It wasn’t until I became a mom that I understood my mother’s anxiety about everything I did. Watching your kid go off into the world and be totally independent is a wild concept when you think about how you spent a good portion of their life monitoring every tiny detail about their development. By the time college rolls around, we trust that they are going to go off and be as safe as they can. But for some parents, their worst fears become reality.
Stephanie Rodriguez, whose 19-year-old daughter died, is facing the worst of it. The New York Post reported that Brianna Aguilera, who was a sophomore cheerleader at Texas A&M University, was found dead outside an apartment complex after attending a tailgate party while the team was away competing against the University of Texas in Austin.
Perhaps the scariest part is that Rodriguez is left with nothing but questions after receiving inconsistent answers from the Austin Police Department, which claims Aguilera likely died by suicide after falling 17 floors.
“There are a lot of inconsistencies with the story,” Rodriguez told local news outlet KSAT. “He told me they said she jumped, and then he told me that the friends said they didn’t know her whereabouts.”
The night her daughter died, Rodriguez actually called police after Aguilera did not answer her phone following the November 28, 2025, game. The mom saw her phone “pinging” in Austin, but cops told her to wait at least 24 hours to file a missing person report. The mom was not informed until 4 p.m. the next day that her daughter was in the morgue.
Rodriguez maintains that her daughter was not suicidal, and feels that there is something far more nefarious at work behind her daughter’s untimely death. The mom strongly feels at least one of the 15 people inside the apartment at the time of her daughter’s death know something they aren’t divulging.
“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 the outlet.
Family members set up a GoFundMe in her honor in hopes of helping Rodriguez cover funeral expenses.
“She was pursuing her dream of becoming a lawyer and was attending The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M, her dream was to always be an AGGIE,” the description read. “She was a year shy of attaining her Aggie ring.”
Ultimately the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office will determine Aguilera’s cause of death but so far, police are not investigating the case as a homicide.
Note: If you or any of your loved ones are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can always reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988. They are available 24/7 by phone or online chat.
