Dateline NBC - The family matriarch’s defense. A landmark decision in the Gilgo Beach murders case. And a mom hits the road seeking justice.

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Inside the defense of Florida grandmother Donna Adelson. In Long Island, a judge's ruling on DNA ahead of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heuermann's, murder trial. Plus, almost 21 years after her daughter was murdered, a mother hits the road to bring awareness to the unsolved case.

Hey, good morning. It's time for Dateline's morning meeting. This is really the first time he's appearing in court other than his arena. Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news. His defense team remains kind of in this holding pattern. Mom gets on the stand on this trial and then just admits to helping her husband commit the murders. Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's September 4th, and here's what's on our docket.

In Long Island, a judge makes a critical ruling in the case against alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heerman. This type of DNA has never been admitted in New York State. In Dateline Roundup, we've got the latest on a homicide investigation at the Popular Arts Festival, Burning Man. And Barry Morfew is back in court. The husband accused of poisoning his wife with an animal tranquilizer wants out of jail. His team wrote that Barry, quote, is an honest person who is just a judge. Genuinely eager to clear his name. Plus, we'll talk to a mother on an unusual road trip.

She's driving cross-country to draw attention to her daughter's 20-year-old murder. Some people call it crazy, but I always say you have to find a way to learn to live in spite of these losses, and that's how you find the healing. But before all that, we're heading back to Tallahassee for the latest in the Blockbuster Murder Trial of a Florida grandmother. The defense of Donna Aedelson has begun. Adelson is charged with helping to plan the 2014 murder-for-hire of Dan Markell, her former son-in-law. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation. The state put on its case last week arguing that Aidelson was deeply involved in the plot. Prosecutors presented evidence we've talked about on the podcast before,

like the wire-tapped calls between Donna and her son Charlie, and the FBI sting operation known as the bump. They also presented new evidence we hadn't heard about before, like the fact that she had Markell's car model and license plate number in her planner and made an alleged confession to her bunk made in jail. Did you ever outright ask her whether she did what she's accused of? I did. And what did she say to that?

She said she did. It was to keep her grandkids, but it wasn't supposed to go that far. The defense fired back this week. putting longtime friends of the Aylsons and forensic and private investigators on the stand. But the big question, would Donna take the stand? Dateline producer Brad Davis was back in the courtroom and joins us now to tell us how it all unfolded. Hey, Brad. Hi, good to see you.

You too. So who was the first witness, the defense called to the stand? The defense called Ann Cunningham. She's one of Donna's closest friends. And they asked Ms. Cunningham about the day that Dan Markell was shot. And she said that Donna called her and that she was very upset, like, that Donna was crying, talking about it. This is all sort of presumably trying to make the point that this was hardly the behavior of someone who wanted Dan Markell dead. Ms. Cunningham also testified that Donna was especially worried about Wendy, Donna's daughter, and her grandchildren.

She worried for their safety since they didn't really know at that point who shot Dan Markell. And it continued with the testimony from Anne about how upset Donna was after her son Charlie was convicted. Yes, he was convicted in 2023 of murdering and planning to murder Dan Markell. Anne Cunningham said that Donna was talking about wanting to get away from it all to really go somewhere and clear her head. This goes to the point that when Donna was arrested, she was arrested at the airport in Miami with a one-way ticket to Vietnam. which does not have an extradition tree with the U.S. So the prosecution has been pointing to that one-way ticket as evidence that Donna was trying to flee after Charles' conviction, sort of a consciousness of guilt.

And Ann Cunningham, this best friend of Donnas, is offering a different explanation. They did buy one-way tickets, but they were planning to return, and we're actually going to be returning for the younger Adelson grandson, Wendy's younger son, for his bar mitzvah in January, 2024, just a few weeks. after their flight to Vietnam, so that they would return for that. And Cunningham's partner, Ron Gutterson, was also asked about this, and he basically said the same thing. So, although they were traveling, they made it clear that they'd be back for the bar mitzvah. Yes. Donna had told Annie that she purchased the dress.

Under any set of circumstances, would they not have returned? I don't know. On the normal circumstances, they would move heaven and earth to be there for that traditional occasion. Another friend of the Aitlesons, who testified, really backed up this idea of that it wasn't supposed to be just a one-way ticket. And he says that he was there when they purchased their ticket? Yeah, his name is Richard Chagrin. And he describes himself as having a lot of experience with travel. and he was really computer savvy and more so than Don and Harvey.

