Crime Weekly - S3 Ep168: Dan Markel: This Is Our Story (Part 1)

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

In July of 2014, Florida State University professor Dan Markel dropped his two young sons off to preschool and made a quick stop at the gym before heading to his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Within minutes of arriving home, Dan Markel was shot execution style in his garage. In the aftermath, a lengthy investigation would follow that would include financial and phone records, surveillance cameras, wiretaps and a FBI sting operation, and what this investigation would uncover would shock everyone. In the case there have already been three criminal trials, four murder convictions and a fifth arrest, but new details and allegations are emerging every day, suggesting that there may still be more that we do not know about the shocking and tragic murder of 41-year-old Dan Markel. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. BEISTRAVEL.COM/CRIMEWEEKLY - 15% off your first purchase! 2. PDSDEBT.COM/CRIME - Get your FREE debt assessment today! 3. PROSE.COM/CRIMEWEEKLY - Take your FREE in-depth hair consultation and get 50% off your first subscription order and 15% off with FREE shipping on each subscription order after that!

In July of 2014, Florida State University professor Dan Markell dropped his two young sons off to preschool and made a quick stop at the gym before heading to his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Within minutes of arriving home, Dan Markell was shot, execution style, in his garage. In the aftermath, a lengthy investigation would follow that would include financial and phone records, surveillance cameras, wiretaps, and an FBI sting operation. What this investigation would uncover would shock everyone. In the case, there have already been three criminal trials, four murder convictions, and a fifth arrest. But new details and allegations are emerging every day, suggesting that there may still be more that we do not know

about the shocking and tragic murder of 41-year-old Dan Markell. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. So this case that we're covering today and over the next several weeks is one of the craziest, twistiest, and turniest cases I think we've ever covered on Crime Weekly. And there's a lot of reasons for that. It's one of those stranger than fiction cases. The details of Dan Markell's life and death are something you would expect to see in a dramatic thriller or read about in a fictional murder mystery, but unfortunately, it did all unfold in real life. I think that there's also a lot of sensation and interest and buzz around the affluence of these people involved, who were mainly well-educated and financially lucrative individuals, well-known, well-regarded in their

respective fields, their social and professional circles. And to find out that they were putting on like this face to the public, but what was happening behind the scenes, it's just all very shocking. And, you know, it kind of makes you feel like, who can you trust? Are you ever safe? You don't just have to worry about the people that are criminals or the ones that act like criminals. You have to worry about the ones that pretend to be these great, you know, contributing members of society who are, you know, at times like your dentist, your lawyer, your substitute teacher. And then you find out that behind the scenes, they have the capability to do something like this.

I was just going to say, you know what? You got to watch the guy who's cleaning your teeth. But a little bit of foreshadow there. But no, this case for me, when I first heard about it, I think there's a multitude of reasons that people are fascinated by it. First off, murder for hire cases, they're always incredible to think that there's not only one person out there that wants to kill another human being that they feel that's the only recourse they have, but to get idiots involved who actually are willing to jeopardize their own freedom and kill someone. Several idiots. Several idiots involved, right?

Yeah, several idiots in this case, but to risk their freedom for a couple bucks and to kill someone they don't even really know. And there's so many layers to this case as far as why the individuals involved did what they did, the reason behind why they in it. And it's also to the point that you made in your little bit of your intro there. And then again, just now you have individuals involved that on the surface are very successful, very happy. This is your like modern family where like, you know, the children have all gone off to do great things and are extremely intelligent and smart and all these elements that you would hope for your child, you know, and they seem like they have everything. And yet they didn't get their way in a certain situation and they wanted to use the money they had to get rid of someone who was not complying with what they wanted. So there's so much to this story. And I will also say some really cool investigative tactics were deployed by not only state agencies, but also federal agencies. I can't wait to break that

down because it gets into my narcotics days where you use social engineering to build a case because on the surface, you may not have enough enough but you know who it is and you have to try to pull them out of the you know get them to come out crawl out of the hole if you will yeah and that was that was done in this case and it worked perfectly uh so we're going to get into all of it there's a lot to cover for sure yeah a lot a lot a lot like when i when you first told me because you're the one that told me about this case and i was like well i really want to do one that at least can be two parts because you you know, it's going to be after we get back from our break. And I want them to be, you know, like, I don't want to do one before

the break. So like, is it enough for two parts? And you were like, yeah. And then I get into it. I'm like, this is enough for eight parts. What did I say to you? You said, is it enough for two parts? And I was like, yeah, it's probably enough for like three or four for sure. Because there's the before, the middle, the after. And then obviously this court case has now gone to trial. I'm not going to get into all the specifics. We're going to cover all that. But this case is still ongoing.

There's other people that still have to go to trial potentially. That's what I'm saying. Like stuff is coming out every day. Every day. It's crazy. And there's a question too, right? There's a question about someone else. That's what keeps coming out. Yeah, that's what keeps coming out every day. It's crazy. And there's a question too, right? There's a question about someone else who hasn't been charged. Yeah, that's what keeps coming out every day, like more stuff.

So we're going to have some interesting conversations, and I think it's going to really keep you guys engaged. And you're going to be weighing down in the comments below because there are people who have been apprehended. There are others who have not been charged with any crime. But there are people out there who believe they should be. So we're going to see. We're going to go through it all, and maybe by the end of covering the series, over the next couple of weeks, maybe a month. The truth will be out. Yeah, there'll be another development in the story. We'll see how it goes. Well, as always, I mean, especially in a case like this, you know, we've done this with Casey Anthony, Scott Peterson. It's very important to go back and look at how things started. Like, how did we get here?

Right? That context is important. And especially so in this case, even more so than Casey Anthony, even more so than Scott Peterson, is it important to understand all the players, what their parts were, what their personalities were like, what their dynamics were? It's very important. So as always, to understand what happened at the end, we got to go back to the beginning. And we're going way back because Daniel Eric Markell was born on October 9th, and she published a book in 1985 called Room at the Top, A Woman's Guide to Moving Up in Business. And Dan's father, Phil, ran a distribution company. The Markells were a very close and loving family, and they stayed that way when Dan left Toronto to attend college at the age of 18. And since a very young age, Dan seemed to know what he wanted and what was important to him. And those things were religion, family, and doing work in life that was important and impactful. In her book, The Unveiling, Dan's mother Ruth writes,

quote, when he was just 12, we talked about his dreams of studying to be a rabbi. Later, he became interested in becoming a lawyer, or better yet, in bringing his combined skills in teaching, communication, and fundraising to the role of dean of a law school, end quote. Dan had always had a very clear talent for writing, and by the ninth grade, he was churning out 20-page papers in a day. In his teenage years, Dan became interested in the normal things that teenage boys are interested in, the stock market, and he began investing in some stocks and following their progress in the newspaper. If it was something that Dan Markell would be early years of education when he was a member of his school's debate team and illustrated an ability to debate that far surpassed his peers.

He also started an environmental conservation club and single-handedly brought back the student newspaper where he acted as editor and business manager, convincing local businesses to run ads and creating the majority of the content published in that paper on his own. By the age of 13, Dan had told his mother and father that for college, he would be pursuing a degree at an American Ivy League university, and that is exactly what he did. Dan studied philosophy at Harvard College, and after graduating in 1995, he was awarded the prestigious Durot Fellowship, which allowed him to spend a year studying philosophy at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

In 2001, Dan earned his law degree from Harvard University, and for a while after graduating, he practiced white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation in Washington, D.C. But in the fall of 2005, Dan Markell took an assistant professor position at Florida State University in Tallahassee. There, he taught criminal law to first-year students, as well as upper-level courses in criminal procedures, sentencing law and policy, tort theory, and punitive damages. In 2010, Dan received tenure and became an associate professor, and two years later, he would become a full professor. Now, during his journey, Dan had built a reputation for himself that was very consistent and authentic with the person he had always been.

