Dan Markel was a brilliant and accomplished law professor at Florida State University, known for his sharp legal mind and dedication to his work. But on the morning of July 18, 2014, his promising life was tragically cut short. He was ambushed in the garage of his Tallahassee home in a brazen, professional-style incident that baffled investigators.

The case would go cold for nearly a year before a single, grainy image and a persistent investigator would begin to unravel a shocking and complex murder-for-hire conspiracy, with its roots in a bitter divorce and a wealthy, influential family.

Dan’s story is inextricably linked to his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, also a lawyer, whom he met on the dating site JDate. They married in 2006, the picture of a perfect, highly-educated couple. They had two sons and built a life in the quiet university town of Tallahassee. But behind the scenes, the marriage was crumbling, strained by cultural differences and what friends described as Wendi’s unhappiness.

In 2012, Wendi filed for a contentious divorce. The central and most bitter point of conflict was the custody of their children. Wendi, backed by her wealthy and tight-knit family in South Florida, desperately wanted to relocate with the boys to be near them. Dan, equally determined to keep his children in Tallahassee, fought her request in court.

In 2013, a judge ruled in Dan’s favor, denying Wendi’s motion to relocate. This legal victory, while a relief for Dan, allegedly sealed his fate. His refusal to let the children move became an insurmountable obstacle for the Adelson family, who reportedly developed an intense animosity toward him.

When Dan’s life was taken a year later, police initially explored various theories but quickly focused on the divorce. However, with no direct evidence, the case stalled. For a year, there were no leads and no suspects. The breakthrough came when a persistent investigator, painstakingly reviewing hours of surveillance footage from around the city, spotted something on a recording from a city bus camera: a faint image of a light-colored Toyota Prius speeding away from Dan’s neighborhood around the time of the incident.

This single clue was all it took. The rental car was traced back to two men from Miami with extensive criminal records: Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia. Phone records placed them in Tallahassee on the day of the crime, their cell phones pinging off towers near Dan’s gym and home. But the crucial question remained: what was the connection between two Miami gang members and a Tallahassee law professor?

The answer would come from intense FBI surveillance of the Adelson family. They discovered a woman who served as the linchpin of the entire conspiracy: Katherine “Katie” Magbanua. Investigators found that Katie was not only the mother of Sigfredo Garcia’s children, but she was also the secret girlfriend of Wendi’s brother, Charlie Adelson.

This stunning connection provided the direct link from the perpetrators to the family who had the strongest motive. A financial trail later showed that Katie had been receiving checks from the Adelson family business, disguised as payroll.

To solidify their case, the FBI launched a daring sting operation. An undercover agent approached the family matriarch, Donna Adelson, with a cryptic message about the “anniversary” of the incident, implying the perpetrators wanted more money. The panicked chain of phone calls that followed—from Donna to Charlie, and from Charlie to Katie—was all recorded, giving prosecutors the evidence they needed.

One by one, the conspirators were brought to justice. Luis Rivera took a plea deal and testified against the others, admitting they were paid $100,000 for the job. Sigfredo Garcia was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. After an initial mistrial, Katherine Magbanua was also convicted and sentenced to life.

And in April 2022, nearly eight years after the incident, the man at the center of the plot, Charlie Adelson, was finally arrested. The long and complex investigation had finally reached the family that so many had suspected from the very beginning.