The grieving mother of a 19-year-old university student found dead in Austin, Texas, has spoken of her torment after learning her daughter had died alone in a morgue, having frantically tried to locate her for over a day.
A Mother's Desperate Search for Answers
Brianna Aguilera, a 19-year-old student at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service, was discovered deceased near an apartment building on the 2100 block of Rio Grande Street, roughly one mile west of the University of Texas campus. The discovery was made by a bystander around 1am on Saturday, and police pronounced her dead at the scene at 12.57am.
Her mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, told media outlets that her nightmare began when her daughter stopped following their usual safety protocol. "We always had this rule that, if she was going to go out, she had to have her phone on, location on and she was gonna answer," Rodriguez explained. When the texts stopped, Rodriguez used a phone-tracking app and saw her daughter's device was stationary by a creek.
"Which scared me the most," Rodriguez said of the location. Her panic escalated as she was told she had to wait at least 24 hours to file a formal missing person's report. "I was the one that had to place several calls to Austin [police] because I couldn't locate her," she stated, adding that none of her daughter's friends were responding.
Disputed Circumstances and a Family's Doubts
Despite Rodriguez's fears, Austin Police Department stated as of Tuesday morning that Aguilera's death was "not being investigated as a homicide" and showed "no indications of suspicious circumstances." An investigation remains ongoing, with the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office set to determine the cause of death, a process that could take months.
However, Rodriguez vehemently disputes the initial police assessment. She told reporters that law enforcement informed her Aguilera had fallen from the 17th floor of an off-campus apartment building, suggesting a possible suicide or accidental death. "That's what enraged me because I know my daughter," Rodriguez said. "She loved life... She was so close to graduating."
Rodriguez believes there is more to the story. She alleges that a fight occurred between her daughter and another girl in the apartment where Aguilera was last seen, and she claims to have text messages as evidence. "The detective just disregarded them," she told KSAT. In a heartfelt Facebook post, she wrote, "Someone killed my brie [sic] and gave all the group of friends a lot of time to come up with the same story."
A Promising Future Cut Tragically Short
Brianna Aguilera was a Laredo native and an aspiring lawyer with a 4.0 GPA. Her family described her as a studious and driven young woman who was eagerly preparing to take her LSAT exams and apply to law school. "She was a year shy of attaining her Aggie ring," a statement on a family GoFundMe page read. The fundraiser, which had raised over $31,000 from an initial $12,000 goal, remembered her as a United High School graduate who earned Magna Cum Laude honours.
Aguilera was in Austin with many other students for the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry football game on Friday. Her Instagram profile showed she was an avid football fan and a former high school cheerleader.
For her mother, the pain is compounded by the way she received the news. "So finally, at 4pm, I get a call from an officer from Austin PD telling me that my daughter was found in the morgue," Rodriguez recalled. She remains determined to find the truth, stating that no one has yet taken "accountability for what happened that night."
