The San Antonio Specific-Information reported on Tuesday that Gonzales had been engaged in an affair with Santos-Aviles, the congressman’s regional district director in Uvalde, citing sources near her household. The outlet spoke to a former Gonzales staffer who stated Santos-Aviles knowledgeable him about her relationship with the congressman in 2024. The staffer stated there was inside fallout within the congressional workplace after the affair was revealed, which despatched Santos-Aviles right into a deep melancholy. They shared an April 27, 2025, textual content message from Santos-Aviles to the Specific-Information by which she wrote, “I had affair with our boss and I’m fantastic. You’ll be fantastic.” The outlet confirmed that the message got here from a cell-phone quantity and textual content chain related to Santos-Aviles.
The ex-aide stated Santos-Aviles’s husband, Adrian Aviles, found her relationship with Gonzales in Might and started to textual content members of Gonzales’s workplace to inform them what he knew. Santos-Aviles quickly discovered herself sidelined within the workplace, prompting immense turmoil:
In keeping with the previous staffer, operations in Gonzales’ two-person Uvalde regional workplace shifted after Aviles texted the workers concerning the affair. Gonzales and his district director, Jalen Falcon, canceled conferences with native organizations that had been organized by Santos-Aviles and the previous staffer. He stated neither he nor Santos-Aviles accompanied Gonzales on any Uvalde visits after that time, marking a big change.
The previous staffer stated Santos-Aviles’ misery intensified within the months earlier than her loss of life and that she advised him she went on antidepressants in the summertime of 2025.
“She talked about Tony day-after-day,” he stated. “She went from the primary worker within the workplace to nothing.”
On September 13, 2025, Santos-Aviles was found in her yard with extreme burns. She succumbed to her accidents in a hospital the next day. Months later, the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Workplace would rule her loss of life a suicide by self-immolation. The Uvalde Police Division decided there have been no indicators of foul play.
