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00:00:00
00:00:01
Donna Adelson
58 Plays25 days ago
The Matriarch and the Addelson Family -- more like a cult really -- is finally broght to justice for the solicitation and conspiracy and murder of Dan Markel. May she rot.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Hearth Home and Homicide
00:00:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Hello listeners, welcome. I'm Bridget.
00:00:05
Caroline
And I'm Caroline.
00:00:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You are listening to Hearth Home and Homicide, a family production about family murders. Caroline and I research and narrate each story. Andy is our producer.
00:00:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Caroline and I try to figure out what was going on with the family at the center of the case. We do know the ripple effect of family murder never ends. And we see how a killer in the family is responsible for immeasurable destruction and trauma.
Exploration of the Adelson Case
00:00:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And in this case, we're talking about two families ah will never be the same. It will never be the same. Many of our listeners already know about the Adelson case. Maybe you were like us and you followed it, you know, constantly for many years.
00:00:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And um we're going today to focus on the mastermind, Donna Adelson. She was just convicted. And also, listeners, this is our last episode of 2025. We're going to be taking the holiday season and running with that.
00:01:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, Caroline, as I said, today's case is very recent. It took a long time to even begin to bring justice to the victims. Many listeners have followed this case as it developed, and it's definitely a major dumpster fire of evil and entitlement mentality by a privileged family living in a luxurious life in Miami, Florida.
00:01:28
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:01:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So yeah, hey, I'm bored. How about we murder? Okay, so we're zoning in about the murder of Dan Markell by the Adelson conspirators. So far, five people have been convicted, and today we're going to talk about the mastermind of the entire thing, in my opinion, and the opinion of millions following the case, and the opinion of the prosecutor.
00:02:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But anyway, we're talking about the mother of the Adelson family, Donna Adelson.
00:02:01
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:02:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
who was tried, convicted, and sentenced for the felony murder of Dan Markell, for the solicitation to commit murder, for the conspiracy to commit murder. She was found guilty on all three counts.
00:02:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So first, let's talk about the wonderful man that Dan Markell was. So I almost want to say he still lives because there are so many people who got involved in this case to ensure that his legacy lived on for these boys, although there is a caveat and we'll get to that.
00:02:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Phil and Ruth Markell became parents to Dan Markell on October 1972. nineteen seventy two When he was born in Montreal, Quebec, he grew up in Toronto, British Columbia.
00:03:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So the couple also has a daughter named Shelly and came to love both of their children very much. Dan and Shelly were just everything to fill in Ruth Barkell.
00:03:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they were very keen on education, family, the Jewish religion, actually the culture, the ah the many...
00:03:26
Caroline
Thank you.
00:03:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um celebrations along the Jewish calendar and so forth. so Phil and Ruth Markell were highly regarded members of their community.
00:03:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They followed the tenets of Judaism and were very connected to their synagogue community and the Jewish faith. Dan was marked for for success from the go. I mean, he was a stellar student, studied in Israel, wrote extensively, and that was all before becoming a college legal professor.
The Marriage and Divorce of Dan and Wendy
00:04:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, taught and wrote several justice articles and papers, went to Israel to obtain his master's degree, and then returned to Harvard Law School, graduating with honors.
00:04:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He clerked for a respected federal judge and distinguished himself throughout the legal community. He practiced with a major law firm, and in 2005, he was made professor at FSU, Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he started many traditions that brought the legal student body together.
00:04:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he would have them come over to his house, whatever class he had, he would bring them together to his house, and they would study cases, and they would have a good time, and they would get to know each other personally, and these
00:04:56
Caroline
Yeah.
00:04:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Attorneys now who were his students, they got participated in bringing this ah murder to justice.
00:05:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:05:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Dan Markell is celebrated
00:05:10
Caroline
um
00:05:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah still and he's treated as an icon.
00:05:15
Caroline
Yeah.
00:05:18
Caroline
He does sound cool.
00:05:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And oh, yeah, he was headed for the Supreme Court, I think.
00:05:19
Caroline
I mean, like Lawyers are funny that way because it's one of those things where it feels like, okay, you're a lawyer, big whoop. Like I need to see the curriculum vitae, please.
00:05:33
Caroline
Because it does matter how involved you are in the practice of law, which is more than just showing up in court, right? Like you're saying, it's these ah creating opportunities for the legal community that you're in to to talk, to progress, to keep movement going, right?
00:05:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:05:51
Caroline
in conversation. so yeah sounds very cool.
00:05:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:05:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He is a cool guy, and he was very focused on what he wanted. The thing that was the most important thing to him in his life was his two boys, and we're going to get into that.
00:06:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was made um tenure. He made tenure after just five years, which is a very short period of time to gain tenure at a major law ah college.
00:06:23
Caroline
Yeah.
00:06:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um I should say university. Anyway, during this period of time, Dan married a very young attorney named Wendy Adelson. She had just gotten her...
00:06:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um her JD, I'm not sure whether she had passed the bar yet or not in Florida, but um they got married and um they had two sons.
00:06:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In 2006, Wendy Adelson married Dan Markell. She moved to Tallahassee and from where she was with her parents in Miami In fact, the way that they met was that Donna Adelson, the mother of Wendy, picked out suitable people on a Jewish dating website that she could go out with.
00:07:11
Caroline
Oh, her mom, her mom, dad.
00:07:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes.
00:07:14
Caroline
Oh, okay. First red flag.
00:07:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
All right, so I'm seeing a puppy called Wendy.
00:07:22
Caroline
Yep.
00:07:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm seeing a mama called Evil. ah pulling the strings.
00:07:28
Caroline
We'll call her Donna.
Donna Adelson's Manipulation and Control
00:07:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Or Donna. Yeah, okay, Donna.
00:07:31
Caroline
and Donna for short.
00:07:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So they got married. They had two sons in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Things did not go smoothly for the couple, however.
00:07:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They separated in 2012, and their divorce was finalized in 2013. Later on, Wendy would write an article about how she did not really love Dan,
00:07:50
Caroline
you
00:07:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She just ah kind of realized that he was a very good father material and that he would support the family well. and she thought that she could make it work. And over time, she would fall in love. And and it didn't work out. So she told the world that about her marriage.
00:08:20
Caroline
I mean, that's okay. I just this okay, the timing, right? Like, because for me, I don't know. I guess I have my own personal life experience about it, but 2006, you're married.
00:08:32
Caroline
You have two sons, ah three and four years later. and then two years after that, so your kids aren't even two and three yet, you, yeah, you divorce.
00:08:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, that's about what they were.
00:08:44
Caroline
And then you say to like, okay, but can we, can we dig deeper and see, were you maybe just looking for a sperm donor and wanting to be a single mom, which is fine too.
00:08:55
Caroline
You just,
00:08:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
pretty much what she told people.
00:08:57
Caroline
Yeah, that's sad.
00:08:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So there're their divorce was finalized in 2013. Wendy wanted to relocate her kids to South Florida, Miami in particular, but her plea was denied by the courts.
