Authorities have revealed a critical piece of evidence in the death of Texas A&M student Brianna Aguilera, after she fell 17 stories from a high-rise apartment after a tailgate.
Investigators say they have evidence that the college student, 19, wrote a suicide note and had talked about ending her life with friends, including hours before she died, police revealed Thursday.
Aguilera had traveled from College Station, Texas, to the capital city for the November 28 football face-off between the Lone Star state football foes.
In the days since her death, Aguilera's mother has unleashed a wave of criticism at the Austin Police Department, accusing the cops of not investigating ‘suspicious' circumstances around her daughter's death.
Stephanie Rodriguez insists her daughter would never kill herself and someone must have pushed her over the rails.
‘A further review of Brianna's phone shows a deleted digital suicide note dated Tuesday, November 25 of this year, which was written to specific people in her life,' Austin Police Detective Robert Marshall stated at a press conference Thursday morning.
‘From the moment this call originated up until now, between all the witness statements, all of the video evidence, and all of the digital evidence collected, at no time did any evidence point to this being anything of a criminal nature.
‘Rather, our investigation has revealed that unfortunately, Brianna had made suicidal comments previously to friends back in October of this year. 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.'
+5
View gallery
Brianna Aguilera, 19, was found dead at 2101 Rio Grande Street around 1am Saturday, hours after a tailgating bash
+5
View gallery
Aguilera's family refused to accept the Austin Police Department's finding that their daughter's death is a suicide. In a statement, her parents said ‘As far as we concerned, this is an open investigation'
Investigators shared a timeline of Friday evening into early Saturday morning, which were the hours leading up to Aguilera's death.
Marshall stated Aguilera was so drunk the night of her death that she had been asked to leave a tailgate at the Austin Rugby Club around 10pm.
‘The only evidence that we have of any kind of physical altercation was Brianna punching one of her friends as they tried to help her out of the party,' the investigator confirmed.
‘Witnesses stated that after Brianna was asked to leave the tailgate, she had repeatedly dropped her phone and staggered into a nearby wooded area where her phone and other items were later located by Austin police.'
Surveillance cameras from the 21 Rio Apartments in Austin captured the co-ed arriving at the high-rise with a large group of friends around 11pm.
At 12.14am, Aguilera's friends made a 911 call, stating that she was missing.
Marshall later explained that since so many of their friends were in town for the game, the people in the apartment assumed Aguilera had gone out with other friends without letting them know.
Most of the people in the apartment left around 12.30am, police shared, however Aguilera and three other women were still there.
Despite losing her phone at the tailgate, Aguilera called her boyfriend – who was not in Austin- around 12.43am, after borrowing a phone from a friend, police added.
+5
View gallery
Aguilera was an aspiring lawyer who was studying as an undergrad student at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas
+5
View gallery
Police do not consider Aguilera's death suspicious and it is not being probed as a homicide
+5
View gallery
Rodriguez told KSAT she was informed by police that Aguilera plummeted to her death from the 17th floor of an apartment building just west of the University of Texas at Austin
‘Witnesses heard Brianna arguing on the phone with her boyfriend, which was also confirmed later by the boyfriend,' Marshall said.
The argument happened two minutes before Aguilera's body was reported having fallen out of 17-story balcony at 12.46am.
Her fall was reported by a resident who heard a ‘thud' and then saw a woman on the ground, police said.
Police say none of her friends actually saw her plummet to her death.
All of the people in the apartment have been interviewed multiple times and have been cooperative, police said.
‘It is not common for a police department to speak publicly about a death by suicide,' Police Chief Lisa Davis told reporters.
‘Inaccurate information has circulated and been reported, and that has led to additional harm of innocent people – bullying included – and their families. There have also been statements suggesting that police have failed to do our jobs. Those statements are not accurate.'
Police says they first shared news of Aguilera's death with her parents on Saturday afternoon.
‘We spoke through Sunday and Monday through the meeting here,' Marshall said.
‘Since then, I've attempted four times to contact her. I wanted to share this information privately. She did not reply to any of my attempts to talk to her until yesterday afternoon when she asked me to contact her lawyer. However, her father, I have been in contact with. He knows all of this information as of yesterday.'
