In a troubling turn of events, Texas authorities have officially determined that the death of Brianna Aguilera, a Texas A&M student, was a suicide. This conclusion comes in the wake of evidence found on her phone, including a deleted suicide note, even as her family maintains that the tragic incident was anything but accidental.
Brianna Aguilera’s body was discovered in an Austin apartment just hours after she attended a tailgate event for the Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football game. At approximately 12:50 a.m. on Saturday, police responded to a distress call about an unconscious individual. Upon arrival, officers found Aguilera’s body bearing injuries consistent with a fall from a significant height.
In a press briefing held on Thursday, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis addressed the unusual decision to speak openly about a case of suicide. “Typically, police departments do not publicly discuss deaths by suicide,” Davis explained. “However, the spread of misinformation has caused undue harm, including bullying, to innocent individuals and their families.”
During the conference, police disclosed the discovery of a deleted suicide note on Aguilera’s phone, dated earlier in the week. Further investigation revealed that she had sent distressing texts to friends on the night of her death, and had previously made remarks suggesting suicidal thoughts.
An image shared by Brianna Aguilera’s family shows the Texas A&M student whose life was tragically cut short in Austin over the weekend. Her family continues to challenge the official ruling, despite the authorities’ quick dismissal of any foul play or homicide in her death.
Authorities quickly ruled out homicide as the cause of Aguilera’s death, despite pushback and speculation from her family.
“This was not accidental. Someone killed my Brie and gave all the group of friends a lot of time to come up with the same story,” Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, wrote on Facebook. “My daughter would not jump 17 stories from a building, and to be labeling this as a suicide is insane.”
However, APD insisted that at no point did the investigation uncover any instances of criminal activity.
Brianna Aguilera holds a sign congratulating her on her acceptance to Texas A&M. (Instagram/brie.aguilera)
“Our investigation has revealed that unfortunately, Brianna had made suicidal comments previously to friends back in October of this year,” Austin Police Det. Robert Marshall said. “This continued through the evening of her death with some self-harming actions earlier in the evening and a text message to another friend indicating the thought of suicide.”
Earlier in the day on Friday, Aguilera was celebrating at the university’s tailgate when she “became intoxicated to a point where she was asked to leave,” Marshall added.
Later in the evening, Aguilera told her friends she had lost her cellphone and asked to borrow someone’s phone to call her boyfriend. Witnesses reportedly heard the pair arguing, with the call ending at 12:44 a.m. — just two minutes before the 911 call was placed.
Brianna Aguilera was found dead hours after attending a tailgate party. (Facebook/Brie Aguilera)
Following her death, authorities subsequently performed a search of her phone, where they found a “deleted digital suicide note dated Tuesday, Nov. 25 of this year, which was written to specific people in her life,” Marshall said.
Marshall added that, “Every friend and witness during this investigation has been nothing but forthcoming and open,” while stressing that the investigation never yielded evidence suggesting a crime occurred.
Aguilera’s family previously asserted that the college student “loved life” and “was excited to graduate and pursue her career in Law,” according to Rodriguez’s Facebook post.
However, Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis defended the investigation’s findings at Thursday’s news conference, adding, “Sometimes, the truth doesn’t provide the answers we are hoping for.”
