December 3, 2025 • 51 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A tailgate party shock.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
A gorgeous young Texas A and M honor student, a
sophomore is dead.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Her friends clam.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Up, although they apparently were all together at a party
before a stranger a passerby finds her dead. I'm messy, Grace,
this is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Nineteen year old Brianna Aguilera is top of her class
at Texas A and M University, on track to shine
at law school. She attends a tailgate with her friends,
celebrating the big game, unaware of the tragedy soon to follow.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There's so much to this case, but I can tell
you this much. Brianna Aguilar's mother does not buy what
the Austin PD is selling, and neither am I Two
many coincidences. Why is she with her friends at the
tailgate yet none of them report her missing? Why is
(01:09):
she found dead outside the Rio apartment high rise where
her friend has a place and they didn't notice she
wasn't there?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Why did they all clam up? Why was her.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Phone found by a creek? Why didn't mom call the
police and they refused to do nothing? She says, my
daughter's phone is pinging beside a creek.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
She's not answering the phone. She's not supposed to be
by a creek in the middle of nowhere. They do nothing.
Now they're claiming there's no foul play? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I mean Scott Morgan first to you were now death
investigator joining us. He's done thousands of death scenes. Professor
or Jacksonville State University, professor forensics, author of Blood Beneath
My Feet on Amazon on Starva hit podcast Body Bags
with Joe Scott Morgan. Okay, Joe Scott, the morgue, the
(02:08):
Emmy hasn't even given us a cod cause of death.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So how can Austin p D say no foul play?
That's total bs.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I think that it is.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Nancy. I think that what they're going on is probably
the circumstantial evidence outside of what could be generated in
the morgue because they have no answers there. Definitively, I
can tell you, Yeah, Scott.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
What circumstantial evidence?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Well, whoever they are getting this data from that she
was surrounded by, they might be just running with that
because I got to tell you, Nancy, falls from height
are one of the most difficult death cases to investigate,
particularly from the height that we're talking about. She is
going to be brutally traumatized as a result of what happened.
(02:55):
If this is an impact injury where she did in
fact fall, again, that speculative as far as I'm concerned.
They're just saying that she fell from that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, ma'am, Joe, look at your screen. Let me see
Brianna get Lar. Let me see her right now. Look
at this girl.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Does she look suicidal to you? Okay? I know, doctor
Bethany Marshall have a field day with what I just said.
But wait a.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Minute, it's not just her looking happy, Doctor Bethany. She
was already a sophomore, but was just nineteen. Because she's
so smart, She's taken all these honor classes and moved ahead.
She was looking forward to taking her lsat. She couldn't
wait to get into law school. She and her mother
had planned ordering her Aggie Ring you know, Texas A
(03:44):
and M die Hard.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
She was so excited. She was just with the family
for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
She soaks in a bunch of family time, takes her
little brother brothers to see the new Wicked movie. She's
thrilled about going to a tailgate party, big Rye.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They're in the lone Star state. She's happy. She calls
her mom when she gets there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Everything's fine now, Nancy says, I'm killing myself.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Look at this.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Look at this Bethany control room. Show me the railing
on the seventeenth floor.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What who is she not a komani?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
She simone biles, She's going to do what a vault
over that?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
That's b s.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
According to one of the students who was interviewed, you
would have to get on a chair to jump over
that railingk So this was a young woman who was
very future minded. There doesn't appear to be any psychiatric history.
She appears to be able to concentrate, to restrain her
impulses enough to go through a very rigorous academic program.
(04:53):
That's not likely somebody who's going to kill themselves. On
the other hand, Nancy, most psychiatric illness reveal themselves between
the ages of eighteen and twenty one. So if somebody
is going to become schizophrenic bipolar OCD, it would feel
itself at that age.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know where you are right now? Look around you
think you're in a studio.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You know where you really are. You're out in the weeds.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
There is no indication that Brianna had bipolar, suicidal depression,
self harm.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
None of that, she's saying.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And the mom gets so Carlin says, your daughter's in
the morgue. I'm not, you know, Bethany, I'm not going
to stand by and allow this to be said about
Brianna Aguiletta.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She was not depressed, she was not suicidal. But but
but but what.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
But I actually happened to agree with you. However, if
she was by polar, she could have been subtly going
into a manic episode, could have.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Been bib.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Where are you have you read a single shred of
evidence it says this little girl, nineteen years old, honor student, cheerleader,
the whole shebang thrilled about a tailgate, was bipolar or
did you just like make that up?
Speaker 6 (06:21):
I just think it should be examined as a possibility.
I would want to look at her medical reference.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I wouldn't want to know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
No question she was. Do you have any evidence to
say she was bipolar?
Speaker 7 (06:32):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I expect a lot more from you, doctor, Bethany Marshall.
You don't have a d R in front of your
name for nothing. Okay, I'm gonna let you sit there
and think about what you just said for a minute.
Joe Scott is just chomping it in the bit, Joe Scott.
I'm beside myself, Joe Scott. How old is my little girl, Lucy?
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Well, she's right on the verge of attending college, Nancy.
She's in this age.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yes, yeah, you and.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
John David just turned eighteen.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And it's going to be a cold day and hul
Joe Scott. Somebody calls me and says your daughter's in
the morgue, and people start fabricating mental illnesses. This girl
was not suicidal. She was just with her family, thrilled,
couldn't wait to go to the game, couldn't wait to
go to the tailgate party.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Now she's dead. Her friends all vanished. They go to
the Four Corners.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Her cell phone is found in a completely different area
by a creek, and one of the friends purses, what
about that, that's not waving a red flag in front
of your face.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Well, I'll tell you what I know. Far be it
from me to tell you what to do, But if
you could be so kind as to put that image up.
Something struck me the image of the rail. Again, just
from a forensic standpoint, Nancy, I hope that whoever is
in charge of this investigation they locked down and secured
that apartment pretty quickly or this space. The reason is
(08:01):
is that just looking at the surface of that rail,
I want to know if she has fingerprints that have
been left behind on there. I want to know if
they're palm prints on there. And as Bethany had mentioned
just a moment ago about a chair, I want to
know if there was a chair adjacent to that railing
as well, because those are points of contact. I have
(08:22):
to rely on the science here to try to understand. Yeah,
we'll we'll find out information about her body and what
they found as far as the trauma goes, and maybe
at some point time we're going to hear something about toxicology.
I believe that's going to take some time. But I
want to know about the interior of this place. I
want to know who has access to it. I want
(08:43):
to know are there any latent prints? Did they even
because you know, Nancy, they really jumped to suicide accident
that sort of thing really really quickly here. So did
they secure the scene where you can go back and
dust her prints and look for tercea v.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I can tell you this, Joe Scott.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
If your body, God forbid, is found out on the
street by a stranger, I guarantee you I will not
disappear while your beautiful wife Kim looks for answers. Why
have the friends disappeared? Mommy has been trying to call
(09:28):
all of them. They won't return calls. They will tell
her nothing.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Nobody thinks that's odd except me. Not only that you stated,
did they secure the apartment?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I can tell you this, Joe Scott. They did not
even speak to the.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Friends until a whole day had passed, plenty of time
for them to get a story together.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And speaking of the friends, Joe Scott, your job.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
As a death investigator is not just to look at
the body itself and whatever intrinsic evidence it may contain.
Your job as a death investigator is to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the death.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Is it not?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Yes it is, and that means everything.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You don't think it's unusual that the friends don't report
her missing.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
She's with them.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They're fourteen people sleeping over in that seventeenth floor up
apartment that night fourteen, and not one person said, Hey,
where's breed.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You don't find that odd, Yes.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
It's very odd.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
As a matter of fact, I think that in most investigations,
the authorities would be compelled to march every single one
of them down to headquarters and they're going to take
written statements from each and every one of these people
and get them on record so that they can cover
every jot and tittle. In this case, Nancy, because they're
in is going to rest the answers, because they're going
(10:51):
to know what was going on prior to this. Okay,
we know how this ended so tragically. I want to
know what happened night before. I want to know what
happened at that tailgate.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So many inconsistency swirling, And I gotta tell you this,
after we started calling the Austin PD yesterday, not non
stop trying to get a statement from them, Suddenly, after
they've been saying nothing to see here, everybody go home,
this was accident or suicide, no foul play, without even
(11:27):
having a cod I don't know how they can say
that they haven't looked for subcutaneous bruising under the neck,
they haven't looked for broken fingernails. How can they jump
up and say no foul play and call the mom
and say, oh, yeah, your daughter's turned up at the morgue. Really,
after we call them NonStop, they suddenly say we're rededicating
(11:49):
ourselves to the investigation.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Oh okay, that's reassuring.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Let's start at the beginning when you don't know which
way to turn, start over at the beginning.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
Brianna makes the five hour trip from Brian College station
home to Laredo to spend Thanksgiving with her mom, Stephanie,
and two younger brothers, are Moni and Giovanni, taking her
siblings to see Wicked before she makes the drive back
to Central Texas for the UTA and M game.
Speaker 10 (12:17):
Brianna plans to tailgate with friends and spend the night
in Austin at a friend's apartment in the twenty one
Rio high rise just off the west side of campus.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We know that her mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, and she Brianna,
her daughter, Brianna Aguilar, very very close. They texted, they
called all day long.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
This is the woman that has steered her daughter from
birth all the way to a Texas A and M
honor student at age nineteen, she's already getting set to
take her lsat the law school SAT test. She's about
to graduate at this young age because she's so smart,
(13:06):
an honor student plus cheer later at United High School.
