By Dave Goldiner December 18, 2017

The mystery-shrouded murder of Florida law professor Dan Markel is back in the spotlight as a new television investigation touts new leads in the puzzling slaying.

Jeff Lacasse, an ex-boyfriend of Markel’s ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, denies being involved in the slaying, which police say was a murder for hire carried out in the driveway of Markel’s Tallahassee home amid a bitter divorce in July 2014.

“I’m the paranoid ex-boyfriend,” Lacasse bluntly tells police in an episode of People magazine. “I was surprised that you guys didn’t call me earlier, though, because I probably said a hundred times that I’d like to kick his ass because he kept, like, really making Wendi suffer.”

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Earlier this year, two prison inmates may have provided a long-awaited break in the mysterious slaying.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, the alleged hit man charged with killing Markel confessed to a fellow inmate that Markel’s ex-mother-in-law had ordered the murder to gain custody of their two children.

An alleged accomplice, who has pled guilty to second-degree murder, implicated Markel’s ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, in the murder plot.

Wendi Adelson, for her part, told police that she feared that someone had had her husband killed on her behalf.

“Danny didn’t treat me very well, and I’m so scared that maybe someone did this … because they thought this was good somehow,” Adelson said.

This story was updated on January 24, 2018 to clarify Lacasse’s statement.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount