Meet America’s bravest boyfriend: Notorious widow shacks up with wealthy Texas exec… as her mother’s chilling revenge on ex-husband is revealed in documentary

A woman whose mother took out a hit on her ex-husband has managed to find a new boyfriend, even after a popular true crime documentary detailed her terrifying family.

Wendi Adelson, 47, is in a relationship with George Estrada, 12 years after her former husband Dan Markel, 41, was murdered outside the couple’s home in Tallahassee, Florida, during a custody dispute.

Wendi has moved to Austin to be with Estrada. She has also taken his surname online – although it is unclear if the couple have married – while her mother Donna Adelson, 76, and her wealthy dentist brother Charlie Adelson, 50, languish in prison after being convicted of Markel’s first-degree murder. 

The saga, which saw law professor Markel shot dead in his garage by contract killer Sigfredo Garcia, was recently the subject of the hit Hulu documentary Welcome to the Family: The Murder of Dan Markel. 

Wendi herself was never charged in relation to Dan Markel’s death, although prosecutors alleged that she was an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ to the crime. 

She was granted immunity from prosecution but testified during the trials of the five people ultimately convicted over Markel’s killing. 

Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua was also convicted of Markel’s murder after she helped connect Charlie with Garcia. 

Donna, Charlie, Magbanua and Garcia are all serving life in prison plus 60 years.

Luis Rivera, who provided the gun and acted as a getaway driver, admitted second-degree murder and is serving a 19-year prison sentence.  

Wendi married Dan Markel in 2006 and dumped him in 2012.

The University of Florida academic came home from a work trip to find the couple’s two sons gone, much of the furniture that was in their home missing and paperwork for the dissolution of the marriage on his bed. Two years later, Markel was shot dead in his driveway.

Wendi’s sons now live with her and Estrada and Austin at a comfortable $550,000 home in Austin, with the merry widow now making her devotion to her new man clear for all to see on social media. 

In an image shared to Instagram last September, a woman shared a picture of Wendi and referred to her as Wendi Estrada. 

The Daily Mail also uncovered images of Estrada and Wendi rubbing shoulders at a legal conference in 2024.

Estrada previously worked for Amazon Web Services as an Executive Strategist and now works as the Chief Technology & Innovation Officer for a credit union. 

Estrada’s ex-wife Maggie died suddenly in 2021, according to social media tributes paid to her by family members at the time. 

No further details about Maggie’s death were shared.  

Posts Maggie made to her own Instagram profile indicate that at the time of her death she and Estrada had already split. 

There are no new legal clouds on the horizon for Wendi as regards her ex-husband’s murder. 

Under questioning in court in 2019, she partially revealed the immunity deal she struck with prosecutors. 

It was agreed that any testimony was never to be used against her, but it does not stop the state from ever charging her. 

After Donna was found guilty last year, State Attorney Jack Campbell was questioned over what would happen next in the case. 

He told reporters: ‘I understand everyone’s curiosity and interest, but for now, we’re going to let our team rest.’

The murder case sparked intense public interest for more than a decade due to the sordid details of the divorce, tensions with wealthy in-laws and custody battles. 

And Estrada will likely be thankful that his prospective mother-in-law Donna Adelson is locked behind bars, after bloodcurdling details of her schemes were outlined during her trial for murdering Markel.

She was painted as a controlling matriarch who had all the money and the motive to orchestrate the murder of Markel, who she ‘hated.’

They said Donna planned out the murder after Markel stood in the way of letting her daughter move her two grandsons to South Florida to be closer to her family. 

They played calls in court which revealed Donna’s plans to flee to Vietnam just one week after her son, Charlie, was convicted of Markel’s murder in 2023. 

She was arrested attempting to board a one way flight to the country, which has no extradition treaty with the United States, alongside her husband Harvey. 

Prosecutors said she signed checks that were given to Magbanua, and that she also dropped off the cash used to pay the gunmen at Charlie’s home the day of the killing. 

Prosecutor Georgia Cappleman said in her closing arguments: ‘She was paying for a murder. She knew it was going to be murder; she’s the one who wanted it done.’

Cappleman said that all of the evidence against Donna proved she was ‘all about psychological warfare’ and was willing to do ‘whatever it took to get a win.’

Donna’s defense attorneys said that the state didn´t have sufficient evidence to link the grandmother to the murder plot. 

They instead sought to emphasize the roles played by others and cast suspicion on two of Donna´s adult children.

Attorney Jackie Fulford told the court: ‘She meddles in her children’s lives, gets involved in their divorce. She’s just being a parent, not a killer. She’s a meddler – not a murderer.’

When the judge announced that the jury had convicted Donna of first-degree murder, she shouted out: ‘Oh! My God’ and started shaking and crying. 

‘Mrs. Adelson, control yourself,’ the judge told her, warning her that he would remove her from if she did not. 

The Daily Mail contacted Estrada and Wendi for comment.