But suddenly, out of the blue, for the first time ever,
when Mom tries to call, she can't get through.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
Someone also put her phone unge and not disturb, which
my daughter never does on this she's in class or
studying for ant exam.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Stephanie expects Brianna to have her location on and answer
texts when she's out, but hours into the tailgate, Stephanie
has to push through do not disturb to reach Brianna,
and texts go unanswered. Brianna's location shows her near a creek.
Stephanie calls Austin PDE to report Brianna missing, asking them
to look for her at the phone location. The officers
(13:49):
say they won't investigate until twenty four hours have passed.
Stephanie spends the rest of the night trying to get
a hold of Brianna and her friends.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Can you imagine the panic that Mom felt, first time ever?
Her daughter will not answer the phone, will not answer text, nothing,
joining me right now. A very special guest It's Josephine Nova.
This is Brianna's grandma, Miss Nova.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Thank you for.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Being with us, Thank you, thank you, Miss Nov. I
do not believe that Brianna had an accident. I do
not believe Brianna committed suicide. I don't believe it. Tell
(14:41):
me when you first learned that nobody could find Brianna,
she was not answering the phone.
Speaker 12 (14:50):
We started looking for her. Brianna was raised with us,
with an younger daughter and myself. Due to the fact
that my daughter, Stephanie, her mom, Brianna's mom at a
very early age. She was continuing with her education and
having to work to raise her child, being a single mother.
(15:11):
So how are we not going to care about Brianna.
Brianna was very smart, talented, a good girl, never had
any problems with her. We spend the Thanksgiving together before
she left the following morning to Austin. She was really happy,
she was really excited. She was going to go have
fun with her friends over there. At the tailgate, we
(15:35):
encouraged her not to go. She insisted that she wanted
to go. She wanted to go have fun, but Stephanie
had doubts about two of her friends. That she never
liked those two friends because probably maybe Stephanie in her
heart she felt something. But then again Brianna wanted to
(15:56):
be with her with them too, So then I told her, please,
Danny that drive safety like I would always and I
would always give her my blessings and you know, give
her a lot of good advice and all of this.
So she was a happy girl. She had a lot
of future. She had everything she had. She she did
not need anymore. She had anything that she wanted. I
would never say no to no to none. Her mother
(16:18):
gave her pay for her rent bills. I mean she
she was very happy about it. She would never commit
to us. I never had intentions of doing such a thing.
She was very happy, she was succeeding. She was happy
because she was going to get a ring in May
and graduate in December and moved towards law school in
New York. We were giving her all the support that
(16:41):
she needed. So no, we do not believe that this
was an accident. Now a lot of things are coming out,
like this morning, I heard a passer by saying that
she was passing by, and he heard loud, loud, like
somebody was fighting, loud voices. So there was a fight,
(17:03):
and I always said there was a fight and somebody
had to push her. And those girls had a lot
of envy. They would always envy Brianna because she had
a nice car, she would dress up with expensive clothes,
she had everything. She had no thoughts of coming in suicide. No,
that is not true. And yes we need answers and
(17:25):
we want.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Answers, miss Nova.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yes, miss Nova, I found the same thing that you heard,
and we have it to play for you. I want
you to hear what this witness says he heard that night.
Speaker 13 (17:43):
From what I heard, it sounded like somebody was being
taken advantage of and there was a party going on
around her, and like nobody cared. I walk around the corner,
I get on Real Grande.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I hear a girl Sam check.
Speaker 14 (18:01):
Out and then it was like it was like a
muffled like scream at the top of her lungs. It
was like almost as if like you know that sound
when like somebody put a pillow or something over your mouth.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
That's what I heard.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
We found that it's from j Pizzle on TikTok, and
I believe that is what missus Nova is referring to.
You know, I want to go very quickly to a
special guest. In addition to Brionna's grandma joining us, missus Nova,
Phil Waters is with me former homicide detective in Texas
(18:41):
with Houston p D President CEO Kindred Spirits Investigations and Security.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Phil, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
When I judge a witness's credibility, whether I'm going to
put them under oath on the stand in the case
I am prosecuting, in the case I believe in, I
look at their credibility.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I judge their veracity, their.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Demeanor, because I would have know that I believe them
before I ask a jury to believe them.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And what I found interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Here is the way he described in rich detail the
scream that he heard. He compares it, he quotes it,
he even gives his address when I turned on to
Rio grand It's extremely rich in detail, and his demeanor
(19:32):
as if he is reliving what he.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Heard that night.
Speaker 15 (19:37):
I would just say, regarding to the witness here, and
I'm looking at this through the eyes of an objective
homicide the witness appears to be from what he is saying,
certainly sincere about what he is saying. But I don't
know the context in which he's talking about. I don't
(19:57):
even know if he's talking about this particular.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Anth to them, So you know, okay, you know what,
let's narrow that down there.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Alex Keno was joining us out of Laredo, which she
is taking center stage here. She's the assistant news director
kg NSTV. Alex, that witness is talking about what he
heard the night before her body was found, when she
would have been at that party at that after that tailgate.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
In that location.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Alex, why is Austin p D saying there's no foul
play when they don't even have a cod and what
happened to all the friends? And why did Austin p
D wait a full day before they interviewed the friends.
Speaker 16 (20:52):
We actually spoke to Brianna's mother, Stephanie, and she had
met to eye with the detective or the investigator in
the case, and they couldn't give her answers at that time.
She said there was a group of people that witness
seeing her daughter going into that building and those same
people went out without her daughter, so she is still
(21:15):
looking for answers. They basically told her there was a
geometric system that wasn't working that day. They were eyeballing,
quote unquote. That's what she told us on the record
of the distance of where her daughter fell, quote unquote.
So there was just a lot of uncertainty with this,
with this case, and she is from Laredo, so everyone
(21:38):
on social media here is talking about it. She is
very well known. Her family is getting a lot of support.
We also got a word from Congressman Hendrik Wayat. He's
looking into it. He's keeping an eye on what's the
developments of this case. So that's what we know as
of now. And I know that Brianna's mother, Stephan is
(22:00):
just doing what everyone is doing right now, which is
trying to get answers for her daughter.
Speaker 11 (22:05):
The detective called me telling me that my daughter had
been found in a more disease.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I was in disbelief.
Speaker 11 (22:12):
I yelled, I shouted.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
I told the officer that it wasn't true.
Speaker 17 (22:17):
That he was lying to me.
Speaker 12 (22:18):
It was just devastation to the max.
Speaker 11 (22:21):
My daughter was not suicidal.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
She loved life.
Speaker 11 (22:24):
She wanted to graduate, she wanted to become an attorney.
Like there was never one ounce of her that was
ever sad in that manner.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Stephanie does not accept Austin Pede'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 the Tier Team Senior
trip to Disney World. Stephanie believes one of her fourteen
(22:55):
friends Brianna was with that night knows what happened to her.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
Would not jump off a seventeen story buildings. She wouldn't.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
She was afraid of heights, and the and the measurements
don't add up. So I need someone to take accountability.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
That from our friends at w o A I and
ABC seven straight back out to alex Cano joining US
director Kate g n STV in Texas. Tell me about
the tailgate party. What happened after the tailgate party ended?
How did fourteen people end up back at the Rio
(23:35):
apartments and no one noticed brie was missing?
Speaker 16 (23:43):
Well, I can just tell you what Stephanie told us,
which is Brianna's mother. She said that she was trying
to contact her daughter and she said, hey, how's it going,
what's going on? All she knows is that she was
waiting for her to answer her back. This was before
six pm. This is on that Friday. Then afterwards she
(24:03):
was waiting after the game. This is Stephanie's mom. Again,
didn't hear from her. All she knows is that she
saw her daughter, or witnesses saw her daughter going into
this building and those same individuals came out without her daughter.
That's what she told us at that time. There was
a geometric system that was broken and that we're eyeball
in the distance when her daughter fell from the seventeenth floor.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Joscott Morgan, what is the geometric system Austin PD seemingly
is talking about.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
Yeah, I'm thinking that they're probably referring to potentially something
that's referred to as a Phaoh system FARO, which actually
maps a scene and it can do high end calculations.
We're talking and when you're talking about a fall, particularly
from this height, we're talking about higher level math here,
specifically trigonometry. The idea where you have to calculate the
(24:55):
distance that she would fall, also the angle that she
would fall, and there are specific points that you have
to measure relative to that. It strikes me as odd
that Austin Austin PDE would actually say something like their
system is down. They have to actually use tools like
(25:17):
this on a daily basis. They have very high end
complex crimes, right you know?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I mean, I think that the headline there Joe Scott
is I don't need to know how quickly she feil
or how far she fell, because I already know she
was in the apartment on the seventeenth Flora at twenty one.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Rio High Rise.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I know that I don't need a geometric system that's
on the blink to tell me that I need to
find out why she went over that rail and who
if anyone pushed her or threw her over. I really
don't think she took a running leap and jumped over
based on what Grandma is telling me.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Josephine Nova is with us MS Nova.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
When did her mother, Stephanie learn that Brianna is she dead?
Speaker 12 (26:01):
On Saturday? She tried to get a hold of the friends.
I did too as well. She tried the police to
help her find her daughter. No, there was no help,
no response. She found out about her daughters, about my
granddaughter's death. Like around four o'clock in the afternoon. She
begged the police, offered us to go and check.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The seeing police for over twenty four hours right trying
to find her daughter, and they would not help.
Speaker 12 (26:30):
No, they said that she had to wait a period
of twenty four hours. And then she kept an insistent
She never gave up. She kept an insistent calling and
because she had Brianna's location on the phone, and she
kept on saying, Mom, Brianna's location is showing me that
that the phone is in a creek. That's when we
(26:52):
started raising concerns and it got worse between us the family.
