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48 HOURS
Air Date: Saturday, October 06, 2018
Time Slot: 10:00 PM-11:00 PM EST on CBS
Episode Title: "Hollywood Horror Story"
[NOTE: The following article is a press release issued by the aforementioned network and/or company. Any errors, typos, etc. are attributed to the original author. The release is reproduced solely for the dissemination of the enclosed information.]

"48 HOURS" INVESTIGATES THE BRUTAL MURDER OF A YOUNG MOTHER LIVING WITH A PRODUCER IN "HOLLYWOOD HORROR STORY"

SATURDAY, OCT. 6

A mother's intuition that something is wrong with her daughter living in Los Angeles led police to a house of horrors. Inside, they found Iana Kasian, 30, brutally murdered. Where the trail of blood led them could easily be the subject of big-screen movie script or a horror novel.

Maureen Maher and 48 HOURS investigate the murder of Kasian and the case against her boyfriend, producer Blake Leibel, in "Hollywood Horror Story," to be broadcast Saturday, Oct. 6 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Set against the backdrop of beautiful people and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, 48 HOURS takes viewers inside the world of entertainment, where a producer born into a wealthy family ultimately ends up at the center of a terrible murder case. It is a story filled with complicated relationships, a murder that shocked law enforcement, and a case solved by investigators using fascinating forensic techniques.

Olga Kasian was concerned when she hadn't heard from her daughter, Iana, who was living with Leibel in West Hollywood. Leibel, the son of a wealthy Canadian real estate family, moved in his 20s to Hollywood to make it big. Living a trust-fund dream life, Leibel directed an offbeat film called "Bald" and was the author of a graphic novel about a vicious murder.

"I had this feeling that something was wrong," Kasian said.

Kasian called police, who eventually gained access to the home. Police found Iana Kasian, who recently gave birth to a daughter with Leibel, dead.

"In my almost 30 years, I've never been involved in a more heinous crime than this," said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sgt. William Cotter.

At the time Kasian was killed, Leibel was in the process of getting divorced from his first wife, Amanda Braun. He split from Braun just before she gave birth to their second child. He also had a girlfriend on the side. And he had fallen in love with Ukranian-born Kasian, who, according to her mother, had moved to Los Angeles with a dream of living in a huge, strong country.

"I think for a lot of women, Blake was a good catch," said Scott Johnson, a writer with The Hollywood Reporter and a 48 HOURS consultant.

Meanwhile, Leibel's brother, Cody, was an amateur gambler playing high-stakes poker called "Molly's Game," the subject of a recent theatrical movie.

Almost a year before he met Iana, Blake Leibel seemed obsessed with his notion that his brother had big gambling debts and that someone tied to the game may threaten - or harm - his family, according to Johnson.

Was Kasian killed in revenge for a gambling debt? Was she killed because of Leibel's complicated love life? Or did Leibel's graphic novel provide investigators with clues they needed to solve the case?

48 HOURS: "Hollywood Horror Story" is produced by Alec Sirken and Gayane Keshishyan Mendez. Gabriella Demirdjian is the associate producer. Phil Tangel, Richard Barber, Gregory F. McLaughlin and Greg Kaplan are the editors. Chuck Stevenson is the development producer. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

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