He was strong-minded, driven, wickedly intelligent, and he could never walk away from an argument, no matter what the topic at hand was. In the book Extreme Punishment, author Steve Epstein writes, quote, he could argue a point from virtually every angle, in depth and breadth, that sometimes exceeded his friend's interest or stamina. But he was also an exceptionally good listener, even when he disagreed vehemently, eager to help his friends hone their positions into more coherent arguments, end quote. Many people felt that this made Dan endearing and an interesting conversation partner. But as is to be expected, it also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, leading them to feel that Dan Markell was pompous, arrogant, and a person who not only always needed to be right, but needed whoever he was debating to eventually agree with his point of view, to agree that he

was right. However, all of Dan's close friends and family said that this was just a part of who he was, love it or hate it. And Dan also had a very sweet, loving side to him. He was affectionate. He said what he felt, whether it made you feel good or bad, but he was honest and he wore his heart on his sleeve. He brought people together who would have otherwise never met. And during his time as an undergraduate student at Harvard, Dan earned himself the nickname, The Great Connector. So there's a lot of stories that I read about on how Dan Markell brought people together. So for instance, when he was an undergraduate, he met a guy named Adam, I believe, Adam. And this was also another

Jewish student, and they got along great. And then Dan met another Jewish student, Steve, from New York, and they got along great. And Dan said to Steve and Adam, like, oh, you guys should meet each other because I think you'd really hit it off. And then they all did, you know, get together. And they were like a threesome for a while, just like Dan, Steve and Adam on campus. They roomed together their last year of college. And then Steve and Adam ended up getting married. And like they they fell in love. Yeah, they fell in love. They got married. They had kids, all of that.

Dan does this often. So he felt that people did best when they were in relationships or had like very close friendships. He felt like people did best when they had a strong partner to rely on, to work off of. He felt that you would be the happiest as an individual if you had like this other counterpart to turn to and to get strength from. So anytime he would meet someone who was single, he would almost like catalog them in his head. And then he would go on to meet more people because Dan loved meeting people.

He's always meeting people, always talking. And then he'd think, oh, this new person that I met would be great with this other person that I met a few months ago who I know is single. And then he would like hook them up and then it would work. Their relationship would bloom and they would do great and then they'd stay together. So many couples came forward and said, Dan brought us together, things like that. And he does this academically and professionally as well. People that he thinks would feel the same way or think the same way or could have great conversations together, he would introduce them. He's creating all these connections.

It was actually very amazing to have somebody like that. Yeah, I think when you're describing Dan, I think a lot of us out there are probably thinking about someone in our own lives who's similar to that, where they just. Are you talking about me? You'll be able to blend in with everybody and bring people together? Oh, I thought you were going to talk about how I like to argue, no matter what it's about. Oh, no, I wasn't going to go there. I was going, although you do, I was going to say more so like that person where they're a social butterfly and they're able to find commonalities with everybody and they will find mutual friend groups where you go out one night and you're hanging out

with so-and-so and this person brings another friend group. And by the end of the night, the two groups are partying together because of this one person. And those are just great people. They're rare. I'd like to think that I'm a pretty sociable person and I can find commonalities with everyone because of my background. But as I get older, I'm very aware that I'm at a stage in my life now where if I don't like you, you know it. I have a hard time hiding it, which is not a good trait, by the way. I think it's a good trait. Well, I mean, it can be good in moments where you don't want to be around that person. But I know when I was younger, especially in college, I got along with everybody. And I hung out with such an eclectic group of people because of that. I just coming from a different background and

finding common interests with different people. And it made for some interesting conversations for sure. There was one thing I wanted to go back to, because obviously this episode is going to be a lot of exposition, but, and I know that you guys don't always love this, but I've researched this case as well because I covered it on Crime Feed. But we're going to cover it a lot deeper here. We only covered it for 15 minutes on Crime Feed. We're going deep here, man. As we normally do. Dan's family was and how important the Jewish faith was to them, especially Ruth and Phil,

and obviously Dan as well, because that will become a bigger factor as we go through the story. And there are some interesting things as far as what was done by some of the people who are not so kind to try to get at Dan, which comes back to his faith. So I just want to keep that in mind. If that point wasn't made clear initially, the Jewish faith is very important to Dan and his family. And we'll come back to that later. Yeah. And as religious, as Dan grew up, he would just become more and more religious as he got older. It would become more and more important to him. It was a huge part of his life. Huge.

Absolutely. Absolutely. He lived kosher. Every single week, He went to, I think it's called Shul. Was he kosher? Cause I know there's a story we're going to talk about with it. I think it was him. I know there was something with the wedding and I don't, I'm trying to take your guys advice because when I know some of the stories, sometimes I can get ahead. So I'm not going to do that. I want to make an effort not to do that. But yes, he was very kosher, very strictly kosher. Yes. So just remember that because as we're talking about the story and things that are done that may seem insignificant, but do play a critical part. A lot of them are tied back to his faith. Throughout his higher education as well, Dan was always that student who sat in the front row of every one of his classes and lectures while peppering the professor with questions and what-if-isms.

He may have been abrasive and annoyed some people around him, but Dan Markell would become highly esteemed in the legal and education world. And no one could deny that he was brilliant, and he seemed to have never-ending energy to devote to the things and people that he cared passionately about. He contributed to multiple law reviews, wrote numerous pieces and articles for publications such as the New York Times, Slate, and The Atlantic. And in 2005, he started ProfsBlog, which he initially intended to be a resource for aspiring academics and young law professors. But like most things that Dan Markell dedicated himself to, the blog took off and professors and legal professionals from all around the country began visiting the blog. They came together because Dan brings people

together from all walks of life, from all over the world. And they started contributing to the blog. And Dan really had like a whole social circle, entitement circle of friends through that blog specifically. And without a doubt, Dan argued and made cases for some controversial topics. He was constantly battling with those in the comment section who pushed back against him. Shortly before his death, Dan mentioned feeling concerned for his safety after being threatened by some of these commenters. And someone using the handle AtheistATLLawyers wrote, quote,

You're worried about your home and private life being a target? What about your graduates' homes and private lives? Or lack thereof? You've ruined their lives, you fool. So yes, all means necessary are important to shutting people like you down, end quote. Two days before his death, Dan Markell had commented on a federal judge's order to strike down the death penalty in California, and he stated that while generally he was against the death penalty, he did not agree with this decision. But Prof's blog was as popular as it was controversial, and it thrived and gained more and more of a following. And as the years went on, even though Dan was busy with his thriving career, he continued contributing to it regularly. But Dan was not just busy with work.

He also had what he thought was a fulfilling and growing home life with his wife and their two sons. We are going to take a quick break and then we'll be right back. Dan Markell had always had very strong family values. And when his sister Shelly started her own family and began having children, Dan was even more motivated to start a family of his own with a woman he could love, admire, respect, and build a life with. And he would meet that person in July of 2004 when he joined J-Date and matched with a young pretty woman who was seven years younger than himself named Wendy Adelson. Yeah, so this is our first exposure to Wendy Adelson. She's going to be a major part of this

story, a major character in this whole development here. But real quickly, for people who don't know, again, this goes back to faith. What is JDate? It's a dating service for people of the Jewish faith. Exactly. Exactly. So again, it just ties into what was important to Dan. Obviously, this is a guy who's extremely successful, sociable, talented, the best schools, everything. You can probably find a date. But again, he's looking for a specific person to be his partner in life. And one of the prerequisites is someone who is Jewish.

