A cruise ship gift shop encounter led to the arrest of a 25-year-old Illinois man after deputies say he tried to photograph a 13-year-old under her dress, according to an arrest form and law enforcement accounts.
Deputies said the incident occurred aboard the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas on May 31, when the girl noticed Matthew Stilwell of Pawnee, Illinois standing unusually close behind her with a phone camera application open, the arrest form states.
The girl reported that the behavior repeated three times before she ran to her mother, deputies said, and surveillance video presented to deputies when the ship returned to Port Everglades on June 7 corroborated her account.
When deputies interviewed Stilwell, portions of his alleged confession were redacted from the arrest form, and he was taken into custody and held at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on a $22,500 bond, law enforcement records show.
Phone Evidence Linked To Murder Investigation
FBI testimony says a separate Carnival cruise ship case hinged on a victim's damaged cell phone that agents recovered after an initial search, according to a transcript obtained by People.
FBI Agent Andrew del Valle testified that agents began searching for Anna Kepner's missing phone on November 8, 2025, after opening an investigation into her sexual assault and murder aboard Carnival's Horizon cruise ship, and that the device was later located in the ship's lost and found.
Del Valle said the phone's screen was smashed and crew testimony indicated the device had been found in a trash can, and that FBI analysts were able to download data showing how and when the phone moved from Kepner's cabin to a garbage can in the hours after the attack.
Agents also reviewed the ship's surveillance tied to four routers, which del Valle testified showed Timothy Hudson, 16, in each of the four locations where the phone was recorded, and that Hudson spent 22 seconds near the trash bin where crew recovered the device.
Del Valle testified that Hudson, Kepner's stepbrother, tried to destroy and dispose of the phone, and that in February he was arrested and arraigned as a minor on federal murder and aggravated sexual abuse charges, which prosecutors later refiled to charge him as an adult after a grand jury indictment, a filing shows.
Prosecutors say Hudson faces life in prison if convicted on the federal charges, according to court documents and testimony reviewed by People.
