The family of a 19-year-old Texas A&M University student who fell to her death from a high-rise apartment in Austin is fiercely contesting the police's preliminary conclusion of suicide, promising that new evidence will prove their case.
Disputed Timeline and a Family's Anguish
Brianna Aguilera, a sophomore with aspirations of becoming a lawyer, died on November 28 after falling 17 storeys from an apartment building. The incident occurred hours after she attended a tailgate party for the football game between Texas A&M and the University of Texas Longhorns.
At a press conference on Thursday, Austin Police Detective Robert Marshall stated their investigation found a deleted digital suicide note on Aguilera's phone dated November 25, along with text messages to friends on the night she died indicating suicidal thoughts. Police also cited witness accounts of her making suicidal comments in October and of self-harming actions earlier on the evening of her death.
However, at a combative press conference the following day, the family's high-profile attorney, Tony Buzbee, launched a scathing attack on the police investigation. He accused the Austin Police Department of forming a conclusion "within hours" and declared the investigation "lazy and incompetent."
Autopsy Incomplete as Police Stand Firm
Buzbee revealed that the official autopsy and toxicology report are not yet complete, with the medical examiner's office indicating a wait of 60 to 90 days. He expressed outrage that police had publicly declared the death a suicide before these crucial results were available.
"Do you realise that the autopsy has not been completed," Buzbee stated. "Yet you had the so-called lead detective in front of millions of people saying that he had concluded that this was a suicide."
The family has requested that a full toxicology report and a rape kit be included in the autopsy. Aguilera's mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, is adamant her daughter would not take her own life, suggesting instead that someone must have pushed her from the balcony.
Night of the Tragedy: A Heated Call and Underage Drinking
Police disclosed that Aguilera had a heated phone argument with her boyfriend just three minutes before her plunge from the 17th-floor apartment, where 15 others were present. Investigators stated she was heavily intoxicated and had been asked to leave a tailgate at the Austin Rugby Club around 10pm for being "so drunk."
Detective Marshall confirmed, "The only evidence that we have of any kind of physical altercation was Brianna punching one of her friends as they tried to help her out of the party." Police have stated that no evidence points to criminal activity, and no one is facing charges—not even for the apparent underage drinking.
In response, Buzbee announced he would ask the Texas governor to remove the case from Austin Police and transfer it to state troopers. The family continues to mourn a young woman described by her mother as a "second mom" to her younger siblings, as they await further evidence and the completion of the official autopsy.
