Dateline NBC: Who is Wendi Adelson?

The ex-wife of the Florida law professor Dan Markel and a practicing lawyer herself, Wendi Adelson became the center of media attention upon Markel's cold-blooded murder in 2014. Wendi had grown up in Coral Springs and went on to practice law in Washington where she met Dan on JDate.

As the couple went through a bitter divorce in 2013 which dragged on for two more years with a brutal custody battle, the legal issues culminated in a murder-for-hire plot hatched by Wendi's brother, Charlie Adelson, and her mother, Donna Adelson.

The Dateline NBC episode titled Family Matters takes viewers on the brutal aftermath of Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel's marriage as the synopsis reads,

"Dennis Murphy reports on the latest twists in the murder-for-hire plot that left a Florida law professor dead, ripped apart two families, and ignited a decade-long search for justice."

Season 32 Episode 24 aired on January 20, 2024, at 9 p.m. EST and is available for streaming on Peacock.

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Who was Wendi Adelson? Details explored

Wendi Adelson was born on April 22, 1979, in Florida, United States to parents Donna Sue Adelson and Harvey J. Adelson. She had two brothers, Charles Adelson and Robert Adelson. Per Sun Sentinel,

"Wendi Adelson grew up in Coral Springs and graduated as valedictorian from J.P. Taravella High School. Her family runs the Adelson Institute for Esthetics and Implant Dentistry in Tamarac, where her father, Dr. Harvey Adelson, is a cosmetic dentist and her brother, Dr. Charlie Adelson, is a periodontist. Her mother, Donna, is the patient care coordinator."

She majored in Peace and Conflict Studies at Brandeis University with Magna Cum Laude in 2001 and then went on to pursue an M.Phil degree in International Relations at the University of Cambridge in 2003. Wendi graduated with a J.D. in Law from the University Of Miami in 2006 while practicing law in Washington.

Wendi Adelson worked as a professor of law at Florida State University College of Law around the time she got married to Dan Markel. Wendi and Dan met each other through a dating website, JDate, when Dan was residing in Washington D.C. Wendi was allegedly looking for a “man of the world, someone who achieved something and saw a thing or two.”

Dan and Wendi got married to one another in February 2006 at Boca Raton and the couple became parents to their sons, Benjamin Markel and Lincoln Markel, in 2009 and 2010. After their marriage, Wendi started working as a clinical law professor with a specialization in Human Rights and Immigration Law Projects at FSU, per Sun Sentinel.

The couple, however, went through separation in 2012 and Dan returned home from a business trip to find his house empty with Wendi filing for a divorce on September 10, 2012. Their marital settlement agreement came through on July 31, 2013, but soon Dan and Wendi were fighting over custody percentages of their sons, behavioral issues of in-laws, stolen heirlooms, and hidden assets.

According to court documents,

“She is divorcing the husband due to her unhappiness with him and the marriage and she only moved out because she knew he would not. He simply is having difficulty accepting her decision.”

According to reports, the investigations in Dan Markel's murder revealed email evidence of Donna Adelson wanting Wendi to "coerce" Markel into allowing her sons to move to Coral Springs, Florida with her. Wendi Adelson wanted full custody of her sons and was willing to offer them a stable home in Florida compared to Tallahassee where she did not have family.

Wendi further reported being in a “hostile work environment” at FSU as Dan Markel had allegedly told his colleagues she had mental health issues and stole money from him. According to Dan Markel, the motion was “vague, filled with rank and obvious falsehoods, and the legal analysis is fundamentally inept.”

The Leon County circuit judge denied Wendi's request and granted them 50/50 custody of the children.