Alexandria “Ally” Kostial, a 21-year-old University of Mississippi student, was shot to death by a classmate in July 2019.
Alexandria “Ally” Madison Kostial was born on September 11, 1997, in St. Louis, Missouri, to parents Cindy and Keith Kostial. She had one brother, Andrew, along with a grandfather, aunts, an uncle, and several cousins who remained close to her throughout her life.
Growing up in the St. Louis area, Ally attended Lindbergh High School, graduating in 2016 after taking part in track and field, golf, cheerleading, Youth in Government, and the National Honor Society. She also traveled abroad twice as a volunteer, teaching English to children in Peru and in parts of Africa.
Those who knew her in high school remembered her as an unusually cheerful and welcoming person who made friends easily and treated new acquaintances with the same warmth she showed old ones.
In the fall of 2016, Ally began her freshman year at the University of Mississippi, a school she had wanted to attend since childhood, drawn to its academics, its football culture, and its campus scenery.
She studied marketing and business and quickly filled her schedule with activities: she became a founding member of the Alpha Phi sorority, joined the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity, started and led the Ole Miss Golf Club, and taught yoga and pilates classes on campus.
She also kept a social media page devoted entirely to photographs of sunsets, a hobby her friends later said captured how she saw the world. That same year, she met fellow freshman Brandon Theesfeld, who had grown up in Fort Worth, Texas.
The two began seeing each other on and off, though they were never officially a couple, and Theesfeld would at times block her phone number for weeks at a stretch.
Theesfeld’s attorney later described the relationship as casual on his client’s side, while Ally’s mother has said her daughter hoped to meet a husband in college and hoped Theesfeld might be that person.
Some of Ally’s closest friends said they never met Theesfeld at all during the years the two were involved, and one friend has said the relationship left Ally feeling manipulated. One friend, Morgan Hull, later told CBS News that when they learned of his arrest, “we didn’t even know his last name.”
In April 2019, about three months before her death, Ally told Theesfeld through text messages that she thought she might be pregnant. On April 14, she sent him a photo of a home pregnancy test with a faint, inconclusive line.
Theesfeld replied that if she were pregnant, they would not keep the child and that she should get a pill to end the pregnancy. Over the months that followed, he largely avoided responding to her messages, and when he did reply, he continued to say he did not want to become a father.
He also avoided meeting her in person, at times agreeing to see her and then failing to show up. During this period, Ally sent him long, detailed messages about her feelings and, at times, about how much alcohol she had been drinking.
A forensic psychologist who later reviewed the messages for CBS News’s “48 Hours” said the pattern suggested Ally may have been trying to get Theesfeld’s attention and support at a time when she felt alone in dealing with the situation.
On July 12, 2019, Theesfeld drove from Oxford to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to visit his father. Two days later, he posted a photograph on social media of a .40-caliber Glock pistol that his father had purchased, writing that he was, according to court evidence reported by Magnolia State Live, “finally taking my baby back to Oxford.”
That same day, he searched online for silencers and suppressors that would fit the weapon. He drove back to Oxford on July 16, and his internet search history that day included hollow-point ammunition, tactical face masks, and how the convicted serial killer Ted Bundy had lured his victims.
Investigators also said his search history from that period included how to get away with committing crimes, how to restrain another person, and phrases related to a mother wanting to keep a pregnancy against a father’s wishes.
On July 17, for the first time since the pregnancy scare began, Theesfeld reached out to Ally and indicated he was ready to talk. The next day, he asked whether her house was private.
On July 19, he asked if she would be home so he could visit, and later that evening told her to let him know once she returned from going out. Around 7 p.m. that evening, Ally spoke by phone with her mother, a conversation Cindy Kostial later described as entirely ordinary.
Ally mentioned she had just woken from a nap after taking an exam that morning and planned to go out with friends later. It turned out to be their final conversation.
Shortly before midnight, surveillance cameras in Oxford Square recorded Ally leaving a bar alone while looking down at her phone. She took a ride-share home and arrived safely sometime after midnight.
At 12:46 a.m. on July 20, security footage showed Theesfeld’s truck driving in the direction of her home; by 1:14 a.m., the same truck was seen heading in the opposite direction.
Cellphone records showed both of their phones moving together toward Sardis Lake, an area about 30 miles north of the Ole Miss campus. Between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m., residents near the lake reported hearing several gunshots. By 2:50 a.m., both phones were headed back toward Oxford.
Prosecutors said Theesfeld and Ally had sat together at a picnic table near an abandoned fishing site by the lake before he shot her at least nine times.
Investigators later recovered 11 spent shell casings at the scene, along with several empty beverage cans. Based on where the casings landed, they concluded that Theesfeld had moved around the table as he fired, rather than shooting from one spot.
Theesfeld’s attorney has said the two had been drinking that night and that his client had also used cocaine, and that Theesfeld fired one shot toward the lake before turning the gun on Ally.
Theesfeld has denied that the killing was planned, saying instead that he acted while under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
At approximately 10:30 a.m. that same morning, a Lafayette County sheriff’s deputy on routine patrol discovered Ally’s body in the Harmontown area of the county.
