Was Wendi Adelson Involved in the Murder-for-Hire Plot of Her Ex-Husband? Inside Dan Markel's Killing — and Where She Is Now

Over a decade after Dan Markel was murdered at his Florida home, his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, and her family are still at the center of the fallout.

The Canadian-born Florida State law professor was murdered by a contract killer in Tallahassee, Fla., on July 18, 2014, and his ex-wife has long been called a "conspirator" in the case despite never being charged.

Wendi and Dan married in 2006 and had two sons, Benjamin and Lincoln. The pair separated in 2012 after Wendi took their children to her parents' house in South Florida while Dan was away on a business trip, per ABC. They went through a contentious divorce in 2013 and were granted joint custody, with Wendi being required by a judge to keep the children in Tallahassee, despite allegedly wanting to move closer to her family.

Shortly after these proceedings, Dan was shot and killed in his garage. A years-long investigation found that multiple people were involved in the conspiracy to murder him. Wendi’s brother Charlie was allegedly behind it all, getting connected to Sigfredo Garcia by his former girlfriend Katherine Magbanua.

In turn, Garcia allegedly enlisted the help of his childhood friend, Luis Rivera, in the killing. All four have been convicted but the case did not stop there. In 2023, Wendi and Charlie's mom Donna Adelson was charged with the same crimes as her son: first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder.

Despite her family members being embroiled in the murder case, Wendi has maintained that she had no involvement in Dan’s killing and has never been charged.

Here’s everything to know about where Wendi Adelson is now.

Who was Dan Markel?

After being raised in Toronto, Canada, Dan Markel graduated from Harvard University, earned his master’s degree in political theory at the University of Cambridge and returned to Harvard to obtain his law degree.

Dan became a prominent law professor at Florida State University as well as a radio commentator and author who wrote for outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times.

He was living in Washington, D.C. when he met Wendi on the Jewish dating app JDate, per Jewish Tampa. The couple wed in Boca Raton, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2006, and had two sons, Benjamin, born in 2009, and Lincoln, born in 2010, before separating in 2012.

On July 18, 2014, Daniel was found shot in the head at his Tallahassee home. That morning, he had brought his children to preschool and went to the gym. Dan was sitting in his garage talking on his phone when he was shot at point-blank range, and he died in the hospital early the next morning. He was 41.

Who is Wendi Adelson?

Wendi Adelson is a lawyer, professor and child advocate who grew up in Coral Springs, Fla.

She graduated from Brandeis University before earning her master’s degree in international relations from Cambridge and her law degree from the University of Miami. She also published a novel, This Is Our Story, in 2011.

Around two years after Dan's murder, she enrolled in a writing class that had a related podcast on which she discussed his death.

“I only found out this information when the police picked me up from a lunch date I was having with two girlfriends and insisted that I come with them back to the station, and then interrogated me for eight straight hours. Because it’s usually the ex-wife," she said on the podcast.

Wendi added, “He died violently and young, and likely at the hands of a professional killer, and the media had a field day in response. I turned on the TV to find photos of my children with Nancy Grace, George Stephanopoulos saying my name in reference to our ‘acrimonious divorce,’ and a picture my friend took when I was her maid of honor showed as evidence of why I should be treated as a murder suspect and not the mother of two fatherless boys.”

When did Dan Markel and Wendi Adelson divorce?

According to a criminal affidavit in the case, Dan had reportedly returned home from a business trip in September 2012 “to find his family gone, a majority of the contents of the house missing and the paperwork for dissolution of marriage displayed on his bed.”

The pair went through a contentious divorce that was settled in July 2013 without a trial. Wendi and Dan were granted joint custody and after their split, a judge ruled that she could not move her children out of Tallahassee.

In 2014, Daniel filed motions against Wendi, claiming she misrepresented financial assets and took his great-aunt's 2-carat ring. He also filed a motion against Wendi’s mother, Donna, to prevent her from spending time alone with their children.

He claimed Donna had “made disparaging remarks about him to his sons,” according to a 2016 probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE. At the time of his death, Dan was waiting for a hearing to be set on the motion.

“He was annoyed that her family was meddling — he thought — in the divorce,” colleague and law professor Fernando Tesón told PEOPLE in 2017 of Dan. “But I never sensed he was fearful.”

Why did Wendi Adelson’s family allegedly want her to move to South Florida?

The push for Wendi and her kids to move to Miami allegedly came from Donna.

“Investigators believe motive for this murder stemmed from the desperate desire of the Adelson family to relocate Wendi and the children to South Florida, along with the pending court hearing that might have impacted their access to the grandchildren,” the 2016 affidavit stated.

The documents, which also revealed the alleged link between the Adelsons and the killers, added: “Email evidence indicates Wendi’s parents, especially her mother, wanted Wendi to coerce Markel into allowing the relocation to South Florida. Additionally, Wendi’s brother Charles reportedly did not like Markel and did not get along with him.”

