A BELOVED COLLEGE CHEERLEADER DIES - WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED HER EXTENSIVE INJURIES? WAS IT MURDER OR SOMETHING ELSE?

"48 Hours" Investigates in "The Final Hours of Cayley Mandadi"

Saturday, Sept. 19, 10:00 PM

Peter Van Sant and 48 HOURS provide the first in-depth look into the death of a beloved college cheerleader and the case against her boyfriend Mark Howerton, in "The Final Hours of Cayley Mandadi" to be broadcast Saturday, Sept. 19 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

48 HOURS takes viewers inside a case that left a family struggling to find out what happened to the young woman and the debate that continues today over the cause of her fatal injuries.

"This is a case where there's more than meets the eye and things aren't always what they seem," says John Hunter, Howerton's attorney.

Mandadi, 19, a sophomore at Trinity University, was last seen alive at a San Antonio music festival with Howerton, 22, on Oct. 29, 2017. Howerton told police that on the night of the concert the couple took party drugs and had consensual sex. At some point, Mandadi stopped breathing. He said he rushed her to the nearest hospital, where medical teams tried multiple ways to save her.

"Even the most explicit television shows don't show you what I saw that day," says Alison Steele, Cayley's mother, about when she first saw her daughter at the hospital. "Did she fall out of an airplane? Was she thrown off a bridge?"

Mandadi was declared brain-dead and taken off life support. Investigators believed the injuries pointed to murder. The medical examiner ruled that she died of blunt force trauma to the face and head. Howerton was arrested on Feb. 28, 2018 and charged with sexual assault, murder and later with kidnapping. Prosecutors thought it was an open-and-shut case, though it would prove anything but. Complicating the investigation was that there were no witnesses.

What caused the injuries? Were some the result of how Mandadi was handled by first responders in their dramatic efforts to save her life? Was she beaten? Or did she suffer from a fall at the music festival?

Mandadi's mother maintains Howerton murdered her daughter.

"He knew that Cayley would be an easy mark, and so he fixated on her," she says. "And when it didn't go the way he wanted... he snapped."

What happened when the case went to trial left onlookers stunned.

48 HOURS: "The Final Hours of Cayley Mandadi" is produced by Chris Young Ritzen and Ted Gesing. Claire St. Amant and Ryan Smith are the development producers. Doreen Schechter and Greg Kaplan are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.

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