Brandon Theesfeld and the Murder of Ally Kostial

Brandon Theesfeld is a former University of Mississippi student serving life in prison for the 2019 murder of Ally Kostial, a 21-year-old Ole Miss classmate he shot near Sardis Lake in Lafayette County, Mississippi. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on August 27, 2021, under an agreement that spared him a possible death sentence. The Brandon Theesfeld and Ally Kostial murder case drew national attention for its premeditation, including a trail of digital evidence showing weeks of planning before the killing.

Who Ally Kostial Was

Alexandria “Ally” Madison Kostial was born on September 11, 1997, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was entering her senior year at the University of Mississippi, where she studied marketing in the School of Business Administration and planned to graduate in spring 2020.¹ She was a founding member of the Alpha Phi sorority, the founder and president of the school’s Golf Club, and a campus fitness instructor.²

Theesfeld, originally from Fort Worth, Texas, met Kostial at Ole Miss in the fall of 2016, where he was studying business administration. Friends described what followed as an on-and-off romance, though the two were never officially a couple. A former housemate of Kostial’s called the dynamic “complicated.”³

The Pregnancy Scare That Preceded the Killing

In April 2019, Kostial texted Theesfeld that she thought she might be pregnant. Text messages later recovered from her Apple Watch and phone records showed she had taken an inconclusive home pregnancy test and was trying to talk with him about it.⁴ Theesfeld largely ignored her. When he did reply, prosecutors said, he was blunt that he did not want a child and wanted her to end the pregnancy. An autopsy later confirmed Kostial was not pregnant when she died, a point defense attorney Tony Farese emphasized at the plea hearing.⁵

Weeks of Planning

After the April pregnancy scare, Theesfeld searched online for abortion pills and services.⁶ In July 2019, he traveled to the Dallas–Fort Worth area and returned to Oxford with a Glock Model 22 .40 caliber pistol that had been purchased by his father. On July 14, 2019, he posted a photo of the gun on social media with the caption “Finally taking my baby back to Oxford.”⁵ That same day, his searches included silencers and suppressors for that pistol.

On July 16, 2019, the day he returned to Oxford, his searches turned to “hollow tip ammunition,” “tactical face masks,” and “how convicted serial killer Ted Bundy lured victims.”⁵

The Night of July 19–20, 2019

On the evening of July 19, surveillance cameras captured Kostial leaving a bar on the Oxford Square at 11:52 p.m. She was seen hugging someone before walking away alone, getting into a rideshare van around 11:57 p.m., and arriving back at her apartment at The Retreat at Oxford by midnight.⁷

Surveillance and GPS data showed Theesfeld’s truck heading toward her residence at 12:46 a.m. on July 20.⁶ Prosecutors said he picked Kostial up around 1:28 a.m. and drove her roughly 20 miles from campus to a remote fishing camp at Buford Ridge near Sardis Lake. A nearby resident heard gunshots between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m.⁵

Investigators recovered 11 .40 caliber shell casings at the scene, and ballistics testing matched them to the Glock Theesfeld had brought from Texas.⁶ A preliminary autopsy determined the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.⁸ Kostial’s purse, with her school ID and driver’s license inside, was found by the roadside near the scene.⁴ Lafayette County sheriff’s deputies discovered her body at 10:23 a.m. on July 20, 2019, during a routine patrol of the Harmontown area.⁹

Arrest in Memphis

Surveillance video from a market in Como showed Kostial and Theesfeld together before her death, helping investigators identify him.¹⁰ After the killing, he searched for “how to listen to police scanners” and “Sardis, Mississippi news,” and lied to friends about having an exterminator at his apartment to explain his movements. Investigators later confirmed those claims were false by contacting his apartment manager.⁶ When police asked him to come in for questioning, he stalled and then fled Oxford.

On the morning of July 22, 2019, authorities tracked his phone and obtained an arrest affidavit. The Memphis Police Department’s Fugitive Task Force arrested him at a gas station in South Memphis. He was wearing an Ole Miss baseball T-shirt, and officers found the .40 caliber murder weapon and bloody clothes in his pickup truck.⁷ He was booked into the Lafayette County Detention Center that afternoon.¹⁰

The Letter to His Parents

Searching his apartment, investigators found a two-page handwritten letter addressed to Theesfeld’s parents. “Dear Mom and Dad, I am not a good person. It is not your fault. Something in me just doesn’t work. I’ve always had terrible thoughts. Those thoughts have been fueled by cocaine and alcohol. I think this is the end for me. I’m either going to prison or going to die. I know I’m going to get caught.”¹¹

Prosecutors treated the letter as a confession and apology that showed Theesfeld understood what he had done. Defense attorney Tony Farese argued it was primarily a suicide note, saying Theesfeld told him he had held the gun to his own head and passed out before completing the act.¹²

Guilty Plea and Life Sentence

A grand jury indicted Theesfeld on capital murder on August 30, 2019, and he initially pleaded not guilty.⁴ A mental evaluation in October 2020 found him competent and legally sane, and the case was further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 27, 2021, Theesfeld appeared before Lafayette County Circuit Judge Kelly Luther and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Under the plea agreement with the State of Mississippi, the capital charge, which had carried a possible death sentence, was reduced to first-degree murder.¹³ Assistant District Attorney Mickey Mallette walked the court through the digital searches, GPS data, ballistics, and the handwritten letter, and read a victim impact statement from Kostial’s mother, Cindy Kostial, who called Theesfeld an “evil, callous, scheming, ungrateful, sinister and violent and corrupt monster.”⁵

Theesfeld admitted driving Kostial to Sardis Lake and shooting her but offered no motive. He told the Kostial family, “There is no excuse for my actions.”³ Judge Luther sentenced him to life in prison. Under Mississippi law, he is eligible to petition for conditional release at age 65, after serving a minimum of 15 years.⁵

Where Theesfeld Is Now

Theesfeld is incarcerated at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, housed in Unit 30, under Mississippi Department of Corrections ID number 234907. He entered the facility on September 1, 2021.¹⁴

1
ABC News. Ole Miss Student, 21, Found Dead Near Lake
2
St. Louis Cremation. Alexandria Madison Kostial Obituary
3
People. Ally Kostial Murder: Ole Miss Student Pleads Guilty
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CBS News. Ally Kostial Murder: Brandon Theesfeld Evidence
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Oxford Eagle. Former Ole Miss Student Pleads Guilty to Killing Ally Kostial, Sentenced to Life in Prison
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Magnolia State Live. Details Emerge About How Brandon Theesfeld Planned, Murdered Ole Miss Classmate
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Oxford Eagle. Timeline of Events Surrounding the Death of Ally Kostial
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WAPT. New Surveillance Video of Murdered Student Released
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Oxford Eagle. Ole Miss Student Found Dead in Harmontown
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WLBT. Arrest Made in Connection With Death of Ally Kostial
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People. Ally Kostial: Tragic Case of College Student Murdered by Brandon Theesfeld
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CBS News. Ally Kostial Murder: Brandon Theesfeld, A Cautionary Tale
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NBC DFW. Fort Worth Man Pleads Guilty in Death of Former Ole Miss Student
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Mississippi Department of Corrections. Inmate Details: Brandon Theesfeld