Stephanie and I kept on a report into each other
as two words. We wanted to find where Brianna was.
We knew that there was a lot of friends with her.
No one was answering the phone calls. And it was
such a coincidence that that that then after they found out,
(27:15):
they knew they had to know because they were all together.
Why didn't they called Brianna's mom, my daughter, Stephanie. Why
it was a big group and now everybody knew each other,
everybody knew Brianna. Why did they did not call my
daughter to let her know that Brianna was missing too,
that Brianna had jumped, or that Brianna had been pushed.
(27:37):
Everybody had it as a hush hush, and no one
was answering the phone calls. Now there was a rumor
someone says that they had promised each other that no
one was gonna say nothing, and that that's why they
were not answering the phones. No one was answering the phones,
and they knew that that had happened.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Did you just say that one of them told the
others not to answer the phone nobody say anything.
Speaker 12 (28:03):
Yes, that they promised each other that no one was
gonna say nothing, and that's why no one was answering
the phone calls.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Kenneth Trey Gobert joining us managing partner Lee Gobert and
Marina He graduated Texas A and M. He is joining
us from the Austin jurisdiction. I've got a lot of
problems right now, and I've always been a big supporter
of the Austin.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
PD, but not tonight.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
How can they say no foul play when they don't
even have a cod And also what about friends that
agree not to pick up the phone when the mom calls?
Speaker 18 (28:48):
Yeah, there's a lesson here in the way that Austin
Police Department, and again I'm generally very impressed with Austin
Police Department. There's a lesson that, you know, there's something
to be to be considered for mother's intuition. And when
(29:08):
Bree's mom is calling expressing these concerns, she's doing her
due diligence. She's she's noting that the phones on do
not discurb. The police should have taken it much more seriously,
much sooner, and unfortunately that's that wasn't the case. I'm
glad to hear that they're re upping their interest in
the investigation.
Speaker 10 (29:29):
Now listen, twelve forty seven am, Austin Police respond to
a Good Samaritans report of an unconscious woman outside of
the twenty one Rio high Rise. The woman is pronounced
dead at twelve fifty seven am. It's not until four
pm that afternoon that Stephanie Rodriguez has told her daughter
Brianna Aguilera is dead. Officers first tell her Bree jumped,
(29:50):
then say her friends don't know how Brie ended up
seventeen stories below.
Speaker 12 (29:54):
There's a lot of inconsistencies with the story.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
He told me that they said she jumped, and then
he told me that the friends said that they didn't
know her whereabouts.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I would like to see every one of the friends
hooked up to a polygraph, if they've got the backbone
to do it. That last son was from ksat twelve
And back to Josephine Nova, Brianna's grandmother joining us tonight.
That's inconsistent. First they say, well, she jumped. Then they go,
(30:26):
we didn't know where she was, we didn't know what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
She jumped. What that's clearly inconsistent. That's a nice way
of saying a lie, missus Nova.
Speaker 12 (30:38):
Yes, And then after that, what a coincidence that they
cleaned up the apartment really quick? They were gone, everyone
was gone.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What do you mean they cleaned up the apartment really quickly.
Speaker 12 (30:51):
Yes, that's what my daughter was told. That's what Stephanie
was told at that the following day they had every
apartment was cleaned up. That's what they say.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And as a matter of fact, one of the people
that live there just leaves.
Speaker 12 (31:06):
They leave, yes, yes, yes, yes, And they were like
fifteen or more than fifteen partying in that same apartment,
that same place, had she Brianna got to send us
pictures with some of them in the balcony when she
was happy. She did not steel Hill, Sir. She did
not come in suicide. She did not throw herself some
(31:28):
there was a fight because someone some of those girls.
One of those girls was jealous because she thought that
the guy that she was dating, or the boyfriend or
whatever was after Brianna, and they always a fight.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, hold on just a moment, miss Nova.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I want to follow up with doctor Bethany Marshall joining us,
The same doctor Bethany Marshall that started talking about Brianna
maybe being bipolar, which she's not.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Are you getting a.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Clearer picture of what we've been talking about and why
I'm so distraught tonight?
Speaker 6 (31:59):
I mean, I am Nancy.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Hey, Bethany, listen to this. Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Okay.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
Now, there was that fight that happened between my daughter
and another girl, and they were all seeing in the
same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and
the detective just he just regarded them.
Speaker 19 (32:18):
Brianna's friends are questioned for the first time at one
pm Saturday, more than twelve hours after she was found dead.
The friends were allowed to come and go from the
apartment as they pleased and had plenty of time to
get their story straight. Stephanie says, the group of fourteen
refuses to speak to her, and the person who lives
there has now vacated the apartment.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
From our forensic ksat twelve, Doctor Bethany Marshall, you don't
find it odd that one of the people that lived there,
the one that lived there, just leaves, packs up and leaves.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
Reminds me of Shanquela Robinson. Remember her friends lured her
to Cabo San Lucas and then she ended up dying.
You know, Nancy, Jealousy and envy are two of the
strongest motivators for homicide. So you think of Brianna, they
were probably envious of her because she's beautiful, she has
(33:12):
a family who supports her, she's way ahead in her academics,
and also jealous. What's coming out with the grandmother is
saying that that one of the girls there thought that
her boyfriend was attracted to Brianna. So you have envy
and jealousy, which are very strong motivators. And just like
Shankalla Robinson, if you remember that story, remember the mother's intuition,
(33:34):
she knew something had happened to her daughter, and she
started to call and call those friends, got on a plane,
came home and refused to take the mother's call. It's
the same pattern all over again. And the fact that
these girls she entered the apartment with these girls, Brianna did,
but then the girls left without her. Kind of girls
(33:55):
do not act that way. Kind of girls they watch
out for their girlfriends. Of the girlfriend and disappears, they
go after them, They look for them, they want to
be in touch with the mother. In this case, the
girl's left without her, So I'm thinking that this might
be alluring her in kind of case again, especially since
the mother, her mother, really Stephanie, did not want Brianna
(34:15):
to go with these friends. Stephanie knew that something was amiss,
so maybe the friends were luring her there for some
foul purpose.
Speaker 10 (34:23):
Austin PD recovers Brionna's phone, though they haven't said where,
returning the device to her grieving mother. Stephanie says her
daughter's texts indicate she got into a fight with one
of the other girls staying at Rio twenty one Friday night.
When she highlights the texts to an officer, he tells
her they are not investigating Brianna's death as a homicide.
Speaker 11 (34:43):
I just want them to stop saying that they're not
treating this as a homicide case.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Someone did something to my daughter from Wai. Doctor Bethany
Marshall is exactly correct.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
This reminds us all of the horrific, brutal death of
Shanquola Robinson.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
This is what her mother told me.
Speaker 20 (35:05):
I told him just keep me in phone, and they
did get called back, but they still saying it was alcohol.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Wasn't.
Speaker 20 (35:11):
Later on that evening they called and seid that Shanqula
had passed. And at that point my heart clumbled up,
you know, just knowing my child was done and I
couldn't get there to her, could not do anything.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
They say, the medics came, three.
Speaker 20 (35:25):
Medics came, and no one couldn't do anything, couldn't save I.
Speaker 17 (35:29):
Don't know which way to believe, you know, I believe
the autos, but the so called friends, I just don't
know what to say about them. I just think it
was this terrible the way they've done.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That was Salamanja Robinson speaking with me after the death
of her daughter, Shanquola.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
And you saw the.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Video of Shinquela being beaten by her friends till she's dead,
and then when the mom tries to reach the friends,
they are gone, some of them. Even moving sounds familiar,
doesn't it, Sydney Summer.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
Absolutely, it sounds extremely familiar. We don't know how this
beautiful po ed ended up seventeen floors below, and none
of her friends knew that she was gone. They first
tell police she jumped, then they say they don't know
what happened to her. A bystander had to find her
(36:24):
body and alert the police. It's horrible that we're seeing
this happen again and again and again with people who
are supposed to be friends. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And we already are hearing Sydney that they quote.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Promised each other no one would pick up the phone
when the mom calls. Can you imagine what that mom
is living through right now? And here's another case where
the parents of a murdered girl desperately seeking answers and nobody.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Will pick up the phone. Does the name Gabby Petito
ring a bell? Because I will never forget it.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I'm asking for help everyone at home. I'm asking for help.
Speaker 15 (37:09):
From the parents of Brian, and I'm asking for help
of the family members and friends of the Laundry family
as well.
Speaker 11 (37:19):
We were having this issue of trying to get her
reported missing.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
We tried to call the laundries.
Speaker 20 (37:26):
We had a friend in insurance who kind of got
in trouble who gave us their phone numbers because we
did not have their phone numbers.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
We were having this issue of trying to get her
reported missing.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Again for the laundry silence. The laundries did not help
us find Gabby.
Speaker 11 (37:43):
They're sure is not going to help us find Brian.
Speaker 15 (37:47):
Let you bother you that Gabby was strangled, but your
son involved in strangling Gabby.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
That from Fox five, Fox ten, Fox Digital.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And you also heard mister Potito speak missus Potito speaking
to us at crime Con.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
They begged and begged and begged.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
They couldn't even get a return phone call, a text
and email from the Laundry family. Is they searched for
Gabby and searched for answers to Kenneth Trey. Gober Trey,
your high profile lawyer out of this jurisdiction.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Why won't the friends pick up the phone when.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Brianna's mother is desperately calling looking for answers.