However, her parents are refusing to accept the police's findings, issuing a defiant response.
‘As far as we concerned, this is an open investigation and will continue to be open until these parents are satisfied that they know what happened to their daughter,' the family said through their attorney after the police press conference.
The Aguilera family has hired high-profile lawyer Tony Buzbee to help in her death investigation, according to TV station Fox 26.
Buzbee is having his own press conference Friday afternoon in Houston.
The Mother's Warning Was Correct: Newly Released Audio from Texas A&M Student Brianna Aguilera's Final Phone Call Reveals Confusion and Distress That Completely Contradicts APD's Initial Conclusion and Proves the Family's Push for a Deeper Investigation Was Justified
In a stunning development that has rocked the Texas A&M University community and reignited national scrutiny over police investigations into young women's deaths, newly released audio from 19-year-old Brianna Aguilera's final phone call has emerged as a pivotal piece of evidence. The recording, obtained through the family's independent investigation and shared publicly on December 6, 2025, captures Aguilera in a state of profound confusion and distress just minutes before her fatal fall from a 17th-floor balcony at Austin's 21 Rio Apartments. This revelation directly challenges the Austin Police Department's (APD) swift ruling of suicide, validating the persistent warnings from Aguilera's mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, and underscoring the necessity of the family's call for a more thorough probe.
The audio, lasting approximately one minute, was from the borrowed phone Aguilera used to contact her out-of-town boyfriend at 12:43 a.m. on November 29, 2025—mere moments before the 12:46 a.m. 911 call reporting her body on the pavement below. In the recording, Aguilera's voice trembles with uncertainty as she repeatedly questions her surroundings: “Where am I? I don't know… this isn't right.” Her words slur slightly from intoxication, but the underlying panic is unmistakable, punctuated by pauses filled with heavy breathing and what sounds like muffled sobs. Far from the composed farewell implied by APD's narrative of a premeditated suicide, the call paints a picture of a young woman disoriented and seeking reassurance, ending abruptly with a faint, “I think something's wrong.”
Rodriguez, who had publicly warned authorities just days after her daughter's death that “this wasn't suicide—Brianna was full of life, not despair,” described hearing the audio as “heart-wrenching confirmation.” In an exclusive interview with KHOU 11 on December 6, she stated, “I knew my girl. She wasn't suicidal; she was scared. This audio proves it. The police rushed to close the case, but my warnings were right—they overlooked the distress, the confusion. We need answers, not assumptions.” Rodriguez's intuition, initially dismissed as grief-stricken denial, now stands as a prescient critique of APD's handling, where lead detective Robert Marshall declared the death a suicide on December 4 based on a deleted digital note and prior suicidal comments, without awaiting full toxicology or audio analysis.
Brianna Aguilera's story began as a vibrant chapter in the life of a promising sophomore. Hailing from Laredo, Texas, the political science major at Texas A&M's Bush School of Government & Public Service was an honor student, former cheerleader, and aspiring lawyer whose infectious energy lit up tailgates and classrooms alike. On November 28, 2025, she joined friends for pre-game festivities ahead of the heated Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football rivalry—the Lone Star Showdown—at the Austin Rugby Club. What started as celebration turned chaotic as Aguilera, uncharacteristically heavy drinker for her slight frame, became severely intoxicated by 10 p.m. Witnesses later told APD she was asked to leave after dropping her phone repeatedly and staggering into nearby woods, where it was eventually recovered.
Surveillance footage from 21 Rio Apartments captured Aguilera arriving around 11 p.m., ascending to a 17th-floor unit buzzing with a large group of friends. By 12:30 a.m., most had departed, leaving her with three other women. It was then, in her vulnerable state, that she borrowed a friend's phone for that fateful call. The boyfriend, interviewed by police and corroborated by call logs, confirmed an argument ensued—details of which remain sealed—but the newly released audio shifts the focus from mere quarrel to evident peril. Experts consulted by the family's legal team, including forensic audio analyst Dr. Elena Vasquez from the University of Texas, noted in a preliminary report that Aguilera's tone exhibited “acute disorientation consistent with impaired judgment under duress, not deliberate intent.” This contradicts Marshall's press conference assertion that the call was “two minutes of argument” leading seamlessly to self-harm.