And I can tell you there's some interviews out there with Dan's parents as well. This is after the fact, after Dan's death, where they're talking about finding out about Wendy and obviously Dan letting them know how he found her on the site. And they were very happy with the fact that he had chosen or he was looking for a Jewish woman, that that was important to him because it was extremely important to them. I mean, they shouldn't have been surprised, right? Because Dan wanted to be a rabbi when he was younger, you know, so, and obviously he knows in his heart, like, it won't be possible to observe the Jewish faith in the way that I want to and to raise my children in the Jewish faith if I marry somebody who doesn't share those same religious values, right? And this is actually very smart because so many times people think like, oh, I fell in love or they're very attractive and they don't spend enough time like comparing morals, values, goals, things like that. And then they get married and then they find out like,

oh, actually, we don't really have any of the same things in common. Like, you don't even want kids. I want kids. You're not religious. I am. Like, these things are all going to factor into compatibility, which is why Dan narrowed his dating pool down to Jewish women, which I think is smart so that there's no issues in the future. But even though Wendy and Dan were both Jewish and Wendy and Dan's families were both Jewish, we're still going to run into issues with this religion thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. I don't want to give the perspective like, oh, he chose her. He in this moment where we're talking about it in this context, he was very lucky to match with her

as well because she brought a lot to the table. 100%. And I wouldn't even say, listen, I wouldn't say Dan chose Wendy. I wouldn't say Wendy chose Dan. Somebody else chose. We can talk about that. Yeah, that's a good point. Valid. So the Adelson family was,

and I mean is, complicated. And they had some dynamics that some people found to be odd. I am one of those people. I am one of those people. I some people found to be odd. I am one of those people. I'm one of those people. I find their dynamics to be completely odd, bizarre and smothering. But Wendy's parents, Harvey and Donna Sue, had grown up, met and married in New York City, which was a place that Dan Markell found to be especially exciting and vibrant. You know, Dan had certain cities that he loved above others.

We'll find out Wendy had certain cities that he loved above others. We'll find out Wendy had certain cities that she loved above others, but he loved New York. But when Harvey and Donna Stu were ready to have children, they all left the city and relocated to South Florida to a small city near Miami called Coral Springs. There, they welcomed three children into the world. Oldest son, Robert, followed by another son named Charles, and finally their last child and only daughter, Wendy, who was born in April of 1979. When Charles, or Charlie, as he is known and as we're going to call him from now on, when he was very young, his father, Harvey Adelson, opened a dental practice in nearby

Taramac. and within no time, Harvey was doing financially well enough to purchase a 4,000-square-foot home with a swimming pool to raise their growing family in. Donna Sue had worked as a teacher, but when she became a mother, she walked away from her career to focus solely on her children, even though she would sometimes help out at the office, the dental office, as a patient coordinator, and she was known to take a substitute teaching job now and then, but she did not do this for the money, right? Because they had a lot of money. As the dental practice became more and more lucrative, the Adelsons built a tennis court in their backyard and added Mercedes and other luxury vehicles to their garage. And the Adelson children grew up in a world of privilege where the sky was the limit,

and expectations for academic achievements and life successes were heavy. Vibrant, intelligent, and beautiful, Wendy Adelson was up for the task. She served as the valedictorian of her 1997 graduating class at J.P. Terra Valla High, where she was also voted most likely to succeed. The following fall, Wendy attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where she continued to excel, and she also continued to participate in community service projects. This was something she'd been passionate about since she was young, and she realized, I guess when she was a kid, the disparity between what she had and what many others did not have. The summer after her sophomore year, Wendy spent time in Argentina helping people locate loved ones who'd gone missing during a time of political unrest in the 1970s. Perez-Esquivel, the two became close and he became her mentor, which only fanned the flames

for Wendy's desire to become a dominant force for social change in the world. At that time, Wendy knew that she would have to attend law school in order to actually help people in an actionable and real way. Wendy graduated magna cum laude in 2001, and she went on to get her master's degree in international relations from Cambridge University, where she became very interested in immigration and helping people receive a citizenship to the United States. So both of these people, right, Wendy and Dan, Ivy League educated. Yeah, I mean.

Brilliant accolades out the ass, honestly. I mean, dude, talk about underachievers, right? Right. Make me feel like an underachiever is what it does. And I think you said it too, that like you look up Wendy, extremely attractive, like had the complete package. Like she's got, she checks all the boxes. And she has this smile, right? Like everybody would talk about her smile, that when she would like flash the smile at you, it would be just like

dazzling and beaming. And it was so beautiful. And it made her even more beautiful. And she was already so beautiful to begin with. And now she's more beautiful. And I mean, she grew up hearing these things, right? She grew up hearing, you're beautiful. You're so brilliant. You're so motivated. You're so driven. You've accomplished so much. She grew up hearing these things, not only from her peers, but from her parents, who are really the driving force behind why she's trying to be such a high achiever, because there was no other option, it was always about, I'm sure there's a little bit of competitive nature there as well, where they're all like rivalry amongst siblings. I think that's pretty normal where everyone's trying to outdo the other. But yeah, she had it all. And when you start looking into this, again, the whole situation is so unfortunate because as you're starting to put down the layers of this foundation, it's nothing but good. And if you were to guess at this point, this family is going to go on to have a very happy life and be super successful, probably have some amazing, smart, beautiful children, and everyone's going to live in mansions and they're going to go on to be extremely happy. Like that's the narrative

that you're expecting with this story, which is why it's so fascinating. Well, remember what I said earlier, like you need more than love, right? For a compatible, long lasting marriage. So anything that you talk about with somebody on say like the first three dates is irrelevant to whether or not you're gonna last in the longterm. Because what do you talk about when you first meet somebody?

Your education, what do you do for a living? You know, what are your goals? What are your dreams? Like what kind of TV shows do you like? What are your hobbies? None of that matters because on paper, Wendy and Dan should have been perfect. Matching in, you know, intelligence, education level. They even shared the same religion. They seemed to want the same things. They were both attractive, young, in shape, very well loved by the people around them. like this all should have worked. But when you start to, when you're in a marriage, the other things that you don't talk about on those first three dates or so start to come out, the personality differences, especially once you start living

with somebody like in close quarters, that can make or break you. Yeah. I also think with this story, when we're talking about the families, especially the Adelson's, they're successful because they don't take no for an answer, right? They go after what they want and they're accustomed to accomplishing whatever goal they set out to accomplish. They do not want to lose, basically. They don't like to lose, which is not a bad thing. But I also think- But when you use certain tactics like manipulation and control and things to get your way, that's when it does become a bad thing. But I also think when you're- But when you use certain tactics like manipulation and control and things to get your way,

that's when it does become a bad thing, right? Right, and I'm not even going there yet. I'm just saying on the surface, when you have these talented, successful people that have a lot of money, they either go after what they want and they get it organically, or in most cases,

they can use their influence or money to get what they want. And they're not accustomed to hearing the word no. And for some of them, after not hearing no for a very long time, when things do not go their way, they can react a lot differently than other people. Most people who are aware that in life, some things you just don't get what you want, regardless of how successful or powerful or financially well off you are. It's easier for most people to accept that. But for the rich and famous and the powerful, sometimes that's not an easy pill to swallow. And we'll just we'll leave it there. Completely agree.

Completely agree. So Wendy is obviously all over the place, right? For college. She's in Cambridge, which is in the UK. She's in Argentina for a couple of months. She's at Brandeis, which is in Massachusetts on the East Coast. Her parents are still in Florida. Having Wendy so far away from home for so long was hard on the Adelsons, especially her mother, Donna Sue, who was very involved in the lives of her children. Too involved, some might say. I would. Donna Sue has been described as a strong woman who had unlimited time, devotion, and energy for her family. But sometimes it did seem that she used

manipulation and control to move people around to suit her needs or to achieve the outcome that she thought was best. For some time, the oldest Adelson sibling, Robert, has been estranged from the rest of his family. Currently, he's working as a doctor in Albany, New York. So once again, he's successful. He's achieved quite a bit. But a while back, he was engaged to another doctor. And this woman happened to be of Indian American descent. So this relationship ended mainly due to the influence of Robert's mother, Donna Sue. went on to marry a nice Jewish girl like his mother wanted, but it ended in divorce not long after. Surprise, surprise. And he ended up marrying the first woman that he was engaged to, the Indian American doctor. So Robert and his wife are still married. They're still very much in love. They have children. But when he returned to her, there was tension there, obviously, because she knew that his family didn't approve of her.

