Dateline: Deadly Mischief - Who was Daniel Markel and what happened to him? Disturbing details of the 2014 murder, revealed 

NBC's long-running true crime reality series Dateline will air another chilling murder investigation titled 'Deadly Mischief' on October 24. Reported by veteran NBC correspondent Dennis Murphy, the upcoming episode is a chilling tale of family conspiracy and deceit, which led to the brutal murder of a Florida-based attorney and law professor in 2014.

The official synopsis for Dateline: Deadly Mischief reads as follows:

Dennis Murphy reports on the trial of 75-year-old Florida grandmother Donna Adelson, whose family is tied to an elaborate murder-for-hire plot in the death of her former son-in-law, Dan Markel.

Daniel Markel was a Canadian-born attorney and law professor who was a popular faculty member at Florida State University since 2005. Daniel met Wendi Adelson, a fellow clinical law professor and child advocate at his University, and the two tied the knot in 2006 and also welcomed two sons some years later.

However, due to personal conflicts, Daniel and Wendi Markel separated from each other in 2013 and were undergoing a tense custody battle for their sons, when Daniel was shockingly murdered.

More on Dateline: Deadly Mischief in our story.

Dateline: Deadly Mischief- What happened to Daniel Markel in 2014?

Dateline's upcoming episode will follow the 2014 murder investigation of Daniel Markel. The popular law professor was undergoing a brutal custody battle in 2014 when he was brutally shot at his home in Florida. On July 18, 2014, Daniel Markel was shot at around 11 a.m. at his house. A day later, Markel tragically succumbed to his gunshot wound and died in the hospital.

The Florida authorities confirmed that Daniel Markel was the 'intended victim' and they concluded that his death was a murder-for-hire, orchestrated by someone.

Dateline: Deadly Mischief- Florida police closed in on two suspects

By May 2016, the Florida police had arrested the prime suspect, Sigfredo Garcia, of the Miami Beach area. The Tallahassee police confirmed that Garcia was in cahoots with Luis Rivera, and together they had killed Daniel Markel. Both Garcia and Rivera rented a Toyota Prius and spent two nights before Daniel's murder in Florida motels. The day of the murder, both Garcia and Rivera followed Daniel Markel as he ran errands and went to the gym, following which, they shot him at 11 a.m. Additional evidence like banking and SunPass electronic toll collection records, a cellphone and security footage around Markel's house, helped the police to build a solid case against Garcia and Rivera.

However, a chance connection between Charlie Adelson (the brother of Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson) and Garcia's wife Katherine Magbanua helped the authorities reach the real mastermind behind this murder, who was none other than Daniel Markel's mother-in-law, Donna Adelson. Rivera confessed that they were hired by a woman to kill Daniel:

"Because the lady wants her two kids back. She wants full custody of the kids."

Dateline: Deadly Mischief- Was Donna Adelson caught?

As shown in the Dateline preview, Wendi and Daniel Markel's custody battle was hard on Donna, who lived 500 miles away from her two grandsons in Miami. As a grandmother and Wendi's mother, she wanted her daughter to have full custody of her children. However, following the couple's divorce, both Wendi and Daniel were granted 50-50 custody and Donna Adelson was prohibited from being alone and unsupervised with the children.

This restriction led to a grave conspiracy, where Donna Adelson hired Garcia and Rivera to murder her ex-son-in-law. She was finally arrested on November 13, 2023, at the Miami International Airport. On October 13, 2025, Donna was found guilty on three charges of first-degree murder, solicitation of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Additionally, Charlie Adelson and Katherine were sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and an additional 30 years each for solicitation convictions and conspiracy.

While Daniel Markel's ex-wife and ex-father-in-law were not charged, the police suspected that they were "unindicted co-conspirators" in the killing.

Tune in to the Dateline episode on NBC on October 24.

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