00:09:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, she wanted to live with her mother and her father. She wanted to be with her brother, Charlie. They had one other son, which we'll talk about in a minute. and His name was Rob. So she had another brother, but he was not in the picture.
00:09:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was the smart one of the bunch. he
00:09:25
Caroline
yeah
00:09:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He became estranged from the family. So we're going to talk about that a bit. But Dan deserves to be known for everything he did for the justice community and for his family.
00:09:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So I want to touch on just a few of his accomplishments before he was brutally murdered. I've already said a lot, but I mean, you know, there's so much to say about Dan and what was lost.
00:09:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Markell co-authored a book exploring the intersection between crime, punishment, and family. That's right up our alley, Caroline.
00:09:58
Caroline
Yeah, it is.
00:09:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Privilege or Punish, Criminal Justice and the Challenge of Family Ties. Markell was a co-founder of a blog for law professors called Prophus Blog, and it's spelled very weirdly, so I hope I didn't butcher that.
00:10:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
His law review articles included the argument for the abolition of the death penalty, published in the Harvard Civil Rights, ah Civil Liberties Law Review,
00:10:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's saying a lot.
00:10:31
Caroline
you
00:10:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
A critique of the use of shaming as punishment, published in the Vanderbilt Law Review. And a paper on punitive damages, put published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.
00:10:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he was kind of dabbling in both criminal and civil.
00:10:47
Caroline
Seems really cool. Like, I want to look at his critique of the use of shaming as the punishment, because I do wonder about that. Like, how much the public, should you know, because I, that's, admittedly, it's a tool that I turn to, but I don't know that it's, like, the right tool.
00:11:01
Caroline
Anyway, sidetrack.
00:11:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, he's probably trying to understand why it's an integral part for survivors, maybe.
00:11:02
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:08
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Or for the rest of us to have this outburst of shame on you when we would like to murder a few people, but we don't succumb to that.
00:11:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:17
Caroline
Well, that that's what I'm saying, like that like, as an accountability tool to help manage without needing the law that says you don't have to need that.
00:11:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:11:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:11:26
Caroline
Anyway.
00:11:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was also very interested in sports law. He and his co-authors proposed a method of giving fans an opportunity to participate in the management of sports teams.
00:11:38
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:11:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
How would that work? I don't know. He also wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times, Slate and ah The Atlantic, among other publications. So as I say, I think he might have been on the road to becoming a finalist, at least, if not an attorney ah on the Supreme Court.
00:11:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In addition to his scholarship, he was a consultant for the defense in a federal prosecution in New Jersey involving rabbis accused of extortion by the FBI.
00:12:10
Caroline
Oh. Yeah.
00:12:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So now what this tells me is that he is both revered in his community, in the community of FSU Legal, the community at large, his Jewish community,
00:12:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
the police community, sporting. He, at every level of American society, he is shining a light on a legal implication, and he's writing his opinions.
00:12:37
Caroline
yeah
00:12:42
Caroline
Right. Yup.
00:12:44
Caroline
yeah
00:12:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So he's going to have a long history of opining
Murder Conspiracy and Family Dynamics
00:12:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
about all these different things. The news of Dan's, um excuse me, I was getting ahead of myself.
00:13:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I do feel as if by listing a few of his accomplishments, we can all see that this man could have been on the Supreme Court someday. don't know why I'm just fixated on that, but probably because our Supreme Court is currently um being medicated.
00:13:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But all the possibilities for Dan Markell were murdered the day that we're talking about here.
00:13:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:13:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was murdered, and so all of that hope and all of that possibility is just gone.
00:13:24
Caroline
yeah
00:13:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Just gone. The news of Dan's death was a massive, massive blow to his family and his community. I'm going to quote here. The day I learned of Dan's death, I experienced a life sentence.
00:13:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Ruth Markell said in a court statement on October 2019, Dan's murder will continue to torment me for the rest of our lives.
00:13:54
Caroline
She's right. I mean, that's that's one of the natural consequences of murder, right, is that you've got a lot of victims remaining who will relive it every day.
00:13:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
00:14:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm going to return to Ruth if we have time and tell you a few things about her. And she's a wonderful woman and her husband is wonderful as well. And they've been at every trial.
00:14:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I've watched the trials of this case and they were always in the audience on the prosecutor's side.
00:14:23
Caroline
Yeah.
00:14:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna Adelson, i guess we're going to have to talk about this horrible excuse for a human being. So here we go. Donna Aileson was the mastermind of the group of people who murdered Dan Markell. She is a real piece of work, very willing to do anything to get her way. She's willful, controlling.
00:14:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She is off the charts in a sense of entitlement, in my opinion. So let's she ah anybody who thinks they have the right, they're entitled to murder this other person.
00:14:56
Caroline
yeah
00:15:00
Caroline
Right.
00:15:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Plot and scheme it and get other people involved.
00:15:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:15:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
What is that? That is just mega, mega entitlement. Donna Adelson was born in 1952. She spent her early years growing up in New York.
00:15:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She attended Queens College, where she pursued her studies before embarking on a career as an elementary school teacher. Whoa, God forbid. In 1971, she married Harvey Adelson, a fellow New Yorker who had completed his dental degree at Temple University.
00:15:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The couple laid the foundation for their family in Carl Springs, welcoming their firstborn, Robert Adelson, in 1974, followed by Charles and Wendy Adelson in 1976 1979, respectively.
00:15:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna, realizing her desire to focus on her family, decided to transition from teaching to becoming a dedicated full-time homemaker and mother.
00:16:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna Adelson dedicated herself to instilling a commitment to academic excellence and accomplishment in her children. as When they were toddlers, they were all forced to ah repeat by rote the name and order of every U.S. president.
00:16:27
Caroline
oh my husband couldn't do that
00:16:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So...
00:16:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes, your husband can do that, but he's it's it's his free will.
00:16:37
Caroline
but he chose yes he did yeah yeah
00:16:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
the Yes, yes. These are tiny little children who are all being taught, if you want to eat, you have to do this and you have to do it right. So she was like a drill sergeant.
00:16:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah Alongside managing the responsibilities of a full-time homemaker, she ventured into part-time work at her husband's dentistry practice. Donna's controlling style of engagement extended beyond the family domain as she actively participated in community volunteering, and she took charge of managing charities and charitable events.
00:17:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So a lot of people knew her, and they knew if you wanted to get something done, let Donna do it, get out of her way.
00:17:17
Caroline
Right.
00:17:22
Caroline
right
00:17:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You can be her, you know, donkey, I guess, to haul things, but that's about it.
00:17:27
Caroline
Right.
00:17:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's going to be in control.
00:17:28
Caroline
Yeah, she's sounding like she's sounding like some of some people you might encounter in it maybe a PTA setting or something, or even at work where it's just like, they're very loud, they're very controlling, but they're not actually sticking to anything beyond the delegation of the things they want control over and the loud bolstering about what needs to happen. Like, I don't know.
00:17:51
Caroline
um She doesn't sound like that.
00:17:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She makes assignments, you know. I think where she was, it would call it was called the DTA, the Donna Teacher Association.
00:17:59
Caroline
Oh, yes. Okay.