So the Ailsons called him in and asked him to help them. And specifically, what were you asked to do? Initially, I helped Donna with the visa. And then when we were done, applying for the visa, Donna took Susan to show her the dress that she bought, and then she asked Harvey to sit down with me and make plain reservations. Okay. When you sat down to assist with the reservations,

What did you discover? The ironic thing was that the round trip was a fraction more than one way, and I suggested, since you don't know when you're coming back until sometime in January, you know, book a one-way. Brad, this is important because this witness is going under oath and saying that it was his idea to book the one-way tickets, not the Edelson's. Yeah, that's what he was saying. He emphasized in his testimony that there was so much media attention

that the Adelson's were sort of barricaded in their condo in Miami and that they were afraid to leave the building because of all the media tension. So it was a moment. It's hard to say how the jury is reacting to it all, but it did make an impression in court. So most of these witnesses were essentially character witnesses, you know, people giving the jury a sense of who Donna Adelson is what she's like. Did you think that they were effective? It's really hard to say. It's hard to say what this jury's thinking. They're a very young jury comparatively, but they're taking notes. You know, they seem to be paying attention. So we'll just, we'll have to see.

So the big question, Brad, did Donna take the stand? The judge actually gave the jury a longer lunch break so that Donna could confer with her attorneys. And ultimately, they decided that she would not take the stand. This is Edison, the question remains. As it relates to your right to remain silent and your right to testify, what is your decision? concerning these two rights. At this time, I don't want to ask. This is obviously a decision she thought a lot about.

Certainly, there are always pros and cons to a defendant taking the stand. And this is certainly no exception. She's really the only person who can explain a lot of the things that the prosecution has laid out. She's the only person, really, who can explain her state of mind in a lot of these wiretaps and these various phone calls, the bump, all these things. There's no one else who can say, what were you thinking? how, why did you do this, you know? So, but then there's the risk of cross-examination.

And she has to have an explanation, you know, when the prosecution starts asking their questions. So it's definitely a double-edged sword just like it would in those cases. Yeah. What happens next with the defense, Brad? The defense finally rested their case and closing arguments were set for Thursday. Brad, thank you for being in court and bringing us this big update. We appreciate it. Great.

I'll see you next week. Coming up, a judge makes a pivotal ruling in the case of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuerman, and it all comes down to DNA. This week in a Long Island courthouse, there was an important pretrial hearing in a case I've been following for more than a decade, the Gilgo Beach murders. Since 1993, police have discovered 11 sets of human remains in the Gilgo Beach, Manorville, and North Sea areas of Long Island. Some of the bodies were wrapped in burlap sacks. Many of them were sex workers. For years, the case seemingly went nowhere until July 2023 when news broke of an arrest.

I'm standing here with my law enforcement partners in the Gilgo Task Force to announce the indictment of defendant Rex Andrew Heerman. Rex Heurman, a husband, father, and successful architect was subsequently charged with the murders of seven of the victims. He has pleaded not guilty. Not long after Hewerman's arrest, Suffolk County DA, Ray Tierney told me that a key part of the case against the architect hinged on DNA, allegedly linking him to the bodies. Did you get a match? We did. This is your bingo moment here. Yes. But for the past several months, that DNA analysis has been under fire as Hewerman's defense team has fought to get it thrown out before trial arguing it is unreliable. On Wednesday, Line producer, Mario Garcia, and assistant producer Jess Kernig, were in the courtroom when the judge made his ruling. They are joining us now from outside of the courthouse. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having us, Andrea.

All right. So, Mario and Jess, I remember for our Dateline episode, detectives told us that the remains were basically skeletons from the victim. So there wasn't much forensic evidence they could go on, but they did discover five hairs on those burlap sacks. And they were able to trace those hairs back. to Heerman. Yeah, that's right, Andrea. They tracked down those hairs and they connected one directly to him and others to his wife and his daughter who have been ruled out. And it seems like Ray Taney's office has gone out of their way to prove that they're not connected to any of this. But through some of this DNA, they were allegedly able to determine that he's their man. And this DNA has been at the center of all this ever since. Let's get into the arguments over how that DNA analysis was done, which has been at the center of several recent hearings, something called whole genome sequencing.

