The mother of the Texas A&M University student found dead after a tailgate now says her daughter’s phone was “thrown into the woods.”
Brianna Aguilera, 19, was found dead on Saturday at 12:47 a.m. at 21 Rio Apartments in Austin, Texas, following the Texas A&M University vs. University of Texas football game. While Austin police say her death is not being investigated as a homicide and no foul play is suspected, Aguilera’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, disputes that account. She said detectives told her her daughter fell 17 floors and that the death was accidental or a suicide, something she vehemently disagrees with.
Rodriguez told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that her daughter’s phone was found inside a purse that was thrown in the woods.
“They found my daughter’s phone eventually in her friend’s purse that was thrown in the woods,” Rodriguez said.
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Fox News contributor and former NYPD inspector Paul Mauro said the mother’s statement about her daughter’s phone raises questions.
“There are, however, some questions here…The main one that jumped out at me in the fact pattern that we know, is that her phone was found in a friend’s purse in the woods at a distance from where the body was found. Now, you have to say to yourself, ‘What is the fact pattern that led to that?’” Mauro said.
Rodriguez said none of the people inside the apartment complex would answer her phone call.
“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,” Rodriguez wrote on Facebook. “My daughter would not jump 17 stories from a building and to be labeling this as a suicide is insane.”
Rodriguez told KSAT that there was a fight between Aguilera and another girl before her daughter’s death.
“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 said.
“How is it that certain friends left immediately and the person who was living at the apartment complex vacated her apartment ASAP?” the mother wrote on Facebook.
The mother told KGNS she became suspicious after she saw her daughter’s phone was on “Do Not Disturb.”
“No one reached out to me, I was the one who had to place several calls to Austin PD because I couldn’t locate her,” Rodriguez said. “What was weird to me and skeptical was her phone was on Do Not Disturb. We always had this rule that if she was going to go out, she had to have her phone on ‘location on’ and answer her text to at least let me know she was OK. That stopped happening around 6 p.m.”
Rodriguez told People she thinks someone threw her over the balcony.
“I’m thinking either someone shoved her over the balcony, or when my daughter does drink, she has the tendency [to fall asleep], and she’s so thin and frail, she cannot handle alcohol,” Rodriguez said. “And I think that maybe either it might’ve been that, and they probably got scared and threw her over the balcony, or they shoved her off.”
In another statement shared with Fox News Digital on Monday afternoon, the Austin Police Department said “there is no evidence to suggest or support any suspicious or criminal circumstances surrounding Ms. Aguilera’s passing.”
“Every loss in our community is taken seriously, and every life is deserving of care, dignity, and a complete investigative process. Austin Police extends our heartfelt condolences to Brianna Aguilera’s family, friends, and all who are grieving her loss,” the Austin Police Department wrote.
The death investigation regarding Aguilera remains open, police said. A staffer at the Travis County Medical Examiners office, where her body was sent, told Fox News Digital that an autopsy takes 90 days or longer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Austin Police Department for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Christina Shaw contributed to this report.
