Father shares grief after daughter is struck and killed while riding bicycle

INDIANAPOLIS — 29-year-old Kayla Bowling was a mother, a friend and a woman who had her life ahead of her.

“She was just a normal person just trying to live a normal life,” Robert Bowling said.

Robert Bowling is Kayla Bowling's father. He said what he is facing is something that no father should ever have to go through.

“One of my favorite (memories) is when she had my grandson and she named him after me," Robert Bowling said. "Now I have the duties of letting him know his mother is no longer here and I just don’t know how to do it."

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers and emergency personnel were called to the scene around 10:50 a.m. on Wednesday in the 3000 block of South Rural Street. In an email, IMPD Officer Matthew York said the bicyclist was taken to a hospital in critical condition and later died.

“To be honest, it’s all been a blur," Bowling said. "I have no concept. I rolled up on the accident and I just knew in my heart it was her."

Robert Bowling with a heavy heart, shared this message to his daughter.

“Your dad loves you," Bowling said. "And I miss you. And I wish you were home, I wish she was home. (You) don't have to worry about (your) son. I’ll make sure he is taken care of."

Before her death, Bowling gave a witness the plate number of the vehicle that hit her. On June 8, prosecutors charged Bowling's ex-boyfriend, Kyle Rigdon, 27, with murder.