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'My world just stopped.' | Mother asks witnesses in daughter's killing to come forward

Kelsie Small, 19, was shot and killed on May 9, 2020. Her mother said she was driving her friends home. Small is believed to have been hit by stray bullets.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville mother still waits for someone to be charged with her daughter’s murder, now ten months later.

Kelsie Small, 19, was shot and killed on May 9, 2020. Her mother said she was driving her friends home before she and one of the passengers were shot. Small is believed to have been hit by stray bullets, not meant for her.

“I was devastated. My world just stopped,” said Kelsie’s mother, Delisa Love.

Before she died, Small was studying at Northern Kentucky University to become a nurse practitioner – a dream she had been determined to make a reality since high school.

“I wish to take my career in nursing because I love helping people and I believe everyone deserves a second chance at this thing called life,” Small wrote when she was 16.

Small wrote of attending college and starting a career in which she could make a difference. She was well on her way to achieving her goals at 19.

Credit: provided
Photo of Kelsie Small

“She'll do anything for anyone,” Love explained.

And that’s how Small spent her last night alive – helping friends.

The shooting happened around 2:30am on a Saturday at Caldwell and 1st Street. Kelsie came home from work that Friday night, before leaving again to drive her friends around 11:45 pm.

Love said her daughter was not the target.

“She was just dropping her friends off, that was it, she was dropping her friends off,” she said. “[The detective] said this had absolutely nothing to do with Kelsie ... she just happened to be there.”

Small was pronounced dead at the hospital, while the passenger survived.

After Small’s death, Love turned her daughter’s room into a memorial, covering the walls with photos of Small growing up.

On a table in Small’s room sits an award established in her honor. Each year, the Kelsie Small Future Healer Award will be given to someone pursuing a career in the medical field.

“Keeping her legacy, her memory alive, that means everything to me,” Love said.

Ten months have passed, and no one has been charged in Small’s murder.

Love called it “devastating” that the person responsible for killing her daughter is “not charged, going on with their life and my daughter is in a mausoleum at 19-years-old.”

Love knows there were people who saw her daughter get killed, and asks anyone with answers in her daughter’s death to come forward and tell police.

“It would give me and family some closure, closure we've needed,” Love said.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call 502-CLUE. You may remain anonymous.

► Contact reporter Heather Fountaine at hfountaine@whas11.com and follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Heather) and Facebook.

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