{"id":471179,"date":"2026-10-20T03:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471179\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T03:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T03:10:10","slug":"doane-university-students-remembered-after-apparent-murder-suicide-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471179\/","title":{"rendered":"Doane University students remembered after apparent murder-suicide in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Students and staff at Doane University are still trying to process a tragedy they say they\u2019ve never experienced before.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Bexar County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Texas responded to a shooting in San Antonio that killed 22-year-old Jessica Villanueva<\/a>, a Doane student. Authorities announced Monday<\/a> that the man accused of shooting her before turning the gun on himself, Ian Riles, died on Friday from his injuries.<\/p>\n

According to the university, Villanueva and Riles had both attended Doane and were friends at the time of the incident. While Riles had already graduated, Villanueva\u2019s family<\/a> said she was just weeks away from getting her diploma in December.<\/p>\n

Sydney Tramp, a friend of both Villanueva and Riles, said Friday was a day she\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the hardest part was hearing it was both of them and not just Jess,\u201d Tramp said. \u201cWhenever we got together, there was never a lack of laughs … [Villanueva] was smiling, always energetic, always tried to make you laugh. And that was one thing that I really loved about her because I didn\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tramp, her last conversation with Villanueva has stuck with her since. The two were planning to celebrate Tramp\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last messages we had were like, \u2018yeah, it\u2019s okay.\u2019 Like \u2018we\u2019ll get together soon. We\u2019ll go watch another movie,\u2019\u201d Tramp said. \u201cThat\u2019s the hard part right now is I never got to, we never got to reach each other after wanting to get together for my birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Cale Stolle, one of Villanueva\u2019s professors and an advisor for Riles, said he also found out about the news on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the sweeter people I met and had the opportunity to teach,\u201d Stolle said in describing Villanueva. \u201cWorking with her she would always make sure everyone around her was taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a smaller university, Stolle said the Doane community has been hit hard by the entire situation. He said the loss has not only affected students, but the staff as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like a lot of the student population, the faculty population, we\u2019re trying to find a way to grieve on our own,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just somebody who comes here to take classes. It\u2019s somebody who you put effort and attention into, somebody who you get to see the amazing potential of and then get to see it gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite her passing, Tramp said Villanueva\u2019s legacy will not be forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that Jess is remembered as being a joyful person,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing someone who always tried to light up a room. Someone who just never tried to see the bad and people always tried to find the good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doane University will be hosting a vigil at the Cassel Theatre on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. to remember Villanueva.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to subscribe to our 10\/11 NOW daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KOLN. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Students and staff at Doane University are still trying to process a tragedy they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[159869,159871,159870,159867,159866,15775,82,159868,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-471179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-cale-stolle","tag-crete","tag-doane-university","tag-ian-riles","tag-jessica-villanueva","tag-murder-suicide","tag-san-antonio","tag-sydney-tramp","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471179","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=471179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}