor. Quote, if it
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  Speaker 1: were a twenty year old under the exact circumstances, I
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  Speaker 1: probably would have detained. The presumption would be we were
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  Speaker 1: just not going to take that chance. This is a
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  Speaker 1: different animal. Because Hudson's family lives hundreds of miles away
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  Speaker 1: in Hernando County, the judge ruled that detaining him in
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  Speaker 1: Miami would make family visits too difficult. He will instead
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  Speaker 1: be electronically monitored in the Tampa area. Needless to say,
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  Speaker 1: Anna's family is devastated and furious. Her father, Christopher Kepner,
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  Speaker 1: spoke out against the justice system's handling of the case. Quote,
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  Speaker 1: we're upset that he's still out six months in and
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  Speaker 1: he should have already been arrested, and yet he's free
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  Speaker 1: to do whatever he wants right now. He does not
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  Speaker 1: need to be free. If convicted, Hudson faces a maximum
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  Speaker 1: penalty of life in prison. More crime and justice news
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  Speaker 1: after this. In Saint Louis, Missouri, a nineteen year old
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  Speaker 1: is facing severe consequences, but this time the suspect is
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  Speaker 1: behind bars without bond. Anthony Lee Armstrong has been hit
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  Speaker 1: with a slew of felony charges, including first degree assault
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  Speaker 1: and armed criminal action. Following a terrifying road raid shooting
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  Speaker 1: on May seventeen, police say a family driving home from
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  Speaker 1: a pre natal appointment was nearly hit by two speeding
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  Speaker 1: sedans After a brief confrontation in a parking lot. The
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  Speaker 1: two vehicles pursued the family, weaving through oncoming traffic to
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  Speaker 1: keep pace. When the victims attempted to make a U
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  Speaker 1: turn to escape, shots were fired directly into their car.
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  Speaker 1: A woman who was eleven weeks pregnant was struck in
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  Speaker 1: the upper back. Her male partner sustained shrapnel wounds to
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  Speaker 1: his chin and shoulder, all while a young child sat
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  Speaker 1: in the back seat. Investigators used surveillance video and a
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  Speaker 1: license plate reader to track down Lee Armstrong's Volkswagen. The
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  Speaker 1: pregnant victim later identified him in a lineup, telling police
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  Speaker 1: he hurled racist slurs of them during the attack. Lee
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  Speaker 1: Armstrong remains jailed without bond. Both victims retreated at a
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  Speaker 1: local hospital. In our recovering we now turned to a
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  Speaker 1: disturbing investigation out of Douglas County, Georgia, where a former
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  Speaker 1: high school teacher is facing an onslaught of new criminal allegations.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty five year old Maris Nichols, a former teacher in
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  Speaker 1: Alexander High School, was hit with multiple additional charges on Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: including grooming of a minor, sexual assault, and child molestation,
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  Speaker 1: following her initial arrest earlier this month. According to local
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  Speaker 1: arrest records, Nichols is now accused of engaging in egregious
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  Speaker 1: and proper sexual conduct involving a total of six student victims.
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  Speaker 1: Her bond was set at seventy four thousand dollars, and
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  Speaker 1: records indicate she successfully bonded out of custody by Friday.
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  Speaker 1: The details emerging from the investigation paint a devastating picture
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  Speaker 1: of a predator exploiting her position of authority. Investigators revealed
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  Speaker 1: that Nichols allegedly transmitted nude photographs and explicit videos of
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  Speaker 1: herself to students, even engaging in a live video chat
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  Speaker 1: session with at least two victims during which she masterbated
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  Speaker 1: with a sex toy. Nichols was first accused of having
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  Speaker 1: sex with one student on two occasions in a school
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  Speaker 1: closet in the student's vehicle parked in the driveway of
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  Speaker 1: their home. Now, court documents detailed text messages sent by
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  Speaker 1: Nichols to two male students explicitly describing graphic sex acts
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  Speaker 1: she desired them to perform on her. In another instance,
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  Speaker 1: she allegedly sent nude photos to a female student and
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  Speaker 1: encouraged the juvenile to watch the sexually explicit movie Fifty
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  Speaker 1: Shades of Gray. Perhaps most shocking of all arrest, records
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  Speaker 1: alleged that Nichols engaged in physical sexual intercourse with a
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  Speaker 1: student in the back of his pickup truck parked at
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  Speaker 1: a local golf club. In an official letter distributed to parents,
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  Speaker 1: the Douglas County School System and expressed that the administration
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  Speaker 1: was deeply troubled by the horrific allegations. The district's statement read,
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  Speaker 1: upon learning of the alleged misconduct, the district immediately launched
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  Speaker 1: an investigation. The Douglas County School System will continue to
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  Speaker 1: cooperate fully with state and local law enforcement. The district
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  Speaker 1: cannot provide additional information regarding the allegations. Any further inquiry
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  Speaker 1: should be directed to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. For
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  Speaker 1: the latest crime and justice breaking news, be sure to
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  Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow on your favorite podcast app with this
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  Speaker 1: crime alert. I'm Sydney Silvanie