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‘I’m broken.’ Brooklyn mother has no answers 12 years after son’s Miami slaying

Casilla was an aspiring rapper born and raised in Brooklyn. He was a graduate of FDR High School and his mother Yvette Ramos says he was a light in her life.

Julia Burns

Mar 23, 2025, 10:42 PM

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Sunday marked 12 years since Kenneth Casilla was shot in the head and killed while visiting friends in Miami in 2013.

Casilla was an aspiring rapper born and raised in Brooklyn. He was a graduate of FDR High School and his mother, Yvette Ramos, says he was a light in her life.

Ramos says there are still no answers. Since her son's death, she advocates for anti-gun violence and supports families who have lost their children to violence.

She says a new detective has been assigned to the case, which gives her some hope. However, she says the pain is still very real.

"I'm broken. If I could glue him back together I would, I just can't. It's not fair that they're living their life and I don't have my son. I have my son in an urn. That's not fair to me," said Ramos.

Ramos told News 12 in 2022 that her son sent her one last text after he had been kidnapped. She says his kidnappers then sent her a picture of Casilla’s dead body.

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