Speaker 18 (38:33):
Yeah, we could speculate on that. I mean, obviously, if
they feel exposure that they could have some criminal culpability,
that would be a reason why they wouldn't want to
talk about it. You know, hopefully they are talking with
law enforcement and law enforcements just protecting the quality of
(38:54):
the investigation releasing a lot of information. Unfortunately, we don't
have any reason or way to know one way or
the other other than initially report. The police were treating
this as no suspicion circumstances of Balclay.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Doctor Bethany Marshall, it looks like a rat, It smells
like a rat, It squeaks like a rat.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I smell a rat.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Everything is wrong here, and I'm extremely disappointed in the
Austin p D for blurting out no suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
You know, that was so premature because they have no
way to know. You know, remember with the Coburger quadruple
homicide that Bethany and Dylan, the surviving roommates, were desperate
to talk to the police when they got there. They
had all kinds of information they wanted to tell them.
They wanted to debrief from the traumatic experience. And you
can trast that with these so called friends a Brianna
(39:52):
who clam up and decide they're not going to return
the mother's calls and are sort of seem like they're
getting their story together. I hold my theories lightly. I
don't make up my mind right away about what's going on,
and I would hope that the PD there does the same,
that they would maybe have a theory about what happens,
but hold it lightly until they have a chance to
(40:13):
investigate and get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
To Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator or star of Body
Bags of Joe Scott Morgan, Joe Scott, throw me a bone,
what is our best hope? Is there anything that can
be learned from the autopsy at this juncture?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
What's the problem?
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, there's plenty to be learned from the autopsy Nancy. Hopefully,
layer by layer they can begin to try to understand
what kind of trauma she may have undergone prior to
going over that rail. Now that's a very delicate process
and it does take time. The other piece to this
(40:57):
is I want to make sure that they do a
very thorough job on toxicology. One of the things that
I'm very concerned about in this case is that if
there was alcohol involved, was there anything that had been
slipped to her to facilitate this? As you stated earlier,
the odds of her throwing herself over that rail are
(41:20):
kind of small, right, So would she have been inebriated
or compromised in some way that someone could have gotten
their hands on her. We need to explore every single.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Average crime stories with Nancy Gray.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Too, Josephine Alva joining us. This is Brianna's grandmother. You
stated that she was happy, she was looking forward to
the tailgate party, looking forward to the game, had her
clothes all picked out that she was going to wear.
That's a lot of future planning.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
People that want to commit suicide are not planning a feature,
They're planning a way to commit suicide. I'm not buying it.
Tell me her state of mind, missus Nova. When she
left for that tailgate.
Speaker 18 (42:14):
Party, she did not jump.
Speaker 12 (42:17):
Someone pushed her. It had to be someone within those
two girls, one of them, I don't know which one
was it, but it was jealous of her, and she
took One of them took pictures of Brianna when a
guy had his arm around Brianna's shoulder and sent those
pictures too, Brianna's boyfriend in Lovelo. That's how the fight started.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
And as a matter of fact, that night, Brianna was
texting her mom telling her about the argument with the
so called friends.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
She was upset about the argument, how mean they were
being to her.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yes, yes, the mom had a premonition for Brianna not
to go with these friends to the tailgate. Why won't
Austin PD listen to the mom? Because we are Phil Waters.
What should Austin PD be doing right now?
Speaker 15 (43:18):
I'm sure what they are doing is they're continuing the investigation. Look,
this is only four days after this incident occurred, and
I think it's a big presumption the information we're getting
now from the mother. I understand it, but again, I'm
looking at this from a homicide top of you, and
I'm telling you these detectives are going to have to
(43:38):
finish the investigation.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And a big part of it, one of your other
panel members.
Speaker 15 (43:43):
Has already alluded to, is that the TOTS tests to
come back are going to be I think they're going
to clarify a lot of things in terms of her
state at the time that this occurred. I've worked the
case very similar to this. A young lady went over
railing at a hotel and there were certain circumstances that
(44:05):
very suspicious. Later determined that it was an accident. So
I think part of the problem here is we're attatching
this term suicide to this.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
She makes it more painful for the family anytime that
kind of a term is attached to an investigation like this.
Speaker 15 (44:22):
Right now, it's a suspicious death investigation and they're trying
to determine what happened.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
You are comparing Brihanna's death to a case you once investigated.
You stated that in your case that you investigated, it
was an accident.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
In that case, was the rail over four feet high?
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
And how was there an accident? She certainly the victim
certainly didn't trip over it. If it's that tall, how
was there an accident?
Speaker 15 (44:56):
Well, in this particular case, she was highly in topicated.
He gone back to the room with a co worker.
He was highly intoxicated. They were in the midst of
what they were doing in an intimate way, and at
some point in time she sat on the railing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And there you go.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So you're telling me that that victim was having sex
on a balcony rail and fell Off.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I think it's what you're communicating.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Is that right, That's what the evidence showed.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Okay, that has no similarity to Brionna's case at all,
So comparing those is dangerous. My concern is now, no
one has been charged, no one has been named a
person of interest or a suspect. But because the Austin
PD went on record and stated there's no suspicious circumstances,
(45:53):
if this effort does go to trial.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
That's going to be defensive exhibit number one. Can't you
just hear?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Isn't it true, Officer that you yourself stated there's nothing suspicious here?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Didn't you say that? But yet now you want a
jury to believe it was a homicide. That's going to
be stated. That's going to be defense exhibit number one,
isn't it?
Speaker 15 (46:15):
Phil Well, I think we're making a big leap there, Nancy,
with all due respect, but I will tell you that
it's it's it is as similar as the comparison to
these other cases.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
That you've just put up here.
Speaker 15 (46:29):
Uh So, I just think each case is unique to itself,
and while there are similarities to other cases, I think
we need to concentrate on this one.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
We need to let the evidence lead us to where
we need to be.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
And it's always that you brought up a girl having
sex on a railing. The case is.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Weird using to speak to moms.
Speaker 15 (46:57):
What I'm trying to get across here is is that
I have worked a Devilaer case where you had a
young lady.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Who went over a rate and it was an accident.
Those were the circumstances that are which had occurred.
Speaker 15 (47:07):
Now what we have here in this case is we've
got at least fourteen or fifteen people in an apartment
celebrating or actually I guess they're A and M people,
so they're not celebrating the loss to Texas. You've got
one hundred and three thousand people attending that particular game.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
They've all been partying.
Speaker 15 (47:26):
We don't know what the level of intoxication was among
all these people. There's a lot of things we don't know,
And the information that we're getting is mainly from the mother,
and she is trying to communicate what she was told
by Austin TV. Now we all know that the more
of these stories get told, the more convoluted they get.
(47:46):
So I'm not trying to criticize anybody here except for
the fact that I think we need.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
The investigation company.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Well said they'd come out and said there's nothing, but
I found a lot suspicience.
Speaker 15 (48:03):
Has Austin PED made a press release a formal statement
saying that or is this what the mother is saying?
Speaker 1 (48:10):
That Austin PD told to Sidney some rejoining US Crime
Stories investigative reporter, where's that coming from? That Austin PD
says we're not investigating this as a homicide.
Speaker 7 (48:22):
Multiple statements from the department. They even updated a statement
after all of this outrage confirming that they are still
not investigating this as a homicide. They say there are
no suspicious circumstances and that this is a simple death investigation,
which just makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Oh okay, so Phil, it is from the Austin PD.
It's not the mom Brihanna's mom having some hysterical fit
and making up something.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
It's from Austin PD. They are the ones that says
there's no suspicious circumstances, all.
Speaker 15 (48:59):
Right, And Austin PD is telling you what they are investigating,
which is this is what we call it a suspicious.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
Death investigation or a death investigation. That's what they are doing.
Speaker 15 (49:10):
Now, if the end of this investigation, something a piece
of evidence occur, then you not this that changes direction
of the investigation, then that will reveal it, and that
will send that that way. But at this point in time,
the detectives are telling everyone that what they have right
now is a death investigation and they're going to continue
(49:33):
that way. It doesn't mean that they're not They're not
going to go, oh wow, we've got a piece of
evidence here that now sending us in a murder investigation.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
That's not what they're saying.
Speaker 15 (49:43):
They're saying at this point in time, the evidence that
they have is not leading them to a murder. It's
leading them to a death investigation, and they want to
find out why and how she ended.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
Up on the pavement on the twenty ninth of November.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
And Sidney, what exactly were the words from Austin PD.
What exactly did they say, because it doesn't sound like
what he just said.
Speaker 7 (50:06):
They say there is no indication of suspicious circumstances, and
they update that to say there is no evidence to
suggest or support any suspicious or criminal circumstances. That is
the language of their statement. They do not believe anyone
else was involved in Breonna's death.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
New York Control Room, could you please send a copy
of tonight's program to Austin PD. I'm hearing you, yes,
so maybe we can help them find the same suspicious
circumstances that we have found and that her grandmother has found,
(50:46):
and that her mother has found. You know what, It
is a sad state when the mother can't grieve for
her daughter because she is trying to solve her death.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
If you know or think you know anything.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
About the death of this beautiful young Texas A and
m co ed Brianna Aguilera, please call Texas Crime Stoppers
five one two for seven two eight four seven seven tonight.
Please join us in our prayers for Brianna's family as
(51:24):
they search.
Speaker 13 (51:26):
For the truth.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A tailgate party shock.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
A gorgeous young Texas A and M honor student, a
sophomore is dead.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Her friends clam.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Up, although they apparently were all together at a party
before a stranger a passerby finds her dead. I'm messy, Grace,
this is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for
being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Nineteen year old Brianna Aguilera is top of her class
at Texas A and M University, on track to shine
at law school. She attends a tailgate with her friends,
celebrating the big game, unaware of the tragedy soon to follow.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There's so much to this case, but I can tell
you this much. Brianna Aguilar's mother does not buy what
the Austin PD is selling, and neither am I Two
many coincidences. Why is she with her friends at the
tailgate yet none of them report her missing? Why is
(01:09):
she found dead outside the Rio apartment high rise where
her friend has a place and they didn't notice she
wasn't there?
