RedHanded - Episode 333 - Charlie Adelson: The Dentist & The Hitmen - Part 1

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

When Wendi Adelson was left feeling trapped in Tallahassee, following her divorce from FSU professor Dan Markel, she told her big brother Charlie. What happened next is beyond anything anyone could have imagined.In a bizarre murder for hire plot involving hundreds of hours of FBI wiretapping, an owl loving hitman, coded calls about pot belly pigs and a tv repairman, this case has been bubbling away in Florida for the past decade.But finally in November 2023, some shocking truths were revealed as the Adelson family come undone…Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus Content Follow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Saruti.

And I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Handed. Kelly Osbourne's third favorite show. If you are listening, Kelly, hello. And welcome to the Red Handed. Kelly Osbourne's third favourite show. If you are listening, Kelly, hello. And welcome to the Red Handed family. Her brother went to the same school as my brother very shortly. Oh, there you go. They used to live in Buckinghamshire for a while.

Six degrees of connection. I hope that I have no degrees of connection to basically anyone involved in today's story. Because almost everyone we're going to talk about today is a dick yeah absolute trash bag garbage people honestly honestly and it's not just this week sorry guys it's a two-parter so we'll be talking about them for the next two weeks so this sensational case the case of the wealthy adelson family is a story of murder, which involves hundreds and hundreds of hours of FBI wiretapping, a very bad marriage, a Latin Kings gang leader, an owl-loving hitman, double bluffs, triple bluffs, coded calls about pot-bellied pigs, four trials, four convictions, another one likely imminent, and a TV repairman is a case that has been bubbling away on the true crime crock pot for the past decade. It's gonna be tender. It's gonna fall apart in your hands. This guys is an episode that you just need a spoon for. It's a spoon only red-handed

because yes it is finally time to serve this up as a double helping of Red Handed Goats to Florida, part one. Our incredibly strange story today starts on the 19th of July 2014. At around 9am that day, 41-year-old Florida State University law professor Dan Markell headed out for the morning. He dropped his two little boys off at their daycare centre and then he drove to the gym. He worked out for an hour and then he left Premier Fitness in Market Square in Tallahassee at 10.38am. On his drive home, Dan, who was going through a nightmare of a divorce to put it lightly, called his friend to complain about the fact that his ex-wife, Wendy with an I, was trying to move their kids to a different school without consulting him. A distracted Dan didn't notice that there was

a car tailing him as he opened his garage door and pulled in. He did notice, however, when the car pulled into his driveway behind him. Dan told his friend, hold on a second, there's someone here I don't know. This friend who was on the phone then heard two loud bangs, and then the call went dead. Meanwhile, Dan's neighbour spotted that his garage door was open. There had been a bunch of burglaries in the area, and the neighbour, just being neighbourly, went to have a look. Much to his horror, though. No one was trying to steal Dan's car. The reality was far worse. 911, want to see the rest of your emergency? Okay, tell me exactly what happened. We heard and looked in, the garage door was up,

and I thought the gentleman was backing out, and I went back to my house, but he never backed out, and I came back over, and his driver's side window is shattered, and he's battered and can't answer. He's inside. I don't know if somebody tried to shoot him or if he shot himself or what. I don't know. He didn't send an ambulance in a hurry. He's still alive. He's moving. Dan Markell had been shot in the face twice.

Once in the forehead and once in his cheek. There was also a wound on his arm where he had clearly tried to protect his head. Unbelievably though, the emergency dispatcher accidentally deprioritised the call and an ambulance didn't show up for 19 whole minutes. And when it eventually did, Dan was rushed to Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. I still do not understand how that happened. 19 minutes.

Like, that's genuinely life and death. I mean, he's alive. Dan is alive when his neighbour finds him. And in the 911 call we just heard, he says as much. He tells the operator he is still alive and there's been no real explanation for how this happened they just say the deprioritization was down to human error and of course we all make mistakes but the magnitude of the consequences of your mistake when you are a emergency operator is catastrophic. And I'm sure that person feels horrendous, but it is awful.

So the police, along with all of Dan's neighbours, were completely at a loss. Who on earth would want to shoot Dan and why? Dan had been born in Canada, but after coming to the US to study law at Harvard, Dan had stayed there. After university, he got a job clerking for a federal judge. And then he was snapped up by a prestigious law firm in DC. But teaching was Dan's real passion. So when FSU offered him a tenure-track professorship,

he jumped at the opportunity. The only request he had was could FSU also find a position for his wife Wendy. This wasn't a problem at all for the university because Wendy Adelson was an easy fit. She had a master's from Cambridge. She was bubbly, personable, confident and came highly recommended. So FSU offered Wendy a position as directing clinical professor in their law school. She accepted and the pair moved to Tallahassee to start their new lives. Dan and Wendy had originally met back in 2005 when Dan was in DC and Wendy was in Miami, which is her hometown. They connected on J-Date. I just feel like everybody these days, where are they meeting if they're not meeting online?

And you just have to get more and more niche with everything that you're doing. Do you remember that dating app that was going around with like people who just like beards? No. I forgot what it was called. But there was one definitely that existed in London for a short amount of time, which was just about people who want to date people with beards. Maybe going niche is the way. I don't know. I don't know.

But they go really niche. They connect on J-Date. They hit it off. And despite the distance, within months, Dan and Wendy were extremely serious. This seems to have been classic Dan. He was the kind of guy to jump in both feet first when he wanted something. And he was head over heels for the beautiful, funny and smart Wendy. The following year,

the seemingly perfect couple, 33-year-old Dan and 26-year-old Wendy, both young, attractive and accomplished, got married in a lavish 200-person wedding in Boca Raton, Florida. Apparently, Wendy had just wanted something small on the beach for her wedding. But her mother Donna insisted that this wedding had to be huge.

She was, after all, her only daughter. The Markells and the Adelsons split the cost of the wedding, but despite all of her seeming attention to detail about the wedding day, Donna, who organised the catering, made a very big uh-oh. Is it an uh-oh or does she do it on purpose? I don't know. I think I do know. Well, yes, the more you find out about Donna,

she seems like one of those mother-in-laws that will end up on like a am I the asshole Reddit thread being like, I told my daughter-in-law that she's a fat pig and I hate her. Am I the asshole? Except Donna Adelson would never even end up there because she wouldn't even ask that question of herself. She's the kind of mother to end up in jail. So either Donna forgot or Donna ignored

that Dan, his family, the Markells, and many of the Markells' friends and family kept strictly kosher. So when some very unkosher plates of meat and cheese, together touching on the same plate, began to circulate the wedding venue, Dan's very good friend, a rabbi no less, promptly left the occasion altogether and Dan Markell was mortified. I mean obviously of us not being Jewish, not keeping kosher, of which I have to say the Adelsons are Jewish, so Donna is Jewish, she just doesn't give a fuck what Dan wants or what the Markells want. I'm like, me and cheese together, sounds delicious. But the closest to imagining how mortified I would be is that my entire family, apart from my dad and my brother and me, are like pretty much strict, strict vegetarians.