What can you tell us about that? You know, obviously DNA is evolving, the science of DNA. And, you know, regular, if we can call a regular DNA, reduces down to a percentage, a likelihood of a suspect. So they can say in the total population, the likelihood is, you know, 95 percent. But there could be other possibilities of people that could be a perp. With this new evolving whole genome sequencing, they can say with a much higher degree of certitude, this is the person. It's not a person like this. It's this person. So that's why I think the prosecution was so strident in trying to get this admitted. Yeah, and this whole genome sequencing works on degraded DNA or smaller samples.

Yes, you can employ this type of testing on a smaller, if you will, qualitatively sample. So for STR DNA, what is kind of the regular standard, you would need a whole hair with a root and have a more robust, richer sample. That was not the case with these hairs. These bodies had been where they were for, you know, almost 15 years. It was a much more degraded sample. What's the controversy from the viewpoint of the defense? The bottom line, Andrea, is that this type of DNA, this whole genome sequencing DNA, has never been admitted in New York State. So from the get-go, the defense went out of their way

to try to get it thrown out, calling it magic, calling it junk science, saying that it's not a good enough sample to even be tested. Right. And the defense argues that this is not widely accepted within the scientific community, and it lacks peer-reviewed literature. How has the prosecution responded to the defense's claims about this testing.

Well, the prosecution put up their witnesses, one of whom is the Ph.D. scientist who owns and runs the lab that did the testing in this case and pointed out the numerous publications he has been published in and pointed out a chapter and verse of other cases and other jurisdictions

where this DNA has been utilized. Okay, so Mary-O. and Jess, these hearings have been going on for months now. Wednesday we got the big ruling on all of this. What did the judge decide? So the judge decided that the DNA matches made with the whole genome sequences will be allowed at the trial. Okay. So clearly huge win for the prosecution. District attorney Ray Tierney. I know he talked to some reporters after the hearing. I'm sure you guys were part of that gaggle. And he pointed directly at the science in this case. He did. The reason why we were able to prevail were one simple reason. The science was on our side. And that's why we won. This is the first time that this kind of DNA testing will be allowed in court as evidence. And we're talking about New York State. We are talking about New York State, Andrea, and it is. This is a precedent-setting moment with regard to how this kind of DNA evidence can be used in trials moving

forward. And there was a question asked, Ray Tierney has five cold cases up on his website right now. You know, this will be, this is a game changer. How did the defense respond to the judge's ruling? Well, interestingly, the defense responded to this judge's ruling on their motion with another motion. They are going back at this specific evidence, even though the judge just ruled that it'll be allowed in. And they're kind of doing another end around saying that because, in effect, the lab that did the testing isn't licensed in New York State, that it should be thrown out on a technicality, if you will. Okay. And also, Mario, you and I talked before the hearing about a possible trial date being

set, which we thought was maybe going to come, but didn't? We thought that it may come at this hearing. It was not announced at this hearing, but the judge has set September 23rd as the next date to deal with everything else relating currently to this case. And so it looks like by the end of September, we could have a trial date. Okay, well, we will stay tuned. And Jess and Mario, we will have you both back to see how this all unfolds for Rex Heerman. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup. We've got updates on the case of the Colorado husband in jail for allegedly murdering his wife and a homicide at the Arts Festival Burning Man.

Plus, a mother's cross-country road trip to bring awareness to her daughter's unsolved murder. Welcome back. Joining us for this week's roundup is Dateline producer Sue Simpson. Hey, Sue. Hey, Andrea. Okay, so first up, Sue, we are heading to the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada, where a homicide investigation is underway after a man was found dead, Saturday night at the popular Burning Man Festival. Tell us a little bit more, first of all,

about what Burning Man is. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, every summer, Andrea, before Labor Day, tens of thousands of people had to Black Rock Desert for a music and arts festival. You know, I'd call it a festival with an attitude, people trying to be creative, to be fun, a bit outrageous. And they build a temporary city from scratch, which they call Block Rock City. The signature event of the festival, year is the burning of a huge wooden effigy of a man. So according to law enforcement this year, someone at that burn made a gruesome discovery. Yeah, that's right. According to a statement from the Pershing County Sheriff's Office, the body of a man was discovered, quote, lying in a pool of blood. When the authorities got there,

