Sofia Vergara opened up about her brother's murder during an emotional heart to heart with a contestant on Tuesday's episode of "America's Got Talent." The judge's older brother, Rafael, was murdered in 1998 at age 27 during a kidnapping attempt in Colombia, and the memories came flooding back when Brandon Leake recited a poem about his sister's death, according to Fox News.
"She's here with me now," he said of Danielle Marie Gibson, who died in 1997 at only 8 months old.
My brother passed away the same year that your sister passed away," Vergara told him. "I can feel your pain."
In one line of his poem, Leake said, "If this pain and these memories are all that I got left of you, I won't never regret these scars from just trying to hold onto you." Vergara said she could relate to his "beautiful" words.
"I know what this is. I know what it is to have somebody taken from you without you knowing," she said.
Leake received the golden buzzer by judge Howie Mandel for his performance.
Vergara has previously spoken of her brother and the events that led to his death. In one interview, she explained that her family was successful, which made her brother a target for kidnapping.
"He was kidnapped two years before and he paid the ransom and they tried to kidnap him again two years later," she said, according to Daily Mail. "By that time he was already carrying guns and had left his bodyguards in the house. They shot him when he went to reach for his gun," she added.