00:18:02
Caroline
And I don't want to put people down. Like, I don't want to act like that's not, PTA is great. Being, you know, really meticulous with raising your kids.
00:18:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
At large and in charge.
00:18:13
Caroline
Right. Like, it's all fine. It's just that you have to acknowledge that there's a natural consequence to that. People are going to limit their exposure to that kind of effect.
00:18:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Not only that, but, you know, she gets to be the martyr when everybody drops off the committee.
00:18:28
Caroline
There you go. Yeah.
00:18:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was then also an integral member of the Coral Springs Synagogue, contributing to the community's well-being. I mean, the family really, really thrived financially.
00:18:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And by the late 1980s, they secured a residence in on a cul-de-sac, a beautiful home, in Coral Springs. And they also began purchasing properties as an investment.
00:18:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Smart people making a lot of money, bossing a lot of people around.
00:18:56
Caroline
I mean, i want to do that. Yeah.
00:18:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Okay. But, you know, that wasn't going to be enough. She needed to be seen by the entire American um TV watching that includes Wheel of Fortune.
00:19:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Because in 1980, eighty s She was on Wheel of Fortune, and she described herself as a domestic coordinator for her family. You can watch it on YouTube.
00:19:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The family was known for being affluent and respected in their community. I mean, they were, because they had money, and a lot of it.
00:19:27
Caroline
Oof.
00:19:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she was everywhere, on TV, ah in your face when you weren't doing things up to her standards. Now, I remember I said that in 2013, Dan Markell won his battle to keep the children in Tallahassee.
00:19:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna exerted a great deal of pressure on Wendy to fight him with every fiber of her being. Donna was so agitated that she texted numerous orders to Wendy in order for Donna to get her hands on those kids.
00:20:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Her children were grown now. And she needed another generation to control, in my opinion.
00:20:11
Caroline
Yeah.
00:20:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And as a matter of fact, they had to learn at three and four, ah the presidents in direct order and so forth. She was a drill sergeant who couldn't stop.
00:20:25
Caroline
Yeah.
00:20:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Suppose America... ah And the rest of the world got sprinkled with nice fairy dust and there were no wars ever anymore.
00:20:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And there were no drill surgeon sergeants.
00:20:40
Caroline
Right.
00:20:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean this woman would start a war just to be a drill sergeant, I swear.
00:20:43
Caroline
That's it. It's like something to just have control over it.
00:20:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yes Yeah, so in my opinion she needed another generation to control her She's estranged from Rob, which I'll explain later. She is... ah Charlie is a playboy.
00:21:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He drives a Ferrari. He's a dentist. ah Just like his dad.
00:21:08
Caroline
I think Wendy, I just feel like this is even worse, that beyond being a conspiracy for murder, it it initially started as a Donna exploitation of Wendy to get grandkids.
00:21:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So...
00:21:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, absolutely.
00:21:22
Caroline
I mean, this is crazy.
00:21:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah. wendy And Wendy played it up like you can't believe.
00:21:24
Caroline
Right.
00:21:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She played it up as a damsel in distress.
00:21:32
Caroline
Right.
00:21:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Why is he treating me this way? Why is he treating me this way? This is so awful. I can't have a life. And on and on and on and on and on.
00:21:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, she had custody so she could... fly or drive from Tallahassee to Miami, but she didn't want to do that.
00:21:50
Caroline
Right. Mm-hmm.
00:21:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's a four-hour drive, one way.
00:21:52
Caroline
right
00:21:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, um you know, Donna was going to wage war against somebody in her lifetime, and you can bet who it's going to be. It's going to be Dan Markell.
00:22:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In essence, Dan and Wednesday had joint custody, so if Wendy had the boys, she would travel to Miami where her parents had retired. They retired into a beautiful, beautiful, very wealthy condominium right on the beach in Miami. So by this time, they were the uber rich.
00:22:26
Caroline
Yeah.
00:22:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna was plotting how to take over these kids. For example, it was at this time that Donna suggested that Wendy should offer $1 million dollars to Dan Markell to let the kids go to Miami to live.
00:22:41
Caroline
Gross. I think she should lose all parental rights for even so formulating a sentence like that about kids she supposedly loves. That's the grossest thing. was so mad when I read that.
00:22:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. Well, everything has a price tag, right, Caroline?
00:22:53
Caroline
yeah
00:22:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Two people like that. In an email, she wrote to Wendy that she should also consider that if she can't have the kids with her in ma enough Miami and he come and visit them, then she is going to threaten Markell with converting the children to Catholicism.
00:23:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
if he did not agree to the relocation of the children to Miami, where Donna and her husband Harvey and her son Charlie lived luxurious lives. So she's liberally said, we need to go to the Catholic Church.
00:23:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This is Donna telling Wendy in a text that came out in court that,
00:23:32
Caroline
That's like a
00:23:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
that we need to take the picture of the children in front of the Catholic Church and we need to threaten to baptize them into the Catholic Church to him if he doesn't yield.
00:23:45
Caroline
a That's okay. I'm not super religious, but
Investigation and Legal Proceedings
00:23:50
Caroline
I know that's blasphemous. And also seems like it would be slightly abusive, if not a illegal.
00:23:56
Caroline
Also, wasn't she the one that looked up on the Jewish, you know, find me, marry me, have kids and divorce me site? I mean, this is weird. Donna's weird.
00:24:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah Yes, Donna is out of her freaking mind with entitlement, with um thinking she knows everything.
00:24:12
Caroline
Yeah.
00:24:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She would never, ever get in any kind of trouble ever for anything she would do because she's so right.
00:24:25
Caroline
Right.
00:24:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So,
00:24:26
Caroline
And everyone's an object. Everyone's an object to be used and moved about board.
00:24:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
yes, yes. Donna suggested that when the boys were just little toddlers, now, two and four, or it could have been two and three and a half or something like that, that they be dressed for Halloween in a Hitler youth costume with and send the pictures to Dan.
00:24:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Bear in mind that Donna Adelson and her family are Jewish.
00:24:52
Caroline
like Like, I'm so confused. Is she having a mental breakdown? That is so weird. What the hell?
00:24:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i She just did not know how to temper her own desires. She did not know how to do that.
00:25:06
Caroline
Wow.
00:25:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And it got worse and worse until it was, she was a deranged maniac to to do these things.
00:25:15
Caroline
Well, yeah. I mean, even if you were an atheist, putting anybody in a Hitler suit is weird, unless you're making a movie about Hitler.
00:25:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Just deranged.
00:25:25
Caroline
Like, what the hell?
00:25:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Little baby children and they're Jewish and oh my God, the horror. Dan was devoted to his religious heritage. Jewish religion, ceremonial aspects, what you eat, eating kosher, all of those things were very important to him.
00:25:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:25:45
Caroline
yeah
00:25:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he was raising these boys accordingly. He wanted for them to have the kind of love and opportunities that he had with the Markell family in Canada.
00:26:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He wanted to replicate that. Dan was just, you know, devoted. And Wendy and her family and mostly Donna did not think that custom was important to being Jewish.