Nearby, in a ditch, investigators found her purse, which contained her driver’s license and student identification, allowing them to quickly confirm her identity. A preliminary autopsy determined that she had died of multiple gunshot wounds and was not pregnant at the time of her death.
Ally’s cellphone was missing from the scene, and an attempt to track its location produced only a single signal from Oxford before it went dark. A search of her apartment, however, turned up her Apple Watch, which had synced with her missing phone and retained her recent text messages.
Those messages showed that her last conversation had been with Theesfeld, and her friends confirmed to investigators that he was the only person they knew her to be seeing.
In the two days between the killing and his arrest, Theesfeld stayed with friends in Oxford and went bowling, appearing calm, investigators later said. One friend told police that Theesfeld brought a gun into his apartment on Sunday and unloaded it in the living room before leaving again the next morning.
When investigators reached out to Theesfeld, he initially agreed to come in for an interview but did not appear, later saying he had been drinking. He agreed to come in the following morning instead but again failed to show.
Investigators then obtained a warrant for his arrest and began tracking his cellphone and credit card activity, which showed him driving north on Interstate 55 toward Memphis, Tennessee.
An alert was issued for his truck, and with help from the Memphis Police Department’s fugitive task force, Theesfeld was located and arrested without incident at a gas station in South Memphis.
Officers found a handgun in his truck that matched the shell casings from the crime scene, and they noted blood on his shirt.
Theesfeld was extradited to Mississippi and booked into the Lafayette County Jail. On July 23, 2019, he made his first court appearance, where he was formally charged with murder and held without bond.
A university spokesman confirmed that Theesfeld, a student in the School of Business Administration, had been suspended. Prosecutors have since said they believe Theesfeld’s motive was to eliminate what he saw as a problem in his life.
A search of his apartment also turned up a handwritten, two-page letter addressed to his parents. In it, Theesfeld wrote, “Something in me just doesn’t work. I’ve always had terrible thoughts,” and said he expected to either go to prison or die.
His attorney later described the letter as a suicide note written after the killing, while prosecutors treated it as evidence pointing toward his guilt.
On July 25, 2019, friends and former classmates gathered for a vigil at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, Ally’s alma mater; her family did not attend. One friend, Samantha Martin, told ABC News, “She had the biggest smile.”
A public visitation followed on July 26, and a funeral service was held on July 27 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Kirkwood, Missouri.
On August 22, 2019, Theesfeld appeared in court for what had been scheduled as a bond hearing. His attorneys withdrew the request for bond and instead asked the judge to order a psychological evaluation at the Mississippi State Hospital, citing new information they did not disclose.
The judge granted both requests, and Theesfeld remained in jail without bond. At the hearing, Ally’s cousin read a brief statement on behalf of the family, thanking the community for its support and asking for strength in the days ahead.
On August 30, 2019, a Lafayette County grand jury indicted Theesfeld on a charge of capital murder, alleging that he had kidnapped Ally before killing her.
Under Mississippi law, a capital murder charge requires that another serious crime happen along with the killing. Prosecutors said that crime was kidnapping. The following month, Theesfeld entered a plea of not guilty.
That September, friends of Ally launched a fundraising campaign to dedicate a fitness studio in her name at Ole Miss’s new South Campus Recreation Center, in honor of the yoga and pilates classes she had taught on campus.
Their original goal of $150,000 was later reduced to $75,000 after discussions with university officials. One friend, Hannah Chauvin, told a local television station, “Starting the school year without Ally is obviously going to be really hard.”
At a memorial service held that same month at the Ole Miss Student Union, Ally’s cousin, Kristi Kelley, told those gathered that “Ally shared 21 years of joy and positive spirit.”
A court-ordered psychological evaluation later determined that Theesfeld was competent to stand trial and had understood the difference between right and wrong at the time of the killing.
The evaluation also found that he had not been under extreme mental or emotional disturbance when he shot Ally. The judge later ruled that choosing to use drugs and alcohol could not excuse the crime. His trial was further delayed in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On August 27, 2021, Theesfeld appeared before Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, a charge reduced from capital murder because prosecutors said proving the kidnapping element would have been difficult at trial.
His attorney, Tony Farese, told the Oxford Eagle before the hearing, “We negotiated a plea,” after working with the district attorney’s office to reach the agreement. The change in plea removed the possibility of a death sentence.
Judge Luther sentenced him to a mandatory term of life in prison; under Mississippi law, Theesfeld may petition for conditional release at age 65 after serving at least 15 years of his sentence.
Addressing Ally’s family in court, Theesfeld said, “I am sincerely sorry for the pain I’ve caused while taking Ally from you.” Ally’s mother, Cindy Kostial, responded in a written statement read aloud to the court, telling him, “Brandon, you belong in jail each day for the rest of your life.”
Following the hearing, Theesfeld’s mother shared a statement through his attorney, saying she had never suspected her son could be responsible for such a crime and urging other parents to make sure their own children know they can share any problem, no matter how serious, without fear.
