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New Docuseries Revisits Dan Markel Murder and the Family Plot Behind It
ReNew Docuseries Revisits Dan Markel Murder and the Family Plot Behind It
A new ABC News Studios docuseries examines the 2014 killing of Florida State law professor Dan Markel, the murder-for-hire plot prosecutors tied to his ex-mother-in-law, and the decade-long investigation that followed.
A new true-crime docuseries is revisiting the 2014 killing of Dan Markel, a prominent Florida State University law professor who was shot in the head in the garage of his Tallahassee home, and the sprawling murder-for-hire investigation that ultimately led prosecutors to members of his ex-wife's family.
«Welcome to the Family: The Murder of Dan Markel,» from ABC News Studios, is now streaming on Hulu. It draws on exclusive interviews, including with FBI agent Pat Sanford, and a recorded conversation with Rob Adelson, the oldest son of Donna Adelson, who testified against his mother at her trial. The series largely follows the prosecution's investigation and trial evidence, incorporating testimony and recordings introduced during court proceedings.
Markel, 41, was shot on July 18, 2014, while sitting in his car after returning from the gym. He died the following day. In the final moments of his life, he was on the phone with music teacher Stewart Schlazer, discussing school options for his children. According to the docuseries, Markel interrupted the call to say an unfamiliar person was in his driveway. Seconds later, Schlazer heard what he described as a loud boom.
Producer Lily Fletcher told Fox News Digital that surveillance footage from that morning captured a Prius circling the gym parking lot without ever stopping. «It's always reminded me of a shark circling,» Fletcher said, describing the contrast between the mundane routine and the sinister waiting. «There was something just so sinister and eerie during such a mundane part of his day, just going to the gym.»
Markel married Wendi Adelson in 2006 after the two met online. They had two sons, Benjamin and Lincoln. Their contentious divorce in 2013 centered on where the boys would grow up. Wendi sought to move them to South Florida to be near her family, while Markel pressed to keep them in Tallahassee, where the parents shared custody. According to the docuseries, Donna Adelson was furious after the relocation request was denied. Prosecutors argued at trial that the custody dispute became the catalyst for a murder-for-hire plot that took years to unravel.
Prosecutors said Donna helped orchestrate Markel's killing after he stood in the way of letting her daughter and two young grandsons move south. They also revealed that her son Charlie Adelson arranged the killing through his then-girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, who connected him to Sigfredo Garcia, the father of her children, and Garcia's friend Luis Rivera. Prosecutors said Garcia shot Markel while Rivera drove the getaway car.
Over the next decade, investigators used cellphone records, surveillance video, financial records and secretly recorded conversations to build the case. «Investigators suspected members of the family were involved, but weren't able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt for a really long time,» Fletcher said. She noted the thoroughness of the investigation, including tracking silver-colored Priuses across Florida and sifting through thousands of phone data points to find links to the family near the crime scene.
At trial, prosecutors painted Donna as the calculated matriarch of an affluent South Florida family with the means and motive to orchestrate the killing of the ex-son-in-law she «hated.» Defense attorneys insisted the state lacked sufficient evidence to link her to the murder plot.
In 2023, Charlie Adelson, a dentist, was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder. Prosecutors told jurors that Charlie paid to have Markel killed and used Magbanua to hire Garcia. They said Garcia enlisted the help of Rivera, his childhood friend. Charlie testified that he had nothing to do with the killing and was stunned when Magbanua came to his home and said her friends were the killers. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Magbanua and Garcia were convicted of first-degree murder. Rivera was sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and cooperating with prosecutors. In 2025, Donna Adelson was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and an additional 30 years for the conspiracy and solicitation convictions.
Fletcher said the surveillance video is one of the documentary's most haunting moments, but she believes the hundreds of FBI wiretap recordings provide the clearest window into the Adelson family. «There are hundreds of wiretapped phone calls of the Adelson family,» she said. «As a team, we listened to all of them. I think just the brazen way with which the family was continuing their lives during the investigation, really believing that they'd got away...»
