Family demands answers in Augusta killing of 25-year-old Khyla Rodriguez

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The family of a 25-year-old Augusta woman shot and killed earlier this month is speaking out, demanding answers.

Khyla Rodriguez was found shot to death on Cameron Drive on May 15. Richmond County investigators have questioned three people, but no one has been charged in connection with her death.

Her mother, Shawna Holder, and brother, Valante Holder, spoke about the moment they learned she was gone and the son she left behind.

A fresh start cut short

Khyla Rodriguez came to Augusta for a fresh start. Her brother said he wanted her closer and wanted her safe.

“She had a situation going on at the time, and me being her older brother, seeing that she was going through those situations, I said, ‘You know, I’m stable,’” Valante Holder said. “I thought it was a good idea for her to come down to Augusta and change her life, fix herself, get away from the people that was causing her issues and problems the same way that I did.”

But earlier this month, that new start ended on Cameron Drive.

For Shawna Holder, the last words from her daughter still feel impossible to reconcile with the first words of her death.

“The very real, real last thing I heard my daughter say was, ‘Happy Mother’s Day. I love you, Mommy,’” Shawna Holder said. “So to hear somebody else, the next words they’re saying is that my daughter is no longer in the living, is not something that you can just breathe through, you know?”

Shawna Holder said she received a call from a young man who announced his name and said something happened to Khyla and she was dead.

“I couldn’t do anything but scream,” she said.

A mother and protector

Khyla’s family said she was tough on the outside but soft where it mattered. A protector. A mother. And to her son Kyshaun, her best friend.

“One thing Khyla always was, was a protector,” Valante Holder said. “She wasn’t gonna let anybody just run over who she cared about or who she loved or who she felt in her heart was important to her.”

Shawna Holder said her daughter cherished being a mother.

“He’s crazy about her. She can do no wrong in his eyes. She is the greatest mom,” Shawna Holder said. “In all of my contacts is the greatest mom ever.”

Valante Holder said his sister and her son were like best friends.

“She was very big on her relationship with Kyshaun,” he said. “They were like best friends. They’re always playing a game with each other. They’re always wrestling. They’re always going back and forth. They always fighting over snacks. It’s just two kids. She’s just a big kid, and he’s just a little kid. They were like twins.”

The day after Khyla was killed, her son had to walk across a graduation stage. Shawna Holder said she had to let him have that moment before telling him his mother was gone.

“It was my grandson’s graduation date the next day. He was graduating the next day,” she said. “I had to go to his graduation and put on a happy face and wait until he had his day to tell him about his mom.”

Now the family is left trying to guide him through every milestone without her.

“If he live his life every day like his mom is always watching him, a great man he will be,” Shawna Holder said. “But this is the type of thing I feel like I’m gonna have to be telling my grandson each milestone. Each milestone I will have to revisit the same emotion I felt the very night I got that call and don’t know which one of these times he’s gonna take it away and it break him.”

The family wants people to know Khyla’s life reached far beyond the place where it ended.

“At the end of the day, my sister meant something to a whole lot of people,” Valante Holder said. “And not just in Augusta.”