In a new statement, Catalina Mancera, girlfriend of late Dallas Cowboys star Marshawn Kneeland, says the loss of the second-year defensive end has left her feeling “broken.”
“My sweet baby, words could never express how broken I feel, you’re my everything,” Mancera, 22, wrote via Facebook on Monday, November 10, alongside a photo of the couple. “I’ll love you forever my beautiful angel.”
Two days later, news broke that Mancera is pregnant with the couple’s first baby.
Kneeland, who was 24, died of apparent suicide in the early morning hours of Thursday, November 6. Authorities found his body following a brief police chase on the Dallas Parkway. Kneeland initially fled as state troopers attempted to pull him over for a traffic violation. They found his car abandoned hours later.
“I’m grieving hard right now,” Mancera told the Daily Mail on Monday. “It will be a long time before I’ll feel ready to talk at any length.”
“We’re still in the early stages of everything,” she explained. “We are working on the funeral arrangements. I don’t know where it’s going to be yet.”
Marshawn Kneeland and Catalina Mancera Courtesy of Catalina Mancera/Facebook
Mancera notified police the night before Kneeland’s death that she was worried about his well-being and he had a history of mental illness. He reportedly sent a message to his family’s group chat that night, seemingly saying goodbye. Kneeland’s official cause of death has not been released.
“Marshawn shared a very special relationship with Catalina, whom he had been with since his sophomore year of college,” Marshawn’s cousin Nicole Kneeland-Woods told the Daily Mail. “They supported each other through many stages of life. Catalina is an important part of our family and she’s hurting deeply too.”
In the early morning hours of Thursday, November 6, Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones heard his phone ring. Stephen, the oldest son of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, answered, only to be told that Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland was dead. The call came “not long after the incident,” according to ESPN. Kneeland’s body […]
“Marshawn was a strong, loving person who cared deeply about his family and everyone around him,” she added.
The Cowboys are coming off their bye week and have not played since Kneeland’s death. They will return to the field on Monday, November 17, on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott broke his silence on the tragedy the day after Kneeland’s death.
“I hurt. Heavy, heavy heart today. I hurt for Marshawn, I hurt for his family,” he said, according to CBS Sports Texas. “I hurt for his girlfriend, I hurt for every single one of my teammates.”
Prescott continued: “This is a pain you don’t wish upon anybody. You wish none of us had to go through this. You wish Marshawn didn’t have to go through what he went through.”
Team owner Jerry Jones made his first statement since Kneeland’s death on Tuesday, November 11.
“I think we all have unfettered feelings about the people we love, people we work with, and this is just a time when you acknowledge that there’s no answers,” Jones, 83, told Dallas’ 105.3 The Fan. “It makes you want to live life to the fullest. It makes you want to look for the very best in what we have for each other. And in some way make sense out of these times in terms of what they can mean from helping those that are here on earth right now.”
“All of those things are very natural, come to mind, but his death is such a national awareness thing that it takes on some of that light when we think about how we go forward,” he added.
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