00:26:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, we're just going to be part of the Jewish community. And so we go to the synagogue because that's what you
00:26:19
Caroline
Unless you cross me in, I'm going to the, I'm going to a mass. Watch out. Yeah.
00:26:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
God. Donna expressed hate over and over and over.
00:26:28
Caroline
yeah
00:26:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I hate Dan. And she told her grandchildren when they were visiting Miami that she hated him, he was he was bad, and that he was stupid.
00:26:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Stupid, stupid, stupid. And they even just, you know, called him your stupid father, your stupid daddy. They're little, tiny, little children.
00:26:51
Caroline
Those poor kids.
00:26:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So this is what led to the murder plot. This here, what she did. Donna Markell, Donna Markell, oh my God, I've conflated the two.
00:27:08
Caroline
That's the D.
00:27:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I apologize to Markells everywhere.
00:27:11
Caroline
I know.
00:27:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Dan Markell filed a brief in family court. He wanted the judge to stop Donna from being able to be alone with his kids because his kids, as young as they were being told,
00:27:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
were telling him that Donna says you're stupid. And and she they say it She says it all the time. It's not infrequent that she's saying you're stupid, father.
00:27:40
Caroline
yeah
00:27:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
We got to get you dressed and up, and we got to get you back to your stupid, idiot father. This is called parent alienation, and it's a legal no-no.
00:27:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You don't get to do that when you divorce somebody.
00:27:55
Caroline
yeah I mean, in addition to a moral failing, yeah, it also happens to be illegal. Yeah.
00:28:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, listen, I think her morals never failed because I just don't believe a person like this ever had any.
00:28:08
Caroline
I know that, you know, that is an important thing you used to tell me. I'm like, cause you know, you're right to turn to the law where, you know, that's our guidance here when, when it comes to other people's behavior. But for me, I've always struggled with And you're like, you keep acting like anybody else has any kind of semblance of a moral compass.
00:28:24
Caroline
They don't, it's not like they're handed out at birth. And so that's an important piece to keep here. Cause Donna just makes me angry.
00:28:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, she taught her family how to dress for success, educate yourself for success, make straight A's, get a job as a doctor, period.
00:28:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was very upset that Wendy wanted to be an attorney.
00:28:42
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But she thought, well, you know, okay, so maybe we do need an attorney. You know, we're getting older, so, you know, maybe we'll need some documents. So anyway.
00:28:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This is called, as I said, parental alienation, and Dan was going to fight it. He was going to fight it with everything he had. The decision by the judge was scheduled to be made on July 8th, 2014.
00:29:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So on July 8th, 2014, Dan Markell was shot and murdered while pulling inside his garage in his home in a residential neighborhood in Tallahassee.
00:29:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
As the police tried to capture the killers, Donna moved to a luxury condominium in Miami Beach permanently with her husband, Wendy, and her two grandsons.
00:29:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, I mean, now they've got a palace at one of the top floors of the most expensive condominium in mi Miami, right on the beach.
00:29:46
Caroline
Wow.
00:29:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And it's right around the corner from a private school that they'll be going to.
00:29:53
Caroline
What luck.
00:29:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
the The police were able to link the murders to Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera. And the way that they found that out was that they started saying, okay, who would want Dan Markell murdered?
00:30:12
Caroline
Yeah.
00:30:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they dug around and they found out Donna Adelson and her family want him murdered.
00:30:19
Caroline
Yeah.
00:30:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They're the ones who are going to profit.
00:30:22
Caroline
Yes.
00:30:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
meaning get what they want.
00:30:25
Caroline
Yes.
00:30:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And um so they began looking at the Adelson family, and they noticed that a woman by the name of Catherine Magbinowah was running around with Playboy dentist Charlie Adelson.
00:30:40
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:30:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they looked into her background and they found out that she had children with Sigfredo Garcia, a known bad guy. And his best friend was named Louie Rivera, who was the head of the Miami.
00:30:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um
00:31:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's a it's a gang.
00:31:02
Caroline
Yeah. Okay.
00:31:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's called the ma Miami something. Anyway, it's a gang.
00:31:06
Caroline
okay
00:31:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The Miami Brotherhood, that's what it's called. So um they, you know, started to believe that this was a murder for hire and that Sigfredo Garcia and probably Lua Rivera were oh involved.
00:31:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They also had the neighbor of Dan Markell who saw a white car pull out of the driveway at Dan Markell's house right after the shot he heard, the shots he heard.
00:31:40
Caroline
okay
00:31:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And so they were able to trace all that and they traced Sigfredo and Luis Rivera back to a rental car company and they figured out which car they had.
00:31:54
Caroline
wow
00:31:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then the police also had been um tapping the phones of Charlie and Dana and Donna, excuse me, Charlie Adelson, because by then they knew that Charlie Adelson had somehow gotten Catherine McBanaw to get her baby daddy and his best friend to go to ah Tallahassee and murder.
00:32:10
Caroline
Yeah.
00:32:18
Caroline
wow
00:32:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The police had also been tapping their phones and And everything they said was suspicious. They used coor co ah code words, such as, um well, you know, Wendy had to, she would have been in Miami that day, except, or no, she would have, yeah, she would have been in Miami that day, except she needed to get her TV repaired. So she was in her house all day waiting for the TV repairman.
00:32:47
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So after that, they started using, what is the TV going to cost?
00:32:52
Caroline
Oh, wow.
00:32:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And, you know, where did this money go for the TV, remember? You know, they just were lame when it came to ah um just you know, talking on the phone and not being suspicious.
00:33:00
Caroline
my God.
00:33:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They were able to get testimony from Rivera that detailed that it was Charlie who had hired him and Garcia for the murder. And they had been contacted through Catherine McBanaw.
00:33:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So this is a conspiracy. um
00:33:21
Caroline
Bonafide conspiracy.
00:33:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
but And Catherine Magbanois was the linchpin to the killers of Charlie. So the the way the prosecutor put it to the jury every time is, this is a train on a track.
00:33:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:33:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and This boxcar is connected to this boxcar.
00:33:39
Caroline
Yep. Yeah.
00:33:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
This boxcar is connected to this boxcar. And who is at the head of the boxcar? When it came to Donald Adelson's trial, she was the head of the boxcar.
00:33:50
Caroline
Yeah.
00:33:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And Catherine Magbanua, Siegfried Garcia, and Louis Rivera were all tried, and they were convicted or pled guilty to first-degree murder.
00:34:03
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So there were three trials, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation for murder on Catherine Magbanua's part. They all received life in prison.
00:34:15
Caroline
Wow.
00:34:15
Caroline
Yep. Wow.
00:34:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Charlie Adelson was arrested right after that.
00:34:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And his trial concluded in November of 2023 with him being found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to women or murder, solicitation for murder, and he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
00:34:35
Caroline
wow
00:34:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then they had to send him eventually to South Dakota because everybody in the Tallahassee prisons or the Florida prisons, know he was going to be murdered.
00:34:43
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:45
Caroline
Wow.
00:34:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, he murdered the mother of little children,
00:34:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:34:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He murdered a beloved member of the Tallahassee family.