Like my grandmother wouldn't even pick up an egg, like that level. And I can't imagine if my partner's mum organized a catering at our wedding and just handed out plates of meat to my family. Just eggs. Just handing out, scattering it, throwing eggs. Just putting eggs in my grandmother's hands. But to Dan's credit, he didn't hold a grudge. He just told everyone there not to eat the food if they were kosher and then he got straight back to partying with his new wife, Wendy.

Pretty soon, Dan and Wendy had two boys, two years apart, and their lives seemed all set. The one problem was that Wendy desperately and completely hated Tallahassee. She longed to be closer to where she'd grown up in Miami so she could be near her family and also in an environment that she was more used to. I know which one I'd pick, fucking hell. Yeah. So this difference between Miami and Tallahassee is something that I definitely

had to look into as someone who has never even been to Florida. So this is what I have come up with. And I'm sure that the Americans listening will correct me if I am wrong. But Miami, it seems, is obviously a coastal metropolis with mild weather, beautiful beaches as far as the eye can see, a buzzing food scene and a very vibrant culture. And extra. And extra. Again, I haven't been to Miami, but this is what the internet told me and the pictures of Miami do seem to match up. It looks very nice. Now Tallahassee, on the other hand, and if you live in Tallahassee, please do not come for me. I don't know. I've not been. But, ignorant me, I was like, oh, interesting, because it's actually the capital of the Sunshine State. I thought Miami was the

capital of Florida, which I'm guessing everybody does. But it's actually Tallahassee. It's never the one you think it is. Exactly. It's like Albany, New York or Rochester or something. Yeah, it's weird. So yeah, it's the capital of florida and it seems to be a little bit different to miami apparently in tallahassee it rains a lot humidity is off the charts it's prone to flooding and power cuts there are no beaches just salt marshes the poverty rate is sadly nearly 90 percent higher than the rest of the u.s average and there are alligators basically everywhere. Again, this is what the internet told me. Don't come for me.

I hear that Tallahassee is a lot more like the Deep South in terms of like more like Bible Belt Deep South rather than Miami, which again feels like a coastal metropolis. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of you don't believe in ghosts i get it lots of people don't i didn't either until i came face to face with them ever since that moment hauntings spirits and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows,

uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall,

that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On The Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. So, yeah, very large jump for somebody like Wendy. And she hated it. Not only had she just grown up in Miami, her family were very, very wealthy. Her dad was a prominent dentist and he had a successful practice. And Wendy was the baby of the family. So she just got whatever she wanted. And now

there was absolutely no chance of that happening. Dan was never going to leave FSU, not when he was on track for tenure. It also didn't help that Dan was super busy at work basically all of the time. He'd regularly travel to deliver keynote speeches all over the country. So often, Wendy would be home alone with the kids. And when Dan was at home, he was by all accounts a great dad to his boys, everybody attests to that, and he clearly loved Wendy. But he wasn't the most domesticated. Chores and cleaning weren't priorities to Dan. So again, it seems that these fell to Wendy and her anger began to grow. Wendy, aside from being an accomplished law professor, also loved to write. So maybe in an attempt to keep herself busy in Tallahassee,

Wendy signed up for a creative writing course. And then in 2011, she published a novel called This Is Our Story, a book about the lives of two young women who become victims of human trafficking. Wendy was actually an expert in trafficking. She'd worked in that space for a few years, presumably educating and not actually trafficking people. Yeah, she's a big time people trafficker. Yeah, because my cousin works on a human trafficking unit. So I always say that and people are like, what? And I'm like, no, she helps them.

She helps them. She's anti-human trafficking. So Wendy, in her position at FSU as a professor, as a law professor, her specialization there is in helping victims of human trafficking. Now, this is our story, aside from not being the best title I've ever heard for a book, was also self-published by Wendy, because again, she's like... What a surprise. I wrote this in my creative writing class. I am going to get it published. Okay. Can we? Published by British publish okay can can we publish by british london i honestly think and i may get ripped apart for this i think if you self-publish a book no you didn't i don't think it counts i really don't so yes there you go hot takes here hot takes. Though I have to be fair and let you know that when I Google this, I'm looking at the

wrong book. This Is Our Story is also another book that is written because I was about to be like, do you know what though? It's got 4.1 out of 5 and 96% of people on Goodreads liked it. Actually, do you know what? This Is Our Story by Wendy Adelson has got, okay, it's got a 4 out of 5 on Amazon UK and it's got 3.4 out of 5 on Goodreads. So

they're short. 45 reviews. What's our book got on Goodreads? Oh god, I don't even remember what our book is called. Red-handed. Oh there it is. An exploration of criminals, cannibals, cults and what makes a killer tick.

Now available in Russian apparently. I got an email about that yesterday. All right. Do you know what? It's got 4.7 from 787 reviews on Amazon. Okay, so we beat Wendy with an I. Anyway, for her book that she self-published, Wendy used the stories that she had heard during her time in the human trafficking field, anti-human trafficking field, whatever, to write this fictional book and raise awareness of the situation within the US. If you want to read a book about human trafficking and you have time go and read The Truth About Modern Slavery by Emily Kenway. It's great and short and succinct. I love the idea. Five out of, it was short. Anyway. Apparently, there is more to Wendy's book than gangs and abductions. Within the pages of This Is Our Story, Wendy also reveals quite a lot about her own marriage.

We haven't read the book, but we have seen enough to note, as others have, that it does seem to be at least semi-autobiographical. And Wendy's character in the book, who's called Lily, really doesn't seem to like her husband that much. No, she goes on quite a lot about how hapless her husband is while she's simultaneously trying to save people from being people trafficked. Now, perhaps this book was a cry for attention from Wendy. Maybe she just wanted Dan to pay attention to what she was trying to tell him. But if it was, Dan never knew, because he never actually read his wife's book.

Even Dan's friends now say he probably should have just read it. Oh, God, oh, my God. But Dan, according to everybody, was an intellectual and an academic through and through. He didn't like fiction. He wasn't interested in that stuff. So while he wished his wife the best, he didn't read her book. Which, I do have to admit, is pretty shitty. And I think in some ways that was the final nail in the coffin for Wendy. And in September 2012, while Dan was in New York for a business trip,

Wendy text him saying that she was done and that she was leaving him. Dan rushed home early, but Wendy was already gone. So was most of the furniture, their belongings and the boys. Wendy had even moved money out of their joint account and taken the two-carat engagement ring that had belonged to Dan's grandmother. The only thing she left behind was a stack of divorce papers on Dan's bed. A stone cold, isn't it? Oh, stone cold. And Dan described it to his friends as like a Pearl Harbor moment. He was like, I did not see this coming. It came out of nowhere and it just blew my life apart.

