AUSTIN — The parents of a college undergrad who police say fell from the 17th floor of an Austin apartment building want more answers about her death.
To get them, the couple has retained the San Antonio-based Gamez Law Firm along with high-profile Texas personal injury attorney Tony Buzbee.
Police found 19-year-old Texas A&M undergrad Brianna Aguilera’s lifeless body early Saturday morning on the sidewalk outside the Rio 21 apartment building in Austin’s West Campus neighborhood. Austin police initially told KSAT they found no signs of foul play and weren’t investigating the case as a homicide.
However, the department has since pivoted, telling the TV station that the case is “open and ongoing.”
Aguilera was in Austin for the A&M-University of Texas football game on Nov. 28.
The change in tune from Austin police follows Buzbee describing the circumstances as “suspicious” and the student’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, publicly calling for more accountability.
“This is an unimaginable and very suspicious tragedy,” Buzbee wrote on Facebook. “Brianna’s parents firmly believe there is much more information that needs to be discovered regarding their daughter’s death. They feel certain this was not an accident. This was certainly not a suicide. This family deserves straight answers. We hope we can help them get those answers.”
Both Buzbee and the Gamez Law Firm said they will hold separate press conferences Friday on the case.
Rodriguez told KSAT at least 15 people were in the apartment at the time of her daughter’s death. She also told the station that Aguilera had been fighting with another person who was on the trip with her.
“There was a fight that happened between my daughter and another girl, and they were all staying in the same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and the detective just disregarded them,” Rodriguez told KSAT.
UT undergrad Dannah Rodriguez, who lives in the unit across from where Aguilera was staying, told Fox7 Austin that she heard “screaming” coming from the apartment that night, as if “something really bad happened.”
What’s more, Aguilera’s mother told Fox News’ Fox & Friends that her daughter’s cell phone was found “in her friend’s purse that was thrown in the woods.”
“This was not accidental,” Rodriguez wrote in a recent Facebook post. “Someone killed my Brie and gave all the group of friends a lot of time to come up with the same story. My daughter would not jump 17 stories from a building, and to be labeling this as a suicide is insane.”
Buzbee has asked those with information on Aguilera’s whereabouts on Nov. 28 to contact his office at (713) 223-5393.
“No matter how seemingly insignificant, please reach out to us,” Buzbee said. “We want to speak to you.”
Sign Up for SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
