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What goes on inside the minds of women who commit murder and other crimes?
In my previous episode on December 13, 2022, titled A Mother’s Pursuit of Justice: The Contract Murder of Dan Markel, I reported that three women are the focus of an eight-year-long murder investigation.
Markel, a distinguished law professor at Florida State University was gunned down by hitmen at his Tallahassee home in 2014.
Katherine Maguahua (phonetic pronunciation: MAC-BANA-WAH) was the go-between for the contract killing.
In November of 2022, evidence from an FBI sting helped convict Maguahua.
She received a life sentence plus 60 years for hiring her ex-boyfriend, the father of her children, to execute Dan Markel. Allegedly so his ex-wife could move the couple’s two sons to South Florida.
The ex-wife, 35- year old Wendi Adelson, a fellow law professor, and her mother, Donna Adelson, have been named as unindicted conspirators in the alleged plot.
According to criminal trial testimony, Katherine Maguahua hired the hitmen at the request of Wendi Adelson’s brother Charlie Adelson. She was a girlfriend and dental assistant in his office. Charlie Adelson has been charged with the murder and is expected to stand trial in 2023.
But back to Katherine Maguahua, was it for love or money?
I reached out to Meghan Sacks, a criminologist with a Ph.D. who teaches classes on Women and Crime at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey to explore this true crime subject.
Sacks is also the co-host of the Women and Crime podcast.
We discuss possible motivations in the Austin cyclist murder case that I covered on July 11, 2022, A Love Triangle Ends In An Alleged Murderous Fit Of Jealous Rage.
You will also hear me discuss interviewing female inmates at Texas prison units.
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