Newly released video footage shows University of Mississippi student Ally Kostial on her last night alive.
Kostial, 21, was found shot dead in Harmontown, Mississippi on July 20.
Brandon Theesfeld, 22, was arrested two days later and charged with murdering the college student.
Just before midnight on Friday, Kostial was seen in surveillance footage walking out of Funky’s Bar in Oxford, a town near Ole Miss located about 30 miles from where she was found dead.
Police said that a gray van pulled up nearby and Kostial got into the van, which was being driven by a driver for a rideshare company. Kostial appeared to be alone outside the bar, only interacting with someone at the door, before she entered the vehicle.
According to WMC, both Kostial and Theesfeld were seen on surveillance video at the Lakeside Market in Como early Saturday, near where her body was later found.
Erin Beadle, a bartender in Oxford, told ABC that Theesfeld was a regular at Funky’s.
“My reaction was I don’t think he did it, just because I knew him, who he was,” she said, noting he was a good tipper and acted properly when at the bar.
“He’s always been a gentleman, and been sweet, and been kind, and just overall a goofy dude. So hearing these things about him makes me scared, to not want to trust anybody you meet … ’cause in Oxford, you know, everybody’s sweet,” she added.
“It makes me more scared as a person, or as a woman, because you never think anything like that would happen in Oxford. I don’t want to think someone has the capacity to do that.”
Rex Ravita, who lived in the same dorm as Theesfeld at Ole Miss for more than a year, told KMOV that the suspect was arrogant.
“I’m not going to sugar coat it, he was pretty much a daddy’s boy type, constantly had to reference his father’s money, how his dad could get him out of anything, just that attitude all the time,” he said.
“Any type of vulgar comment he could say, any type of rude comment to anybody in our dorm, any of the women.”
Ravita said Theesfeld and Kosital dated on and off for a few years.
“It was surprising because I knew him and of the situation, but to hear that the circumstances of how and why it happened, it just all clicked and made sense,” said Ravita.
“I truly believe that he manipulated her emotionally to have her believe that he loved her the same way she did, and I think he had her on the hook until the very last second.”
Kostial was studying for a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Her father, Keith Kostial, said that his daughter had been attending summer school and teaching fitness classes at the university.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the slain student’s family with funeral expenses.
“Instead of planning for a college graduation, they are now planning for a funeral. The funds from this campaign will be used to help bury Ally,” fund organiser Lynn Holler wrote on the page.
University of Mississippi Interim Chancellor Larry Sparks sent condolences to the family.
“We are truly saddened by the death of Alexandria Kostial,” Sparks wrote. “Ally was a valued member of our campus community. We extend our deepest sympathy to her family, friends, and classmates and stand ready to support them during this time.”
Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.
