Texas couple tries to solve their daughter's mysterious death | Forensic Files

on October 29th 2017 19-year-old college student Kaylee mandad arrived at a Texas
hospital she was nearly naked bruised and not breathing her sometime boyfriend Mark Howton told doctors they'd taken
ecstasy at a music festival and she passed out after consensual sex in his car her parents rushed to her side
doctor came in and we asked what's the prognosis and he said there is none he said she's not coming out of this I'm
telling you right now I'm sorry the medical examiner ruled that Kaylee had died from blunt force trauma to the face
and to the head and Mark Howton is arrested at the first trial in 2019 the jury was unable to reach a verdict and a
mistrial was declared before howerton's second trial in 2023 kayle's stepfather Lawrence baand and mother Allison steel
made it their mission to get Justice for their daughter you became investigators
we did yes I knew we needed to show what happened in that car the jury needed to
know how it happened Allison a scientist and Lawrence a NASA engineer both got to
work I spent hours and hours studying autopsy photos and I really fixated on one of the autopsy photos that showed an
impact on kayle's head you know right in front of her ear there was a small dot above kayle's right ear she also had
deep bruising above her left ear kayle's parents believe her bruises tell a story
we believe that of all of the injuries the blows that he landed on her the Fatal one occurred when he reached from
his driver's seat HIIT her in the left ear and drove her head into the window and onto the lock button of the car in
fact in a recorded audio interview with police the day Kaye died howon admitted he had previously done just that did you
ever push Kay's head up against the window um I pushed her and she hit the window one time that was over a week ago
yes so in many respects it was like same song second verse they'd need proof to convince a jury kayle's parents headed
to a used car lot where Allison posed in a car similar to the Mercedes Howton drove that night and I'd photographed
her head in different positions while I'm holding the autopsy images trying to see if they match up with the door and
it's a near perfect match Lawrence decided to go a step further by building a 3D model of his stepdaughter's head to
bring them closer to having actual proof so then I loaded this 3D modeling program the first thing you can do is
you can create a solid out of that 3D mesh and then and you can project an image onto it this gave me the
confidence to go to the next step which was to seek out the Killer's car Howton sold the car in 2018 Lawrence Tracked
Down the new owner and bought the car what' you think of that uh well this is new this is uh not something I've been
uh accustomed to hearing uh in other cases show me what what you believe went down let's go up to the passenger side
the car Kaye was fatally injured in is sitting in her parents' driveway Lawrence says driving it home was a
haunting experience it's torturous um but it's also you you know she was showing us
what happened you know she was guiding us to this car can you believe that he struck her
when he did she came over to this knob her hit her head hit it now you notice when you push it down it doesn't go FL
it doesn't go flat right this will not retract fully no matter how hard you hit it kayle's parents decided to commission
a video to demonstrate their theory in court they went and found two actors a male and a female to to dress the parts
they were um similar size similar weight if we did the Reconstruction ourselves it would be considered biased and
probably thrown out or at least discredited so they hired a private investigator to produce the
demonstration they didn't even look at it in case they were called to testify about it the following reenactment may
be disturbing for some viewers the video shows three angles of what kayle's parents and their experts
believe happened would showing a jury a video like this potentially help the prosecution's case
if if it's allowed jurors are very visual it makes it easier for them it shows how it can happen and it answers a
number of the questions that the jury had in the first trial

Alison Steele and Lawrence Baitland bought the car their daughter Cayley Mandadi was assaulted in to determine exactly how she died.

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Brief Summary

Kaylee Mandad's parents investigate her death, seeking justice against boyfriend Mark Howton through evidence and reenactments for the trial.

Key points

Kaylee's Tragic Arrival. 19-year-old Kaylee arrives at a Texas hospital, bruised and not breathing.
A Heartbreaking Prognosis. Doctors deliver the devastating news: Kaylee is not going to survive.
Parents' Quest for Justice. Kaylee's parents become investigators to seek justice for their daughter.
Recreating the Crime Scene. Kaylee's parents commission a video to demonstrate their theory in court.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's torturous, but it's also... she was guiding us to this car.

Lawrence describing the experience of driving the killer's car

3:27WatchJan 21, 2024

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