This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske.

Here now, Tony Bruske.

One of the easiest mistakes to make in a trial like this is to look at the defendant as they are today, not as who they were when the crime happened.

Walk into that courtroom right now and you'll see Donna Edelson playing the part of a sweet

cardigan wearing grandmother. She looks frail. She looks ordinary and maybe by the time you're

reading this or listening to this or hearing this, she may be having, you know, someone pushing

her with wheels on the chair that she's sitting in.

And if you didn't know the backstory, you might even think, how could this woman possibly be

behind something? So dark. But the prosecution has a weapon that cuts through, right through

that act, Donna's own emails. The messages she sent to her

daughter Wendy during the custody battle with Dan Markell don't just show frustration or family

concern. They show manipulation. They show strategy. They show a woman pulling the strings,

telling her grown daughter, a lawyer in her own right,

how to act, what to say, how to threaten.

They show money being gathered up for a million-dollar move offer to get Dan to allow Wendy to relocate the kids.

And when that didn't work, prosecutors say Donna pushed the other way. These emails matter because they revealed Donna

behind a mask, that Donna behind so much.

The matriarch who ran her family with an iron grip.

The woman who inserted herself into every dispute, every negotiation, every fight,

until it became about what she wanted,

not about what was best for her daughter or her grandchildren.

No.

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