I would argue Dan, and look, Dan is the victim in this. He gets shot twice. I'm not here to slack him off. I'm just saying, Dan, I don't think it should have been as much of a shock to you as it was. I think if Dan had been paying attention to what was going on, he wouldn't have been as shocked at the fact that Wendy left him. And I do also have to say that when you look into this case, a lot of people at this point point out Wendy as being like the bad guy. To be honest, I don't really blame her for leaving. It's clear that Dan and Wendy got married way, way, way too soon without getting to know each other first. And Dan was, according to his own friends, and this is a word that is used repeatedly to describe Dan, abrasive. And he could easily come

across as condescending. Everybody said he was very passionate, he would be there for you, was totally loyal. If you were his friend, he would do anything for you. But he was abrasive. And Wendy said that she felt held back in her career by staying in Tallahassee for him and that the love had dwindled because he didn't view her as an equal. And I think leaving a marriage that she wasn't happy in doesn't make Wendy a bad guy. Let's save all the things that make Wendy a bad guy for later. But as for the next part of this story, they both fought hard and they both fought dirty. This divorce was about as nasty as you could get. After she left Dan, Wendy took their two boys and went back to Miami.

And Dan was naturally furious. Miami is over seven hours drive from Tallahassee. And he just wasn't going to lose his kids like that. So Dan took Wendy to court. She said that the kids were better off in Miami. They would have a better quality of life there. They would also be closer to her parents, so she would have a good support network. And she also told the courts that she already even had a good job lined up there.

But the court rejected Wendy's petition and granted her and Dan 50-50 split custody. So the boys had to stay in Tallahassee and therefore so did Wendy. And since their youngest son was just two years old, it looked like Wendy would be stuck in that town that she hated so much for the next 16 years. But if Wendy was upset, her mum, not kosher Donna, was raging. And this is when things went from bad to worse. Donna was not a fan of Dan's. When exactly this dislike first started, though, is a bit unclear because apparently Donna and Wendy were on J-Date together and they chose Dan together as a potential match. Honestly, I have to talk about

this. There is one time and one time only in my life that I allowed my mum to sit and quote unquote play on hinge with me. And that was to prove to her how fucking slim the pickings were because she kept telling me that I was being too fussy. And I like no no no no no mother we're gonna sit down and I'm gonna show you what's out there and then at the end of it we're on there for like 10 minutes and she was like yeah okay fair enough and I was like it's good I'm glad you've seen the situation now my mom has also had very similar conversations with me I have not let her anywhere the fuck near it it shuts them up for a little bit but what I have to say about donna and wendy playing together slowly over the course of the next two weeks you guys are going to learn a lot

about mrs donna adelson but i have to say i think the reason that donna and wendy both pick dan is because and this is going to sound incredibly shallow but this is what i genuinely think a he's smart he's smart he's a professor he's a law professor he's gonna do well in life he's gonna have money but also because he has blue eyes because Wendy has blue eyes and Dan has blue eyes both of their sons have blue eyes Wendy even wears teal contacts to make her eyes look even more blue and like randomly in stuff I have seen she just talks about how Dan had blue eyes and their kids had blue eyes she was like I was in a shop and a man told me how blue my eyes were it's like yeah because you're wearing blue contacts on top of your already blue eyes that's

so bizarre and I feel like Donna's like you can give me some blue-eyed little cute grandkids and then I'll I'll fucking get rid of you later when I don't want you. And you guys will actually hear this clip later in this episode. So we'll come back to it. But just remember this. So it is an unreasonable to assume that things went south before the wedding when we take into account the whole non-kosher food order, which I just, the more I think about it, she did that on fucking purpose. And also, in emails and in texts about her son-in-law to Wendy, Donna always called him gibbers.

And we don't need to know what that actually means to know that it is a put-down. Yeah, I never got to the bottom of what it actually means, but it's not good. No, it sort of makes you think of, like, blithering idiot, like, that sort of vibe. And it didn't end there. After the breakup, Donna would send her daughter pages and pages of emails cursing Dan. Even telling Wendy to threaten her Jewish husband that she would have the boys baptised and enrolled in a Catholic school. Just to, you know, really hit Dan where it hurt. Even though Donna and the Adelsons again are themselves Jewish.

Now Wendy didn't threaten Dan with all of this. But one day, the kids let slip. They told their dad Dan, Grandma called you stupid. And Dan lost it. He petitioned the court to only allow Donna's supervised visitation with the boys moving forward, worried that she would alienate them from him. Obviously, this pissed Donna off something rotten,

and the date for the court hearing about this issue had been scheduled for the week after Dan was shot. But we are once again jumping ahead. Rewind. Because another really nasty part of this divorce proceeding that we need to talk about is the fact that Dan Markell stopped paying Wendy child support. Now, obviously, that doesn't sound great on the surface. But Dan said that his reason for doing this was because they were told to split their financial assets in a certain way when they separated. And according to Dan, Wendy was hiding over $500,000 from the case. He was saying she was

hiding that much in financial assets from being recovered as part of the separation process. That is a very, very serious accusation for anybody. But to make an accusation like that against a law professor someone who is hoping to have a legal career is a huge deal and if the court had continued to dig into this as they had started to do this would have blown a hole in Wendy's entire career so it is a very very big deal and we will come back to this point next week, so keep it in your mind. But for now, sticking with our timeline, about a year following the separation, things seemed to settle down a bit. Both Dan and Wendy tried to move forward with their lives. Wendy, although stuck in Tallahassee, did meet a new guy, Jeff LaCasse, a social science

professor at FSU. And Dan got a new girlfriend too, AmyCasse, a social science professor at FSU. And Dan got a new girlfriend too, Amy Adler, a law professor at NYU. Dan was happy. Amy was a big deal. And I absolutely do think the fact that Amy Adler is a big deal probably pissed Wendy off even more. It would piss anyone off. It's always horrible when they get an upgrade. Yeah.

Because by all accounts, Wendy was not that into Jeff. And now she's stuck in Tallahassee because of her ex, who's also now super happy with a new woman, who's also super high profile in the same academic legal circles that Wendy moves in. It would be annoying. Yeah. She has your job and she's better than you at it. That is awful.

But now let's get back to where we were at the top of the show. Dan was in hospital and miraculously he was still alive. But things weren't looking good. So the main question, obviously on everyone's lips, was who could have done this? Dan was a professor. Could it have been an angry student? It's not the first time that's ever happened. Maybe on his drive home from the gym, Dan had cut someone off and it was a lethal case of road rage. This is Florida. And police also wondered, since Dan was a prominent character in the legal world, had he helped put someone away who was now out and hell-bent on revenge?

