A mother is stricken with grief over the death of her 12-year-old son who was murdered in Louisville’s Cherokee Park.
Ray Etheridge’s mother, Krystal Palazzo, broke down, overwhelmed with pain on Saturday as she recounted her encounter with her son’s accused killer, Joseph Cambron, not long before he was killed.
“There is absolutely nothing I can do to bring him back,” she said. “He was 12. He’s a baby. He was a baby.”
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Palazzo said she saw her son hanging out with Cambron who asked if Ray could sleep over less than three weeks ago. She said she knew something was wrong. “I told the boy to stay the hell away from my son,” Palazzo recalled.
A few days later, Palazzo picked Ray up early from school and they went to the library. Cambron was also there. She said Ray asked her if he could go hang out with Cambron, to which she refused. Palazzo said she went to check on her other son and in less than a minute Ray was gone.
“Less than an hour later, he was dead, dead,” she said.
Palazzo continue to struggle with guilt.
“You don’t think at all that I blame myself for any of it? Believe me I do,” she said.
Her, her sons and her fiancé had been staying in hotel rooms for the past six months while they saved money for an apartment. She said they never stayed on the street or in their car.
Palazzo said she couldn’t count on Ray’s father.
She said Ray would sometimes act up, get out of control and sneak away.
For help, she called police and the social workers involved in his open CPS case. She feels her cries went unanswered. Now, she wants justice against the man she says robbed her son of his life and destroyed her heart.
“He was innocent. He trusted anybody and he, and that’s why his life was taken.”
A memorial service will be held for Ray on Sunday, Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. in Cherokee Park.