And he knew that, like, I love this person and my family doesn't, like, accept her and really kind of cause problems with us because we broke up and I married somebody else. It wasn't like he started dating somebody and then was like this. He married another person. Imagine the heartbreak that his first fiance felt when that happened. So a lot happened between Robert and his now wife that had been really done at the hands of his family. So he pretty much kind of like pulled away. He still has contact, but he basically doesn't really want to have much more than he already has. Can I weigh in real quick?

Real quick, I just want to say something that from my understanding, just a little bit of research that I did on this one, my understanding is that the three siblings, Charles, Robert, and Wendy, were very close. The whole family was very close. Very close, yes. But it's important to note that when Robert kind of went off and did his own thing, that Charles and Wendy, according to what they became very close. Because Wendy was very close with Robert.

That's correct. They were the dynamic and Charles was kind of the middle child. And Charles was just kind of there. Yeah, he was there. But when Robert went to do his own thing, Wendy and Charles got very close because now they were experiencing this whole situation together. Right. And it gave them something to bond over. So.

And that was all they had left. Right. Your only other sibling. What are you going to do? They have each other. And so, again, very important for where this story is going to eventually go. So when Robert became estranged from his family, Donna Sue would eventually have to channel all of her attention and energy into her other two children, Charlie and Wendy. And Donna seemed very interested in seeing Wendy

married off so that she could start giving her mother grandbabies to love and dote over. Charlie Adelson seemed to have found his own path naturally following in his father's footsteps. After graduating from dental school and completing his residency in 2006, Charlie began working as a traveling periodontist for several different South Florida practices. Eventually, Charlie joined his father at the Adelson Institute for Implants and Aesthetic Surgery, and in 2012, he actually bought the business from Harvey Adelson, who continued to work there, often joking that he had a very understanding boss, aka his son Charlie. Charlie's parents were very proud of him, but when Wendy returned to South Florida to attend

the law school at the University of Miami, the Adelsons were thrilled to have her living close again after being gone for six years. The summer after her first year of law school, Donna Sue urged Wendy to get on J-Date and find herself a good Jewish husband, but only one that her mother approved of, of course, which is why Wendy found herself on the app looking at pictures and profiles while Donna Sue stood behind her looking over her shoulder, giving her approval on each profile or telling Wendy to keep swiping. Apparently, none of the men in South Florida seemed to fit the profile of what Donna Sue was looking for in a match for her daughter. But Wendy eventually planned to move to Washington, D.C. and work as an immigration lawyer there. So she expanded her search to

include that area. And it was amongst these men that Donna Sue found the one. And this would end up being Dan Markell, which is so ironic. Considering how much Donna Sue would come to hate this man with a fevered passion I have not seen in a long time. The way she hates him is a sight to behold. I don't. Wow. We're going to talk. We're going to get into it, but let's take a quick break first. Like I said, on paper, Dan and Wendy should have been perfect for each other. And when Dan saw that he had matched with Wendy, he certainly thought so as well. Of course, the first thing he noticed about Wendy was her physical appearance, her bright and

big smile, her intense blue eyes, and her perfect body. But as he began to learn more about Wendy and her long list of credentials, Dan felt that he had finally met his match, as in someone who shared his religious and moral values, someone who had also gone through extensive education at prestigious universities, someone whose career path and goals aligned with his own. A woman like Wendy had a lot to offer besides her physical appearance. She could keep up with him in an intellectual debate. She had clear and concise achievements that she was reaching for. They could discuss law and life and go past all the surface and small talk conversations that someone like Dan Markell had no patience for. Wendy was not only smart and driven, but she was witty. And everybody talked about how witty she was. She could always come up with a joke, like very sarcastic, you know, very just like intelligently smart. And she came up with these

like one liners out of nowhere. And people were just always astounded by that. But she also had a burning passion to help those less fortunate. And Dan shared those goals and he shared that passion. And yes, Dan was incredibly attracted to Wendy. And so he didn't let their geographical locations deter him from pursuing a relationship with her, because at this time Dan's in D.C. and Wendy's in South Florida. At first, Dan and Wendy would visit each other in their respective cities, and when Wendy started going to D.C. more than Dan was traveling to Miami, she wasn't upset by it because both of these cities excited her and had more than enough

entertainment and culture to keep her and Dan busy while they were together. Wendy didn't even mind adjusting her lifestyle to fit Dan's. Even though they were both Jewish, Dan was far more devout than the Adelson family. And he had decided to go completely kosher, which was a big adjustment for Wendy at first. So you know how there's like some Jewish people and they're like very religious. And then there's some Jewish people who are like culturally Jewish, but not so much like going to temple every week, you know, eating kosher food, things like that. Like the Adelson's were more like culturally Jewish, but Dan was culturally and like very

religiously Jewish. Yeah. Like, and I'm probably saying this wrong, but Dan was culturally and like very religiously Jewish. Yeah. Like, and I'm probably saying this wrong, but almost like Orthodox to a certain degree. Yeah. No. And you will have that like dynamics, like Jan is Jewish. And so like for Christmas, we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. Obviously the kids love it.

They don't go to temple, but they love it because they get presents for eight days leading up to Christmas. But they have learned a little bit about the faith and how it differs from our Catholic religion. And so, yeah, there's, but again, if she was like hard charging Jewish, that would be unacceptable. That wouldn't be the process. More than likely, they would have to go to temple. So, yeah, there's different variants, different spectrum. You mean unacceptable for the kids. Yes, because the kids usually will take,

especially if you're Jewish. Correct. They'll do the bar mitzvah and bar mitzvah. Well, they'll take their mother's religion typically, right? Is that the case? Did not know that. Yeah. But yeah, so they haven't done like, they've been baptized. They haven't done the bar mitzvah and none of that stuff. So let me ask you a question then. You and Jana janna's janna's jewish you were catholic you were raised catholic she's raised jewish you get married yep and and she's like yeah you know whatever i don't care what religion we raise the kids in like it's up to you and then you get married and you have kids and then all of a sudden she's like actually i want them to be jewish yeah that would be an issue right no i wouldn No, I wouldn't care. But I mean, like it would,

like for me, I would feel like what we discussed before getting married and before having kids shouldn't change that drastically. Like afterwards. Oh yeah, no.