they said he was obviously deceased. They cordoned off the area and did what they do. They processed the scene. They collected evidence. And they also began interviewing festival attendees. And on Wednesday, authorities identified the victim as 37-year-old Vadim Kruglav, who was visiting the U.S. from Russia. The team behind Burning Man released a statement saying that they are cooperating with law enforcement as the investigation gets underway. Obviously, see a lot of changes. There's a lot of challenges with this one, Sue. That's right. Think about this event.

Thousands of participants at temporary city, everybody letting loose and having fun. Memories may be very blurry. The festival ended on Monday. Black Rock City essentially vanished by the middle of the week. So challenges, yes. But we'll be watching this one as it develops. Up next, we are heading to Colorado where a hearing was held this week for Barry Morfew, the man accused of murdering his wife, Suzanne. Sue, remind us about this case. Sure. On Mother's Day 2020, Suzanne Morphew was reported missing by a neighbor. Her husband, Mary Morphew, was charged with her murder. But in 2022, charges against him were dismissed without prejudice,

meaning prosecutors could refile charges against him, and that is exactly what happened. Suzanne's remains were discovered in 2023, and Barry Morfew was once again charged with his wife's murder. So Morfew has yet to enter a plea, but in the past has said that he had nothing to do with his wife's death. He has been behind bars in a Colorado jail ever since he was indicted earlier this summer, and this week he was back in court. What was the hearing about Sue? Well, his defense team filed a motion to reduce Barry's bond from $3 million to $4,000 to $4,000, 500,000. And his team wrote in their motion that Barry, quote, is an honest person who is genuinely eager to clear his name so that his former fine reputation can be restored.

Suzanne's family obviously didn't feel the same. Her brother, David Moorman, filed a victim impact statement with the court. What did he have to say? He called him a flight risk and a serial psychopathic controller of all in the realm of his influence. He said that Barry should remain behind bars until a verdict is reached. So the judge did not lower the $3 million bond, but modified Morphew's bond conditions, making it slightly easier for him to be bonded out of jail as he awaits trial. Up next, we are heading to Moscow, Idaho, where a hearing was held last week regarding the release of crime scene photos and videos depicting the 2022 University of Idaho murders committed by Brian Koberger. He pleaded guilty earlier this summer to murdering the four students, Sue. Yeah, and Andrea, to remind listeners, those four students are Madison Mogan, Ethan Chapin, Zana Kronotel, and Kaylee Gonsalves.

It was Madison Mogan's mom and Ethan Chapin's parents and sister who petitioned the court to stop the release of these photos by the city of Moscow. A handful of images and videos have been released by the city. In these photos, they had blurred out the victim's bodies and the faces of the surviving roommates. witnesses. So two of the four victims' families are clearly upset by this. Here's a lawyer for Ethan's mom describing how she feels. Your Honor has in the record, for example, in the testimony of Stacey Chapin, how incredibly harmful and emotionally damaging it is for her to see images of her son and the other murder victims. The lawyer pointed out that the blurring done by the city doesn't completely hide the victims or some of the graphic nature of the scene.

And what was the city of Moscow's response? The city's attorney argued that by law, Moscow is required to release these records because of the Idaho Public Records Act. He did say that if there was a legal option for them not to release the photos, they wouldn't release them. If there were an option set forth in the statute that allowed these records to be fired into orbit into the sun, I think, you know, in my heart of hearts, we would just as soon not release these records. The judge said she would consider both arguments and release an official ruling at a future time. In the meantime, she issued a temporary restraining order on the release of the photos.