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Why did they all clam up? Why was her.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Phone found by a creek? Why didn't mom call the
police and they refused to do nothing? She says, my
daughter's phone is pinging beside a creek.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
She's not answering the phone. She's not supposed to be
by a creek in the middle of nowhere. They do nothing.
Now they're claiming there's no foul play? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I mean Scott Morgan first to you were now death
investigator joining us. He's done thousands of death scenes. Professor
or Jacksonville State University, professor forensics, author of Blood Beneath
My Feet on Amazon on Starva hit podcast Body Bags
with Joe Scott Morgan. Okay, Joe Scott, the morgue, the
(02:08):
Emmy hasn't even given us a cod cause of death.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So how can Austin p D say no foul play?
That's total bs.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Yeah, I think that it is.
Speaker 5 (02:18):
Nancy. I think that what they're going on is probably
the circumstantial evidence outside of what could be generated in
the morgue because they have no answers there. Definitively, I
can tell you, Yeah, Scott.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
What circumstantial evidence?
Speaker 5 (02:34):
Well, whoever they are getting this data from that she
was surrounded by, they might be just running with that
because I got to tell you, Nancy, falls from height
are one of the most difficult death cases to investigate,
particularly from the height that we're talking about. She is
going to be brutally traumatized as a result of what happened.
(02:55):
If this is an impact injury where she did in
fact fall, again, that speculative as far as I'm concerned.
They're just saying that she fell from that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, ma'am, Joe, look at your screen. Let me see
Brianna get Lar. Let me see her right now. Look
at this girl.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Does she look suicidal to you? Okay? I know, doctor
Bethany Marshall have a field day with what I just said.
But wait a.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Minute, it's not just her looking happy, Doctor Bethany. She
was already a sophomore, but was just nineteen. Because she's
so smart, She's taken all these honor classes and moved ahead.
She was looking forward to taking her lsat. She couldn't
wait to get into law school. She and her mother
had planned ordering her Aggie Ring you know, Texas A
(03:44):
and M die Hard.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
She was so excited. She was just with the family
for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
She soaks in a bunch of family time, takes her
little brother brothers to see the new Wicked movie. She's
thrilled about going to a tailgate party, big Rye.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They're in the lone Star state. She's happy. She calls
her mom when she gets there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Everything's fine now, Nancy says, I'm killing myself.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Look at this.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Look at this Bethany control room. Show me the railing
on the seventeenth floor.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What who is she not a komani?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
She simone biles, She's going to do what a vault
over that?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
That's b s.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
According to one of the students who was interviewed, you
would have to get on a chair to jump over
that railingk So this was a young woman who was
very future minded. There doesn't appear to be any psychiatric history.
She appears to be able to concentrate, to restrain her
impulses enough to go through a very rigorous academic program.
(04:53):
That's not likely somebody who's going to kill themselves. On
the other hand, Nancy, most psychiatric illness reveal themselves between
the ages of eighteen and twenty one. So if somebody
is going to become schizophrenic bipolar OCD, it would feel
itself at that age.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
You know where you are right now? Look around you
think you're in a studio.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You know where you really are. You're out in the weeds.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
There is no indication that Brianna had bipolar, suicidal depression,
self harm.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
None of that, she's saying.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
And the mom gets so Carlin says, your daughter's in
the morgue. I'm not, you know, Bethany, I'm not going
to stand by and allow this to be said about
Brianna Aguiletta.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She was not depressed, she was not suicidal. But but
but but what.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
But I actually happened to agree with you. However, if
she was by polar, she could have been subtly going
into a manic episode, could have.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Been bib.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Where are you have you read a single shred of
evidence it says this little girl, nineteen years old, honor student, cheerleader,
the whole shebang thrilled about a tailgate, was bipolar or
did you just like make that up?
Speaker 6 (06:21):
I just think it should be examined as a possibility.
I would want to look at her medical reference.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
I wouldn't want to know.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
No question she was. Do you have any evidence to
say she was bipolar?
Speaker 7 (06:32):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I expect a lot more from you, doctor, Bethany Marshall.
You don't have a d R in front of your
name for nothing. Okay, I'm gonna let you sit there
and think about what you just said for a minute.
Joe Scott is just chomping it in the bit, Joe Scott.
I'm beside myself, Joe Scott. How old is my little girl, Lucy?
Speaker 8 (06:53):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Well, she's right on the verge of attending college, Nancy.
She's in this age.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yes, yeah, you and.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
John David just turned eighteen.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And it's going to be a cold day and hul
Joe Scott. Somebody calls me and says your daughter's in
the morgue, and people start fabricating mental illnesses. This girl
was not suicidal. She was just with her family, thrilled,
couldn't wait to go to the game, couldn't wait to
go to the tailgate party.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Now she's dead. Her friends all vanished. They go to
the Four Corners.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Her cell phone is found in a completely different area
by a creek, and one of the friends purses, what
about that, that's not waving a red flag in front
of your face.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Well, I'll tell you what I know. Far be it
from me to tell you what to do, But if
you could be so kind as to put that image up.
Something struck me the image of the rail. Again, just
from a forensic standpoint, Nancy, I hope that whoever is
in charge of this investigation they locked down and secured
that apartment pretty quickly or this space. The reason is
(08:01):
is that just looking at the surface of that rail,
I want to know if she has fingerprints that have
been left behind on there. I want to know if
they're palm prints on there. And as Bethany had mentioned
just a moment ago about a chair, I want to
know if there was a chair adjacent to that railing
as well, because those are points of contact. I have
(08:22):
to rely on the science here to try to understand. Yeah,
we'll we'll find out information about her body and what
they found as far as the trauma goes, and maybe
at some point time we're going to hear something about toxicology.
I believe that's going to take some time. But I
want to know about the interior of this place. I
want to know who has access to it. I want
(08:43):
to know are there any latent prints? Did they even
because you know, Nancy, they really jumped to suicide accident
that sort of thing really really quickly here. So did
they secure the scene where you can go back and
dust her prints and look for tercea v.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
I can tell you this, Joe Scott.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
If your body, God forbid, is found out on the
street by a stranger, I guarantee you I will not
disappear while your beautiful wife Kim looks for answers. Why
have the friends disappeared? Mommy has been trying to call
(09:28):
all of them. They won't return calls. They will tell
her nothing.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Nobody thinks that's odd except me. Not only that you stated,
did they secure the apartment?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I can tell you this, Joe Scott. They did not
even speak to the.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Friends until a whole day had passed, plenty of time
for them to get a story together.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And speaking of the friends, Joe Scott, your job.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
As a death investigator is not just to look at
the body itself and whatever intrinsic evidence it may contain.
Your job as a death investigator is to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the death.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Is it not?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Yes it is, and that means everything.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You don't think it's unusual that the friends don't report
her missing.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
She's with them.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They're fourteen people sleeping over in that seventeenth floor up
apartment that night fourteen, and not one person said, Hey,
where's breed.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You don't find that odd, Yes.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
It's very odd.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
As a matter of fact, I think that in most investigations,
the authorities would be compelled to march every single one
of them down to headquarters and they're going to take
written statements from each and every one of these people
and get them on record so that they can cover
every jot and tittle. In this case, Nancy, because they're
in is going to rest the answers, because they're going
(10:51):
to know what was going on prior to this. Okay,
we know how this ended so tragically. I want to
know what happened night before. I want to know what
happened at that tailgate.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
So many inconsistency swirling, And I gotta tell you this,
after we started calling the Austin PD yesterday, not non
stop trying to get a statement from them, Suddenly, after
they've been saying nothing to see here, everybody go home,
this was accident or suicide, no foul play, without even
(11:27):
having a cod I don't know how they can say
that they haven't looked for subcutaneous bruising under the neck,
they haven't looked for broken fingernails. How can they jump
up and say no foul play and call the mom
and say, oh, yeah, your daughter's turned up at the morgue. Really,
after we call them NonStop, they suddenly say we're rededicating
(11:49):
ourselves to the investigation.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Oh okay, that's reassuring.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Let's start at the beginning when you don't know which
way to turn, start over at the beginning.
Speaker 9 (12:01):
Brianna makes the five hour trip from Brian College station
home to Laredo to spend Thanksgiving with her mom, Stephanie,
and two younger brothers, are Moni and Giovanni, taking her
siblings to see Wicked before she makes the drive back
to Central Texas for the UTA and M game.
Speaker 10 (12:17):
Brianna plans to tailgate with friends and spend the night
in Austin at a friend's apartment in the twenty one
Rio high rise just off the west side of campus.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
We know that her mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, and she Brianna,
her daughter, Brianna Aguilar, very very close. They texted, they
called all day long.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
This is the woman that has steered her daughter from
birth all the way to a Texas A and M
honor student at age nineteen, she's already getting set to
take her lsat the law school SAT test. She's about
to graduate at this young age because she's so smart,
(13:06):
an honor student plus cheer later at United High School.
But suddenly, out of the blue, for the first time ever,
when Mom tries to call, she can't get through.
Speaker 11 (13:20):
Someone also put her phone unge and not disturb, which
my daughter never does on this she's in class or
studying for ant exam.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Stephanie expects Brianna to have her location on and answer
texts when she's out, but hours into the tailgate, Stephanie
has to push through do not disturb to reach Brianna,
and texts go unanswered. Brianna's location shows her near a creek.