There's like a predetermined, like. That's what I just said. You determined that you wouldn't. Yeah. Yeah. If we had like talked about it beforehand,

then I guess it's tough for me because I'm not a very religious person to begin with. So. But if you were, like let's say you're Dan Markell talked about it beforehand then i guess it's tough for me because i'm not a very religious person to begin with so but if you were like let's say you're dan markel and you marry wendy and she's jewish and then all of a sudden you're and she's like yeah i'm jewish i'll go kosher for you we'll raise our kids jewish blah blah and then all of a sudden you're married to her and she just doesn't seem like she's as jewish and then you're you feel like you're pulling her along false advertisement yeah yeah no if you if you're if you're marrying someone under a certain pretense and then you're you feel like you're pulling her a little false advertisement. Yeah. Yeah. No, if you if you're if you're marrying someone under a certain pretense and then they change

it up after you put the ring on it. Yeah, that could be an issue. Yeah, I feel like that is too, because this has happened to people not with a religion thing necessarily, but like the kid thing, you know, like they both agree they want kids. And then a couple of years into the marriage, someone, usually the guy, is like, actually, I never really did want kids, but like I thought once I got married, I would. But like it's so disruptive because people have like views of their life and what they want. And when a person wants to be a parent, that's like a very core thing there. You know, you can't just

one day wake up and not want to be a parent when that's all you've ever wanted. And now the person you married who you should be doing that with is like, nah, I'm all set. I don't want to do that anymore. It's very disruptive. Yeah. And as you're given the analogy of like kids or not wanting kids, I think in this, in the context of what we're talking about here, when it comes to raising, you know, being Jewish, not being Jewish or being raised that way, this as you've been laying out this entire episode, this is a very important thing to Dan and his family. So it's as equally as important as it may be to some of you out there as being told you want to have children and not wanting to after the fact. That's how important it is to Dan and his family. Yes, yes, exactly. And I think that because Wendy was raised Jewish, but not like super Jewish, you know, she was like, yeah, well, I can be more Jewish, you know, there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes around the kids in the Jewish faith.

She was she probably her and her her family were like, this is a lot, man. This is a lot. It's ridiculous. Like, for instance, I apparently somebody because Dan was like us in a certain spiritual class and he could not go to a cemetery, like a grave site. He could go to a church where a funeral was taking place, but he couldn't go to like the graveyard or the cemetery for the actual burial part. So Wendy's aunt dies and Dan goes to the funeral. But then he says, you know, like, I'm sorry, I can't go to the graveyard, the cemetery. And Wendy and her parents were like flabbergasted.

They were like, how could you? This is horrible. This is like the worst. How could you not support your wife at this time? This is the worst possible thing that could happen. They were livid about it. Yeah, I think, you know, you were kind of hitting on this earlier where we're talking about how Donna Sue went from thinking Dan was the one being, you know, signing off on it to

absolutely loathing him. And we see that in a lot of marriages, right, where there's this fairy tale beginning and then some of the most tumultuous relationships are during a divorce or after the fact when children are involved. So with something like this, I feel like sometimes this whole situation occurs because someone puts on a front or is able to convey a certain type of person that you want them to be initially, but then after you get married and there's that comfortability and you become more opinionated and willing to speak your mind on things, it can cause dissension if that's not expressed prior to getting married. And listen, that doesn't only apply to different religions.

We see it all the time in marriages and why they end. Obviously, most people don't get married under the impression that it's not going to work. Like they think they found their person. I don't think anybody gets married thinking it's not going to work. That's the scary thing, right? I mean, there's, you know, that again, I'm just being, I'm generalizing.

I feel like sometimes people may get married even though they know, I don't know if this is the person for me, but listen, this is the best I got. I mean, you're probably right, actually. You know, they just do it because of whatever outside reasons. Or they already said yes and the wedding's already planned and they're like, well. Right. Or like, I'm getting older. I got, if it's not this person, who's it going to be?

You know, so I want to have kids sooner than later. And so people get married. But you still probably the best intentions of trying to make it work, right? You're going to make it work. You're going to try. And so, yeah, things like this, like this conversation you just talked about

in this situation here, it's not specific to the Markells as far as, you know, how this all in the Adelson's, how this all played out. This is a very common story that I think a lot of people who are watching or listening to this podcast probably have some way to relate to it. And they're going, yep, I remember my first marriage or I remember my brother or my sister getting married, how that went down.

I remember my in-laws. I remember my in-laws. Yep. There you go. So a lot of people are going to be able to empathize with these situations for sure. This is not like an outlier. Totally relatable, man. Like, in fact, I had to keep reminding myself as I was going through this, like, it's just

a case. It's just a case. This isn't about you. This isn't about you. Because like Donna Sue. Not about you, Stephanie. Donna Sue Adelson reminds me of somebody very vividly very vividly man oh I'm gonna be your friend and just tell you to keep going let's keep going I'm not gonna say who I'm not gonna say who

but I was violently triggered multiple times so here's what I have to say I have no proof or evidence of this but knowing what I know about Donna Sue, because trust me, I got deep on her. Because I was like, is it true? Could she be this way? Could she be this bad? I got deep on her, man. I think that Donna Sue and Wendy realized that the differences in how they observed being Jewish

were, there was a huge disparity there between like how the Edelsons did it and how Dan and his family did it. And I guarantee you, in just my opinion, Donna Sue tells Wendy, listen, yeah, he's a kosher and he wants to do this, this and that, whatever. Just play the game. Tell him you're all for it. Once you're married and you have his babies, then you just, he's going to give you your own way. You're the mother of his children. You're his wife.

Then you can like start making, you know, your own demands and you can start modifying things yourself. Like just get in there, get your foot in the door, and then you can change him to be better for you, right? Because this is what Donna Sue sort of believes. And you kind of stated it earlier, like rich, powerful people think that they can get whatever they want

just by throwing money at it or exerting their influence and their control over it. And I guarantee you Donna Sue was like, just get in there and then you can do whatever the hell you want. You'll get him to change his mind on this whole Jewish thing, you know, like this whole very observant Jewish thing.

It'll be fine. Like he's all about that now. But once your influence is on him, you can sway him. I guarantee you that's what happened. They definitely underestimated how passionate and how devoted he was to his religion. He would not be swayed. Not at all. Right.

So like I said, Dan's living in D.C. He's a bachelor by himself. He does his own grocery shopping every single week to make sure that everything in his house is kosher. And when Wendy comes and stays with him, she's also living kosher. And this was something she wasn't used to and something her family would always have a big problem with. Like, oh, my God, how do you always do this kosher thing? But it was at that time, at least, an adjustment that she was willing to make. And as much as Dan was into his new girlfriend, Wendy was equally enamored with Dan Markell, at least at first, because he was older than she was. He was already kind of established in his career.

He seemed to her at first to be worldly and devastatingly brilliant. Wendy felt that Dan was the perfect man. He could write succinct and bulletproof legal arguments one day, and he was affectionately cuddling his niece and nephew the next day, talking to Wendy with stars in his eyes about the time that he was able to hold his own children in the future. And as they came to know more about each other, Wendy and Dan knew that they could no longer do the long-distance relationship thing because they'd become attached, and they had started to really miss each other during their time apart.

At that time, Dan was applying to different schools to be a law professor, and Wendy agreed that wherever Dan ended up being hired, she would relocate to because she could complete law school anywhere. What Wendy did not expect is that the place she would be following Dan to would be Tallahassee, Florida, a small city with an equally small Jewish population and none of the big city benefits that Wendy loved about Miami and Washington, D.C. Now, Wendy absolutely loathed everything about Tallahassee. And we're going to go into more depth on this in later episodes. But what I wanted to highlight right now were strongly based on Wendy and her own life and experiences. And she just kind of changed names and places. And she actually admits to this in an interview. She said, yes, this main character in my book has a lot of me in her. You know, not everything is the same, she said. But yes, I selfishly wanted this main character, who happens

to be a female immigration lawyer, I wanted her to have some of me in her. And I would say that this character, who's Lily, Lily Stone, she had a lot of Wendy in her. Let's take our last break, and then we'll come back to finish the episode. All right, so a blog called Outside the Law School Scam posted a summary of this book. And I'll just let you know, I didn't need the summary because I bought the book on Amazon. I had to read it, man. I had to read it for myself. You really went in on Wendy. I did. I did. I had to do, I have to, I can't not do this stuff. I bought three books about this case, and this was one of them. And, man.

