SAN JUAN, Texas – Jessica Villanueva, known as \u201cJessiQu\u00edta\u201d to the people closest to her, was killed about an hour before she was scheduled to fly back to college in Nebraska.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old was killed October 14 in a shooting on San Antonio\u2019s Northeast Side. Bexar County officials say Jessica was visiting Ian Riles, who they believe shot her before taking his own life. The deaths are being investigated as a murder-suicide. Her family says the two met in college and had been friends for years.<\/p>\n
At her funeral, Jessica\u2019s mother broke down as she saw her daughter in the casket. Flowers in Jessica\u2019s favorite color, lavender and photographs from every stage of her life filled the room.<\/p>\n
For those who loved JessiQu\u00edta, the service was a chance not only to grieve, but to remember the young woman behind the tragedy.<\/p>\n
Jessica was a fighter on and off the mat. She graduated with honors from Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School, where she was a cheerleader and a wrestling champion.<\/p>\n
Her drive earned her a wrestling scholarship to Doane University in Nebraska. She was studying software engineering and was just one class away from graduating in December.<\/p>\n
But her family says Jessica\u2019s greatest accomplishments went beyond school and sports. She made time for children, took part in community projects and helped people experiencing homelessness. Her family says she didn\u2019t judge people by their circumstances; she simply wanted to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica was an amazing individual. She had no hatred in her heart. She loved unconditionally. No matter what, she was always going to answer and pick up the call,\u201d said Layla Estrada, Jessica\u2019s best friend of 18 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cJessica was a very loving girl, very happy, very strong, and she worked very hard,\u201d said her brother, Joey Villanueva.<\/p>\n
The family says Jessica\u2019s death has shattered their world. As they gathered to honor her, they also remembered everything she gave them in just 22 years.<\/p>\n
During the young girl’s funeral service Jesscia’s mom closed out with an emotional testimony. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were supposed to be looking for a venue for her graduation party not her funeral,” said her mother, Jessica Villanueva. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN, Texas – Jessica Villanueva, known as \u201cJessiQu\u00edta\u201d to the people closest to her, was killed about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-472588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472588","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=472588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}