Before her tragic death, nineteen-year-old Cayley Mandadi was a typical college freshman trying to fit in with the rest of her school, leading a happy life with her boyfriend, Mark Howerton. From the outside, it seemed like a healthy relationship, but later on, it took a dark turn. When Cayley was found dead on October 29th, all eyes were turned toward Howerton, with plenty of evidence going against him.

     Cayley and her boyfriend Mark went to the Mala Luna Music Festival in San Antonio on the last weekend of October. They were later seen leaving the festival at around 4 pm. Mark said that they continued to the car and arrived there to have sex. He discovered that Cayley had stopped breathing. Mark was the first suspect because of Cayley’s condition when she was found, with Cayley being bruised all over.

     Upon realizing that Cayley was unconscious, Mark immediately took her to the emergency room for help. Cayley was found in the car, still unconscious. Her body was covered in bruises, which led officers to believe that her death was a murder and not a health problem. When realizing this, officers inspected Mark Howerton’s hand, which was completely red. Since there was a possibility that Mark had assaulted Cayley, the officers began to question him.

     In court, Mark was charged with murder and sexual assault. In 2019, he went on trial for murder, but it was called a mistrial due to the judge not being able to conclude Mark’s guilt or innocence. Because of this, the judge asked Cayley’s parents to try and come up with a theory about her death.

     Before this, the leading theory was that the paramedics who arrived on the scene were the ones who bruised Cayley’s body since in the process of trying to revive her, they injured and broke several of Cayley’s ribs. However, this theory wasn’t adequate to sway the judge’s opinion. 

     The theory that Cayley’s parents came up with was that Mark pushed Cayley’s face into the car window, which was supported by bruises around Cayley’s ears. Along with a demonstration of a used car, they developed a 3D model to prove their theory and a video demonstrating what might’ve happened. To make the video, Cayley’s parents convinced Mark to sell them his car so they could get an accurate demonstration. With this new evidence, Mark was taken back into court and proven guilty, giving him 20 years in prison.

     In September of 2019, Cayley’s parents were able to get the CLEAR Alert Bill passed.  Now, when someone goes missing, the whole community will be notified to help look for this person. People like Cayley’s best friend were thankful that this case was solved, providing them a sense of closure. Due to this unfortunate case, Cayley’s parents were able to potentially save thousands of other people.

Sources:

 https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/cayley-mandadi-death-final-hours-photos/