Veterinarian Valerie McDaniel from Houston, who was charged with taking a hit out on her ex-husband, hurled herself to her death from her seventh floor luxury apartment

She should have been standing in court this morning.

Instead, less than 24 hours before she was due to appear, charged with taking a hit out on her ex-husband, Valerie McDaniel, a mother-of-one and a once respected, well-liked veterinarian from Houston hurled herself to her death from her seventh floor luxury apartment.

It was a final desperate act that made no sense to the friends and family who thought they knew her. But then little has made much sense to those close to McDaniel recently.

It has been less than three weeks since McDaniel and her lover Leon Jacob were arrested and charged with solicitation of murder; she, of her ex-husband Marion ‘Mack’ McDaniel, he of his ex-girlfriend, who has not been named.

Theirs is a tale of revenge, deception and a breathtaking sting that would seem far-fetched were it not documented in court records and a police operation that culminated with the lovers’ intended victims cooperating with cops to stage their own murders in order to catch their would-be killers.

Pictures of the ‘murder scenes’ were used to convince Jacob, 39, and McDaniel, 48, that their hired ‘assassin’ had carried out the job.

She left two notes, neither of which police have made public. It has been less than three weeks since McDaniel and her lover Leon Jacob were arrested and charged with solicitation of murder

McDaniel and Jacob are accused of hiring a hit man (who was actually an undercover cop) to kill her ex-husband Marion ‘Mack’ McDaniel and Jacob's ex-girlfriend, who has not been named

Jacob was shown pictures of his ex bound and gagged and supposedly about to be killed. He had originally wanted her to be abducted and brought to him so that he could administer a lethal injection of potassium.

Meanwhile McDaniel was shown the ‘lifeless’ body of her ex-husband whom, she was told, had been shot in a car jacking. Each had offered $20,000 in cash - half the money up front - and two Cartier watches, by way of payment for the crimes.

Now an investigation by DailyMail.com has shed new light on McDaniel and Jacob, their backgrounds and how they came into each other’s lives with such devastating consequences.

It would be hard to imagine a less likely perpetrator of such a heinous crime than Valerie McDaniel, whose successful practice has long been part of the landscape in the upscale West University area of Houston, Texas.

And it would be hard to imagine a more unfortunate collision than her world with failed transplant surgeon Leon Jacob’s.

Because though Jacob is a man who has looks, intellect and all the opportunities of wealth, he squandered his own fortune over and over and, in the brief span of their relationship, his influence seems to have derailed McDaniel completely.

Court records seen by DailyMail.com show that Jacob has left a trail of debt, broken relationships and crime across Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and now Texas.

McDaniel’s blemishless record stood in stark contrast. Attractive and blonde, Dr Valerie Busick McDaniel was born and raised in Houston and graduated from the Episcopal High School.

Pictures of the ‘murder scenes’ of their respective significant others were used to convince Jacob, 39, and McDaniel, 48, that their hired ‘assassin’ had carried out the job

McDaniel was shown the ‘lifeless’ body of her ex-husband Marion McDaniel (pictured) whom, she was told, had been shot in a car jacking

She got her undergraduate degree from the University of St Thomas and studied veterinarian medicine at Texas A&M University. She qualified in 1997 and married Marion ‘Mack’ McDaniel that August.

The couple started the Montrose Veterinarian Clinic three years later.

Neighbors of their last marital home, in a wealthy suburb of Houston, remember them as an apparently happy couple and the proud parents of a now eight-year-old girl.

A Mercedes wagon and BMW 750 sat in the driveway, and they spoke of buying a boat to enjoy at their $720,000 second home: a waterfront property an hour or so away in Galveston.

But while McDaniel may have seemed to have an enviable life, the truth was that all was not well with her marriage.

In February 2015, she filed for divorce on grounds of her husband’s infidelity.

In her divorce petition she sued for sole custody of their daughter, accused her husband of ‘committing fraud on the community estate’ and, among other things, petitioned for him to be ‘restrained from threatening or communicating with her in vulgar, profane, obscene or indecent language or in a coarse or offensive manner.’

The divorce attorney who filed McDaniel’s petition was her immediate next-door neighbor, Leon Jacob’s mother, Golda.

The divorce was settled last year and though McDaniel got the veterinarian business and Houston home, while her ex took Galveston and their pet cremation business, she was left owing him $1.25 million to settle the estates.

It would be hard to imagine a less likely perpetrator of such a heinous crime than Valerie McDaniel, whose successful veterinary practice has long been part of the landscape in the upscale West University area of Houston, Texas. Pictured, McDaniel with a colleague

The McDaniels first started the Montrose Veterinarian Clinic together three years after they got married in 1997

This debt has been offered as a possible motive for her decision to enter into the plot to have her ex-husband killed.

It is not clear whether McDaniel had already met Jacob at the time she filed for divorce, but their paths had certainly crossed by the time it was finalized. And her crippling debt was something with which he could empathize.

Jacob moved back in with his parents in December 2015 and filed for bankruptcy in August 2016. In the papers, he listed his assets as totaling $62,688.81 and his outstanding debts at $249,610.39.

His debts followed him throughout the years. He owed $95,500 in attorney fees across Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

By then a divorced father of two, he also owed $2,285 in disputed childcare expenses and a staggering $21,847.67 to Rivers Casino, Pennsylvania. Some might have thought he had reached rock bottom, but Jacob had further still to fall.

Jacob married his first wife, Annie, in Wilmette, Illinois in December 2001. He was at medical school in Grenada at the time and graduated in 2005.

