Karl Etters

Democrat staff writer

The family of Dan Markel’s ex-wife called accusations they were involved in the Florida State law professor’s shooting “fanciful fiction.”

The statement, from the attorney of Wendi Adelson, Donna and Harvey Adelson and Charlie Adelson, states flatly, “There is a reason that the police have not arrested any of the Adelsons – They weren’t involved in Dan’s death.”

The attorneys, John Lauro, David Oscar Markus and Margot Moss, Daniel Rasbaum and Jeffrey Neiman, said the statement was in response to repeated media stories that suggest the family was involved.

Investigators with the Tallahassee Police Department and State Attorney's Office have said that Wendi Adelson’s family, chiefly her mother Donna Adelson and brother Charlie Adelson, are connected to the murder-for-hire plot.

Family of Dan Markel's ex-wife implicated in murder plot

Two men, 34-year-old Sigfredo Garcia and 33-year-old Luis Rivera, have been charged with Markel’s July 2014 killing.

Markel, 41, was found by a neighbor, still seated inside his running car, parked in the garage of his Betton Hills home on July 18, 2014. He had been shot twice in the forehead.

The motive for Markel’s slaying, court documents say, “stemmed from the desperate desire” of his in-laws to allow the estranged couple’s two young sons to move to South Florida and is linked to the couple’s acrimonious divorce.

Investigators say more arrests are expected.

The entire statement is below.

"On behalf of the Adelson family, we continue to send our deepest condolences to the Markel family. Dan's death was a tragedy, and the loss is profound. Although Wendi and Dan were divorced, he was the father of their two children, who must now grow up without their dad.

There has been a lot of unsupported speculation that the Adelsons had something to do with the murder. That speculation is categorically false. To be clear, none of the Adelsons – Wendi, her brother Charlie, or their parents Donna and Harvey – had anything to do with Dan’s murder.

We respect the process and the enormous amount of work that the Tallahassee police department has done in this case. They have spent the past two years reviewing every shred of evidence out there -- every phone record, financial record, text message, email, internet search, everything. We understand why the government has put the Adelson family through this type of severe scrutiny. But nothing has turned up that supports this fanciful fiction that the Adelsons were involved. The investigation has gone so deep that it employed FBI agents, undercover agents, and a tip line. There is a reason that the police have not arrested any of the Adelsons – they weren’t involved in Dan’s death.

We are issuing this statement because the media continues to run stories suggesting – without any support or evidence – that the Adelsons were somehow involved in Dan's murder. Again, this is simply not true. The Adelsons were not involved. We share in the hope that those responsible will be brought to justice."

On behalf of Wendi, John Lauro.

On behalf of Charlie, David Oscar Markus and Margot Moss of Markus/Moss and Michael Weinstein.

On behalf of Donna and Harvey, Daniel Rashbaum and Jeffrey Neiman of Marcus, Neiman and Rashbaum.

See our full coverage of the Dan Markel case