AUSTIN, Texas — The Austin Police Department has ruled the death of Texas A&M University student Brianna Aguilera a suicide. According to APD, the 19-year-old’s death happened in the early morning hours of Nov. 29, after a University of Texas at Austin football game against the Aggies.
Brianna’s parents, Manuel Aguilera and Stephanie Rodriguez, have partnered with the Houston-based Buzbee Law Firm because of the “suspicious” nature of the tragedy, according to attorney Tony Buzbee’s Facebook post. According to Buzbee, the San Antonio-based Gamez Law Firm has also been retained for the case.
“This is an unimaginable and very suspicious tragedy,” the post said. “Brianna’s parents firmly believe there is much more information that needs to be discovered regarding their daughter’s death. They feel certain this was not an accident. This was certainly not a suicide.”
Buzbee has been known to take on high-profile cases, including representing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton during his impeachment trial and victims of the Astroworld crowd surge.
Aguilera was found deceased outside of a West Campus apartment complex near UT Austin. APD homicide detective Robert Marshall outlined the timeline of the case during a press conference on Dec. 4.
“At approximately 12:46 a.m., the Austin police officers responded to a call of a deceased person located at 2101 Rio Grande St.,” Marshall said. “The deceased, later identified as Brianna Aguilera, was located on the ground with trauma consistent of having fallen from a higher floor. Brianna was pronounced deceased at 12:56 a.m.”
Marshall then goes into what happened after Aguilera was pronounced dead.
“A witness had informed officers that they heard a sound of a ‘thud’ and then observed a female on the ground,” Marshall said. “The medical examiner arrived on the scene and the body was taken to medical examiner’s office where she was positively identified.”
Marshall then explained what officers observed in the apartment’s security camera footage before the fall.
“By approximately 10 a.m., we were able to access the camera system inside the apartment complex which showed the hallways,” Marshall said. “It was found that Brianna had arrived at the apartment complex just after 11 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 28, and that she went into a specific apartment on the 17th floor. Video surveillance has confirmed that a large of group of left that same apartment at 12:30 a.m., leaving just Brianna and three other friends in the apartment.”
APD said that the residents of the apartment were trying to contact them regarding Aguilera’s whereabouts, along with confirming that she was arguing with her boyfriend on the phone before the fall. Her cellphone would go on to be recovered in a wooded area 3:30 p.m. later that same afternoon.
Police reviewed the phone, and a suicide note from Nov. 25 that was deleted. According to APD, it was written to specific people in Aguilera’s life.
According to Marshall, there was no evidence of foul play and all evidence presented made the department come to the conclusion that the death was a suicide.
However, in a Facebook post from Dec. 1, Aguilera’s mother said her daughter’s death was not accidental.
“Someone killed my brie and gave all the group of friends a lot of time to come up with the same story. My daughter would not jump 17 stories from a building and to be labeling this as a suicide is insane. My daughter loved life and was excited to graduate and pursue her career in Law,” the post said.
Rodriguez went on to say that Marshall and APD were not doing their jobs.
The Buzbee Law Firm is expected to have a press conference in their downtown Houston office on Dec. 5 to let share more about the case.