00:34:54
Caroline
Yeah, I'm not, I would not put it past some of those inmates to have benefited from the legal
Donna Adelson's Arrest and Conviction
00:35:00
Caroline
mind of Dan Markle.
00:35:02
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
00:35:03
Caroline
You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
00:35:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Following his arrest, Donna made a lot of phone calls to him in prison. And even though she knew that these calls were being monitored by authorities, she couldn't shut the F up.
00:35:18
Caroline
That comes with entitlement for sure.
00:35:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was heard saying that she was making arrangements for her grandchildren to be taken care of. she mean, the grandchildren have a mother, for God's sakes.
00:35:31
Caroline
Right. And grandparents who loved him dearly.
00:35:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and You know, and the Markels. But you know what? From the time that this murder happened and Wendy Adelson was free to move to Miami, she moved to Miami
00:35:36
Caroline
Nope.
00:35:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:35:51
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she changed the children's last name.
00:35:54
Caroline
Okay. That should be illegal because give me a break. Like any grief counselors to tell you not to do anything within the first year and you both sell your home.
00:36:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, she's not in grief. She's in glee.
00:36:06
Caroline
Yeah, exactly.
00:36:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's not in grief. And, you know, she she changed her last name from Markell to Adelson. Adelson.
00:36:16
Caroline
Gross. Gross. This just feels like a cult. The cult of Donna.
00:36:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, it is.
00:36:21
Caroline
Ugh.
00:36:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
you're You're not the first person to see that that is exactly what this is.
00:36:25
Caroline
Gross.
00:36:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's how she raised her family, as a cult, the head of a cult.
00:36:28
Caroline
Yeah. That's why I'm...
00:36:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You must worship me, you must do what I say, or you don't get fed.
00:36:32
Caroline
Right. Those poor kids.
00:36:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So Donna, on this telephone call that is being recorded, she's talking about her plan to run away to a country that did not have an extra...
00:36:41
Caroline
Ugh.
00:36:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
d extradition treaty with U.S., such as Vietnam. And she's like, you know, well, I've been to, we've been to Vietnam and it's very peaceful.
00:36:54
Caroline
Thank you.
00:36:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I think that we're going to go back to Vietnam because, you know, they don't have an extradition treaty with the United States. So on February 13th, 2023, Donna was at the Miami International Airport with her husband, Harvey, and she was getting on her flight to Vietnam.
00:37:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
One-way tickets she bought. One-way tickets. Do you think that might be kind of a clue that you're not just going for a rest?
00:37:25
Caroline
Right. Right.
00:37:27
Caroline
right
00:37:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
But that's what she said when she was caught, is that we're just trying to go heel, you know. But it was a one-way ticket. And she was approached by the authorities. You can see this on YouTube.
00:37:41
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was yeah approached by the authorities who asked for her passport. She was then told that she was being arrested on the charges of first-degree murder, solicitation of murder, and conspiracy to murder Dan Markell.
00:37:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Her first court appearance was on November 21, 2023, at the Leon County Court. Okay, so let's talk about the crimes and the convictions.
00:38:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna Adelson was found guilty of the following crimes in connection with Dan Markell's murder. First-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
00:38:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was found guilty on all three. Evidence presented at trial included financial links, Adelson had done things such as signing checks from the family dental practice to Catherine McBanawha on a regular basis to add up to, like, what, $100,000?
00:38:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Catherine McBanawha, remember, is the one who solicited garcia and um the other guy um And the accomplice who acted as a go-between with the hire men, she never worked there, Caroline.
00:39:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She just got paychecks.
00:39:08
Caroline
That's a great example of stupid.
00:39:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and
00:39:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So evidence of flight is another reason that she was convicted. In November 2023, days after her son Charlie was convicted, Donna Adelson and her husband were stopped at the Miami International Airport, as I already talked about, and attempted to board a one-way flight to Vietnam because they do not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
00:39:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
There were also recorded conversations.
Sentencing and Victim Impact Statements
00:39:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Jurors heard wiretap conversations in which Donna Adelson discussed research research researching these non-extradition countries.
00:39:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and discussed her plans with her jailed son. She also had been on the phone discussing an extortion attempt of her and Charlie, and in this conversation it was clear that she was pulling the strings as the mastermind, so to speak, and Charlie was her agent in finding killers who would kill Dan Markell on the day of the hearing about her access to the kids.
00:40:15
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Now, let me stop and explain this in more detail. I'll be brief. But what happened was there was a long period of time where, you know, they they knew about, they you know, they had gotten the killers jailed.
00:40:31
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They're in prison for life. Catherine McBanawah, you were the solicitor of this murder. You are in prison for life. But there was this long period of time where Donna Harvey and Charlie and Wendy were just really low-key.
00:40:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Not a whole lot going on. There was the paying Catherine McBanawalk, but there's nothing really illegal about that.
00:40:56
Caroline
Right.
00:40:59
Caroline
Right.
00:41:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, that is a clue, but that's not enough.
00:41:04
Caroline
It's not enough to convict.
00:41:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's not enough.
00:41:05
Caroline
Yeah. Or to arrest.
00:41:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Because she, you know, Donna could get up there and say, I just love her so much. We were having an affair.
00:41:10
Caroline
Right. Or like, I wrote those.
00:41:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She could do all kinds of things.
00:41:12
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah. There's a, like, I wrote those checks on that day because so-and-so was sick. Or, I mean, there's a million and one reasons you can explain it away.
00:41:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, so that wasn't enough. So the the prosecutor's office the ah prosecuting attorney was thinking to himself, okay, what can we do? What can we do?
00:41:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, you can do a bump. What a bump is, is you encounter the killer ah and you scare the shit out of them and then you tap their phones and see who do they call and what do they say.
00:41:36
Caroline
Yeah.
00:41:41
Caroline
Yeah. Yes.
00:41:45
Caroline
Seen that.
00:41:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So one day, an undercover officer there, you can see this on YouTube, that an undercover us officer approached Donna Adelson and um on the street, she was about to go get her grandkids from school, pick them up.
00:41:46
Caroline
Always very exciting.
00:41:52
Caroline
Yeah.
00:42:08
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So they knew that because they'd been watching her.
00:42:11
Caroline
Yeah. Right.
00:42:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they said, Donna, And she just stepped back, but she didn't say no, or she didn't say, get away from me.
00:42:19
Caroline
right
00:42:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She didn't say, get out of my way. sheet in all of that would be characteristic Donna. So, you know, she said to this man, you scared me. he didn't mean to scare you, but I'm here because, you know, we know that you're taking care of um our brother, Rivera.
00:42:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And, you know, we really want you to take care of um the other guy. and And what about, you know, taking care of um ah Catherine McBanaw now that she's in prison locked up.
00:42:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
We just want you, okay, here here's a letter. as she took the letter and she folded it up and she put it in her pocket.
00:43:04
Caroline
Okay.
00:43:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, Caroline, if somebody, if a stranger came to you, if a stranger came to you,
00:43:06
Caroline
She wants to read it.
00:43:10
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and um said, I need to give you this piece of paper.
00:43:17
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Are you going to take that piece of paper?
