Grieving Texas parents go to extreme lengths to crack case of teen daughter’s mysterious death – including buying murder suspect’s CAR and hiring actors to reenact moment she was ‘beaten to death’

Grieving parents in Texas went to great lengths to solve the case of their teenage daughter’s mysterious death, including buying the murder suspect’s car and hiring actors to reenact the moment of her death.

Cayley Mandadi, 19, a sophomore cheerleader at Trinity University, died on October 31, 2017 from head trauma after falling unconscious in a car traveling between San Antonio and Houston.

Her boyfriend, Mark Phillip Howerton, 27, was charged with murder, aggravated assault and criminal mischief, but his trial ended in a hung jury in December 2019.

Mandadi’s mother Alison Steele and stepfather Lawrence Baitland believed something terrible had happened to her and were determined to prove it.

They focused on finding out exactly how she got her injuries, which included buying Howerton’s car, constructing a 3D model of her head and using actors to reenact what they think happened before her death happened in the vehicle.

Howerton was later convicted of aggravated assault over Mandadi’s death and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2023.

Mandadi was nearly naked, covered in bruises and not breathing when she was taken to a hospital on October 29, 2017.

Her boyfriend Howerton claimed they both took ecstasy at a music festival and she passed out in his car after consensual sex.

It was ruled that she died of blunt force facial and head trauma and that her death was a homicide.

Howerton was subsequently indicted and faced a trial in December 2019 in which prosecutors accused him of beating her in his car and causing a fatal brain hemorrhage.

But his lawyer John Hunter said he did not cause the injuries and argued they were the result of hospital staff’s resuscitation efforts and complications from drug use.

The jury failed to reach a verdict after ten hours of deliberation and the trial was declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors planned to retry Howerton, but Mandadi’s parents tried to get more information for the jury about what happened to their daughter in the car.

“We’re not prosecutors, we’re not doctors, but we know people who have these skills and maybe we can develop a way to crowdsource answers to this case,” scientist Steele told me. CBS’ 48 Hours.

“So that’s what we did. We started making phone calls, we started making inquiries.”

She and NASA engineer Baitland tried to gather as much evidence as possible.

“What we did was take that evidence and make sense of it in a way that wasn’t done in the first trial,” Steele added.

The couple decided to focus on an autopsy photo that showed a small bruise in the shape of a dot above her right ear.

Another image showed a larger bruise above her left ear and they believe Mandadi suffered a fatal injury when Howerton “reached from his driver’s seat, struck her in the left ear and drove her head into the window and lock button of the car.”

They needed proof, so Baitland used a software program to construct a 3D model of their daughter’s head.

He used photos of Mandadi combined with the autopsy photo showing the bruise above her right ear.

Baitland later used measurements from her glasses to determine the size of the 3D head and spoke to a biomechanical expert on injury causation who looked at the evidence and supported his theory.

“So this gave me the confidence to move on to the next step, which was to look for Mark Howerton’s car,” he said.

He then went on the hunt for Howerton’s Mercedes, which he sold in 2018.

“I … reached out to some friends on social media who … were on a car forum and they were able to look up (the) car’s VIN number for me,” Baitland said.

The owner didn’t want to sell it at first, but later agreed after hearing the family’s tragic story.

He said it was “torturous” having to drive home but it was necessary to continue the investigation.

“We had to have the vehicle to show how she was attacked,” Baitland added.

He and Steele then instructed actors to participate in a reenactment video of what they think happened in the car.

They used the evidence photos to get it as accurate as possible, including what Mandadi and Howerton were wearing and what was in the backseat.

The couple hired actors who were the same size and weight as the couple.

The video shows three angles of what Mandadi’s parents and experts believe happened to her and how she suffered the fatal head injury.

Prosecutors in the case said they have never seen a victim’s family go to such lengths.

But attorney Hunter says it is “unscientific” and does not prove guilt.

Howerton was retried and found guilty of aggravated assault in Mandadi’s death in June.

At the time, prosecutor David Lunan said the teen’s family was relieved there was finally some closure.

“We’re happy – the family is happy that there’s closure here,” he said.

“Meeting with family members, friends and everyone else affected by these crimes, and they have suffered, and we are happy to bring it to a close today.”