On the morning of July 18, 2014, 42-year-old Florida State University law professor Dan Markel pulled into his driveway in Tallahassee, Florida, as he was talking on his cell phone. He told the person he was talking with that someone was standing in his driveway.
A few seconds later, a lone gunman followed Dan into his garage and shot him in the head through the driver’s side window. A witness saw a Toyota Prius leaving the area shortly after.
A neighbor rushed to the scene and called 911.
“He’s still alive, he’s still moving,” the anonymous caller cried out, according to the 911 call transcript. Help, however, was late to come.
The 911 dispatcher on duty erroneously categorized the case as a low-priority incident, resulting in the emergency crews’ late arrival. Nineteen minutes passed before an ambulance reached Markel, who later died at the hospital. Florida police authorities acknowledged the dispatcher’s mistake, and local newspapers have reported that the belated response could have meant the difference between life and death for Markel (The Forward).
At first, police thought this was a burglary gone wrong, but nothing was taken from Dan’s home. Police believe Dan was the intended victim of a homicide.
Before his murder, Dan had been in a contentious divorce with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, also an FSU law professor. The couple married in 2006 and had two children together. Their divorce was finalized in 2013. Part of the bitter battle involved Adelson wanting to take the kids to Miami, but Dan was against the move and obtained a court order forbidding Adelson from leaving Tallahassee with the kids.
After Dan’s murder, Adelson’s lawyer spoke on her behalf.
‘Ms. Adelson requests that the media respect her privacy as she helps her children overcome the unexpected loss of their father. She remains deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of her children.
‘During the ongoing investigation of this tragedy, Ms. Adelson will not be making any further public comments.
‘She, and every person acting for her, will decline any further requests for information, interviews, or appearances. She encourages anyone who may have information that could help identify the person or persons responsible to please contact the Tallahassee Police Department.”
Police interviewed Adelson, who fully cooperated, according to her lawyers. In January 2014, she quit her job at FSU and took the kids to Miami.
Dan and his ex-wife were battling in court over the terms of a child custody arrangement. It is unclear why they were having problems agreeing.
Dan Markel was a brilliant man, having studied at both Harvard and Cambridge Universities. In addition to being a law professor, he was also the owner of a blog called Prawfs Law, a site with a variety of topics on law and life. Before that, there was the now-defunct blog, insidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com. Through both, Dan became the victim of social media attacks for his writings on the sites.
“Bullies like this need to be made radioactive. Their arrogance and imperiousness speaks for itself. All means necessary must be employed.’
“You’re worried about your home and private life being a target?” the correspondent wrote. “What about your graduate’s homes and private lives? (Or lack thereof?) YOU’VE RUINED THEIR LIVES YOU FOOL.”
“So yes, ‘all means necessary’ are important to shutting people like YOU down,” said the writer, who went by the user name athiestATLlawyer, possibly indicating that the person is from Atlanta.
“Seriously you are coming across even more negatively as this saga unfolds (if that is even possible). To put it charitably folks who have never even met you are inclined to see you as an obsessive, egomaniacal , control freak.”
Several months before his death, he also began receiving unsolicited Facebook friend requests. Dan wrote: ‘Is anyone else getting pestered just in the last week or so by obviously ridiculous or malevolent friend requests on FB from people with sham profiles all over the world w no possible connection to you? It feels like an onslaught of the Facebook equivalent of Cialis and Nigerian prince scams.
One friend replied, ‘It might just be all your friends creating alter egos on Ambien?’
Other friends said they had also received the requests. One female friend wrote that she had received four friend requests from unknown people.
It is unknown if the police could trace any of these threatening messages or uncover the identities of the persons attempting to add Dan and his friends to their Facebook friend’s list.
Those who personally knew Dan were puzzled as to who would want to harm him. He was well-liked and loved by those he came in contact with. As all unsolved murder cases go, theories abound.
Some believe Adelson hired someone to kill him. Others think it was because of his blog. The rumor mill says that Dan was having an affair, so this could be a love triangle ordeal where the mistress might have taken out the wife. Then there’s this: just days before his murder, Dan was hired as a legal consultant in an explosive New Jersey divorce extortion case involving several Orthodox rabbis.
Dan’s contact was Rabbi Martin Wolmark, one of ten men arrested in October 2013 for conspiring to kidnap and torture Orthodox Jewish husbands who refuse to grant their wives “gets” – religious divorces. Those husbands’ targeted cases were believed to have held a grudge against Dan. However, after police interviewed them, it was determined that they had no idea Dan had been hired as the consultant.
So far, there has been no verifiable link between that case and Dan’s murder.
Despite a thorough investigation, there have been no suspects or arrests in this case. The case remains open and unsolved.