But either way, we're going to go into a lot more. We're going to talk about this book as these episodes progress. But I just want to give you this quick summary that I found on this blog. In the novel, Lily is a lawyer in her early 30s who gives up a thriving corporate practice in D.C. to follow her seemingly bright and sweet, if exasperatingly blunder-prone, new husband, Josh Stone, to this godforsaken place, namely North Florida State University in Hiawassee Springs, where Josh holds a professorship. End quote. In the book, Lily refers to this fictional city using the name Wasee. And the similarities are lost on nobody because Tallahassee is often called Talley by locals. It has its own little nickname. And we'll come to find that Dan Markell, he gives nicknames to everything.

And he would often refer to their new hometown as the Hassee. So in her book, Wendy says that people in the Wassee, which is Hiawassee Springs, they're the kind of people who would run through traffic if you asked them to. Now, I think that means that she thinks they're not smart. Do you concur? I don't really know how you can take that. Like, hey, listen, I think it'd be a good, I mean, would an intelligent person run through traffic if you asked them to? No, they'd say, I'm not doing that. That's dumb. So I don't know if she meant something else.

She didn't explain it very well. But it sounds like, yeah, she's saying they're of low intellectual value where they would do whatever you told them to do, even if it's not in their best interest. Yeah. Like even when she's talking nicely about people, she's not being nice to them. I could also think she's probably saying not only lack intelligence, but more followers than leaders. Yeah. Which is also an insult. Which is also an insult. Yeah.

And it is an insult to somebody's intelligence as well. Right. So Lily talks about how she had just assumed that because Hiawassee Springs was in Florida, it would be just like South Florida with palm trees and beaches. But then she found out too late how very wrong she was. She said there were a lot of nice people there, almost painfully nice. She said it was a one traffic light type of town. There's nothing to do there. She says it has a small town charm, but she uses it as if it's an insult.

And in one chapter, Wendy writes, quote, I quickly learned that North Florida would not be what I had expected. I found myself waking up each morning repeating to myself, Lily, everything is okay. You love Joshua and you chose this change. You are not a victim, end quote. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're going to leave Lily and Josh Stone behind for a little while, and we're going to return to Wendy and Dan. So Dan Markell, he accepted this job at Florida State University in Tallahassee in May of 2005. And that same month, he took Wendy went for a hike in the Golan Heights, and when they reached a point where the Sea of Galilee was laid out in front of them, sparkling in the sun, Dan got survivor. And just like that, Wendy Adelson and Dan Markell were engaged within eight months of knowing each other. There's a red flag right there, but let's move on. I mean, sometimes it works out, but more likely that's not a good sign.

If it works out, it's a fluke, man. Love at first sight, Stephanie. Love at first sight, but you can still wait to get married before you make it legal and impossible to get out of and then you're battling in a divorce court and losing all your money and your in-laws are trying to have you killed great way to celebrate the holidays yes let's uh let's just make me let's normalize not getting married within a year of meeting so as the the fictional attorney Lily Stone describes it in Wendy's novel, quote, we met, fell in love, married and moved to the Wossie faster than some people decide whether to have chicken or fish for dinner, end quote. So we're starting to see like these

parallels, these similarities between fake characters, Lily and Josh, and real people, Wendy and Dan. Yeah, I think even the names themselves, Wendy, Lily, Dan, Josh. It's like one syllable. She went too close, too close. Oh, it's very close. So when the couple's family and friends heard of their engagement, everyone was happy and excited, but no one was more excited than Dan, who really seemed to love Wendy tremendously. Those who spent time around Dan and Wendy post-engagement said that they seemed to pair perfectly together.

They played off of each other very well. And in public, their attention and their attraction to each other was palpable, with Dan often unable to keep his hands off of his fiancée no matter where they were or who was around. And don't make me, I'm not trying to make Dan sound like a lecherous old man just groping on her. She loved it too. She'd giggle, you know, she'd play into it. One friend said that once, you know, they were like in a bedroom for some reason, I don't know why, but they were in a bedroom all together, like Dan, Wendy and this friend. And Dan suddenly just grabbed Wendy up, threw her on the bed and started just like kind of like jumping on her and stuff. And the other the friend was like, this is freaking weird.

But Dan and Wendy were in their own little world. Like they just were very attracted to each other, essentially physically and otherwise. Which, by the way, super normal honeymoon phase like're, we see with new couples all the time. So, I mean, pretty nothing out of the ordinary there. So I personally hate PDA, like not from others. I don't care, but like, I don't like it for myself. And this would drive me absolutely insane, but that's just me. Like, and I would have communicated that to him already.

You know what I mean? So like, I'm not saying he's disrespectful. Even in the beginning, you're not like a PDA person? No. No. It feels weird, like, stage. I can actually see that. Who are we performing for?

You know, like, what's happening? You know, we're alone enough. We're getting engaged to be married. We're living together. Do we really have to, like, bring it to the streets? I don't know. That's just me. Okay. It's a private thing. I think it's an intimate, private thing like affection with each other. It shouldn't be on display for the world to see,

but that's just me. Okay. Even before the wedding date was set, there were issues. And one day, Wendy told her friend Abigail that she was thinking of calling off their engagement because Dan had embarrassed her in front of a friend and a colleague. Apparently, Wendy's friend, who was a law school student, who was like a student with her at law school, was having a conversation with Dan. So they're all out at a bar, they're drinking, they're having fun. Wendy introduces Dan to this friend, and this friend and Dan start to get into a debate or a conversation about affirmative action, which this law student was in favor of, but Dan Markell argued against it, ruthlessly knocking down every argument put in front of him in a way that Wendy found to be rude

and unnecessary. Now, keep in mind, Dan was actually in favor of affirmative action, but this was something he just did. He loved to play devil's advocate. Depending on whatever position the person across from him was taken, Dan would always argue the opposite, regardless of whether or not it aligned with his personal beliefs. He felt that this was a fun mental exercise for him. It kept him sharp. It kept him looking at things from different perspectives.

And I do this. And my husband hates it. My husband hates it. I do this. And it's not that I like to argue, but I do like debating. And I know I literally have found myself. Yeah, I found myself arguing things that I didn't even believe in just because it was fun, you know, like because it's less fun if somebody's like, oh, I think this. And then you're like, I also completely agree with you. And then where's the conversation? Like, there's no more conversation, but you do know who you're talking to, right? Like I'm aware of that for sure. Yeah.

But if there's like, if there's like a different stance to be taken and I think I can, I know enough about it where I can like offer, you know, like, well, what about this? Then I will do that because just because it's fun and it does keep you sharp and it does let you look at things from both perspectives. Because if you're going to argue one perspective when you don't believe in it, it's likely you're going to need to do some research in your homework on that. And it's just always a good thing to understand both sides of everything and understand the pros and the cons. So that's what he would do. He loved it. He loved it. But when- No, and listen, by the way, that's not a bad thing

because I'm busting your chops about it. But I do that sometimes too. What do I always say? What's my phrase? Devil's advocate, right? Yeah, you do that. Yeah, you do that. Yeah, you do do that.

You do that all the time here. You do that. No, I definitely, because especially when we're doing a podcast, right? Like you want to give multiple perspectives because even though you and I may agree, there's obviously going to be people in the comments who don't, who have a different opinion on it. And we want to, we want to try to voice that opinion as well so we can discuss it. And maybe we dispute it and don't agree with it, but we can still bring it up as a potential way of seeing it. But I agree with you and And I see where that can sometimes be annoying in your personal life. Off-putting to people. Yeah. Yeah. When like, hey, listen, you're out to eat with friends or family members and anytime, because I have people like that in my life too, where it's like, no matter what you say, you can say the sky's blue. They're going to say it's teal. You

can say, you know, it's up today and they're going to say it's down. It's just no matter what you say. And I know you don't like that because I've done that to you before and I've seen you grow tiresome with it. I've said it on the podcast. But like for me, I don't want to be in a conversation otherwise, because then what are we going to do? We're going to sit at dinner and like, what TV show are you guys watching? It looks like it's going to snow next week. Like I can't do it, man. So if I don't argue with you about this topic that I can argue with you about and have a debate, I don't mean argue, I'm not screaming. But if I don't do this, then we're going to move on to some other topic that's probably going to be small talky. And I'm going to want to get up and leave.

