Ashley Baustert, Madison Brooks’ mother, texted her daughter late Saturday night, Jan. 14, saying, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The two agreed to meet the next morning at Brooks’ student housing to unpack the rest of Brooks’ belongings before she began her sophomore spring semester at LSU.
“I love you with three exclamation points and sent me a picture of her and one of my sorority sister’s sons,” Brooks texted her mom back from Reggie’s Bar at 11:38 p.m., Baustert told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
Brooks was hit by a car about 3.5 hours later and died in the middle of a busy Baton Rouge, Louisiana, parkway as it rained. First responders transported her to a nearby hospital but were unable to rescue her.
Investigators initially believed the 19-year-old died in a tragic-but-non-criminal car accident, but her mom said, “I immediately knew that foul play was involved.”
“I knew something was wrong. I knew something terrible happened,” Baustert said. “Based on the circumstances of how she was hit, where she was, the time and her being alone.”
According to authorities, the car that struck Brooks stayed on the scene and quickly dialled 911. Before medical professionals came, two additional Good Samaritans pulled over and attempted to save her life.
Brooks’ mother hurried to the hospital from her home 1.5 hours away in Louisiana, her father flew in from Florida, and other family members came to the hospital.
Her parents reached Brooks just in time to say their goodbyes “while she was still breathing,” Baustert said.
“We found out that she’s not going to make it, so my first and only priority was spending the last few moments that she had with her,” Baustert said.
Brooks’ grandmother, Baustert’s mother Mandy LeBlanc, said her focus was on keeping her daughter together.
“Police were at the hospital when we got there. Cops were outside the door
LeBlanc and Baustert’s brother ultimately made their way to Reggie’s Bar in Tigerland, LSU’s social hotspot that has now turned into a crime-ridden area of Baton Rouge, to recover Brooks’ mobile, which she had left there.
That was a dead giveaway to Baustert and Brooks’ families that something awful had occurred.
. I wasn’t thinking about anything. I was concerned about keeping her stable,” LeBlanc said, referring to Baustert.
“We were like there’s no way Madi put herself at three in the morning on the parkway in that neighborhood without her phone,” Baustert said. “Like no one would do that.”
After they got Brooks’ phone, Baustert’s mother’s intuition was confirmed, and the case became a criminal investigation.
