A mother has identified her daughter as the Texas A&M student found dead on Saturday, and has raised concerns about the police handling of the investigation.

Stephanie Rodriguez said police told her that her daughter Brianna Aguilera died after attending a tailgate for the Texas Longhorns-Texas A&M Aggies football game on Friday.

Newsweek contacted the Austin Police Department via email on Tuesday, outside of regular working hours.

Why It Matters

Aguilera’s mother is asking questions about her daughter’s untimely death, and has questioned the police’s assessment that she died by suicide. 

What To Know

Aguilera, 19, originally from Laredo, was found dead by a passerby outside an apartment complex on campus early on Saturday, her mother said.

Rodriguez told KGNS-TV that investigators told her that her daughter had died by suicide after falling 17 floors from a building, a characterization of the events she rejects because she simply doesn’t believe she was suicidal.

“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 told the outlet “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.”

Rodriguez criticized police for their lack of action after her daughter stopped communicating with her. 

Rodriguez told KGNS-TV that she contacted Austin Police after being unable to get in touch with Aguilera after 6 p.m. on Friday, but they said they could not file a missing persons report as she had not been missing for 24 hours.

She said she told police that her daughter’s phone location showed it was near a creek, which concerned her, but officers told her they could not go to check the scene.

According to Rodriguez, police told her that Aguilera had been at an apartment with 15 other people before she died, who she believes may know something about her death.

“There was a fight that happened between my daughter and another girl, and they were all staying in the same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and the detective just disregarded them,” Rodriguez told KSAT.

The mother told KGNS-TV that detectives had interviewed the girls that were in the apartment but not until the next day.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, Rodriguez said she was informed by police that her daughter was found dead, her body identified through fingerprint analysis.

Austin police told KSAT that the death is not currently being investigated as a homicide. The Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine Aguilera’s cause of death.

What People Are Saying

Stephanie Rodriguez told KSAT: “There are a lot of inconsistencies with the story,” adding that a detective “told me they said she jumped, and then he told me that the friends said they didn’t know her whereabouts.”

An Austin Police spokesperson told the Daily Mail: “This remains an open death investigation and is not being investigated as a homicide. The cause of death will be determined by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office.”

What Happens Next

The investigation into Aguilera’s death remains ongoing, and the Medical Examiner’s Office is yet to release an official cause of death.