Texas A&M cheerleader Brianna Aguilera had written — and later deleted — a suicide note on her phone just days before her death, according to police per the New York Post. Investigators have now determined that the 19-year-old died by suicide after falling 17 stories from an Austin apartment building.
“Brianna had made suicidal comments previously to friends, back in October of this year,” Austin Police Detective Robert Marshall said Thursday at a press conference.
“This continued through the evening of her death, with some self-harming actions early in the evening and a text message to another friend indicating the thought of suicide,” Detective Marshall said.
Police responded to the apartment complex at 12:46 a.m. Saturday, where they discovered Brianna Aguilera’s body.
According to investigators, surveillance footage shows Aguilera arriving at the building just after 11 p.m. Friday and heading to a 17th-floor apartment for a party after attending a Texas A&M vs. UT tailgate. At the tailgate, she reportedly became so intoxicated that she was asked to leave, Marshall said at a news conference.
Video captured a large group of friends leaving the apartment at 12:30 a.m., leaving Aguilera with only three other girls. She told them she had lost her phone and borrowed another guest’s phone to call her boyfriend between 12:43 and 12:44 a.m.
Just minutes before the 911 call, witnesses overheard Aguilera arguing with her boyfriend during that call, Marshall said.
According to the New York Post, her mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, has strongly rejected the police account, maintaining that her daughter was not suicidal.
“Please don’t believe this lazy investigator and investigation!” Aguilera’s mother wrote in a Facebook post, attaching a video of Thursday’s press conference.
She previously claimed her daughter always kept her phone alerts on when she went out, insisting the device being on Do Not Disturb that night didn’t make sense. The phone was later found near a creek, where it had apparently been left since 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Authorities have stated they do not plan to investigate the case as a homicide.
“I understand how grief and the need for answers can raise intense emotions and many questions. But sometimes the truth doesn’t provide the answers we are hoping for, and that is this case,” Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at the news conference. “I have three daughters and a son, and I cannot begin to imagine the pain,” she added.
Rodriguez has now hired high-profile Texas attorney Tony Buzbee to look into her daughter’s death. Buzbee — who previously represented more than 150 alleged victims of Sean “Diddy” Combs — confirmed in a Facebook post that he is working with Aguilera’s parents.
According to a GoFundMe , Brianna Aguilera graduated from United High School in Laredo, Texas, where she was an experienced cheerleader and earned Magna Cum Laude honors. She was attending The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M, working toward her dream of becoming a lawyer and proudly embracing her goal of being an Aggie. She was just one year away from earning her Aggie ring.