Investigators were stumped. They couldn't even reach Dan's parents after the murder. So they tracked down Wendy, who was having lunch with some friends, and they brought her into the police station. So now, before we go any further, I do have to say, like we noted at the start, there have been five arrests, four trials, and four convictions in the murder of Dan Markell. Wendy Adelson, his ex-wife, has not been arrested, has not stood trial and has not been convicted of Dan's murder. But as we go through the next part of this episode, you will notice that we are highly suspicious of her and her behaviour, even though she has a solid alibi for the time of the shooting. And that's because the question isn't who killed Dan.

We know that, and we'll get to that very soon. The question is who knew that the murder was going to happen and who was involved in the planning and the execution. And there is a reason that Wendy is now, years later, regarded to be an unindicted co-conspirator. But at the time of this interview, I think the police didn't really know what to make of her. But they err on the side of her being innocent. So let's continue with our story.

At first, when the police picked Wendy up, they didn't tell her what had actually happened. Possibly to try and gauge her behaviour and see if she already knew. Eventually, once she was in the interview room, this is the start of the conversation between Wendy and the police. There was a shooting at your home, or your ex-husband's home at 2116 Trescott. Okay. Your husband, your ex-husband, excuse me, Daniel, has been taken to the hospital. He's not going to survive.

Oh, my God. Okay. Okay. Okay? Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm a monster. I'm a spidey.

What happened? Well, before we get into everything, I have to establish where you were and who you were with and so forth. Okay. Okay? And then once we've established all that, I can give you more details. Okay. Do you understand why I wanted you to come here before I discuss this? Oh, my God. Oh my God.

I'm sorry. It's okay. You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm just... I'm going to get this out of my mouth. I'm sorry. Can you... Let me get over this hump, OK? Can we do that first?

Quite a lot to unpack there, as I'm sure you will agree. We have said countless times that it is impossible to know or say how someone should or would react in a moment of shock or grief. But what we just listened to is a little bit jarring. Wendy goes immediately into hysterical crying. There's no disbelief. There's no denial. There's no processing time. There's no, this can't be right. You must have the wrong person. Nothing at all. No. And again, like you said, we don't know how people will react in that moment but all i can say is i have been in a situation a few years ago where somebody very very very dear

to me died in a motorbike accident and when i was told what happened it's like i couldn't comprehend what i was even being told it wasn't sinking in it made absolutely no sense what this person was saying to me the words that they were saying didn't make any sense. It was only hours and hours later when I was with my family that I fell apart. And Wendy here, she just reaches that extreme emotional state very quickly after being told. And it does feel a little bit off. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cone.

Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom.

But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real. From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts.

But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. Would you ever ask someone to do something like this?

Not in a million years. Okay. Do you think someone would do this for your benefit without asking you? No. What good does it deserve? I made my brother, his name is Charlie, the one I'm really close to, he makes a lot of jokes and bad taste. And it was a joke he made.

He bought the TV for me this morning that got broken. And I was talking to him about whether it made sense to pay to fix it or whether I should get a new one. And it was always his joke that, like, he knew Danny treated me badly. And it was always his joke. He said, you know, I looked into hiring a hitmanman and it was cheaper to get you this TV, so instead I got you this TV. I mean, he would never.

He's my big brother and he's been taking care of me since I was little, but he would never. And I said, I told that to the repair guy this morning right that's okay they said he asked me how much it cost and I said I didn't know because it was a gift because my brother said it's cheaper than a hitman it was my divorce present okay such a horrible thing to say that's okay It's OK. OK, so just to clarify what Wendy is talking about here, the day of Dan's murder, she's at home with a TV repairman who came over to set up a new TV that her brother Charlie, we'll get to him, had bought her.

And Charlie had made a joke when he bought this TV, saying to Wendy that the TV was her divorce present because it was cheaper than hiring a hitman. Wendy told the repairman this joke on the morning that Dan got shot. And then she told the police the very same joke that afternoon, which obviously does seem quite highly incriminating against Charlie because Dan did get murdered, And she doesn't stop there.

But even my family, who felt like I had been mistreated, would never do something like this. Never. Well, it's been, you guys have been divorced for over a year. Has there been any type of abuse in that time? Of him towards me? Yeah. No, no. It's, um, he's litigious, and we have an ongoing case because the house,

it shouldn't be, I don't know, it shouldn't be in my name anymore, but, um, when we got, when we, when we settled the case of our divorce, he said, our, one of the agreements the court said was, Danny wanted to stay in the house. They divorce, he said, one of the agreements the court said was Danny wanted to stay in the house.

They said, you can have the house, but you need to pay her half of the amount of what the house is worth. And he agreed to it. And then months passed and he just never paid me. And so we have ongoing litigation where I filed a motion in the court to have him pay me what he said he would. And he filed a counter motion for sanctions against my attorney because he thought that she did something wrong, which she didn't. But so, I mean, she, you know, she withdrew from the case and was going to serve as a witness.

I mean, she's not, she's not going to lash out at him for it. She's using the legal process to do it. You know, my parents are, you know, very angry towards him. But even when they're around my kids, they would never say a bad word about my kid's father. They're really, really careful about that. They just like him, but they know he's the father of my kids. They would never do that. I don't know who would be angry enough with him to do something like this.

The brother that you're real close to, I have to do a lot of elimination at the same time. The brother that you're really close to, the one that joked about the TV and everything, what did you say his name was? Charlie. Charlie, and he's in Fort Lauderdale? Yeah.

Okay. Tell me what kind of car he has. He has, like, five cars. He drives, he's only going to love an unmarked police car. Oh, really? He's a bit of a character. Okay.

So I don't know what he's driving at the time. Right. But I'll tell you, he's a periodontist, and he has this practice where he works from early in the morning until late at night. So if you ever wanted to find his whereabouts, he's working all day long. Okay. And until early in the morning until late at night. Always driving to a different office working. He goes to different offices? Yeah he works at different offices all over South Florida. Does implants for people and he works really hard all the time.

He has a girlfriend so he's pretty much accounting for all of them. Charlie, what's his first name? Charlie's his first name. Not Charles? I think Charles is his legal name. No one calls him that. What's his last name? Adelson. What's his middle?

J. J-A-Y. Same spelling. A-D-E-L-S-O-N. Yeah. Okay. Oh my God. What? What? Oh my God.

What? I can't believe this is happening. Okay. Firstly, Charlie Adelson being called a bit of a character is the biggest understatement in true crime history. But we'll come back to him in detail later, I promise. For now, I'll just say that yes, Charlie was a very successful dentist who worked at five different offices across Miami. But he worked at five different offices because apparently no one could bear working with him for more than

one day a week. But with regards to Wendy and what she's saying, because that's what we're going to focus on now. When you first listen, it does sound like she's being genuine. She's very open and cooperative, she brings up the hitman joke, she even points to the fact that her own family hated Dan and therefore might have had a motive to have him killed. I think it makes her seem innocent, like she's just thinking out loud not filtering anything. She's totally lost and just considering every possibility because she's so confused out loud not filtering anything she's totally lost and just considering every possibility because she's so confused and definitely not hiding anything but there is so much that comes out later that really points to wendy and her family having been involved spoilers so why oh why oh why does she bring up her family and their motives here?