And then all of a sudden I'm going to be leaving and I'm going to be like, I don't feel good. I don't want to be talking to people if it's about shallow, stupid stuff. I like deep conversations and lively debate back and forth. So you should appreciate those people in your life more, Derek, because they're keeping things interesting. Oh, that's why I count my blessings every day with you. We're coming up on a new year, and I'm thankful for you, for sure. And your dissenting opinions. Sometimes I let you win, too.

See how even you phrase that. Like if I were dumber, I would be like, oh, thank you. Sometimes I let you win, too. See how even you phrase that. Like if I were dumber, I would be like, oh, thank you. But I let you win. You're not dumb. And I knew you wouldn't let it go. Sometimes I even let you win. And I'm like, oh, my God, thank you. No.

I'm just messing with you. See, keeping you on your toes. You're never going to be bored. You're never going to be bored with Stephanie. Nope. Preach. So, yeah, this is what Dan did. A lot of the people closest to him knew this, so they didn't take it personally. They were like, oh, it's just Dan being Dan again.

And they just go along with it. And it got spirited and lively and everybody laughed. But listen, Wendy was like mortified and it left her feeling that her future husband had no self-awareness, no ability to control himself and his strong personality in social situations. But really, Dan, just don't give a shit, man. He's like, I am who I am. Like me or hate me. I have thousands of friends who love me. So if you, sir, don't like me, then it's no loss to me. I'm going to move on from this night. And it was nice to meet you. And that's exactly how I feel. I'm going to be upfront about who I am. And if you like it, then great. If you don't, we'll call it a night. Wendy eventually

moved past this. I guess Dan profusely apologized and said he would make it up to her. But the issues between Wendy and Dan would not end there. It seemed that as compatible as the two were overall, there was a very distinct clash of personalities. Wendy and Dan got married in Boca Raton on February 26th, 2006, and their lavish wedding was featured in the New York Times. What was not mentioned in this Times piece was the drama and tension that plagued the otherwise beautiful wedding day. Dan Markell had left most of the wedding planning up to Wendy and her mother, Donna Sue. I mean, he didn't necessarily want to. It was just more like they took control of it.

And they were like, we got this, young man. You go along with your professorship and your writing and we'll take care of this. He only made one request, one simple request that the food at the wedding be kosher because he's kosher, his family's kosher. Much of his friends are kosher. It's not a big fricking deal, okay?

Kosher food is really good, actually. It's just food that's been like blessed. And then there's certain food items that you can't have, right? But yes, does it become difficult if you want to like go out to a restaurant, things like that? Yes. But this is Dan's wedding. He's getting married. He would like the catering to be kosher. And what happened when he made that one request in his own wedding? Well, Donna Sue was pissed. She, being the controlling and selfish person that she appears to be, pushed back. She was like, I absolutely do not want this wedding to be kosher. In fact, Donna Sue thought it was selfish of Dan to even ask her to consider this request. So they go back and forth on this for several weeks.

The whole thing became a point of contention between Dan and the Adelsons. So he was relieved when finally Donna Sue told him that she would honor his wishes. But then the day of the wedding arrives. And Dan quickly discovered that his mother-in-law had gone ahead and done whatever the hell she thought was best as usual. When the rabbi who Dan had flown in from New York City, by the way, or the rabbi flew in from New York City, but either way, the rabbi's in New York City. He's an old friend of Dan's from law school. They're very close. They've known each other a long time. As a favor, this rabbi from New York is flying to Florida to do this wedding.

And he walks into the kitchen to check with the kosher supervisor because I guess every time an event is catered and it's kosher, there's a kosher supervisor there to just watch and make sure that everything is going as it should be. And he's told by the catering company, no, there is no kosher supervisor. In fact, at the last minute, the bride's family changed the menu up. And this wedding is not kosher. Yeah, it's not kosher at all. It's not kosher at all. So this rabbi, he can't be around non-kosher food. He certainly can't eat it, right? So he does the ceremony because he doesn't want to upset Dan because he knew how important it was to Dan.

So he didn't even tell Dan what happened. He did the ceremony, married. Maybe he should have, by the way. Maybe you should have. So he marries Dan to Wendy. And then after the ceremony, the rabbi goes up to Dan. He's like, I'm sorry. The wedding's not kosher. The food's not kosher. I can't stay here. I have to leave. And Dan's like, what do you mean the wedding's not kosher of course it is and the rabbi's like no no it's not so Dan has to like basically get this guy a car he brings him he sends him to like a kosher restaurant so that this man can eat I think he paid for his flight back he felt so terrible to have this person come out from New York City marry them and then not even be able to stay and enjoy the wedding. And then obviously, Dan has to now go around every single one of the tables of his guests, the people he invited to

this huge, lavish wedding and say, I'm sorry if you're kosher, you can't eat the food. So there's guests at this wedding, many, because both Dan and Wendy are Jewish, who cannot partake in the food. And Donna Sue thought it was selfish that Dan wanted the wedding to be kosher. Like, who's selfish, Donna Sue? Who's selfish? So anyways, Dan's very upset by this. Donna Sue and her disregard for Dan's boundaries and wishes on his own wedding day, this would stick with him for a very long time because he knew that she had intentionally misled him. Everyone got through the whole kosher food drama and Dan and Wendy honeymooned at Club Med in the Bahamas before starting their new lives together in Tallahassee, Florida. Because of Dan's position at Florida State University, Wendy was offered a job. Well, at first she was working

across the street in an office, like doing immigration stuff, but she did get a job like through the college, and it was part of Dan's requirements for being hired at the school, that Wendy would have a place there, that she would have a position, that she would have work to do. And she eventually started working as a clinical law professor specializing in human rights and immigration. And Dan and Wendy became something of a local power couple. In November of 2007, the newlyweds bought a three-bedroom, three-bathroom brick house located at 2116 Trescott Drive in the historic and prestigious Benton Hills neighborhood. From here, Wendy and Dan fell into living their lives, going to work, hosting dinners full of friends and colleagues every Friday evening at their home. Dan would often travel for work, speaking at conferences and meeting old friends.

And Wendy had agreed to let Dan do the grocery shopping so that they could keep a kosher house. But most of the other household chores did fall to Wendy, and Dan could be quite distracted and disorganized, leaving a mess behind him wherever he went in the house. In July of 2009, Wendy and Dan welcomed their first son into the world. His name was Benjamin, and he was followed by a little brother, Lincoln, who arrived in October of 2010. Dan Markell was absolutely over the moon about becoming a father. He, like, this was the best thing that ever happened to him, becoming a father. He posted pictures of his children and his wife all over his social media and blog.

Anyone who knew him described him as a devoted father who spent every spare minute with his two sons. Dan's first love had always been the work he did, but when he became a father, the love he had for his children far surpassed that. And he showered them with kisses and hugs, he bathed them, read to them at night, sang them Hebrew hymns as they dozed off, and then stared at them with stars in his eyes as they slept. It seemed that Dan's excitement and love for Benjamin and Lincoln were only rivaled by the love that his mother-in-law Donna Sue had for these children. And Donna Sue and sometimes Harvey and sometimes even Charlie, they would start driving from Coral Springs to Tallahassee every single weekend. And this is not close. OK, Tallahassee and like Miami, the Miami area, these are like on the opposite sides of the state.

