“We just want the Austin police department to do their due diligence and treat this as an open investigation before reaching any conclusions about her death, and we feel that they haven’t” Aguilera’s cousin Bell Fernandez told Hearst Newspapers.
Courtesy of Bell Fernandez
The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled that 19-year-old Texas A&M student Brianna Aguilera died by suicide, reaching the same conclusion as the Austin Police Department in the December case that generated significant speculation around the nature of the young woman’s death.
Three sources familiar with the report confirmed the findings to the American-Statesman. Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office officials plan to begin releasing the document as early as Friday. The sources were not authorized to discuss the findings prior to the release of the report.
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The report lists Aguilera’s cause of death as blunt force trauma and her manner of death as suicide. The findings are based on information supplied by Austin police detectives as well as independent investigation by the medical examiner’s office.
In the days following Aguilera’s death in the early hours of Nov. 29, Austin homicide detectives concluded that the case was not criminal in nature, but some of Aguilera’s family members rejected the Police Department’s finding. Stephanie Rodriguez, Aguilera’s mother, has pointedly criticized the department for conducting a shoddy investigation. In December, the family retained noted civil attorney Tony Buzbee to conduct an independent investigation of the case.
Detectives announced a key piece of evidence in the case, Dec. 4: a suicide note, dated Nov. 25, that they found in a deleted folder on Aguilera’s computer. Investigators also said they learned Aguilera had previously expressed suicidal thoughts to friends as well as via text message on Friday, the day before her death.
“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’re looking for, and that is this case,” Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at a Dec. 4 press conference announcing the department’s findings.
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At the same press conference, Homicide Detective Robert Marshall shared a detailed timeline of Aguilera’s death. Marshall said witnesses told police Aguilera had arrived at a football tailgate between 4 and 5 p.m. on Nov 28, before she was asked to leave the tailgate around 10 p.m. Surveillance footage showed Aguilera entering a 17th-floor unit at the 21 Rio Apartments about one hour later.
Austin police homicide detective Robert Marshall speaks during a news conference at APD headquarters in Austin on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, about the death of 19-year-old Texas A&M student Brianna Aguilera, which has been determined to be a suicide.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
At the apartment, Aguilera borrowed a friend’s phone to call her out-of-town boyfriend. Witnesses and the boyfriend told investigators the two argued for approximately two minutes before the 911 call came in reporting that Aguilera’s body had been found.
Officers arrived on scene at 12:46 a.m. where they found a woman with “trauma consistent with falling from a higher floor.” The woman was pronounced dead at 12:56 a.m, and later identified as Aguilera.
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The next day, as investigators worked to piece together what happened, Rodriguez contacted Austin police several times, including once to report the real-time location data of Aguilera’s missing phone, which appeared to place it in the wooded area near the tailgate.
Rodriguez and other relatives criticized detectives for failing to ensure key steps of the investigation were completed in a timely fashion, such as preserving the scene, collecting physical evidence and thoroughly interviewing people at the scene.
But Marshall, the homicide detective, insisted investigators worked diligently and said that it took them “hours and hours” to review surveillance footage, perform phone forensics and interview witnesses.
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In the months since her daughter’s death, Rodriguez has questioned APD’s investigation while grieving publicly.
“I miss you so much more than any parent can imagine and more than words can say,” Rodriguez wrote in a Jan. 21 Facebook post.