If she is involved, which, like I said, really fucking looks like, we'll get to that later, why does she do this? Is it self-serving? Does she know that the police might figure out what actually happened and this is just a way to throw the heat off herself? Is it a double bluff? I don't know. It's really confusing. But she doesn't stop with the speculation. Because on top of alluding to her

family's potential motives, Wendy also pointed the finger of suspicion at her post-divorce ex-boyfriend Jeff LaCasse. Yeah so he and I would spend time together on the nights or the days I didn't have the boys and then when I had the boys he never stayed over but he would sometimes join us for dinner and play with the kids and then go home. And things actually were great. And I was very happy. And then we went to Gainesville together. He's a social work professor at FSU, and he was teaching a class at Gainesville.

And so I didn't have the boys that weekend. I went with him to work on some writing. And we had a great weekend until Saturday night. We went out to dinner, we came home and he just like was convinced that I'd been cheating on him for months and like had kept track of it and was just absolutely convinced that I was cheating on him. And I kept telling him I wasn't. And he just was, I felt like not very trusting of me and it just made me feel really uncomfortable and after that happened I wasn't sure that I wanted to be with him anymore I'm wondering what brought this

on the whole not trusting thing I mean I've been dating someone else in the fall and so he knew he had asked me did you see someone else in the fall kind of once things were good with us maybe around April and I said I did and I told him about it and he felt like um I don't know he you know he was jealous of him and he was like I don't want you to see him and he was the guy I was dating was leaving town and so I said well I want to you know go get coffee for him with him before I leave town and he said like, like, I really, you know, I don't want you to do that. And we had an argument about it. And I went and had coffee with him anyway. And he ended up at the same coffee shop at the same time and saw us having coffee and got really angry.

But. When was that? That was May. May. Like mid to late May, maybe. Okay. Well, do you think it was a coincidence or are you thinking intentionally? I think it was a total coincidence.

I was only there for like 30 minutes. And yeah, I think it just as a small town. Here, Wendy is subtly hinting at Jeff being a bit crazy and suspicious. She stops short of outright accusing him. But she does enough to plant a seed. But let's get back to this Saturday. I guess this was this past Saturday that he got mad. When he got mad, it was June 28th. It was before I left for Miami with the boys. Okay, the 13th you went out with Jeff, to a movie the 14th you went to yoga

he went to yoga yeah but no discussion oh no you email him later and say just I'd like a week a week off and I'm sure I mean I don't know like you can find it in my phone. It'll be in my email track of what I sent. Basically to Jeff saying, I want some time. He doesn't respond, but he brings up gifts on the Tuesday. But you had no contact since the yoga on Monday night. None. Monday night. No. Okay. Nothing, no contact at all since? No text, no email.

I told him, I said no. No text, no email, no nothing. Is Jeff a violent person? No. Not at all? No. Jeff own a gun? I don't think so.

I mean, my guess would be like 100% no, but I guess I was only in his house one time. I mean, he certainly could have a gun and I wouldn't know about it, but he'd never... Was it by himself? Was it by himself? He'd never talked to me about a gun. Okay. I mean, he was in the military, so... Oh, he was in the military before? Yeah, he grew up in California. His dad was in the military before yeah he um he grew up in california his dad was in the air force and then he was in the air force and ended up in eglin air force base and he started going to

community college and took classes and was really bright and ended up doing a phd here at fsu and then taught in arizona and then just got okay so we've really trimmed this interview down. If you want to listen to the whole thing and, like, waste a million years of your life, you can definitely do so on YouTube. I've done it. It's painful. But what you need to know here is that Wendy goes on and on and on and she gives the police so much information about Jeff.

And again, Wendy here is just subtly making Jeff sound a bit mad. She's not overdoing it, but it's building up to that. But first, the police try to establish a timeline. And Wendy, I have to say, comes across overly precise about that day. She's so exact. I need to go back. I need a timeline here what time do you wake up this morning a little before 8 I know that because the repairman was supposed to be here between 8 and 12 and I didn't set an alarm so I woke up like oh god put some clothes on and get ready. Okay. What, what, uh, at eight o'clock? He called or like my mom called. I could see what time the calls came in, but, um, let's see, starting this morning. Yeah. My mom called at eight Oh nine. Um, and then the repair guy called at eight Oh eight. And then my mom called at 8.09, trying to, sorry.

So, yeah, so then the repair guy called, and I don't remember exactly what time he got there, but, like, between 8 and 9, probably closer to 9. Okay, what time did he leave? Around 10. He could probably tell you, like, he'll have a record of what time he called in to figure out whether to repair it or by anyone. So, he'll have a record of what time he called in to figure out whether to repair it or by anyone. So he'll have a record of his calls too.

OK, before 10 a.m.? A little before 10 a.m. he left. OK. And then you went back to working on papers and so forth? Yeah, I was making a looking away. Skipping ahead, she says that she left home to go to a liquor store before going to lunch with one of her friends. When you went to the liquor store, did you already know what you were going to get? Yeah, I went to get, I had the name of, I don't know bourbon,

but I was supposed to go to this party tonight. It's like a stock the bar party. And so I asked my friend, what are they like? And she wrote down the name of the type of bourbon. So I went in the store to get B-U-L-L-E-I-t bourbon um and so i asked the guy in the store like where's your bourbon and so he showed it to me and i found it okay so you just went he pointed out where the bourbon was yeah and you go there and you just grab the brand that's familiar by the name yeah that's what they said they wanted okay so you didn't discuss with the clerk whether this is good, whether this is bad?

The only thing I said I discussed is I walked over and he was like, can I see your ID? And I was like, oh, why are you laughing? I could be 18. And so I was like, I love to be asked how old I am. I'm like, I'm old as dirt. Here you go. And so I handed it to him and he's like, you're not old. Okay.

So anyway, we had like a little banter and he was like your eyes are so blue and i was like thank you and lol wendy is just all over the place during this interview going from hysterically crying to making jokes and doing her weird eye color flex but let's keep going and now at the end of the interview w Wendy lands her final blows on Dan's new girlfriend Amy, Amy's ex-husband, and of course, her ex-boyfriend Jeff. I feel like either Amy's ex-husband did this or somebody did this on my behalf. Some crazy deranged person thought that this was a good way to support me. And that's why I feel responsible. Unless it was something to do with Amy and then I don't feel thought that this was a good way to support me.

