The mother of Madison Brooks, the LSU student who died following an alleged rape in January, has shared the final text message her daughter sent her before her death.
Ashley Baustert, Brooks’s mother, told Fox News Digital that she texted her daughter on the night of 14 January that she would see her the following day to finish moving her into her dorm room for the start of her second semester at the university.
Shortly thereafter, the 19-year-old responded with a text that read “I love you!!!” She also sent a picture of herself at Reggie’s Bar in east Baton Rouge with the son of one of Ms Baustert’s sorority sisters. Three-and-a-half hours later, Brooks was hit by a car in the middle of a high-traffic parkway and died.
Initially, investigators did not suspect foul play in the incident. The person who hit Brooks stayed at the scene and called for help, while two passersby stopped But Ms Baustert knew something was amiss.
“I know something was wrong,” Ms Baustert told Fox News Digital. “I know something terrible happened. Based on the circumstances of how she was hit, where she was, the time and her being alone.”
Ms Baustert’s suspicions were furthered when she went to Reggie’s Bar and found her daughter’s phone had been left there unattended.
“We were like there’s no way Madi put herself at three in the morning on the parkway in that neighbourhood without her phone,” Ms Baustert said. “Like, no one would do that.”
Eventually, police turned to an investigation of the events between when Ms Baustert last heard from her daughter and when she was hit by a car.
Police now believe that in that three-and-a-half hour period, Brooks was raped by four men who she met at the bar — Desmond Carter, 17, Casen Carver, 18, Everett Lee, 28, and Kaivon Washington, 18, who have all been arrested.
Desmond Carter was indicted in February for first-degree rape and third-degree rape. Casen Carver was indicted on 3 May on charges of first-degree rape and third-degree rape.
Investigators say that following the alleged rape, the men pushed Brooks onto the side of the Burbank Highway. They then believe that she wandered into the parkway, where she was hit by the car.
At the time of her death, Brooks had a blood alcohol content of .319 per cent — nearly four times the legal limit to drive.
Reggie’s Bar, which was located in the popular Tigerland area of Baton Rouge, had its alcohol license revoked in April and is now permanently closed.
Now, Ms Baustert and other members of Brooks’s family are working to ensure that her memory lives on. The Madison Brooks Foundation, launched in the aftermath of her death, will offer financial support to young people in need and advocate for their safety.
A billboard of Brooks, wearing pink, her favourite colour pink, is currently on display in Times Square.