00:43:20
Caroline
Well, look, I got a caveat this with there's a great TikToker out there who sends really positive, uplifting notes and like drops them off at strangers. So I might. But but in this case, if I had just got off my murder for hire and speaking to my son on the.
00:43:34
Caroline
No, I'm not talking to anyone. Also, there's a scene in The Godfather where, um you know, Robert Duvall taught us all. If I accept that, that I'm accepting a certain level of of knowledge can be proved about me. So, no, I don't accept any letters.
00:43:48
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, she tucked in her pocket because she had to go get her grandchildren.
00:43:53
Caroline
Yeah.
00:43:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she broke with the stranger who just said, we need you to send money to these ah people that are three people that are in prison. We need you to send money.
00:44:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
oh
00:44:07
Caroline
It's a good, that's a good, great I mean, because it is telling. Even just her, voice she wants to read it. ah you would You would play dumb if you were really not involved. You would say, what the hell are you talking about?
00:44:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, so when she got those children home and they were studying their whatever they were studying that they had to perform for her next, they were there and she went to the telephone and she called Charlie.
00:44:19
Caroline
I'm calling cops.
00:44:25
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:30
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She said, Charlie, we need to talk in person. And it has to be in person in a very secretive place. I'm paraphrasing.
00:44:37
Caroline
yeah
00:44:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
but Pardon me. I get all jumped up. So um she, um he said, well, what is this about? Well, I'll tell you. Well, what is it about? Well, someone stopped me in the street and gave me a piece of paper.
00:44:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well, who is it? Was it the cops? No, I don't think it was the cops.
00:44:57
Caroline
Yeah.
00:44:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then he said, well, what is it about? What is it about? He just couldn't shut up. He started guessing and she got fed up.
00:45:04
Caroline
Yeah.
00:45:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She's got these kids. She's got a feed. So she said, it's it's probably about me and you. And I think you know what I mean.
00:45:14
Caroline
The TV!
00:45:18
Caroline
The TV!
00:45:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, promptly after that, they um they got a hold of Charlie, called a rest, and by then, they that was enough to know that, that you know, i mean, there's a lot more details that you can watch, and some of you may have even watched the whole thing unfold, but it was just very interesting to me how smart this woman thinks she is,
00:45:29
Caroline
Yeah, now we know.
00:45:37
Caroline
Yeah.
00:45:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And in direct contrast to that, the level of stupidity combined with entitlement that she thinks she can make no errors.
00:45:50
Caroline
Yes.
00:45:53
Caroline
Yes, that's a real disease, actually. There are people who ah will never be able to improve because they cannot see their own errors.
00:45:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:46:00
Caroline
They can't. Every error is attributed to something outside themselves.
00:46:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, I mean, okay, so the let's talk first about the co-conspirators and their convictions. Charlie was convicted of first-degree murder, a conspiracy and solicitation in 2023. He's serving a life sentence.
00:46:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Catherine McBanois, I've already told you, you know, she was the go-between. She's serving a life sentence. Sefredo Garcia, hit man and father of McBanois' children, was convicted in 2019 and is serving a life sentence.
00:46:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Lewis Rivera, the hit man, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a lighter sentence and his testimony. So the outcome of all this is following her conviction in September of 2025. So it just happened.
00:46:48
Caroline
yeah
00:46:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Donna Adelson faces a mandatory life sentence, which she just received. During sentencing, Markel's parents delivered a powerful victim victim impact statement with his father asking Adelson, she said he says, a Jewish people have a custom.
00:47:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
When you greet someone and you say goodbye, you say, I hope you live to be 120.
00:47:12
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And he said in his statement, I hope you live to be And
00:47:18
Caroline
yeah
00:47:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and and i just have one question for you Was it worth it?
00:47:28
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She is on her way to Florida's women's prison, which is one of the most notorious prisons out there. And so I want to wrap it up with a timeline so that anybody in mass confusion, because this was kind of a pretzel knot of bad things orchestrated by Donna Adelson.
00:47:45
Caroline
It's
00:47:49
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Okay, so on September 10, 2012, Markell's then-wife, Wendy Adelson, filed for divorce. Markell filed divorce papers and learned that Adelson and the children had moved out of his house upon a return from his business trip, according to the court records.
00:48:09
Caroline
cold
00:48:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um I just want to say that what Wendy really did is he, she, Dan was at a conference and he was a speaker. He was a speaker.
00:48:20
Caroline
Oh, yeah.
00:48:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He may have been the keynote speaker.
00:48:23
Caroline
Right.
00:48:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And um ah Wendy made it so that um the minute before he was going to go on the stage, she would get have it him given a letter that said, I'm divorcing you. I've moved out of the house and I'm taking the children.
00:48:42
Caroline
That's evil! Like, Why? why
00:48:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I'm sure her mother told her to do that.
00:48:48
Caroline
It takes twice the amount of energy to do something like that rather than just to accomplish the end game, which is to be divorced if that's what you really wanted.
00:48:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
right
00:48:57
Caroline
Oh, gosh, I just can't help being so mad at Donna and Wendy.
00:49:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
everybody Everybody wants Wendy to be, you know,
00:49:05
Caroline
Yeah, convicted.
00:49:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It's a long story with Wendy, but, you know, the bottom line, this ah this is not really about Wendy, but Wendy did not pull the strings.
00:49:08
Caroline
I know.
00:49:14
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She just was the damsel in distress that manipulated everyone in her family to get involved in killing her nemesis.
00:49:16
Caroline
I know.
00:49:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And now... She has all the power in that family because she still can say, you better not point your finger at me, daddy, or mommy, or brother, because i will rat you out.
00:49:36
Caroline
Right. Right.
00:49:42
Caroline
Twisted.
00:49:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and Yeah.
00:49:43
Caroline
Twisted like her mom.
00:49:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I would say so. She's more of a vulnerable narcissist than the
Markell Act and Grandparents' Rights
00:49:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
malignant narcissist that Donna is, but narcissist nevertheless.
00:49:51
Caroline
Yeah.
00:49:55
Caroline
Right. Plus give it time. You know that Donna's gone.
00:49:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah.
00:49:58
Caroline
You know.
00:49:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The, uh, so in June of 2013, the judge denied Wendy's motion for relocation, and that was what kind of set things off. Um, July 31st, 2013, court documents show that the divorce, uh, was resolved and granted.
00:50:19
Caroline
Thank you.
00:50:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
uh, In 2024, May 15th, there was a hearing scheduled for a motion to prohibit Adelson's mother, Donna, from seeing her grandchildren unsupervised and without a new hearing scheduled prior to Markell's death.
00:50:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They were just waiting for that day, and the day was July 15th, when the judge would hand down his decision. The Prius in...
00:50:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah on July 15th, was tied to the crime scene. um Excuse me, excuse me. The death of Dan Markell was um coincided with the hearing.
00:51:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It took a while to find the Prius and find who rented it and who was the likely trigger person. In July 2014, an image of the green Prius seen in the area around the time the crime occurred.
