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Dateline NBC

Talking Dateline: Deadly Mischief

Dateline NBC

NBC News

True Crime, Culture, Social, Society & Culture, News

4.438K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Blayne Alexander talks with Dennis Murphy and Dateline producer Brad Davis about their episode, “Deadly Mischief.” In 2014, after esteemed FSU law professor Dan Markel was fatally shot, investigators uncovered a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated, according to prosecutors, by Markel’s former mother-in-law, Donna Adelson. Blayne, Dennis, and Brad discuss the circumstantial case against Donna and do a deep dive on the witness testimony of two of her children, Robert and Wendi Adelson, including a podcast-exclusive clip in which Wendi describes her mother’s reaction to the news of the murder. Plus, they answer your social media questions. Have a question for Talking Dateline? DM us a video to @DatelineNBC or leave a voicemail at (212) 413-5252. Your question may be featured in an upcoming episode. Listen to the full episode “Deadly Mischief” on Apple: https://apple.co/4nvYSSu Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rQ8PE9UWxPW3W95g2Ihwb

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, everyone. I'm Blaine Alexander, and today we are talking Dateline. I'm here with my good friend Dennis Murphy. Hi, Dennis.

0:10.6

Hey, Blaine. How are you? I'm good, but we also have a special guest, the one and only Brad Davis, super producer here, who is really our resident expert on the case to talk about this sprawling family drama.

0:22.2

Brad, thanks so much for joining us.

0:23.8

Sure, glad to be here.

0:25.5

If you haven't seen this episode, you can watch it on Peacock or listen to it in the Dateline

0:29.4

podcast feed and then come right back here.

0:32.3

But just a quick recap, when FSU law professor Dan Markell was shot in the garage of his home back in 2014,

0:38.7

investigators uncovered a murder-for-hire plot that they say was orchestrated by his mother-in-law, Donna Adelson.

0:45.2

Now, 11 years after his murder, Donna's murder trial ended with a guilty verdict,

0:49.8

making her the fifth person to be convicted in this case.

0:53.7

The big question now, of course, will anyone

0:55.5

else be charged? We'll discuss that during today's talking Dateline. In this episode, we've also got

1:00.8

an extra clip of Wendy Adelson testifying during her mother's trial. And of course, later,

1:05.5

we will take some of your questions from social media. All right, guys, let's talk Dateline.

1:10.2

Great. Okay. Of course, I followed this case.

1:13.9

I've, you know, I know the stories and the back stories and everything, but just watching this was so

1:18.7

unbelievably fascinating to me, just how many people are involved in the killing of this one man.

1:25.1

This has unfolded over more than a decade.

1:28.2

I just wonder what it's like following a case like this.

1:30.9

I mean, that really seems to, you think both shoes have dropped,

1:34.2

and then yet there's another shoe and another shoe,

1:36.0

and things just kind of keep coming in this.

...

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