{"id":15372,"date":"2025-10-22T07:46:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/15372\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:46:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:46:17","slug":"family-of-tony-gonzales-aide-who-lit-herself-on-fire-speaks-out-on-affair-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/15372\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Tony Gonzales aide who lit herself on fire speaks out on affair rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\u00a0The grieving mom of a congressional aide who died after setting herself on fire last month denied claims her daughter was having an affair with her married boss,\u00a0Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles\u2019s mother, Nora Gonzales, shot down a\u00a0Daily Mail report<\/a>\u00a0on Monday that Santos-Aviles had separated from her husband and had an affair with Gonzales before her death at her Uvalde, Texas, home on Sept. 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it has any merit,\u201d Nora Gonzales told The Post, adding that the claims are \u201ccompletely false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regina Santos-Aviles, 35, was a mother of one. Adrian Aviles \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Nora Gonzales said she believes the report was \u201ccompletely false.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nora found her daughter badly burned after Santos-Aviles doused herself in gasoline before igniting in the backyard of her home, according to cops and surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

Santos-Aviles begged her for water and was later rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died. Nora told The Post she is unsure why her daughter doused herself in gasoline.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage reportedly indicated that no one else was home at the time.<\/p>\n

The Post also reached out to Santos-Aviles\u2019 husband, but he declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Aviles separated from her husband after he became aware of the alleged tryst earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported.<\/p>\n

Gonzales has also been silent since allegations of an affair between him and Aviles emerged.<\/p>\n

Daily Mail cited multuple sources who said that the mother-of-one and Rep. Gonzales had been linked romantically before her grim death. <\/p>\n

Tony Gonzales pictured with Regina Santos-Aviles at the US border in 2023. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Gonzales is a married man with six children.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gonzales\u2019s spokesman repeatedly refused to deny the affair claims when pressed by the outlet and instead issued a statement accusing \u201cpolitical bottom feeders\u201d of trying to distort the circumstances surrounding her death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRegina Aviles was a kind soul who had a lasting impact on her community, which she continued to serve until her untimely death,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see political bottom feeders distort the circumstances around her passing is truly sickening. Tony Gonzales remains laser-focused on delivering historic achievements for Texas and condemns any attempts to misuse this tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aviles started working for the GOP congressman as his regional director in 2021.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t immediately clear when the alleged affair began, or if it was still going on when she died, the Daily Mail said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing she said is, \u2018I don\u2019t want to die,\u201d her mom Nora told the\u00a0San Antonio Express News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, has been silent since the allegations of adultery emerged. Congressman Tony Gonzalez<\/p>\n

Nora also said that Aviles had been agitated over her 8-year-old son spending the weekend with her ex.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gonzales publicly mourned Aviles\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all heart-stricken by the recent news. Regina devoted her profession toward making a difference in her community. She will always be remembered for her passion toward Uvalde and helping the community become a better place,\u201d he said in a statement last month after her tragic death.<\/p>\n

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However, Nora Gonzales said she doesn\u2019t remember her daughter\u2019s boss attending the funeral \u2014 but admitted she was distressed and may have missed him.<\/p>\n

The Texas rep had been spotted together with Aviles often, including during his visit to the US-Mexico border with tech baron Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gonzales\u2019 23rd Congressional District in Texas encompasses parts of San Antonio, Uvalde, and El Paso. During the 2023 visit with Musk, El Paso had been a major hotspot of the border crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\u00a0The grieving mom of a congressional aide who died after setting herself on fire last month denied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,287,27,29,28,12521,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-15372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-politics","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news","13":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}