And that's why I feel responsible. Unless it was something to do with Amy, and then I don't feel responsible. But then I'm still responsible because I'm the one who left Danny. If I didn't leave him, he would never be with Amy. And now my kids don't have a father. I can see why you'd have that logic of that blaming. Wait, and it's going to take some time, but that's not the way to think. And you said it yourself, if anyone took this on their their part they are clearly not in their right mind i feel like by complaining about how difficult he was like i inspired this look at me see

okay you went through a divorce you're not the only person that complains about their soon-to-be ex-spouse, ex-spouse. Divorces aren't really things that happen to people that are completely happy and together. And each person is going to talk to their person. Okay? You did what you needed to do for yourself. And just because you confided in friends and family and got the support that you needed doesn't give anyone in your friends or family the authorization or even to conclude that that was an okay thing to do if it was even something like that and you don't stay with someone for forever just in case something might happen

do this like when it's jeff like when i did this by asking for some time away from him, I made him crazy. But you haven't said anything that would indicate that you would think Jeff had anything against. I mean, he didn't like Danny because Danny hurt me, you know? Right. But what would make you think he'd go to this extreme? Nothing. Nothing would make me think that. He's a very...

He's a therapist. He's a therapist. He's a social worker. Yeah. He felt for me. He was sad for me when I was sad. She's good. She's so good. Just casual, gentle misdirection here and there.

The push, the pull, the sprinkling of tears. It's all my fault. Whoever did this, I'm to blame, oh, I feel so guilty. And it works. Because the cops at this point eat it up. It's this whole, I'm just a victim, oh my god, what if Jeff did this because I needed some time away from him and that made him crazy because he loves me so much and it pushed him over the edge and blah, blah, blah, blah. But Jeff happened to have a stone cold alibi and he had receipts but don't you worry we will come back to Jeff's police interview later on for now you can see that Wendy is pointing the

finger at everyone and on one hand you could say she's trying to help she really really wants this solved so she's trying to think of any possibility, anyone who could have done this, anyone who had a motive. But it also, again, really feels like she's just trying to get the investigators to look everywhere else except at her. I think that what you are listening to in these police interviews is Wendy in peak self-preservation mode, and she is willing to point the finger at anybody to protect herself. Now, another interesting thing that comes up during this interview is that Wendy also admits

that after the murder, she tried to drive past Trescot Drive, which is the road where Dan lived. I was there, I didn't leave this morning, I didn't leave until noon. Okay. Oh my God, and I tried to drive up to Scott, and I saw that it was blocked. It was blocked at some point. I'm not sure what time it was blocked.

And I just thought, oh, there's maybe some trees down or something. Are you saying that you drove down which one of the side roads? I'm going to a friend's party tonight, and it's a, it's a, it's a, oh, my God, what am I even talking about? So I went to drive from my place up Trescott to get to ABC Liquor. And it was blocked. So I just turned around. I was on the phone at the time. I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

Okay, you went down which road you said? I went down Trescott. I saw a police car there, and I just thought it was blocked, so I just turned around and drove to, I went down the rest of Centerville, went up Benton to Benton-across, went to ABC Liquors, bought the bourbon. I'm a little confused.

You're up on Centerville Road. What's your purpose of driving down Trescott? It's usually the shortcut to get to Monroe. To get to Monroe? I usually take it as a cut-through to get to Thomasville or Monroe. Okay. I don't know why I said Monroe. I was thinking Mosaic, Monroe, Thomasville.

Okay, so when you come down into town on Centerville? I almost always cut through Trescott. Trescott and just drive by your old house? Well, I do it as a way of like coming to terms with a divorce, but yeah, sometimes I drive there. If I'm too sad, I drive around. Okay. If the kids aren't home and I know they're not home, I feel better about driving by the house, but yeah, it's shorter and I just usually drive by. It's shorter than going all the way down to Benton? All the way down to Centerville and around Bent by. It's shorter than going all the way down to Benton? All the way down to Centerville and around Benton. It's just a shortcut I always took.

OK, so you turned around and went back to Centerville, I take it? Yeah. Down to Benton and went to the liquor store down there on Thomasville? Yeah. The one at Benton Road? ABC Liquors, it's at, yeah, Benton. As you can hear there, the police officer is challenging Wendy because this is not the way she needed to drive to run errands that day. And she's asked about this repeatedly.

Here she says she tried driving down Trescott because the kids had been there or something. It's not really clear. But later on, she says that she just liked to drive that way because it was the way she knew she's not very good at navigating and she liked to use roads that she felt comfortable with. OK, Olivia Rodrigo, like what? That makes no sense. Of course it doesn't. And that's why the police officer is repeatedly asking her to clarify. But that day, Wendy saw that the road was blocked off by crime scene tape and police cars were everywhere.

But that didn't alarm her, apparently. No, so she says, I tried to drive down Trascott Drive, even though that's not the way I needed to go to go to ABC Liquor. It's completely blocked off by the time she gets there. But apparently that sets off no alarm bells for her whatsoever. It makes no sense. Especially when you consider that her kids had spent the previous night on that road, and she didn't call Dan to ask what happened. And in the police car from where Wendy had been having lunch with her friends all the way to the police station, which is a 20-minute drive,

according to the officers, Wendy never once asked what was going on I'm sorry come on you're having lunch with your friends the police come and say you need to come with us to the station and you do not ask them for 20 minutes why how especially after you just drove past your old fucking road where your children spent the night before and your ex-husband lives and there was police swarming everywhere you got no questions about that wendy not one okay sure and also like she's a law professor i know it's unbelievable apparently if we are to believe wendy she only found out about the shooting of her soon-to-be ex-husband in the interrogation room. However, once Wendy did start talking, she was very open with the police.

She sat with them for hours, answering all of their questions, and she gives them her fingerprints and her DNA, and lets them take photos, and even repeatedly says that she understands why they have to treat her like a suspect. It's very much a sort of like, don't worry, I'm on your side, I know why you have to do this, you're just doing your job, look how transparent and nice I am. Team Wendy. Oh my God, it's so manipulative.

She's like, I totally get why I'm a suspect. But of course, anything you need. At one point, the police are like, Wendy, can we take your laptop? And she's like, oh yeah, like, yes, of course you can take it. Has got my work stuff on it though. And they're like, oh, do you want to take something off this for work? And she's like, but to be honest,

I guess I'm not really going to be going to work. And anyway, this is so much more important. So yes, of course, just take it. I'm like, shut up, Wendy. Shut the fuck up. I'm just trying so hard to be balanced about this whole thing, but it's really hard with Wendy Adelson. So yeah, I think it's very, very obvious to see

that Wendy is playing the, I'm no threat. I'm on your side card. So yeah, I think it's very, very obvious to see that Wendy is playing the I'm no threat, I'm on your side card. And again, sure, maybe she is just genuinely trying to be helpful because she wants this case solved. But if I hadn't done it, if I hadn't shot my husband in the head, and I was questioned by police for almost five hours, because that's how long this goes on for. OJ Simpson, If I Did It by Saruti Butler. Exactly. I wouldn't be so concerned with how I was coming across. I'd be furious after the first, say, hour that they were wasting their time talking to me when they should be out there looking for the killer.