So seven hour drive every weekend, seven hour drive there, seven hour drive back every weekend. The Adelsons were spending 14 hours driving so they could go and hang out with Wendy. And then when Benjamin was born, Donna Sue was the first person to hold the new baby, which really pisses me off. And she lived with Dan and Wendy for six weeks, six weeks doing the same after the birth of Lincoln. Eventually, Dan would start to become happy in Tallahassee. So the way it's explained is Dan and Wendy, neither one of them were like, yay, Tallahassee, can't wait to live there, you know? But then they get there and Dan sort of starts to adjust as he does. He's social, he's outgoing,

he makes friends easily. He finds his place wherever he is by serving the people there, right? By creating these friendships, by giving great advice, by connecting people, by creating these friendships by giving great advice by connecting people by creating things that bring people together that's what he does and that's where he gets his joy from so it doesn't really matter where he's at but he wasn't like super excited about living in Tallahassee it wasn't the place of his dreams but as he's there for a little bit longer he realizes like this isn't so bad I got a good job where I'm respected. I'm moving up. I'm getting a chance to be published. I'm doing all of these things. I've got prof blogs, which was a huge thing for him. He loved it. We have a nice home in a nice neighborhood. I have a beautiful wife, two

beautiful children. Who could be unhappy, right? Who could be unhappy? And that's his mindset. No matter what the situation is, he's going to find a way to make the best of it by understanding the very basic things that people need to do to have gratitude. I'm healthy. I'm successful. I can pay my bills. I have love and family around me. We have a roof over our heads and we have a community around us that loves and supports

us. What else do you need? What does it matter where you are? Wendy, not so much. Wendy, not so much, right? Wendy, not so much. Wendy only became more miserable in North Florida, and she also seemed to start becoming disenchanted with her husband and her marriage. Dan could tell that Wendy was unhappy, and he was sure that they could work on things and get through tough times that all couples encounter throughout their marriages. He just thought maybe she just hates it.

She really hates Tallahassee, you know. And they did talk about leaving. He was like, yeah, we can leave. Like, I'm going to apply to other colleges and see what they have to offer. Like, obviously, it has to be an offer where they'll pay for relocation and the money's better. And, you know, I'm given the same freedoms and things that I'm given here. But like, I will start looking around.

And he was. So Wendy thought like, OK, we're going to be moving soon. Eventually he's going to find something. But none of the offers, I guess, that came through were as lucrative as he wanted. And to be honest, one offer, and I hate that I can't remember this, but I think it was in the D.C. area. They offered him everything he wanted, but they ended up pulling the offer when he insisted that they find a position for Wendy at the new university that he would be at. And then they were like, all right, this is too much. It's enough is enough.

And then he wrote back and he was like, wait, wait, wait, we can compromise because he wanted it. And they were like, no, we're all set, dude. You're doing too much. So basically, Wendy- They saw the red flags. Yeah. You need to get a job not only for yourself, but now we have to consider another salary for your wife and this is contingent on it? You working for us is contingent on us getting your wife a job? This is ludicrous. So he lost that offer. And it just felt to Wendy like she felt like they were talking and they both wanted to leave, but it just seemed to her as if Dan wasn't acting as if he wanted to leave. While Dan was consistently working on putting his relationship back together, Wendy was secretly planning on tearing it apart.

And she was making her moves in the dark, operating in the fall of 2010, and he'd return to an empty house where he found signed divorce papers on his bed and no wife, no sons anywhere to be seen. And that is where we'll pick up next episode. But do you have any like summation thoughts? No, I think some of you may leave this episode saying, wow, we really didn't get into the meat and potatoes of the crime. Nobody's going to say that. You always say that people are going to say that, but they don't. They love to know the context. Well, the context.

And again, we could make this three hours. But what we're going to do is we're going to leave you on that, digest that. Dan Markell and Wendy Adelson, because the direction that this goes, a lot of this is extremely important to understand the type of people that you're dealing with. Now, I know it's going to be hard for some of you not to look this story up, and then others have just already heard about it. This was a national story. It's not like we're telling you this obscure case that nobody knows about. So if you look it up, great, no problem. You can go see where it's going to go and get it. A lot of it's already out there.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Save it if you can. But we're at a situation here where I don't really necessarily think there's a lot in the dynamics or I guess the path of the history of Dan and Wendy as far as their relationship. I don't think anything within that is suggestive of something criminal in nature in the future. Listen, people get married for the wrong reasons or they don't do their research or don't wait a long enough amount of time to get married to make sure that this person is the person. And then they compound that problem

by having kids when they're already maybe on the outs as far as the marriage, or they're not as happy as they should be. So now you're not only dealing with two people who are no longer in love, but now you have children, which in most cases, the parents are both infatuated with, even though they're not infatuated with each other, which really makes things complicated. And those kids tie them together forever, right? Forever. What was that? I couldn't hear you over your cookie that you're eating.

Sorry. Those kids tie these two people who now don't even like each other. They're tied together forever because they're kids. Which makes the issue a lot harder to kind of come to a resolution. The big takeaway from this episode for everyone out there shouldn't necessarily be, although we want to know how we got there. Like there's a loving couple, everything going for them, both attractive, both talented, both smart, get the world by the balls. And yet here we are now. It's important to know that timeline,

but I think it's more important to understand the dynamic, the family dynamic of Donna Sue and how she has ingrained herself in their relationship in multiple ways throughout the throughout this timeline that we've already covered and it's only going to get worse from here it gets worse and it's gonna and it's gonna become something that is the main narrative for this entire story and that to me if looking at it you know hindsight, hindsight, the red flags, I don't, I didn't see as many between Wendy and Dan. The real red flags for Dan should have been his relationship with Donna Sue and how she conducted herself and how the main theme of her life was that we're going to do what I want to do. And you're going to comply or I'm going to run you over. So that's the thing, right?

Like Dan and Wendy, yeah, there were things between them. There were issues. Of course, everybody has it. And then they're going to be only compounded when you start involving other people who are trying to exert their will and their influence, right? So if Dan and Wendy had been left alone, is it possible they could have made it out of this? Is it possible that their future divorce would have been less contentious and easier on everyone? A hundred million percent, yes. A hundred million percent, yes. I can say that with absolute certainty.

And yes, if the Adelsons hadn't involved themselves in Wendy's marriage, in her divorce, things would have been different. And it's so hard to talk about it right now without giving it away. So I'm just, I'm going to keep it to a minimum, but completely agree with you. People get divorced and I don't know many instances where the divorce is fun or pleasurable. They're divorced for a reason. They're hard. They're difficult. They're tumultuous emotional you know there's there's probably thoughts and feelings that go through the minds of each individual during that process but they don't act on them and so i'm not giving too much away here we know that dan markell is dead and that came to be for a certain reason and i if you don't already know the case i think you're going to be very surprised to find out how this came to be and who was involved.

Because I can tell you right now, this ball of yarn that we've started to build here, we haven't even mentioned all the players in this game. There are people that are major components of the story that Stephanie has not mentioned one time, which I love, by the way. So just if you think you're like, oh, I can see where this one's going, I promise you, if you don't already know the story, you have no idea. That's where I'm at on it. I mean, without giving too much away,

that's the best teaser I can give. That's the best kind of, you know, takeaway from this one going into part two. You good with that, Cookie Monster? I have to keep my blood sugar up. We've been down here for hours. I love it. It's great. Now, listen, if you don't have any final words, guys, we appreciate you being here. When you're seeing this episode, I want to make sure that I'm getting it right because we're recording a little bit early. This is going to be, if you're

listening on audio, the 29th. If you're watching on YouTube, it's the 31st. So obviously we hope everyone had a great Christmas and we hope that everyone has a great New Year's Eve yeah New Year's Eve if you're seeing us on Sunday so everyone if you're going out tonight

and you're watching on YouTube be safe travel in groups we want to see you all back here next week on Wednesday for Crime Weekly News so everyone stay safe out there have a good holiday

take care have a good night bye So everyone stay safe out there. Have a good holiday. Take care. Have a good night. Bye.