LAREDO, Tex. (KGNS) – A Laredo mother is demanding answers after her 19-year-old daughter was found dead after attending the UT vs. Texas A&M tailgate in Austin on Friday, Nov. 28.
Brianna Aguilera, a Texas A&M junior who was set to turn 20 in January, was found dead after her mother contacted Austin Police when she could not locate her daughter.
“She was excited to be in Laredo for the holiday weekend, we had just celebrated our first Thanksgiving together I hosted in our home,” said Stephanie Rodriguez, Brianna’s mother.
Rodriguez said Brianna had taken her younger brothers to see the movie “Wicked” before traveling to Austin for the tailgate event.
“She was definitely most excited to see the A&M game vs UT. Not attend the game, the tailgate,” Rodriguez said.
Mother contacted police before notification
Rodriguez said she began trying to contact her daughter and Austin Police hours before she was notified of Brianna’s death.
“No one reached out to me, I was the one who had to place several calls to Austin PD because I couldn’t locate her,” Rodriguez said. “What was weird to me and skeptical was her phone was on Do Not Disturb. We always had this rule that if she was going to go out, she had to have her phone on ‘location on’ and answer her text to at least let me know she was ok. That stopped happening around 6 p.m.”
Rodriguez said Austin Police told her she could not file a missing person’s report because it had not been more than 24 hours. She said officers told her they could not check the scene where her daughter’s phone was pinging by a creek.
“Which scared me the most, because all these murders have been coming out in Austin and bodies have been found in creeks,” Rodriguez said.
The next morning, Saturday, Nov. 29, Rodriguez said the phone was still at the same location.
“Which made me more scared that’s when I started putting pressure on Austin PD into having a search team going to the area and search for her because I couldn’t locate her and none of her friends were answering,” Rodriguez said.
Body discovered by bystander
Rodriguez said she received the news at 4 p.m. Saturday.
“Until finally, at 4 p.m. I get a call from an officer from Austin PD telling me my daughter was found in the morgue,” Rodriguez said.
A bystander discovered Brianna and called Austin Police. Her body was positively identified through fingerprint analysis.
Rodriguez said authorities told her Brianna’s autopsy was performed Sunday, Nov. 30, with results still pending as of Monday, Dec. 1.
Family disputes police theory
Rodriguez said police told the family they believed it was either a suicide attempt or accidental death.
“That’s what enraged me because I know my daughter. My daughter loved life, she was so close to graduating we were going to order her Aggie ring next semester,” Rodriguez said. “She was really looking forward to taking her LSAT’s, she was looking forward to applying to law school. She had a 4.0 GPA at A&M; she was very studious.”
On Dec. 1, Brianna’s family traveled to Austin and spoke to the lead investigator.
“I asked and demanded for another detective to be assigned to the case, and they said no. They even told me their geometric system was broken. That they were eyeballing the distance where my daughter fell which is the 17th floor, down to her death,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said police provided little information about who was with Brianna before her death.
“They told me that they saw a group of friends going into the apartment and they saw a group of friends leaving but my daughter was not there,” Rodriguez said. “They interviewed the girls that were with her in the apartment. But they interviewed them a whole day later. They interviewed them at 1 p.m. that Saturday instead of investigating at the time of the scene.”
Rodriguez said police did not go to the apartment or question anyone in the apartment complex.
Rodriguez is asking anyone with information about what happened to Brianna to come forward.
“To see her gone so soon, gone so soon and not have answers and not have anyone take accountability for what happened that night in that apartment,” Rodriguez said.
A GoFundMe has raised over $17,000 to help Brianna’s family during this time.
“My daughter had such a beautiful impact on the community of Laredo. We were both born and raised in Laredo. She wanted to come back to practice law in Laredo,” Rodriguez said.
According to KSAT, Austin police stated that Aguilera’s death is not currently being investigated as a homicide since the investigation has not revealed any suspicious details.
For more headlines, click here.
Copyright 2025 KGNS. All rights reserved.