Teen’s ultimate textual content to heartbroken mum earlier than ‘gang rape in automobile’ and deadly accident
Madison Brooks, 19, was allegedly gang raped in the back seat of a car before being dumped on a busy road where she was struck by a truck and died from her injuries
Madison Brooks died in 2023(Image: Instagram)
A heartbroken mother has revealed the final message she received from her daughter before she was allegedly gang raped and died after being struck by a vehicle.
Ashley Baustert texted her daughter, Madison Brooks, 19, late at night on January 14, 2023, saying: “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Baustert said her daughter, a cheerleader at Louisiana State University, texted her back from Reggie’s Bar in Baton Rouge at 11:38pm reading: “I love you with three exclamation points and sent me a picture of her and one of my sorority sister’s sons.”
Approximately three and a half hours later, Brooks was struck by a vehicle and lay dying in the middle of a busy parkway in torrential rain. Emergency services rushed her to a local hospital, but she could not be saved.
Madison Brooks in the car with her alleged rapists (Image: WBRZ)
Police believe that Brooks died in a non-criminal road accident, but her mother said at the time: “I immediately knew that foul play was involved.
“I knew something was wrong. I knew something terrible happened,” Baustert told Fox News Digital. “Based on the circumstances of how she was hit, where she was, the time and her being alone.”
The motorist who struck Brooks remained at the scene and immediately rang 911, said police. Two other Good Samaritans stopped and attempted life-saving measures before paramedics arrived at the scene.
Baustert rushed to the hospital from her home about an hour and a half away, while Brooks’ father raced to the area from Florida. Her parents managed to reach their daughter in time to bid farewell “while she was still breathing,” Baustert said.
Madison Brooks was allegedly gang-raped before her tragic death (Image: Instagram)
“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 and Baustert’s mother, Mandy LeBlanc, revealed her focus was on maintaining her daughter’s stability amid the chaos.
“Police were at the hospital when we got there. Cops were outside the door. I wasn’t thinking about anything. I was concerned about keeping her stable,” LeBlanc told the outlet.
LeBlanch and Baustert’s brother journeyed to Reggie’s Bar, a popular hangout for LSU students, to retrieve Brooks’ mobile phone. It was at this point the family began to suspect there was more to the tale.
“We were like there’s no way Madi put herself at 3 in the morning on the parkway in that neighbourhood without her phone,” Baustert said. “Like, no one would do that.”
Upon recovering Brooks’ phone, Baustert’s mother’s intuition was validated and the case swiftly escalated into a criminal investigation.
Three men have been charged with allegedly gang raping Brooks in the back seat of a car. Police believe the men subsequently abandoned Brooks near the parkway following the alleged assault.
Brooks, who was found to have a blood- alcohol level of. 319%, almost four times the legal limit for driving, subsequently stumbled into the four-lane road where she was hit by a lorry.
Desmond Carter, Kaivon Washington, and Casen Carver face charges of allegedly attacking Brooks after an evening of drinking at the pub. All three men refute the rape allegations, insisting that their sexual encounter with Brooks in the car was consensual.
Carter’s trial is set to begin on 17 August.
