A mother is pleading for answers after her daughter—a Texas college student—was found dead near her campus following a tailgate. Now, she says she won’t stop pushing until she knows what really happened.
Brianna Aguilera, a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University, was found dead just after 1 a.m. on Saturday outside an apartment complex—only hours after celebrating at a tailgate before Texas A&M’s football showdown against the University of Texas. The sudden tragedy, first reported by KSAT, has left her family and campus community reeling, as questions swirl around what happened in her final hours.
Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, says she’s been given conflicting information from Austin police after investigators suggested her daughter likely died by suicide. Rodriguez told the outlet the explanations haven’t added up—leaving her with more doubts than answers as she pushes for the truth about what really happened.
Brianna Aguilera, a 19-year-old Texas A&M student, was found dead early Saturday morning outside an apartment complex—just after 1 a.m., when a night of celebration turned into an unimaginable tragedy. Facebook / Stephanie Rodriguez
Detectives told her Brianna had fallen 17 stories, the mother recalled—her voice still heavy with shock at the brutal image the words painted.
“There are a lot of inconsistencies with the story,” Rodriguez said. “He told me they said she jumped, and then he told me that the friends said they didn’t know her whereabouts.”
The devastated mother says her daughter—a sophomore with dreams of becoming a lawyer—was not suicidal at all. She was excited about the future and determined to build a career in law. To her family, Brianna wasn’t giving up—she was just getting started.
Rodriguez called police when her daughter stopped answering her phone after Friday’s game—alarmed to see Brianna’s last phone signal tracing back to Austin. Her heart dropped as the tracking app showed the device still pinging, even though her daughter had gone silent.
She was told by officers to wait 24 hours before she could file a missing-persons report, the outlet said. For a mother who already felt something was terribly wrong, those hours must have felt impossible to bear.
Police recovered Brianna’s cellphone on Saturday—but the breakthrough led to a gut-wrenching silence. It wasn’t until 4 p.m., Rodriguez said, that she finally got the call no parent should ever receive: her daughter wasn’t missing. She was gone. Brianna was already in the campus morgue, waiting to be identified.
Detectives informed Stephanie Rodriguez that her daughter, Brianna Aguilera, had fallen 17 stories—a devastating detail that left the mother reeling. Facebook / Stephanie Rodriguez
Rodriguez fears that her daughter’s death wasn’t simply an accident—that something darker may have played a role in the tragic fall.
She insists that someone among the 15 people inside the apartment must know something about what happened to her daughter.
“There was a fight that happened between my daughter and another girl, and they were all staying in the same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and the detective just disregarded them,” Rodriguez said.
Austin police say Aguilera’s death is not being treated as a homicide, telling authorities haven’t uncovered any suspicious circumstances, the outlet reported.
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the official cause of death for the young aspiring lawyer.
Austin police say Aguilera’s death is not being treated as a homicide, noting that their investigation so far has uncovered no suspicious circumstances. Facebook / Stephanie Rodriguez
Hailing from Laredo, Aguilera attended United High School, where she was a celebrated cheerleader and graduated magna cum laude. A GoFundMe page has since been launched to help her loved ones in the wake of the tragedy.
“She was pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer and was attending The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M,” the statement continued.
“The details surrounding what happened next remain unclear, and her mother is still awaiting answers,” the fundraiser continued.
Support for Aguilera’s family has poured in, with the GoFundMe quickly surpassing its $12,000 goal and raising over $28,000.
“Im so grateful for your love and support at this moment. The unexpected loss of my brie brie has been a tremendous challenge, but I find strength in the outpouring of kindness,” Rodriguez said in a Monday message to the hordes of supporters.
“I’ve experienced every parent’s worst fear, but I’m comforted by the knowledge that my brie brie touched so many hearts.”
Texas A&M University did not immediately respond to requests for comment from FaqInsurances.