And I would also be furious that I was being kept from my children because she's in there for five hours on the day that her children's father has been shot in the head. But she's very happy to sit there, go through everything, even adding, and I have listened to this five-hour police interview twice.

I wanted to claw the skin from my face off. But in this, she even sits there adding in hours and hours of totally unnecessary, boring, mundane information about her life. Stuff that the police aren't even asking her because she thinks it makes her come across really like personable and affable and like friendly and haha. She evens like kind of like flirtatious and I'm like are you serious Wendy I don't get it she gives an absolutely mind-numbing amount of detail about totally irrelevant things and she constantly makes these weird little jokes and little comments and little asides with the interviewer all to get them to be on her side and I have to admit that it works yeah there's hyperventilating as well, which if you watch the whole interview, like Saru did, good luck. She also audibly sighs at random points, which makes me feel like she gets the answer that she wants and she's a bit relieved. It really is. At one point she's like, because Dan's not dead when they first pick her up. He's in hospital, but he's not dead. He dies

like 18 hours after he's been shot. But Wendy's there and she's like, is he still alive? And they're like, yes, but it's not looking good. And they're like, is there any chance he can pull through? Is there any chance? And yes, in one way, you could think that is somebody desperate that her ex-husband survives. But in another way, the bit that clinches it is when they're like, all we can say right now is that it's not looking good. And most likely he's not going to survive. She goes, oh.

I'm like, that's the wrong noise wendy you think i need to i i had like a whole weekend of plans ahead with the kids and stuff like should i start contacting people and let them know that like I can't What's a good idea I just like I'm not gonna I can't show up for like play dates right now so I don't know like do you want me not to tell people what's going on is this like well I got that call from Lisa Carey so like how did she find out well? She said she saw something in there or heard there was a shooting on Trescott. I thought because she's a real estate agent maybe she was rolling around and she saw Trescott but how did like is there is it all the news? Well I can tell you that there was news media out there with cameras but I don't know if anything has

been reported as to as to the specific address. Okay. I don't know if anything has been reported as to as to the specific address. Okay I don't know what our public information office has released. I'm asking for you like okay What I don't want to like make this she wants to know what she can tell people or what she can't right now Which in terms of making things better or worse for you? I would say that for right now you know I would not deny to anybody that's something that happened but I'm gonna call it cancel all day like I'm supposed to be at a party tonight like okay I can't basically I can't go there's there's been so I just tell people I'm

just not gonna be able to be there I'll talk to you later and that's it okay that's fine okay yes I don't want you I there. I'll talk to you later, and that's it. Right. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. I don't want you not to have a support network of friends. Yeah. Well, I will tell who needs to know, but I also, I don't. You want to explain this to a thousand people. Well, it's not about, it's yes, and I don't think that's good for the kids. I don't want people, I don't know what to do about, like, the kids are really young.

I don't know what to do in terms of that reaction. But I also am kind of scared that there's, like, some maniac out there. And I would like for you to find whoever that is. So I don't want to make things worse in some way in terms of you being able to find someone. Okay. That's all I'm asking. I would just only tell the people that need to know that are closest to you for your benefit

and anyone else, if they inquire, you can tell them any excuse you want. You can say, the police have asked me not to discuss it. Okay. It's as simple as that. I'll throw you under the bus. Okay. I'm used to that.

Okay. That's it, I swear. I'm just blowing my nose. You're all right. Sarah, your job is very hard. It is. You have a very nice personality for it. You're very calming.

Thank you for saying that. That's kind of how I sell myself sometimes on doing this. It's definitely hard. So it does seem reasonably obvious that Wendy is trying to disarm her interviewers by coming across as confused and naive and not wanting to hurt the investigation. And then we've got the personal fave,

your job is very hard. Her ex-husband, the father of her children, has just been shot twice in the face. But her focus seems to be being liked by the people interrogating her. Yeah. When she turns to the victim liaison officer and is like, your job is very hard. I'm like, your ex-husband is dead. Why are you telling this woman who's being paid to sit there that her job is very hard? It's so mind boggling. Now, I also feel like the question that Wendy asks about weekend plans

that you just heard is to check almost, I think, how long the police are going to keep her there. And you can tell that Wendy realised it was weird to ask about the plans. So she so obviously in real time twists it to be like, oh, but what can I tell people? That's what I mean. What can I tell people? And I'm just like, oh my God, Wendy, I really can't help but feeling like it's her checking. Do I need to worry? Are they going to say, I wouldn't worry about your weekend plans, love, because you're not going anywhere. Or will they say what they do say, which is just basically do what you want. But the whole thing of her being like, I just don't want to say anything to jeopardise the investigation. So what should I do with my weekend plans? And I really think she's testing the water to see what they're going to say. And then the next day, Dan Markell died in hospital. So now we've got a murder investigation. And the police were up to their eyeballs in potential suspects

following their chat with finger-pointing Wendy. So they start scouring through CCTV and find Dan leaving the gym the morning that he died. Investigators spot on the footage a car following Dan out of the car park. As they trace Dan's journey that day, there it is. On bus footage and on shop cameras. The same car, again and again, trailing right behind Dan the whole morning. And then that car was seen driving away from the murder scene at the exact time,

after Dan was killed. This car was a silver pine Prius. It's an odd shade of car, pale silvery green, not something that you would see every day. And that was very helpful to investigators because, frustratingly, from every angle of CCTV they had, the car's licence plate was unreadable. Now, this was a real stumbling block for detectives and after this a year passed

with no new leads and no new information. It looked like whoever had done this might just get away with it. But on the one year anniversary of Dan's murder the police re-released the image of the car and the reward money was upped a hundred thousand dollars and I really don't know why it took them this long to make this a realization because it was at this point that detectives also noticed that the car did have some standout features other than being a weird silvery green color it had a black passenger side mirror while the other side mirror was the same colour as a car, as you'd expect. So this black one was clearly some sort of repair job. The car also had a sun pass transponder,

which I had to look up, but it basically looks like a smallish white box that you stick to the front of your car to automatically pay for tolls. But apparently, there aren't really that many tolls around Tallahassee, so it's not a common thing to see on Tallahassee cars. It's much more a South or Central Florida thing. So, police spread the search statewide and found that there was one car that matched the silver-green Prius with the shit-side mirror description that had indeed had its sun pass scanned at a toll

on its way to Tallahassee. And that car had come from Miami, which, as we already know, is 400 miles and seven and a bit hours away. Investigators were able to track this car to a rental agency in Miami, and the paperwork showed that a man named Luis Rivera had hired it.