After Dan’s death, Wendi moved with her sons to Miami, per Florida Politics. She changed her sons’ last names to Adelson, testifying that she did so due to media scrutiny, and she denied Daniel’s parents, Phil and Ruth Markel, access to their grandchildren.

After years of petitioning, the Markel Act was passed in Florida to give grandparents more visitation rights in the state.

In an October 2019 testimony, Wendi’s ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Lacasse, said she was “quite bitter” that she couldn’t move her children, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. But in her testimony one month prior, Wendi told jurors she had been happy in Tallahassee and with her job at FSU.

Who was the mastermind of Dan Markel’s murder?

Wendi’s brother Charlie is considered by law enforcement to be the mastermind of the murder-for-hire plot in Dan's killing. At the time of the murder, he was a wealthy Florida periodontist who shared a dentistry practice with his father.

The theory took hold when Wendi's ex, Lacasse, claimed to investigators that in the summer of 2013, Charlie had “looked into” hiring a hit man for $15,000, per USA Today. During her testimony in 2019, Wendi acknowledged that Charlie gifted her a television and joked that buying a TV was cheaper than hiring a hitman, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

At the time of Dan’s death, Charlie was dating Katherine Magbanua, who allegedly connected Charlie to the men who murdered his brother-in-law.

In late 2023, Charlie was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and solicitation of first-degree murder, the Tallahassee Democrat reported. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 60 years for the solicitation and conspiracy charges, per WCTV.

Charlie isn't the only Adelson family member to be implicated in the murder. After his conviction, his and Wendi’s mother, Donna, received the same charges as her son.

She was arrested at the Miami-Dade International Airport in November 2023, per WCTV. She and her husband, Harvey Adelson, were about to board a flight to Vietnam, State Attorney Jack Campbell told the Tallahassee Democrat. Campbell alleged that Donna was trying to flee the country.

Who was convicted in Dan Markel’s murder?

Four people were convicted in Dan’s murder, including Charlie.

According to prosecutors, he had Magbanua, who had worked at the family dental practice, hire her children’s father, Sigfredo Garcia, to pull the trigger.

Prosecutors claimed that Garcia then enlisted his childhood friend, alleged Latin Kings member Luis Rivera, to help with the crime. In exchange for testifying against Magbanua and Garcia, Rivera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a 19-year sentence in Arizona.

Lead prosecutor Georgia Cappleman alleged that Rivera had provided the gun and drove while Garcia committed the murder, per WCTV.

In his testimony against Garcia, Rivera said they “were going to kill the man for some kids. For a lady because the lady wants her kids back.” He also claimed Wendi paid for the hit and said Magbanua connected all of them, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

Garcia was sentenced to life in prison in 2019, plus 30 years for conspiracy, per WCTV, while Magbanua received the same sentence as Charlie in 2022.

Donna was first scheduled to stand trial in September 2024, but it was abruptly postponed due to conflicts of interest. Her new trial is scheduled to start in June 2025, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. She has pleaded not guilty.

How was Wendi Adelson allegedly involved in the murder of her ex-husband?

Wendi has long maintained that she was not involved in her ex-husband’s murder but prosecutors have called her a "conspirator."

In September 2019, she testified she had no knowledge of the conspiracy plot, though she admitted to knowing some of her family members had been angry with Dan during the divorce proceedings, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

During questioning, Wendi was asked about her immunity — her testimony could not be used against her but would not stop the state from being able to charge her — and if she believed she might one day be arrested. Wendi responded, “The state isn’t going to decide to arrest me.”

Lacasse testified in October 2019 that he and Wendi had a “chilling” conversation five days before Dan’s death. (He and Wendi were going through their own breakup at the time.)

"She said Charlie had explored all options to take care of the problem and Charlie suggested having Professor Markel killed," Lacasse told jurors, per the Tallahassee Democrat.

Where is Wendi Adelson now?

Wendi and her two sons now live in South Florida and she continues to maintain that she was not involved in Dan’s murder.

Wendi left the FSU law school faculty in 2015 and for a time, she worked as executive director of the Immigration Partnership & Coalition Fund. As of January 2025, she is listed on the website for the St. Michael’s Legal Center for Women and Children, based in Miami Beach.

According to the Florida Bar, she is still a member in good standing.

Her husband’s case has made national news for over a decade, was featured on Dateline, 20/20 and People Magazine Investigates on Investigation Discovery and was the subject of season 1 of Wondery’s true crime podcast, Over My Dead Body.

In a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat in 2019 through her attorney, John Lauro, Adelson said: “Our boys and I continue to mourn Danny’s loss for each day of the five long years since he was taken from us.”