Stephanie calls Austin PDE to report Brianna missing, asking them
to look for her at the phone location. The officers
(13:49):
say they won't investigate until twenty four hours have passed.
Stephanie spends the rest of the night trying to get
a hold of Brianna and her friends.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Can you imagine the panic that Mom felt, first time ever?
Her daughter will not answer the phone, will not answer text, nothing,
joining me right now. A very special guest It's Josephine Nova.
This is Brianna's grandma, Miss Nova.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Thank you for.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Being with us, Thank you, thank you, Miss Nov. I
do not believe that Brianna had an accident. I do
not believe Brianna committed suicide. I don't believe it. Tell
(14:41):
me when you first learned that nobody could find Brianna,
she was not answering the phone.
Speaker 12 (14:50):
We started looking for her. Brianna was raised with us,
with an younger daughter and myself. Due to the fact
that my daughter, Stephanie, her mom, Brianna's mom at a
very early age. She was continuing with her education and
having to work to raise her child, being a single mother.
(15:11):
So how are we not going to care about Brianna.
Brianna was very smart, talented, a good girl, never had
any problems with her. We spend the Thanksgiving together before
she left the following morning to Austin. She was really happy,
she was really excited. She was going to go have
fun with her friends over there. At the tailgate, we
(15:35):
encouraged her not to go. She insisted that she wanted
to go. She wanted to go have fun, but Stephanie
had doubts about two of her friends. That she never
liked those two friends because probably maybe Stephanie in her
heart she felt something. But then again Brianna wanted to
(15:56):
be with her with them too, So then I told her, please,
Danny that drive safety like I would always and I
would always give her my blessings and you know, give
her a lot of good advice and all of this.
So she was a happy girl. She had a lot
of future. She had everything she had. She she did
not need anymore. She had anything that she wanted. I
would never say no to no to none. Her mother
(16:18):
gave her pay for her rent bills. I mean she
she was very happy about it. She would never commit
to us. I never had intentions of doing such a thing.
She was very happy, she was succeeding. She was happy
because she was going to get a ring in May
and graduate in December and moved towards law school in
New York. We were giving her all the support that
(16:41):
she needed. So no, we do not believe that this
was an accident. Now a lot of things are coming out,
like this morning, I heard a passer by saying that
she was passing by, and he heard loud, loud, like
somebody was fighting, loud voices. So there was a fight,
(17:03):
and I always said there was a fight and somebody
had to push her. And those girls had a lot
of envy. They would always envy Brianna because she had
a nice car, she would dress up with expensive clothes,
she had everything. She had no thoughts of coming in suicide. No,
that is not true. And yes we need answers and
(17:25):
we want.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Answers, miss Nova.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yes, miss Nova, I found the same thing that you heard,
and we have it to play for you. I want
you to hear what this witness says he heard that night.
Speaker 13 (17:43):
From what I heard, it sounded like somebody was being
taken advantage of and there was a party going on
around her, and like nobody cared. I walk around the corner,
I get on Real Grande.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I hear a girl Sam check.
Speaker 14 (18:01):
Out and then it was like it was like a
muffled like scream at the top of her lungs. It
was like almost as if like you know that sound
when like somebody put a pillow or something over your mouth.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
That's what I heard.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
We found that it's from j Pizzle on TikTok, and
I believe that is what missus Nova is referring to.
You know, I want to go very quickly to a
special guest. In addition to Brionna's grandma joining us, missus Nova,
Phil Waters is with me former homicide detective in Texas
(18:41):
with Houston p D President CEO Kindred Spirits Investigations and Security.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Phil, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
When I judge a witness's credibility, whether I'm going to
put them under oath on the stand in the case
I am prosecuting, in the case I believe in, I
look at their credibility.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I judge their veracity, their.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Demeanor, because I would have know that I believe them
before I ask a jury to believe them.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
And what I found interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Here is the way he described in rich detail the
scream that he heard. He compares it, he quotes it,
he even gives his address when I turned on to
Rio grand It's extremely rich in detail, and his demeanor
(19:32):
as if he is reliving what he.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Heard that night.
Speaker 15 (19:37):
I would just say, regarding to the witness here, and
I'm looking at this through the eyes of an objective
homicide the witness appears to be from what he is saying,
certainly sincere about what he is saying. But I don't
know the context in which he's talking about. I don't
(19:57):
even know if he's talking about this particular.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Anth to them, So you know, okay, you know what,
let's narrow that down there.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Alex Keno was joining us out of Laredo, which she
is taking center stage here. She's the assistant news director
kg NSTV. Alex, that witness is talking about what he
heard the night before her body was found, when she
would have been at that party at that after that tailgate.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
In that location.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Alex, why is Austin p D saying there's no foul
play when they don't even have a cod and what
happened to all the friends? And why did Austin p
D wait a full day before they interviewed the friends.
Speaker 16 (20:52):
We actually spoke to Brianna's mother, Stephanie, and she had
met to eye with the detective or the investigator in
the case, and they couldn't give her answers at that time.
She said there was a group of people that witness
seeing her daughter going into that building and those same
people went out without her daughter, so she is still
(21:15):
looking for answers. They basically told her there was a
geometric system that wasn't working that day. They were eyeballing,
quote unquote. That's what she told us on the record
of the distance of where her daughter fell, quote unquote.
So there was just a lot of uncertainty with this,
with this case, and she is from Laredo, so everyone
(21:38):
on social media here is talking about it. She is
very well known. Her family is getting a lot of support.
We also got a word from Congressman Hendrik Wayat. He's
looking into it. He's keeping an eye on what's the
developments of this case. So that's what we know as
of now. And I know that Brianna's mother, Stephan is
(22:00):
just doing what everyone is doing right now, which is
trying to get answers for her daughter.
Speaker 11 (22:05):
The detective called me telling me that my daughter had
been found in a more disease.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I was in disbelief.
Speaker 11 (22:12):
I yelled, I shouted.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
I told the officer that it wasn't true.
Speaker 17 (22:17):
That he was lying to me.
Speaker 12 (22:18):
It was just devastation to the max.
Speaker 11 (22:21):
My daughter was not suicidal.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
She loved life.
Speaker 11 (22:24):
She wanted to graduate, she wanted to become an attorney.
Like there was never one ounce of her that was
ever sad in that manner.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Stephanie does not accept Austin Pede'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 the Tier Team Senior
trip to Disney World. Stephanie believes one of her fourteen
(22:55):
friends Brianna was with that night knows what happened to her.
Speaker 12 (23:00):
Would not jump off a seventeen story buildings. She wouldn't.
Speaker 11 (23:03):
She was afraid of heights, and the and the measurements
don't add up. So I need someone to take accountability.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
That from our friends at w o A I and
ABC seven straight back out to alex Cano joining US
director Kate g n STV in Texas. Tell me about
the tailgate party. What happened after the tailgate party ended?
How did fourteen people end up back at the Rio
(23:35):
apartments and no one noticed brie was missing?
Speaker 16 (23:43):
Well, I can just tell you what Stephanie told us,
which is Brianna's mother. She said that she was trying
to contact her daughter and she said, hey, how's it going,
what's going on? All she knows is that she was
waiting for her to answer her back. This was before
six pm. This is on that Friday. Then afterwards she
(24:03):
was waiting after the game. This is Stephanie's mom. Again,
didn't hear from her. All she knows is that she
saw her daughter, or witnesses saw her daughter going into
this building and those same individuals came out without her daughter.
That's what she told us at that time. There was
a geometric system that was broken and that we're eyeball
in the distance when her daughter fell from the seventeenth floor.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Joscott Morgan, what is the geometric system Austin PD seemingly
is talking about.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
Yeah, I'm thinking that they're probably referring to potentially something
that's referred to as a Phaoh system FARO, which actually
maps a scene and it can do high end calculations.
We're talking and when you're talking about a fall, particularly
from this height, we're talking about higher level math here,
specifically trigonometry. The idea where you have to calculate the
(24:55):
distance that she would fall, also the angle that she
would fall, and there are specific points that you have
to measure relative to that. It strikes me as odd
that Austin Austin PDE would actually say something like their
system is down. They have to actually use tools like
(25:17):
this on a daily basis. They have very high end
complex crimes, right you know?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I mean, I think that the headline there Joe Scott
is I don't need to know how quickly she feil
or how far she fell, because I already know she
was in the apartment on the seventeenth Flora at twenty one.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Rio High Rise.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
I know that I don't need a geometric system that's
on the blink to tell me that I need to
find out why she went over that rail and who
if anyone pushed her or threw her over. I really
don't think she took a running leap and jumped over
based on what Grandma is telling me.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Josephine Nova is with us MS Nova.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
When did her mother, Stephanie learn that Brianna is she dead?
Speaker 12 (26:01):
On Saturday? She tried to get a hold of the friends.
I did too as well. She tried the police to
help her find her daughter. No, there was no help,
no response. She found out about her daughters, about my
granddaughter's death. Like around four o'clock in the afternoon. She
begged the police, offered us to go and check.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The seeing police for over twenty four hours right trying
to find her daughter, and they would not help.
Speaker 12 (26:30):
No, they said that she had to wait a period
of twenty four hours. And then she kept an insistent
She never gave up. She kept an insistent calling and
because she had Brianna's location on the phone, and she
kept on saying, Mom, Brianna's location is showing me that
that the phone is in a creek. That's when we
(26:52):
started raising concerns and it got worse between us the family.
Stephanie and I kept on a report into each other
as two words. We wanted to find where Brianna was.
We knew that there was a lot of friends with her.
