AUSTIN — The mom of a Texas A&M cheerleader found dead after a football game said she believes her daughter was pushed or thrown off a balcony to her death during a long day of heavy drinking.
Brianna Aguilera’s body was found outside an Austin apartment building where she had been attending a tailgate party early Saturday following a Texas A&M football game against UT.
Her mom, Stephanie Rodriguez, has rejected the Austin Police Department’s initial view that the 19-year-old’s death was most likely accidental or suicide.
The grieving mother suggested that her daughter’s friends might have gotten scared after she drank too much alcohol — and didn’t know what to do.
Aguilera and another girl “were arguing” over a boy, Rodriguez claimed, saying she doesn’t believe her daughter would have taken her own life.
“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 told PEOPLE.
“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,” she said.
“That’s when it made me very upset because I was like, my daughter wasn’t suicidal. I would know,” Rodriguez said.
“She’s not suicidal. Why would she be? She was living her best life. She loved life. I mean, she loved going to school. She wanted to become a lawyer. I mean, it was just something that I was like, you don’t say that,” she said.
Aguilera’s phone was on Do Not Disturb from around 6:30 p.m. Friday, and was found by a creek the next day, Rodriguez said.
The Austin Police Department told The Post that Aguilera’s death is still under investigation.
“At this stage in the investigation, the facts obtained do not indicate that this is a homicide. This case continues to be treated strictly as a death investigation, and there is no evidence to suggest or support any suspicious or criminal circumstances surrounding Ms. Aguilera’s passing,” a police spokesperson said.
“The cause of death will be determined by the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office,” the spokesperson added.
By ANTHONY BLAIR/New York Post