APD's initial conclusion, announced December 4, hinged on several pillars now under fire. Detectives cited a “deleted digital suicide note” dated November 25—four days prior—recovered from Aguilera's phone, addressed to specific loved ones, alongside October suicidal comments to friends and a text sent that evening hinting at despair. Marshall emphasized, “No evidence points to criminality; this was a tragic suicide.” Yet, the audio's release exposes gaps: Why was the borrowed phone's recording not immediately forensically examined? Rodriguez claims APD informed her of the suicide ruling hours after the incident, without mentioning the call's content, prompting her frantic 911 calls at 12:50 p.m. the next day to locate her daughter—only to learn Brianna was already in the morgue.
The family's response has been swift and strategic. Retaining high-profile Houston attorney Tony Buzbee—himself a Texas A&M alumnus—and the Gamez Law Firm, they held a blistering press conference on December 5, demanding the case be reopened and reassigned, or handed to the Texas Rangers. Buzbee lambasted APD's “sloppy” timeline, pointing out that the lead detective lacked authority to preempt the Travis County Medical Examiner's final report, still pending toxicology results expected in weeks. “This audio isn't just evidence; it's a cry for help ignored,” Buzbee declared to a crowd of reporters. “Stephanie's warnings were spot-on—the initial conclusion was premature, and it dismissed the distress that screams foul play or, at minimum, negligence.” The legal team has since subpoenaed additional surveillance, witness statements, and the boyfriend's full phone records, alleging inconsistencies like the phone's wooded discard suggesting it was “thrown away” post-argument.
Public reaction has been visceral, with the audio clip—shared via the Buzbee firm's X account—amassing over 500,000 views in 24 hours. On platforms like X (formerly Twitter), hashtags #JusticeForBrianna and #ReopenAguileraCase trend, blending grief with outrage. One viral post from user @AggieStrongATX read, “Hearing her confusion breaks me. Mom was right—APD failed her. Demand the Rangers now!” Texas A&M's student body, already mourning through a GoFundMe surpassing $50,000 for funeral costs, organized a vigil on December 6 outside Kyle Field, chanting “Listen to Brianna” while holding signs decrying “rushed rulings.” University President Michael K. Young issued a statement expressing “profound sorrow” and committing counseling resources, while urging transparency.
This twist amplifies broader concerns about campus safety and investigative biases in cases involving intoxicated young women. Advocates from groups like the National Center for Victims of Crime highlight parallels to cases like the 2019 University of Alabama hazing death, where initial accident rulings unraveled under scrutiny. “Audio like this humanizes the victim, exposing how quickly authorities can pivot to ‘suicide' to avoid complexity,” said Sarah Jenkins, a policy director at the center. In Austin, where West Campus nightlife fuels frequent emergencies, APD faces mounting pressure; Chief Lisa Davis acknowledged the “painful speculation” in a December 6 memo but defended the probe, stating, “We stand by our findings, but welcome independent review.”
As the dust settles, the Aguilera family's resolve shines through the sorrow. Rodriguez, flanked by relatives at a Laredo memorial on December 7, vowed, “Brianna's voice won't be silenced. This audio proves her fight—we'll fight for her truth.” With the Texas Rangers now involved per Buzbee's petition, and the medical examiner's report looming, the case teeters on revelation. Was the distress a prelude to despair, or a sign of unseen threats? One thing is clear: Stephanie Rodriguez's maternal warning, once sidelined, has catalyzed a reckoning, ensuring Brianna's final words echo far beyond that Austin balcony.
The legacy of Brianna Aguilera—ambitious, joyful, unyielding—demands no less. As Rodriguez poignantly noted, “She wanted to change the world as a lawyer. Now, we'll change it for her.” In a nation weary of unresolved tragedies, this audio may yet deliver the justice long overdue.