BEECH GROVE – A Beech Grove family is seeking answers—and justice—after the death of a loved one.
Jersie Castner died in a home invasion shooting on the near east side of Indianapolis. It happened around 4:20 a.m. on April 14 on Brookside Parkway S. Drive near Gale Street. Another woman was killed, while a teen was injured.
Jersie was 18 years old when she died. She would’ve celebrated her 19th birthday this weekend. Her family gathered at Sarah Bolton Park in Beech Grove to celebrate a life cut short.
“That just shouldn’t have happened. Whatever it was over should not have got that far to proceed to killing someone,” said Mackenzie Light, Jersie’s sister. “Nothing is that deep. Nothing is that deep.”
“She always wore a smile on her face, no matter what she went through in life,” said Destiny Kord, Jersie’s cousin.
The shooting is part of a troubling trend of senseless violence in Indianapolis—something Jersie’s family is now grappling with.
“Everyone knows it’s happening, but you don’t really think about it until it happens to your family, and you wake up one day and your whole life changed, and you can’t bring them back,” her cousin said.
“We just miss her a lot and she was so young and it’s so tragic and senseless,” said Dale Kord, Jersie’s uncle. “This shouldn’t be happening with our youth. I’m just so scared for the future because of what’s going on with the teenagers these days. We just need it to stop.”
For now, the family has no answers. Their only hope is that someone knows something—and is willing to share that information with investigators.
“If somebody were to come forward, if you know something just say something. It’s ridiculous if you don’t,” her sister said. “That’s a whole life. That’s a whole two lives.”
The family is asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS (8477).
