Brianna Aguilera is a huge Texas football fan. Growing up in Laredo, ‘Brie’ cheers for the United High School Longhorns.

As she heads to college, Brie trades burnt orange for maroon and white at Texas A&M. Brianna spends most of her time at the Bush School in pursuit of a political science degree. She’s looking forward to ordering her Aggie ring and prepping for the LSAT next year.

Brie’s planning to head straight to law school after graduation and is well on her way with a 4.0 GPA.

At 12:47 a.m., Austin Police respond to a good Samaritan’s report of an unconscious woman outside the 21 Rio high-rise. The woman is pronounced dead at 12:57 a.m., with officers believing she fell from the building.

Meanwhile, a mother's intuition leads Stephanie to be suspicious as soon as her daughter's phone goes to "do not disturb," especially after she communicates with her daughter that she made it ok to the tailgate party and to keep her phone and location on for safety.

Repeated calls to her daughter's phone, the police, and surrounding hospitals continue to turn up no word on her daughter's whereabouts. This is unlike the behavior the honor student has always shown her family; that is why the family starts to panic.

It’s not until 4 p.m. that afternoon that Stephanie Rodriguez is told her 19-year-old daughter, Brianna Aguilera, is dead. Officers first tell her Brie jumped, then say her friends don’t know how Brie ended up 17 stories below them.

Austin PD recovers Brianna’s phone, though they haven’t said where, returning the device to her grieving mother. Stephanie says her daughter’s texts indicate she got in a fight with one of the other girls staying at the Rio 21 apartment Friday night. When she highlights the texts to an officer, he tells her they are not investigating Brianna’s death as a homicide, and the texts does not change the course of the investigation.

Stephanie Rodriguez does not accept Austin PD’s assumption. Brianna committed suicide. Stephanie, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, insists Brianna was excited to attend the tailgate and had a long list of future plans. Her daughter was also so afraid of heights, she wouldn’t ride roller coasters on her cheer team’s senior trip to Disney World.

Stephanie believes one of the 14 “friends” Brianna was with that night knows what happened to her daughter.

Joining Nancy Grace today:

Stephanie Rodriguez - Brianna Aguilera's Mother
Josephine Nava - Grandmother of Brianna Aguilera
Kenneth “Tray” Gober - Managing Partner of Lee, Gober & Reyna, Instagram & Facebook: LeeGoberReynaLawFirm
Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," and featured in hit show "Paris in Love" on Peacock; Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, X: @DrBethanyLive
Fil Waters - Former Homicide Detective for the Houston Police Department, President & CEO of Kindred Spirits Investigations & Security, Inc.
Joseph Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author of "Blood Beneath My Feet," and Host: "Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;" X @JoScottForensicc
Alex Cano - Assistant News Director at KGNS-TV in Laredo, Texas; Facebook: Alex Cano News
Sydney Sumner - Investigative Reporter, "Crime Stories"

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

November 19, 2025

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