HOUSTON – Rice University student Andrea Rodriguez Avila died of multiple gunshots Monday, according to the medical examiner report from Harris County’s Institute of Forensic Sciences.
Investigators said Avila was the victim of a murder-suicide. Her body was found in her dorm room that afternoon, along with the body of the man police say shot her and then himself.
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Police say Avila and the 22-year-old man had dated at some point and that he left a note detailing problems in the relationship.
Campus police went to her room for a welfare check after Avila’s parents called. They were concerned because it was the first day of classes and they had not heard from her.
Investigators said it’s likely Avila allowed the man in as a visitor to Jones College, which was the residential building she lived in.
The university’s handgun policy does not allow anyone to enter campus property with a handgun, concealed or carried openly. It also forbids anyone in the Rice community -- including faculty, staff, students, contractors, and visitors -- “from possessing firearms, explosives, other dangerous weapons, and replicas of dangerous weapons while on Rice property.”
Investigators have not identified the man but said Monday he may have been from Florida.
Avila remembered as exceptional student
This was Avila’s second semester at Rice.
She transferred here last Spring from the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland where the 21-year-old was active in many organizations including the college-wide student programming board, Multicultural Student Association, Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society and the First Year Experience Mentor program.
Avila was a political science and pre-law student at Rice. She was also Deputy Parliamentarian of the Rice Student Association and a member of the university’s Honor Council.
The university doesn’t have sororities or fraternities like many other colleges. Students get randomly assigned to residential colleges and stay there as undergrads and can get involved in a variety of academic, social and political events and groups. Avila was a peer academic advisor at Jones College.
Avila’s parents arrived in Houston on Tuesday and University President University President Reginald DesRoches they were being supported by the Rice community.
Students at Rice returned to classes on Wednesday.