Lots of information this week, Sue. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Over the years, I've met many parents confronting the unthinkable, the loss of a child who's been murdered or gone missing. And far too often, many of them aren't just grieving. They are also fighting to get answers about what happened to their child. That's something my next guest, Dr. Maggie Zingman, knows a lot about. 20 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, her 18-year-old daughter, Brittany, was murdered. Years went by with no arrest, so Maggie decided to drive across the country in a pink van

decorated with her daughter's photos to get attention for her case. That was 2007. This summer, she's back at it on her 24th tour. She called me recently from the road to tell me. me why she keeps doing it and how she stays hopeful. Maggie, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. Maggie, where have you been so far? This time on my 24th tour, I am traveling to places like Georgia and Tennessee and Virginia and North Carolina and South Carolina and making my way up through Albuquerque all the way to

CrimeCon 25 in Denver. Some people call it crazy. But this has been part of my healing process, not only for me, but especially in the last dozen or so caravans. They've really been focused on connecting to other cold case families and giving them a voice. Describe your car for us, Maggie. It's pink and purple. It has a very subtle butterfly background on it. And then it has pictures of her right before she was murdered, but mostly it has caravan to catch a killer on the side. and even on the roof so that when truckers go by, they can read it because over the years, I find, I get an email saying, I saw your car on the highway, and people took the time to look up caravans, catch a killer, and find the Facebook, or now there's, you know, probably at least 250 media stories over the years, local media.

Can you tell us what exactly happened to Brittany and what you know about her murder? Ritty had graduated high school, went away to Eckerd College for a year. She got homesick and she decided she wanted to come home. Then she started going to the junior college. Her brother was also going there. And that Monday night, September 27th, she left to school. I had called me because she was feeling sick. And so I told her, come up and see me this weekend.

We'll find a doctor for you. We'll get it taken care of. On September 28th, I called her. didn't get any answer, September 29th. I didn't get any answer. September 30th, which was a Thursday, I called and left that typical mom message of, Brittany, I know you're okay, but please, please, just call me, please let me know you're okay. And the next day, October 1st, at 1 a.m., I received a knock on the door. And it was like out of the movie. It was crazy. It was storming lightning and the sheriff and this raincoat and stuff. And he said, are you Maggie Zingman? I said, yeah. He said,

You need to call Tulsa Police. Your daughter's been murdered. Maggie, that was more than 20 years ago, and there have been no arrests in the murder of your daughter, which has to be just so excruciating for you to know that that person is still out there. How do you cope with this perpetual state of limbo that you're in with the not-knowing? Well, it does make me angry. It does make me sad.

But also, I've learned early on that if I crumble and fall apart, then her memory does. And I just can't let that happen because I have really found healing in knowing that in the same way that Brittany would have changed lives because she was studying to be a cancer researcher, that she's now changing lives. And I get that from everybody I meet. They see her face from the car. They learn of her story, you know, these meetings that I'm having with families now. We're all having similar stories, but they're also saying, you know, learning of Brittany and learning of what I'm doing. You know, some of them have done the same, and some are just getting the encouragement to do it. So you learn to live in spite of and because of and in honor of and letting myself grieve.

You know, every day I walk into my car and I sort of look at her face somewhat through a veil of tears, you know. But because I look at her face every day, I'm not going to let her kill her take my life. And people who want to talk to you can catch up with you at CrimeCon. You'll be there and eager to meet lots of people. Yes. Crime Con is gifted me with a table this time. Crime Con is very important for people to come and learn about how families have survived. Anyone who's there should definitely come and say hello to you, including our own Josh Manquitz. I hope that you two bump into each other.

I hope so. Thank you, Maggie. Thank you. you all have a place in my heart. That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. Coming up this Friday, I am bringing you an all-new episode. When loving mom, Angela Craig, died after a sudden illness.

Doctors had no idea what had happened. But a suspicious package at her husband's dental office led to a chain of sinister discoveries. You've learned that James Craig is living essentially a double life with other women. Yes, several other women. Watch Secrets of Exam Room 9 this Friday at 10-9 Central. And a reminder, I'll be in Nashville with the rest of the Dateline crew on September 28th for the first ever Dateline live event. There will be on-stage panels, audience Q&As, and VIP reception. We'd love to see you there.

You can still get tickets at DatelinenBC.com forward slash event. You can also find a link in the episode description. Thanks for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Katie Ferguson and Carson Cummins. Our associate producer is Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kurloff. Production and fact-checking helped by Terry Dickerson and Georgina DeNardo. Veronica Mizaka is our digital producer.

Rick Kwan is our sound designer. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer. And Liz Cole is. senior executive producer of Dateline. See ya. Ciao.