00:51:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um They were making, you know they were getting a lot of tips about this car. And um the Tallahassee Police Department released a recording of a 911 call to the dispatch agency.
00:51:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And it did determine that there had been human error leading to the delay to get help for Markell. That's in the timeline as to why it took as long as it did to get to him.
00:51:50
Caroline
Yeah.
00:51:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was not dead when they got to him. He was dying.
00:51:54
Caroline
Oh,
00:51:54
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Even if they'd been there on the scene, he was still going to die.
00:51:58
Caroline
oh okay.
00:51:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
he was He was shot in the head twice. ah So, you know, they had a memorial service in 2014 for the FSU had a big deal kind of celebration of his life.
00:52:09
Caroline
Yeah.
00:52:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
In February 2015, the grand view jury decided to start indicting people. And, um you know, there was just a lot going on that year.
00:52:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then in 2016, they finally had what they needed to bring Catherine McBanawa and Garcia and Rivera to justice.
00:52:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And all of them were indicted and they stood trial or one of them ah pleaded guilty. um ah It was Garcia that went on to trial. McBynum went on to trial.
00:52:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
fact, her first trial was a mistrial. ah So they had to try her again and and that one, she was she was found guilty.
00:53:02
Caroline
Wow.
00:53:05
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I think that first trial they figured, the prosecutor figured they had they had loaded up too much information because it's a twisted case.
00:53:12
Caroline
I was going to say, you have to be very delicate about the way that you arrange this story because it can get very confusing, very confusing so fast. And then that will take away from the impact of these actions and their series of actions towards this end.
00:53:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. you know finally they they were able to do the bump after the prosecutions.
00:53:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And ah they were able to ah pick up Charlie.
00:53:45
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Charlie was such a know-it-all. I mean, you got to watch some of these. and It's just amazing how dim-witted these well-educated dentists and lawyers are.
00:53:54
Caroline
Yeah.
00:53:57
Caroline
Right.
00:53:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And they think they are God's gift.
00:54:00
Caroline
Look, that's what I meant when I said I know that, like, anybody can get an adult law degree. Like, that's, what i'm I believe that. You tell me you're lawyer, you just went down a point. Now you got, like, twice the amount of proof I got to see that you're a decent human being.
00:54:13
Caroline
Or intelligent in any way. Like, i I don't believe having a law degree says much of anything. It's what you do with it.
00:54:18
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
where there is a lot of memorization.
00:54:20
Caroline
That's it.
00:54:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And even my dogs memorize.
00:54:23
Caroline
I mean, yeah.
00:54:23
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
My dogs memorize. So, I mean, yeah, you're right.
00:54:25
Caroline
Yeah. yeah
00:54:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You've got to pass the bar, so it's got to be a really, really, really, really really good.
00:54:28
Caroline
Anyway.
00:54:31
Caroline
Right. I mean, you know.
00:54:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um
00:54:33
Caroline
But then you got to actually lawyer with some morality, some values, some integrity. That's the hard part.
00:54:40
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, yeah, the smart ones.
00:54:42
Caroline
Yeah.
00:54:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So in April of 2022, Charlie Adelson was finally arrested and charged with first degree murder. um During this time, Meg Bynow was getting her second murder and she was found guilty. So when she was found guilty, Charlie was in jail awaiting trial. He must have been pooping in his little pants.
00:55:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know it's not going to do you any good now that you know the presidents from start to finish.
00:55:04
Caroline
Yeah, right exactly.
00:55:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, you know.
00:55:07
Caroline
It's not going to impress anybody anymore.
00:55:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, um
00:55:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
all I can tell you is that he was convicted on November 6, 2023. And he he, when he was convicted and the jury, you know, came back and they said, guilty, guilty, guilty.
00:55:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
When he was convicted, he just... He had a look of shock and disappointment and his head hit the um the the top of the table and he didn't look up for a while and he was very distraught.
00:55:39
Caroline
Oh, wow.
00:55:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um And then, of course, his mother is going to head for Vietnam with Harvey. and But she was arrested while boarding a plane. Not going to get that one way.
00:55:54
Caroline
Yeah.
00:55:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and um And so they, you know, went to the grand jury again. She got indicted and she had to go to Tallahassee, which she hated.
00:56:07
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You know, there was a there was a um terrible hate for Tallahassee in among the Miami rich.
00:56:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They consider Tallahassee
00:56:19
Caroline
Why?
00:56:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah a bumpkin city.
00:56:25
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They don't have the beach. They're not popular. Yes, they are. But I mean, you know, they're more of like, that's where you go to raise children.
00:56:30
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's where you go to have a lovely life.
00:56:34
Caroline
Oh, I see.
00:56:37
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You're not right on the beach, but you're, you know, you're doing really well and it's a tight community and it's a university community.
00:56:39
Caroline
Yeah.
00:56:47
Caroline
Right.
00:56:48
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I would live in Tallahassee if I were younger.
00:56:50
Caroline
I would live in almost any university community because I'm sorry, that's so much life infused in the communities and in university towns, if it's a good university.
00:56:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh yeah, I like being around universities.
00:56:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yeah, I
Reflection and Closing Thoughts
00:57:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
mean, I live in not too far from a community college and I love it because you cannot go anywhere and not see college students.
00:57:09
Caroline
That's it, young people pushing.
00:57:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And, you know, they're just you can just it's so exciting. And there are people in their middle years that are going back to college at but that college.
00:57:14
Caroline
Yeah.
00:57:18
Caroline
That's right.
00:57:19
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So anyway, um
00:57:21
Caroline
I didn't know that about Miami and Tallahassee. So.
00:57:25
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Miami is the Miami Vice.
00:57:27
Caroline
Right.
00:57:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Tallahassee didn't get a show, so they must be dogs.
00:57:31
Caroline
Right.
00:57:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
I mean, you know.
00:57:33
Caroline
I don't know. i mean.
00:57:34
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So now she's in Tallahassee being tried. She's going to be...
00:57:37
Caroline
i just don't know if Donna's ever heard of what the other states call Florida. It's the armpit. If you hadn't heard yet, Donna. Yeah. But I am only directing that to Donna.
00:57:48
Caroline
No other Floridians. I've never heard of it before, if you ask. I think it's wonderful in Florida. Except Donna.
00:57:55
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
i you know I spent a lot of time in Panama City and Destin, Florida when I was a child.
00:57:59
Caroline
Yeah.
00:58:01
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And I just thought that everybody was there. it i mean, the whole world was, my world was Georgia.
00:58:07
Caroline
yeah
00:58:09
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And, you know, sometimes we went up to Tennessee mountains because Georgia and Tennessee mountains kind of sort of connect. and
00:58:17
Caroline
Really? Really?
00:58:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Anyway, Donna was found guilty, as you know. and um Donna is not having a good time.
00:58:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She gained 30% of her body weight in just waiting to go to trial.
00:58:36
Caroline
really
00:58:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
when Yeah, because they don't serve any... approach This is her version. They don't serve any proteins. You just get carbs. So you're going to get mashed potatoes, some corn,
00:58:51
Caroline
gravy, bread, yeah.
00:58:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah And you might have something that's like the mystery casserole of the week, and she's not going to eat that.