UPDATE DECEMBER 10, 2016: Three people were arrested in connection with the murder of Dan Markel – Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera in May 2016, two South Florida men with criminal histories, and Katie Magbanua, a former girlfriend of Wendi Adelson’s brother, Charles, in June. Police consider Magbanua to be the link between the hitmen and the Adelson family. The Adelson family paid Magbanua large sums of money through their dental practice before Dan Markel’s murder. Bond was recently denied for Magbanua. The prosecution believes she arranged the hit on Dan by order of the Adelson family. True Crime Diva will keep you updated on this case as it progresses.
True Crime Diva’s Thoughts
Here we have a law professional shot down in his own driveway by an unknown shooter in broad daylight. This person knew Dan was gone and was not inside the home. So how did he or she know Dan was not home?
The fact that this unknown killer was waiting for him when he pulled up should’ve told the cops right away that this wasn’t a burglary gone wrong. How many burglars wait outside in broad daylight in hopes the owner comes home? Um, I would say ZERO.
This happened in broad daylight, so this person was pretty ballsy and didn’t care about being seen by anyone. I mean, he was waiting in the driveway for crying out loud. I’m assuming that the garage doors were closed while Dan was gone. OR the killer knew nobody in the area would recognize him or her, meaning that he didn’t live in this neighborhood. Maybe he was wearing a mask. It is unclear if the neighbor called 911 gave a physical description of the Prius driver.
I don’t think Dan knew his killer because he told the friend on the phone that “someone” was in his driveway. If it had been Wendi or someone else the friend knew, he would have used the first name.
Do I think this was the work of a disgruntled blog commenter? NO WAY. I mean, if you are that pissed off about something a blogger wrote, you’re just a whiny little bitch who needs counseling, lol. Who doesn’t get pissed off at bloggers? 😉 Maybe the comments were made to throw cops toward that theory, and the killer posted them. Hell, anyone can create a fake profile on the internet.
Do I think it was Adelson? She’s the most likely culprit, but I’m not sure. If she had a hand in it, she most likely hired someone to do the dirty work, which perfectly fits what happened.
From what I read, Adelson totally blindsided Dan with the divorce. To him, it was a happy marriage, and in pictures, it appears that way. However, while Dan was on a business trip, she packed up her and the boys’ things and moved out. So, why the hell did she want the divorce? Did she find out about an affair Dan was having? Was she having an affair?
Adelson makes it easy for us to point the finger at her. She quickly got in touch with her lawyer after the murder, and he issued that public statement about privacy. Not that that is odd or out of the ordinary, but why did she need a lawyer to do that for her? Why not a family member?
I checked out her Facebook profile. She didn’t make any posts public until October 2014, 3 months after Dan’s murder. None of the public posts mention Dan at all, not even on the anniversary of his death. Maybe she did so privately; I don’t know.
I would like to know what she was doing at the time of the shooting. I also want to know if any calls/texts were made to and from her phone before the shooting.
What’s weird about Adelson is that she has not done any interviews regarding Dan’s murder. Not one. She shared her life with this man, and while I understand that they were divorced at the time of his murder and battling out the whole custody arrangement, why won’t she talk to the media?
The police believe Dan’s killing may have been a contract killing, meaning the killer was hired by someone else to murder Dan. This says to me that whoever wanted Dan dead didn’t have the guts to do it alone. It also makes it harder to prosecute the person who did the hiring because they didn’t actually commit the crime. However, it has been done before. I think Mafia when I hear “contract killing.” Maybe the Jewish gets theory is the right one. However, I’m not sure I buy that theory either. The targeted husbands claimed they did not know Dan was working on the case. Of course, they could be lying.
What did the killer or the person who hired the killer GAIN by murdering Dan? That’s what I want to know. What was the motive? An angry ex-wife or student? Jilted lover? Who was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy? There had to be a reason someone wanted this professional man dead. I don’t believe for a second that it was a random shooting or a burglary gone terribly wrong.
What happened in the garage from the time Dan pulled in to the time he was shot? Was there a verbal altercation between the killer and Dan? Or did the killer just shoot him immediately upon entering the garage?
References
Newsweek.com. 2015. Accessed November 21, 2015. http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/17/fighting-be-free-lengths-orthodox-jewish-women-will-go-get-320536.html.
The Forward. ‘Dan Markel Killing Leaves Behind Puzzling Questions — And Wrenching Grief – News’. N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
The Forward. 2014. ‘Police Probe Dan Markel Link To ‘Get’ Extortion Rabbis – News.’ Accessed November 21, 2015. http://forward.com/news/203807/police-probe-dan-markel-link-to-get-extortion-rabb/.
