13 things about Miami Beach, Florida’s Wendi Adelson

Wendi Jill Adelson was married to Daniel Eric “Dan” Markel. His parents Phil Markel and Ruth Markel are from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

BIOGRAPHY

Adelson is an American lawyer from Miami Beach, Florida, United States. Her parents Dr. Harvey J. Adelson and Donna Sue Adelson are from Coral Springs, Florida.

Harvey had a dental practice in Tamarac for which Donna was the patient-care coordinator. They also have two sons namely Robert Adelson and Charles Adelson.

Aside from Miami Beach, Wendi has lived in other parts of Florida including Tamarac, Tallahassee, Pompano Beach and Coral Springs. She and Dan have two sons together.

On April 22, 2025, Wendi turned 46. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. She previously lived in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA in Washington, D.C., USA.
2. When she was a high school student, she founded Starting Blocks, a charity that gives educational material and toys and to underprivileged children.
3. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham and she earned her master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom where she was a Gates scholar.
4. In 1997, she won a Miami Herald Silver Knight Award for her work on Starting Blocks.
5. In 2006, she earned her law degree from the University of Miami in Coral Gables.
6. In 2009, she gave birth to her first son.
7. In 2010, she gave birth to her second son.
8. In 2011, she self-published ‘This is Our Story“, a novel about human trafficking.
9. From 2011 to 2015, she was a clinical law professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
10. In 2012, she and Dan separated.
11. In 2013, she and Dan divorced.
12. In 2014, Dan was murdered by two men allegedly hired by her brother Charlie and their mother and she started dating Florida State University professor Jeffrey Lacasse.
13. From 2015 to 2016, she served as a law clerk to Judge Adalberto Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Miami.

TIMELINE

Wendi speaks English and Spanish. She was seven years younger than Dan.

2000s

• On February 26, 2006, she and Dan got married. Rabbi Shaul Robinson officiated at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida.
• On October 11, 2006, she was accepted to the Florida bar.

2010s

• On September 10, 2012, she filed for divorce against Dan.
• On June 20, 2013, a judge denied her motion for relocation with her children.
• On July 31, 2013, her divorce from Dan was finalized. He won an order prohibiting her from moving to Miami, Florida with their two sons and she was granted 50-50 custody of their children.
• Her former husband Dan was shot at his home in Tallahassee on July 18, 2014 and he died on July 19, 2014.
• In September 2014, she and Lacasse became a couple.
• On August 29, 2016, a video of her telling police officers about Charlie’s joke about hiring a hitman was released.
• In July 2017, she was appointed head of the Immigration Partnership & Coalition (IMPAC) Fund.
• On September 27, 2019, she testified under an immunity deal in the murder trial of Sigredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua, who were accused of being involved in Dan’s murder.

2020s

• On August 25, 2025, she and her brother Robert testified in court during the murder-for-hire trial of their mother.
• On September 4, 2025, a jury found her mother guilty of masterminding the murder-for-hire killing of Dan.
• On October 13, 2025, her mother was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.