00:58:56
Caroline
Right. Yeah. Well.
00:58:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she just, she's gained a lot of weight. When she got the conviction, the guilty conviction, I can't tell you, i can't replicate the scream of, oh my God, that she had.
00:59:12
Caroline
Really?
00:59:13
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The judge had to say, Adelson, ms aelson Get a hold of your emotions. And he had to tell her that several times during the trial and in pre-trial hearings.
00:59:28
Caroline
I don't think judges like doing that. I think they think that at this point, y'all should have your pants on tall enough to buck up.
00:59:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. Then she kept it up. So he sent the jury out.
00:59:42
Caroline
Oh, he thinks she's playing them or attempting to manipulate.
00:59:46
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He told her
00:59:47
Caroline
Mm-hmm.
00:59:50
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
If you do not stop with your outbursts, I will hold you in contempt and you will be leaving this courtroom.
01:00:02
Caroline
I think they can even gag you like in the courtroom. I don't think that they do that anymore, but I think judges can do that kind crap.
01:00:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Good for them.
01:00:11
Caroline
Yeah. So he was being nice is what I'm saying.
01:00:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She made a spectacle of herself.
01:00:15
Caroline
Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:16
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The whole time that people were speeding, there was a sort of a victim impact moment where people could go to the microphone, but the only people who really did were Dan Markell, I mean, Dan Markell's parents.
01:00:27
Caroline
and parents. Oh, good.
01:00:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They did it separately. These people are some of the classiest people I've ever seen. ah The mother of Dan Markell, she on write
01:00:39
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
went on to write a book after the first three um trials, ah because she had never been exposed to the legal trial.
01:00:51
Caroline
Yeah.
01:00:56
Caroline
in Well, the American legal system too, right? I mean,
01:00:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
01:01:00
Caroline
Oh,
01:01:00
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She wrote a book about her loss and grief, and she called it my The Awakening. The Awakening.
01:01:11
Caroline
ah wow. Wow.
01:01:11
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And she said the reason she called it the awakening is because she had never experienced the legal process. And she outlined all of the process things that you have to go through that are arcane.
01:01:26
Caroline
Yes.
01:01:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They're just, they're just, they make no logical sense. And someone's in grief and wants the perpetrators to pay.
01:01:34
Caroline
Yes. 100%.
01:01:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They want justice.
01:01:35
Caroline
Yes.
01:01:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They want justice.
01:01:36
Caroline
Yep. Yeah.
01:01:38
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And then the other thing that she did, because All of her visits to her grandsons, and there were very few, you could count them on one hand, into 11 years, and their last names had been changed, and God knows what they were being told about their grandparents.
01:01:50
Caroline
you know
01:01:56
Caroline
Right. That's it.
01:01:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So she they lost that. And she says that all of the visits she had were highly choreographed.
01:02:06
Caroline
Right.
01:02:06
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
They really were wonderful. They flew from Canada down to Florida whenever they got permission to even just see the boys.
01:02:15
Caroline
Right. Yeah.
01:02:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And so what she did was she got together with a lot of people and they wrote a new law call and it was the Markell Act
01:02:28
Caroline
good.
01:02:29
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And it passed both houses of the Florida State Senate and House.
01:02:37
Caroline
yeah
01:02:37
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And what it does is it gives rights to grandparents
01:02:41
Caroline
oh good
01:02:42
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
ah for their um grandchildren, even if there is adjudication of some legal matters, even if it's a divorce and and one person has sole custody.
01:02:56
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
It just doesn't matter.
01:02:56
Caroline
Right. Right.
01:02:59
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
The grandparents have rights now because of what...
01:03:02
Caroline
I love that. Especially in this kind of scenario, this is actually not that abnormal where the divorce is really contentious and the kids get used as pawns. So I think if there's a sane set of grandparents in the background, let them in, you know, let those guys in and show the love.
01:03:17
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. But you know that they they are very, ah follow the Jewish um customs.
01:03:26
Caroline
Yeah.
01:03:27
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And, of course, Donna thinks that's just, she's Jewish, you know, what does that mean? That means that you dress well and you're you got a lot of money?
01:03:36
Caroline
that That's what that tells me.
01:03:36
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Is that what that means to her?
01:03:38
Caroline
Yeah, exactly.
01:03:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's what that means. She buys into, all what are the benefits of being Jewish in a predominantly Jewish community?
01:03:46
Caroline
Yeah. Like she's into the branding of life choices, not the value system character building thing.
01:03:52
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
That's well said.
01:03:53
Caroline
Yeah.
01:03:53
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Well said. So um we're really, really, really, really hoping, by we I mean I think everybody with a brain, that Wendy will be um charged, even if it's just ah accessory after the fact.
01:04:10
Caroline
that part right there.
01:04:12
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
um they really only have so but you know um circumstances. They don't have any direct evidence like they did with all the others.
01:04:24
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:24
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
She was very careful not to get caught up in the telephone calls and the schemes and all that.
01:04:30
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:32
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
So, Caroline, this is the end of 2025 season three, it with
01:04:38
Caroline
Yeah.
01:04:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
we ended it with a An epic.
01:04:43
Caroline
doozy.
01:04:44
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Yes, ah anybody listening who has not gone out to YouTube or court TV and followed at least some of the ingredients of this nightmare, it is very interesting.
01:04:58
Caroline
Yes.
01:04:58
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
You learn a lot about the law. The same prosecutor and the same judge were presiding over all of the trials so far.
01:05:08
Caroline
I think that's good. that's I think that's a really good thing.
01:05:10
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
And the judge is just my favorite judge on earth. I can't think of his name, but I mean, you know, he's, he, Everett, his last name is, his last name is Judge Everett.
01:05:19
Caroline
Oh, fun. Nice.
01:05:20
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He is one cool dude.
01:05:22
Caroline
Nice.
01:05:22
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He does not put up with anything.
01:05:25
Caroline
I like a good judge.
01:05:26
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
He was able to get Donna Adelson to shut the F up.
01:05:30
Caroline
I feel like watching a good judge is just like being near a really good life coach. You just start to realize how simple it could be.
01:05:35
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Oh, yes, yes.
01:05:38
Caroline
You know?
01:05:39
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. Yes. Yes. There's right.
01:05:42
Caroline
Which isn't really true, but you know what I'm saying.
01:05:43
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right. No, no. And the prosecuting attorney is a female and she is the best lawyer I've ever witnessed. And and it's worth watching that trial just to watch her ah tie these people up in their own lies.
01:05:54
Caroline
Yeah.
01:05:57
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Right.
01:05:57
Caroline
That's it right there because lying doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever.
01:06:04
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Okay, Caroline, that ends our episode today. And we'll be ah thinking of all of our listeners with great gratitude. And, ah you know, 2026 is kind of right around the corner. Have a great holiday.
01:06:21
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
Just know that we appreciate our listeners very much. And we really mean it when we say, don't forget to live.
01:06:33
Andy, Bridget and Caroline
and let live. So bye-bye for now, Caroline.
01:06:37
Caroline
Bye-bye.