No one was answering the phone calls. And it was
such a coincidence that that that then after they found out,
(27:15):
they knew they had to know because they were all together.
Why didn't they called Brianna's mom, my daughter, Stephanie. Why
it was a big group and now everybody knew each other,
everybody knew Brianna. Why did they did not call my
daughter to let her know that Brianna was missing too,
that Brianna had jumped, or that Brianna had been pushed.
(27:37):
Everybody had it as a hush hush, and no one
was answering the phone calls. Now there was a rumor
someone says that they had promised each other that no
one was gonna say nothing, and that that's why they
were not answering the phones. No one was answering the phones,
and they knew that that had happened.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Did you just say that one of them told the
others not to answer the phone nobody say anything.
Speaker 12 (28:03):
Yes, that they promised each other that no one was
gonna say nothing, and that's why no one was answering
the phone calls.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Kenneth Trey Gobert joining us managing partner Lee Gobert and
Marina He graduated Texas A and M. He is joining
us from the Austin jurisdiction. I've got a lot of
problems right now, and I've always been a big supporter
of the Austin.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
PD, but not tonight.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
How can they say no foul play when they don't
even have a cod And also what about friends that
agree not to pick up the phone when the mom calls?
Speaker 18 (28:48):
Yeah, there's a lesson here in the way that Austin
Police Department, and again I'm generally very impressed with Austin
Police Department. There's a lesson that, you know, there's something
to be to be considered for mother's intuition. And when
(29:08):
Bree's mom is calling expressing these concerns, she's doing her
due diligence. She's she's noting that the phones on do
not discurb. The police should have taken it much more seriously,
much sooner, and unfortunately that's that wasn't the case. I'm
glad to hear that they're re upping their interest in
the investigation.
Speaker 10 (29:29):
Now listen, twelve forty seven am, Austin Police respond to
a Good Samaritans report of an unconscious woman outside of
the twenty one Rio high Rise. The woman is pronounced
dead at twelve fifty seven am. It's not until four
pm that afternoon that Stephanie Rodriguez has told her daughter
Brianna Aguilera is dead. Officers first tell her Bree jumped,
(29:50):
then say her friends don't know how Brie ended up
seventeen stories below.
Speaker 12 (29:54):
There's a lot of inconsistencies with the story.
Speaker 8 (29:57):
He told me that they said she jumped, and then
he told me that the friends said that they didn't
know her whereabouts.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I would like to see every one of the friends
hooked up to a polygraph, if they've got the backbone
to do it. That last son was from ksat twelve
And back to Josephine Nova, Brianna's grandmother joining us tonight.
That's inconsistent. First they say, well, she jumped. Then they go,
(30:26):
we didn't know where she was, we didn't know what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
She jumped. What that's clearly inconsistent. That's a nice way
of saying a lie, missus Nova.
Speaker 12 (30:38):
Yes, And then after that, what a coincidence that they
cleaned up the apartment really quick? They were gone, everyone
was gone.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What do you mean they cleaned up the apartment really quickly.
Speaker 12 (30:51):
Yes, that's what my daughter was told. That's what Stephanie
was told at that the following day they had every
apartment was cleaned up. That's what they say.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
And as a matter of fact, one of the people
that live there just leaves.
Speaker 12 (31:06):
They leave, yes, yes, yes, yes, And they were like
fifteen or more than fifteen partying in that same apartment,
that same place, had she Brianna got to send us
pictures with some of them in the balcony when she
was happy. She did not steel Hill, Sir. She did
not come in suicide. She did not throw herself some
(31:28):
there was a fight because someone some of those girls.
One of those girls was jealous because she thought that
the guy that she was dating, or the boyfriend or
whatever was after Brianna, and they always a fight.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Okay, hold on just a moment, miss Nova.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
I want to follow up with doctor Bethany Marshall joining us,
The same doctor Bethany Marshall that started talking about Brianna
maybe being bipolar, which she's not.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Are you getting a.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Clearer picture of what we've been talking about and why
I'm so distraught tonight?
Speaker 6 (31:59):
I mean, I am Nancy.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Hey, Bethany, listen to this. Listen to this.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
Okay.
Speaker 8 (32:05):
Now, there was that fight that happened between my daughter
and another girl, and they were all seeing in the
same apartment that I have actual text messages of, and
the detective just he just regarded them.
Speaker 19 (32:18):
Brianna's friends are questioned for the first time at one
pm Saturday, more than twelve hours after she was found dead.
The friends were allowed to come and go from the
apartment as they pleased and had plenty of time to
get their story straight. Stephanie says, the group of fourteen
refuses to speak to her, and the person who lives
there has now vacated the apartment.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
From our forensic ksat twelve, Doctor Bethany Marshall, you don't
find it odd that one of the people that lived there,
the one that lived there, just leaves, packs up and leaves.
Speaker 6 (32:51):
Reminds me of Shanquela Robinson. Remember her friends lured her
to Cabo San Lucas and then she ended up dying.
You know, Nancy, Jealousy and envy are two of the
strongest motivators for homicide. So you think of Brianna, they
were probably envious of her because she's beautiful, she has
(33:12):
a family who supports her, she's way ahead in her academics,
and also jealous. What's coming out with the grandmother is
saying that that one of the girls there thought that
her boyfriend was attracted to Brianna. So you have envy
and jealousy, which are very strong motivators. And just like
Shankalla Robinson, if you remember that story, remember the mother's intuition,
(33:34):
she knew something had happened to her daughter, and she
started to call and call those friends, got on a plane,
came home and refused to take the mother's call. It's
the same pattern all over again. And the fact that
these girls she entered the apartment with these girls, Brianna did,
but then the girls left without her. Kind of girls
(33:55):
do not act that way. Kind of girls they watch
out for their girlfriends. Of the girlfriend and disappears, they
go after them, They look for them, they want to
be in touch with the mother. In this case, the
girl's left without her, So I'm thinking that this might
be alluring her in kind of case again, especially since
the mother, her mother, really Stephanie, did not want Brianna
(34:15):
to go with these friends. Stephanie knew that something was amiss,
so maybe the friends were luring her there for some
foul purpose.
Speaker 10 (34:23):
Austin PD recovers Brionna's phone, though they haven't said where,
returning the device to her grieving mother. Stephanie says her
daughter's texts indicate she got into a fight with one
of the other girls staying at Rio twenty one Friday night.
When she highlights the texts to an officer, he tells
her they are not investigating Brianna's death as a homicide.
Speaker 11 (34:43):
I just want them to stop saying that they're not
treating this as a homicide case.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Someone did something to my daughter from Wai. Doctor Bethany
Marshall is exactly correct.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
This reminds us all of the horrific, brutal death of
Shanquola Robinson.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
This is what her mother told me.
Speaker 20 (35:05):
I told him just keep me in phone, and they
did get called back, but they still saying it was alcohol.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Wasn't.
Speaker 20 (35:11):
Later on that evening they called and seid that Shanqula
had passed. And at that point my heart clumbled up,
you know, just knowing my child was done and I
couldn't get there to her, could not do anything.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
They say, the medics came, three.
Speaker 20 (35:25):
Medics came, and no one couldn't do anything, couldn't save I.
Speaker 17 (35:29):
Don't know which way to believe, you know, I believe
the autos, but the so called friends, I just don't
know what to say about them. I just think it
was this terrible the way they've done.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That was Salamanja Robinson speaking with me after the death
of her daughter, Shanquola.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
And you saw the.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Video of Shinquela being beaten by her friends till she's dead,
and then when the mom tries to reach the friends,
they are gone, some of them. Even moving sounds familiar,
doesn't it, Sydney Summer.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
Absolutely, it sounds extremely familiar. We don't know how this
beautiful po ed ended up seventeen floors below, and none
of her friends knew that she was gone. They first
tell police she jumped, then they say they don't know
what happened to her. A bystander had to find her
(36:24):
body and alert the police. It's horrible that we're seeing
this happen again and again and again with people who
are supposed to be friends. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
And we already are hearing Sydney that they quote.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Promised each other no one would pick up the phone
when the mom calls. Can you imagine what that mom
is living through right now? And here's another case where
the parents of a murdered girl desperately seeking answers and nobody.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Will pick up the phone. Does the name Gabby Petito
ring a bell? Because I will never forget it.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
I'm asking for help everyone at home. I'm asking for help.
Speaker 15 (37:09):
From the parents of Brian, and I'm asking for help
of the family members and friends of the Laundry family
as well.
Speaker 11 (37:19):
We were having this issue of trying to get her
reported missing.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
We tried to call the laundries.
Speaker 20 (37:26):
We had a friend in insurance who kind of got
in trouble who gave us their phone numbers because we
did not have their phone numbers.
Speaker 6 (37:33):
We were having this issue of trying to get her
reported missing.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Again for the laundry silence. The laundries did not help
us find Gabby.
Speaker 11 (37:43):
They're sure is not going to help us find Brian.
Speaker 15 (37:47):
Let you bother you that Gabby was strangled, but your
son involved in strangling Gabby.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
That from Fox five, Fox ten, Fox Digital.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
And you also heard mister Potito speak missus Potito speaking
to us at crime Con.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
They begged and begged and begged.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
They couldn't even get a return phone call, a text
and email from the Laundry family. Is they searched for
Gabby and searched for answers to Kenneth Trey. Gober Trey,
your high profile lawyer out of this jurisdiction.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Why won't the friends pick up the phone when.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Brianna's mother is desperately calling looking for answers.