And there was another name on the car hire contract, someone called Sigfrido Garcia, and in the contract it was noted that he was Rivera's brother, but in reality they were childhood friends. But regardless, from the contract, the police had both of these men's phone numbers, and investigators used their cell site data to show that these two men had travelled from Miami to Tallahassee and that they were in the vicinity of Trescot Drive on the day that Dan Markell was killed. 34-year-old Garcia, a.k.a. Tuto, was a low-level felon. He'd had a few arrests for fishing without a licence and possession of cocaine.

But 33-year-old Luis Rivera, aka King Tato, was a top dog player within the Miami Beach chapter of the notorious Latin Kings. Though King Tato does just sound like a royal Mr Potato Head. Well, yeah, it sounds like the mascot of some crisps. So the police finally knew who had been in that silver green car on the day that Dan had died. But the case was still as confusing as ever. What link was there between a Miami gangbanger

and a law professor in Tallahassee? Why would these two men drive over seven hours to kill Dan Markell? It was clear to detectives that at this point, the only thing that made any sense was that this was a hired hit. By the time the police identified Garcia and Rivera as the shooters, over a year after the killing, Rivera was already in federal prison on a separate racketeering charge. When questioned by the police, he initially denied everything, until they presented him with a rather inconvenient picture of him and Garcia in that green Prius. So Rivera started to spill the dirty beans pretty quickly. He told investigators that a year before the murder, Garcia had approached him and said that they needed to go to Tallahassee for a job.

Rivera assumed that it was a robbery, and so he agreed. But once they got to Tallahassee, Garcia told them that they were actually there to kill this man, Dan Markell, and Rivera claimed that he wasn't interested. He says that he told Garcia that the money being offered wasn't worth it.

So they did actually turn back and just head home. But a year later, Garcia called Rivera again and said that the hit was back on. And according to Rivera, Garcia told him that, quote, some woman needs her kids back, so we have to go and kill this man. But it wasn't some chivalrous act of murder because Garcia also confirmed that they would be getting paid well. And so he agreed. The pair of them hired the green

Prius, they drove 400 miles up to Tallahassee, and they found their mark. Rivera claimed that he had just done the driving and that it was Garcia who had fired the shots. So, the police arrested Garcia in May 2016, two years after Dan's death. And the police actually managed to keep the details of Garcia's arrest and what Rivera had told them under tight wraps. They even got both of their probable cause affidavits for their arrests sealed. This was a paid-for hit, so they needed to find out who was behind it without tipping them off. And police questioned Rivera on if he knew where his money was coming from. He said it was coming from Katie.

Katie, or Catherine Magbanawa, was Garcia's on-again, off-again girlfriend and the mother of his two kids. And apparently she told Garcia, who at the time she was not in a relationship with, if you want me back, you've got to do this shit. So Garcia agreed. According to Rivera, Katie was the one setting the entire thing up. He said that she was, quote, the one between the woman who wanted this done and us.

Rivera even claimed that Katie and Garcia were in almost constant contact during the men's trip to Tallahassee. So she was very involved and wanted to know exactly what was going on. Apparently during the journey from Miami to Tallahassee, you know, to murder a man, Rivera had spotted an owl that he thought looked cool. He snapped a picture of it and posted it on Instagram. Katie saw this picture and went absolutely fucking mental asking Garcia is he stupid? Which like this is just the fucking stupidest part of this whole story because Rivera asked what, so you two can be on the phone texting and chatting the entire time on your very trackable mobile phones, but I can't share my hashtag Al saying crisscross applesauce pictures. Rivera is stupid, but he does make a good point, I think.

So after Algate chat, when the police pushed Rivera on who was paying Katie the money for the murder, he told them that dentist she's fucking. Dun, dun, dun. So who was this dentist? Could it be Charlie Adelson, Wendy's brother? Yes, because it turned out Katie and Charlie had been dating. And guess where Katie had been getting regular checks from? The Adelson Institute, the successful dental practice that Charlie, Wendy's brother, had bought off their dad, Harvey. But there was no paperwork anywhere at this business linking Katie to actually working there,

so the police decided to pay the surgery a little visit. And this is the call that the office manager made to Charlie. Hey, what's going on? We're asking for records for Katie. Um, for what? Um, that she worked here. I would, um, I wouldn't, uh... Did she work there? I was like, yeah, she worked there, but I don't know what you want.

Erica. Erica. Yes. Do me a favor. I'm not there right now. Uh-huh. And I'm in surgery. Uh-huh.

But it's not my office. It's my dad's office. Uh-huh. So I can't give anything out. Right. I mean, I don't have access to it. I don't know where anything it. I don't know where anything is. I would not speak to anybody. I mean, you can talk to whoever you want.

I shouldn't say I'll talk to anybody. I mean, it's not my office. The office was sold back to my dad actually a long time ago. So tell them that you will, so it's actually you're talking to the wrong Dr. Adelson. I mean, it's not your office. You can't give that record. Yeah, they say within 20 days of the Florida statute provided both cars with... Are they there now or are they just standing there? They're there, but you know, I'm in the back. They're just waiting for me to come back.

Oh, and they want records? Yeah. Do me a favor. I'm going to call you from the landline on your cell phone, OK? OK. That is the fucking dodgiest call I've ever heard in my life. One of the things investigators look for in cases like this is consciousness of guilt.

And this call sure sounds like Charlie Adelson has something to be guilty about. Especially when you consider that Katie Maglanowar had made a multitude of small cash deposits amounting to over $44,000 in the months after Dan's murder. And then Katie started getting monthly checks from the Adelson Institute, totalling to another $13,000. And guess who had been signing off those payments?

Donna Adelson. Charlie and Wendy's mum. On top of this, Katie also got herself a boob job from a top-rated and very expensive plastic surgeon in Coral Gables. This boob job cost almost $7,000, but Katie only paid for half of it. The other half was paid for by Charlie Adelson, who by this point remembers she was no longer in a relationship with,

so why exactly is he paying for her new fake boobs? Meanwhile, Garcia and Rivera, prior to his racketeering arrest that is, were also splashing the mysterious cash on things like motorbikes. It all looked pretty fishy to the police and that was before the FBI got involved and put a tap on Katie and Charlie. But to find out more about the Adelsons just how messed up the entire family dynamic there was

what exactly Charlie had been up to and how Katie and her fake boobs fitted into all of this, you'll have to join us next week for the concluding part of this incredibly bizarre story. Yeah, so we'll see you then. Bring your fake boobs. Thank you. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death.

The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of the Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. I'm Jake Warren,

and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge,

but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me, and it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding,

and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.