In a tragic series of events, Regina Santos-Aviles, a 35-year-old regional director for Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas, succumbed to severe burn injuries on September 14, 2025, following an act of self-immolation at her home in Uvalde, Texas. First responders discovered her on September 13, gravely injured on her front porch.
The Uvalde Police Department's records, released to the public on Monday, detail Santos-Aviles' state of distress leading up to the incident. She reportedly told officers that she had been driven to self-harm upon learning of an extramarital affair involving her estranged husband, Adrian Aviles, and her best friend. In a separate statement, she suggested her husband was having an affair with her best friend who is also male. Adrian Aviles has strongly refuted these allegations, emphasizing that there was no sexual relationship between him and the woman in question, whom he describes as a childhood friend.
The situation became more complicated when the New York Post obtained information that months before the incident, sexually explicit text messages were discovered between Santos-Aviles and Congressman Gonzales. A former colleague alleged that the affair led to Santos-Aviles' mental and emotional decline, characterized by increased alcohol use and medication misuse.
The night of the self-immolation, Adrian Aviles was reportedly at Hotel Valencia with a female companion, while police reports indicate Santos-Aviles sent a distressing video to a friend, hinting at her imminent actions. The recovered text message read, "Tell baller I’m setting myself on fire right now, so have fun raising our son," followed by a five-second video of her pouring gasoline on herself.
Investigators found medications at the scene and were told by Adrian Aviles that his wife had been combining antidepressants with alcohol. Although he initially described her as stable, a friend mentioned that Santos-Aviles may have had mental health concerns since her teenage years. This adds another layer to the tragedy, as there was an earlier incident where police were dispatched after Santos-Aviles threatened self-harm with a firearm with her child present.
Adrian and Regina Aviles shared an eight-year-old son and had been separated since August 2024. The deeply personal and political ramifications of this incident have yet to be fully understood, but they have undoubtedly left a community in mourning and raised questions about mental health care and the impact of personal crises.