Speaker 18 (38:33):
Yeah, we could speculate on that. I mean, obviously, if
they feel exposure that they could have some criminal culpability,
that would be a reason why they wouldn't want to
talk about it. You know, hopefully they are talking with
law enforcement and law enforcements just protecting the quality of
(38:54):
the investigation releasing a lot of information. Unfortunately, we don't
have any reason or way to know one way or
the other other than initially report. The police were treating
this as no suspicion circumstances of Balclay.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Doctor Bethany Marshall, it looks like a rat, It smells
like a rat, It squeaks like a rat.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I smell a rat.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Everything is wrong here, and I'm extremely disappointed in the
Austin p D for blurting out no suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
You know, that was so premature because they have no
way to know. You know, remember with the Coburger quadruple
homicide that Bethany and Dylan, the surviving roommates, were desperate
to talk to the police when they got there. They
had all kinds of information they wanted to tell them.
They wanted to debrief from the traumatic experience. And you
can trast that with these so called friends a Brianna
(39:52):
who clam up and decide they're not going to return
the mother's calls and are sort of seem like they're
getting their story together. I hold my theories lightly. I
don't make up my mind right away about what's going on,
and I would hope that the PD there does the same,
that they would maybe have a theory about what happens,
but hold it lightly until they have a chance to
(40:13):
investigate and get to the bottom of this.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
To Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator or star of Body
Bags of Joe Scott Morgan, Joe Scott, throw me a bone,
what is our best hope? Is there anything that can
be learned from the autopsy at this juncture?
Speaker 1 (40:34):
What's the problem?
Speaker 4 (40:36):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, there's plenty to be learned from the autopsy Nancy. Hopefully,
layer by layer they can begin to try to understand
what kind of trauma she may have undergone prior to
going over that rail. Now that's a very delicate process
and it does take time. The other piece to this
(40:57):
is I want to make sure that they do a
very thorough job on toxicology. One of the things that
I'm very concerned about in this case is that if
there was alcohol involved, was there anything that had been
slipped to her to facilitate this? As you stated earlier,
the odds of her throwing herself over that rail are
(41:20):
kind of small, right, So would she have been inebriated
or compromised in some way that someone could have gotten
their hands on her. We need to explore every single.
Speaker 2 (41:31):
Average crime stories with Nancy Gray.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Too, Josephine Alva joining us. This is Brianna's grandmother. You
stated that she was happy, she was looking forward to
the tailgate party, looking forward to the game, had her
clothes all picked out that she was going to wear.
That's a lot of future planning.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
People that want to commit suicide are not planning a feature,
They're planning a way to commit suicide. I'm not buying it.
Tell me her state of mind, missus Nova. When she
left for that tailgate.
Speaker 18 (42:14):
Party, she did not jump.
Speaker 12 (42:17):
Someone pushed her. It had to be someone within those
two girls, one of them, I don't know which one
was it, but it was jealous of her, and she
took One of them took pictures of Brianna when a
guy had his arm around Brianna's shoulder and sent those
pictures too, Brianna's boyfriend in Lovelo. That's how the fight started.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
And as a matter of fact, that night, Brianna was
texting her mom telling her about the argument with the
so called friends.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
She was upset about the argument, how mean they were
being to her.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yes, yes, the mom had a premonition for Brianna not
to go with these friends to the tailgate. Why won't
Austin PD listen to the mom? Because we are Phil Waters.
What should Austin PD be doing right now?
Speaker 15 (43:18):
I'm sure what they are doing is they're continuing the investigation. Look,
this is only four days after this incident occurred, and
I think it's a big presumption the information we're getting
now from the mother. I understand it, but again, I'm
looking at this from a homicide top of you, and
I'm telling you these detectives are going to have to
(43:38):
finish the investigation.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
And a big part of it, one of your other
panel members.
Speaker 15 (43:43):
Has already alluded to, is that the TOTS tests to
come back are going to be I think they're going
to clarify a lot of things in terms of her
state at the time that this occurred. I've worked the
case very similar to this. A young lady went over
railing at a hotel and there were certain circumstances that
(44:05):
very suspicious. Later determined that it was an accident. So
I think part of the problem here is we're attatching
this term suicide to this.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
She makes it more painful for the family anytime that
kind of a term is attached to an investigation like this.
Speaker 15 (44:22):
Right now, it's a suspicious death investigation and they're trying
to determine what happened.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
You are comparing Brihanna's death to a case you once investigated.
You stated that in your case that you investigated, it
was an accident.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
In that case, was the rail over four feet high?
Speaker 4 (44:45):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (44:47):
And how was there an accident? She certainly the victim
certainly didn't trip over it. If it's that tall, how
was there an accident?
Speaker 15 (44:56):
Well, in this particular case, she was highly in topicated.
He gone back to the room with a co worker.
He was highly intoxicated. They were in the midst of
what they were doing in an intimate way, and at
some point in time she sat on the railing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And there you go.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So you're telling me that that victim was having sex
on a balcony rail and fell Off.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
I think it's what you're communicating.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Is that right, That's what the evidence showed.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Okay, that has no similarity to Brionna's case at all,
So comparing those is dangerous. My concern is now, no
one has been charged, no one has been named a
person of interest or a suspect. But because the Austin
PD went on record and stated there's no suspicious circumstances,
(45:53):
if this effort does go to trial.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
That's going to be defensive exhibit number one. Can't you
just hear?
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Isn't it true, Officer that you yourself stated there's nothing suspicious here?
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Didn't you say that? But yet now you want a
jury to believe it was a homicide. That's going to
be stated. That's going to be defense exhibit number one,
isn't it?
Speaker 15 (46:15):
Phil Well, I think we're making a big leap there, Nancy,
with all due respect, but I will tell you that
it's it's it is as similar as the comparison to
these other cases.
Speaker 4 (46:28):
That you've just put up here.
Speaker 15 (46:29):
Uh So, I just think each case is unique to itself,
and while there are similarities to other cases, I think
we need to concentrate on this one.
Speaker 4 (46:42):
We need to let the evidence lead us to where
we need to be.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
And it's always that you brought up a girl having
sex on a railing. The case is.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
Weird using to speak to moms.
Speaker 15 (46:57):
What I'm trying to get across here is is that
I have worked a Devilaer case where you had a
young lady.
Speaker 4 (47:02):
Who went over a rate and it was an accident.
Those were the circumstances that are which had occurred.
Speaker 15 (47:07):
Now what we have here in this case is we've
got at least fourteen or fifteen people in an apartment
celebrating or actually I guess they're A and M people,
so they're not celebrating the loss to Texas. You've got
one hundred and three thousand people attending that particular game.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
They've all been partying.
Speaker 15 (47:26):
We don't know what the level of intoxication was among
all these people. There's a lot of things we don't know,
And the information that we're getting is mainly from the mother,
and she is trying to communicate what she was told
by Austin TV. Now we all know that the more
of these stories get told, the more convoluted they get.
(47:46):
So I'm not trying to criticize anybody here except for
the fact that I think we need.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
The investigation company.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Well said they'd come out and said there's nothing, but
I found a lot suspicience.
Speaker 15 (48:03):
Has Austin PED made a press release a formal statement
saying that or is this what the mother is saying?
Speaker 1 (48:10):
That Austin PD told to Sidney some rejoining US Crime
Stories investigative reporter, where's that coming from? That Austin PD
says we're not investigating this as a homicide.
Speaker 7 (48:22):
Multiple statements from the department. They even updated a statement
after all of this outrage confirming that they are still
not investigating this as a homicide. They say there are
no suspicious circumstances and that this is a simple death investigation,
which just makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Oh okay, so Phil, it is from the Austin PD.
It's not the mom Brihanna's mom having some hysterical fit
and making up something.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
It's from Austin PD. They are the ones that says
there's no suspicious circumstances, all.
Speaker 15 (48:59):
Right, And Austin PD is telling you what they are investigating,
which is this is what we call it a suspicious.
Speaker 4 (49:05):
Death investigation or a death investigation. That's what they are doing.
Speaker 15 (49:10):
Now, if the end of this investigation, something a piece
of evidence occur, then you not this that changes direction
of the investigation, then that will reveal it, and that
will send that that way. But at this point in time,
the detectives are telling everyone that what they have right
now is a death investigation and they're going to continue
(49:33):
that way. It doesn't mean that they're not They're not
going to go, oh wow, we've got a piece of
evidence here that now sending us in a murder investigation.
Speaker 4 (49:42):
That's not what they're saying.
Speaker 15 (49:43):
They're saying at this point in time, the evidence that
they have is not leading them to a murder. It's
leading them to a death investigation, and they want to
find out why and how she ended.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
Up on the pavement on the twenty ninth of November.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
And Sidney, what exactly were the words from Austin PD.
What exactly did they say, because it doesn't sound like
what he just said.
Speaker 7 (50:06):
They say there is no indication of suspicious circumstances, and
they update that to say there is no evidence to
suggest or support any suspicious or criminal circumstances. That is
the language of their statement. They do not believe anyone
else was involved in Breonna's death.
Speaker 2 (50:25):
New York Control Room, could you please send a copy
of tonight's program to Austin PD. I'm hearing you, yes,
so maybe we can help them find the same suspicious
circumstances that we have found and that her grandmother has found,
(50:46):
and that her mother has found. You know what, It
is a sad state when the mother can't grieve for
her daughter because she is trying to solve her death.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
If you know or think you know anything.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
About the death of this beautiful young Texas A and
m co ed Brianna Aguilera, please call Texas Crime Stoppers
five one two for seven two eight four seven seven tonight.
Please join us in our prayers for Brianna's family as
(51:24):
they search.
Speaker 13 (51:26):
For the truth.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend.
Host
Nancy Grace
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