From there, he was admitted into the residency program at the University of Texas in Houston but left in 2010. His Texas physician in training certificate was terminated.

He then moved to Ohio, where he entered the surgical residency program at Northside Hospital in Youngstown with the aim of specializing in renal transplant. But he quickly ran into trouble and, after warnings and a period on probation, he was fired in 2011.

According to legal documents, he failed to meet the ‘respectful, altruistic, ethical’ skills expected of a surgeon. Supervisors found that he had left a patient unattended post surgery, lied about treatment of another who contracted gangrene post surgery and when one of his superiors asked him to seek psychiatric evaluation, he refused.

Meanwhile, father-of-two Jacob has left a trail of debt, broken relationships and crime across Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and now Texas

Residents expressed ‘concerns about his unavailability, tardiness, lack of communication and misrepresentations.’

He logged more hours in the operating room than others on the program, but fell short on his study and ignored instructions to cut back on operating and work towards improving his knowledge and skills by studying for vital upcoming American Board of Surgery exams.

Ultimately, he was found to be ‘an immediate threat to patient safety.’

He appealed the hospital’s decision to let him go but lost and was charged the following year with burglarizing the home of an hospital administrator who had testified against him.

His wife filed for divorce in 2013, having acquired a protective order against him. Her attorney stated: ‘Leon is guilty of extreme and repeated mental cruelty without cause or provocation.’

Their children were aged two and 15 months at the time.

In behavior that would echo and escalate three years later in Houston, Jacob was charged with aggravated stalking, cyber stalking and intimidation of his former wife in 2014 - in direct violation of the active Illinois Order of Protection.

The following year, Jacob moved back to Texas into his parents’ West University home right next door to McDaniel, who was by then in the throes of her own divorce.

And by then he was already with the woman who would become the intended victim of his ‘hit’. He split from the successful hospitality industry executive at the beginning of the year, following an alleged assault on her on January 12.

In 2015, Jacob moved back to Texas into his parents’ West University home, right next door to McDaniel, who was by then in the throes of her own divorce

Once a seemingly happy couple, with a Mercedes wagon and BMW 750 in the driveway and a $720,000 second home, the McDaniels had filed for divorce over reports of Marion's 'infidelity'. Pictured, their home in the West University village

The divorce attorney who filed McDaniel’s petition was her immediate next-door neighbor: Jacob’s mother, Golda. Pictured, Jacob's parent's home

Court records state that she had returned home from work to the luxury apartment block in which they briefly lived, and that Jacob ‘became upset and stated, “He was tired of her attitude and pissy face.”’

He began yelling at her and throwing dishes. She claimed that when she walked away he followed her into the bathroom, threatened that his family would ‘ruin her,’ grabbed her face when she started to scream, bust her lip and told her to ‘Shut up you dumb c***.’

A small amount of amphetamine was found on Jacob at the time he was charged with this assault, but he was found to have a valid prescription for the substance.

Two weeks later, Jacob was charged with stalking when his ex reported that on one occasion he drove his car across hers as she left work and yelled, ‘You are throwing away the best thing you ever had!’

He also texted and emailed repeatedly. In one communication, he boasted that he had ‘got back on top’ and was ‘making over $7,500.00 a week.'

He hid in shrubs near her work place and on February 11, he emailed her asking for a painting they had purchased together, saying: 'This was one of my favorite nights of my life.’

It is unclear whether Jacob was sincere in his attempts to reconcile with his ex, or simply attempting to dissuade her from testifying against him in the assault case. Certainly, the latter has been suggested as his motive for wanting her dead less than a month after sending that final email and after the stalking charge was added to that of assault.

It was Jacob who reached out to an associate on March 8, unaware that the man in question was a police informant, and asked him to put him in touch with a hit man.

On March 9, both he and McDaniel met with the supposed hit man - an undercover cop - in an Olive Garden near the Buffalo Speedway.

When DailyMail.com visited Marion McDaniel’s imposing clapboard house in Galveston last week, it was deserted. Newspapers dating from March 18 - the day that his ex-wife was granted bail - had accumulated in the driveway, suggesting that he may have quit his home there and then

A neighbor who witnessed their subsequent arrests and knew them in passing expressed his shock when DailyMail.com visited the complex last week.

He recalled: ‘I saw all the police and everything that day and I heard about what happened later.

'I knew them to talk to. They had a dog and you used to see them walking it. They were just regular people. She came back a few days later and took all her stuff from the apartment.’

Unlike Jacob, who was denied bail, McDaniel’s was set at $50,000. Reacting to the decision last week, her former husband’s attorney expressed concerns for his client’s safety.

When DailyMail.com visited Marion McDaniel’s imposing clapboard house in Galveston last week, it was deserted. Newspapers dating from March 18 - the day that his ex-wife was granted bail - had accumulated in the driveway, suggesting that he may have quit his home there and then.

According to his attorney, McDaniel feared what his ex-wife might be capable of, given she had ‘little to lose.’

The sad truth, now evident from her suicide, is that she clearly felt she had absolutely nothing left to lose that she hadn’t already squandered.

She left two notes, neither of which police have made public.

And now, as her family tries to come to terms with the latest shattering turn of events, Jacob alone will face trial and, it is hoped, make some sense of all that has happened.

He is currently being held in Harris County jail after being denied bail and is due back in court on Wednesday.

However, Jacob’s request to attend McDaniel’s funeral has been denied.

When approached by DailyMail.com, family members of both the accused and their victims declined to comment. Neither Harris County Prosecutor nor Houston Police Department responded to requests for comment.