UTPA Death Ruled a Suicide: Authorities

The death of an 18-year-old woman in Edinburg, Texas was an apparent suicide, according to Hidalgo County Chief Pathologist Norma Jean Farley. University officials announced the cause of death Tuesday, but did not provide details. The body of Brenda Dominguez, a junior at Edinburg North High School, was discovered by construction crews early Monday, at the foot of a staircase on the edge of the University of Texas-Pan American campus, about a half mile from where she lived.

The Monitor, a Rio Grande Valley publication, reported Dominguez had been with two friends on the way to lunch earlier in the day and had passed by the three-story balcony that connects the Science Building to an external staircase. She reportedly commented to her friends, this would be a good spot to kill myself. The friends had begged her not to. It wasn't the first time she had made such pleas for help, according to family friends. She was also known to cut herself, a detail The Monitor confirmed with police investigators.

An official University statement said: The UTPA community sends its condolences to the family and the school district. Our thoughts and prayers are with them in this time of tragedy.