Transcript of Dateline True Crime Weekly with Andrea Canning

Hi, everyone. I'm Jenna Bush-Hager from Today with Hoda and Jenna, and I'm excited to share my new podcast, Open Book with Jenna. Each week, celebrities, experts, friends, and authors will share candid stories with me about their lives and new projects. Guests like Stephen and Evy Colbert, Nicholas Sparks, Emily Henry, and more. Like a good book, you will be feeling inspired and entertained. Join me for my brand new podcast, Open Book with Jenna, premiering on Thursday, October third. Follow now wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. Andrea Canning here, inviting you to listen to the latest episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly. It's our newest show, helping you get up to speed every Thursday morning on the biggest true crime stories around the country. You'll get the behind the scenes scoop from Dateline producers and NBC news correspondence in the field. Plus, we'll talk to experts to bring you the best advice on how to stay safe out there. New episodes drop every Thursday in the Dateline True Crime Weekly feed. So take a listen and follow the new show wherever you get your podcast. We'd love to know what you think. Morning.

Good morning.

How are you doing? Good. You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting in 30 Rockefeller Center. Why did he wait nine days to report her missing? Our editorial team is catching up on breaking crime news around the country. She's also found strangled in her back.

The family feels they know who did it.

There was marijuana.

There was having intimate relationships with prison guards. I I'm Andrea Canning. Welcome to Dateland True Crime Weekly. It's September 26, and here's what's on our docket. In California, the stabbing death of a Silicon Valley executive made national headlines last April. First, with tales of lawlessness in San Francisco, and then stories about decadent partying. As the man accused of the murder gets closer to trial, we've got the facts behind the case.

There was a lot of sensationalizing before any of the facts were even out.

In Dateland Roundup, a Kentucky town left reeling after the arrest of the local sheriff for allegedly murdering a judge. We've got the latest on Sean Holmes's legal troubles. The complaint alleges that defendant Combs and another defendant vicious and violently forced sexual contact on the plaintiff. The Today Show's Vicky Wyn is back, this time with safety tips about what to look out for when it comes to financial scams.

You're not the bad guy. The bad guys are the bad guys trying to take your money. You're the victim.

But before all that, we've got some tapes for you to listen to. Recorded phone calls between the mother and son at the heart of one of the most hotly anticipated murder trials of the year, Donna and Charlie Adelson. The trial of Donna Adelson, the Florida grandmother accused of conspiring to murder her former son-in-law, was supposed to begin in a Tallahassee courtroom last Tuesday. Hundreds of potential jurors showed up at court. As we told you last week, Adelson was scheduled to stand trial in the same courtroom and with the same defense attorney as her son Charlie, who was convicted for his part in the murder almost a year ago. But a last-minute decision by Charlie stopped the trial before it even began. Dateland producer Brad Davis has been covering this case for nearly 10 years, and he's here to talk to us about what happened and what he's learned about the Adelson's relationship from listening to hours of wire taps and jailhouse recordings. Hey, Brad, welcome to the podcast. Hi.

Great to see you, Andrea.

Okay, so before we get to all this chaos, just remind us a little bit about the Adelson family. Who are they and how did Dan Markel fit in?

Yeah. Well, Dan Markel was a highly respected law professor at Florida State University, FSU, and He was married to Wendy Adelson, and they had two very young sons. Wendy came from South Florida from a pretty prominent family of dentists down there. Her father, Harvey, was a dentist and her mother, Donna, ran the office, was like the manager. They also had Rob, who's a physician who's older, and then Charlie, who's also a dentist.

So Dan and Wendy had gotten divorced, but there was an overhanging issue about the custody arrangements with their sons.

Wendy wanted to leave and take the kids back to South Florida, to close to her parents. Donna Adelson, the mother, got deeply involved in writing emails to Wendy, telling her You know, like you've got to go fight dirty. You've got to go low.

Yeah. Then Dan filed a motion to prevent his sons from spending time alone with Donna.

Yeah, and this was right toward the end. They were going to have a hearing, but that did not happen because Dan was killed before it could happen.

Okay. So ultimately, after his death, investigators uncover this murder for higher plot. Yes.

Two men drove up from South Florida and shot Dan Markel point-blank range. The evidence has It's shown in three trials so far that they were hired by, at least certainly by Charlie Adelson, who was convicted.

The big question now is whether Donna was involved. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy, and solicitation, which are the same charges her son Charlie is serving a life sentence for.

Yes, that is correct. She's alleged really to be the mastermind of the plan. Now, there's actually no witness that can implicate her directly say, Oh, yes, she was pulling the strings. But there's a whole lot of audio.

Let's talk about that. Two years after Dan's murder, investigators started wiretapping Charlie's calls. What can you hear on those tapes?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the calls, they're mundane. They're talking about breakfast. Good afternoon.

Oh, good morning. I don't even know what time it is. Good morning.

You know it's so good, sunny-side up eggs with some slice Novo. They're talking about Wendy's kids who she's dating and that stuff.

She goes into those kids, they're not going to handle another dad. No.

What I'm telling you- It's an opportunity for them to grow up with a dad who would be great. But then at various points, they're really talking down about Wendy. Mom, as much as you feel like knocking her over the head, I feel like punching her and then knocking her over the head.

Charlie and Donna seem to be quite close, mother and son, on these calls.

Yeah. Georgia Kappelman, who's the prosecutor in the case, has referred to Charlie as a mama's boy, which may be a little overstating it, but Donna and Charlie definitely have a very tight relationship, and they talk on the phone a lot.

Which led investigators to come up with a plan, right? An undercover FBI agent pretending to be related to one of the hitmen walked up to Donna and seemed to demand a payoff.

The point of that was it's to what they call a tickle the wire, which means they wanted to get Charlie and Donna talking about this. That's when Donna calls Charlie, and they're speaking in code.

I got some paperwork hand-delivered to me.

Does it involve me or other people? Well, probably the two of us. So you probably have a general idea what I'm talking about.

Yeah. So they never come out explicitly and talk about a plot. We should say that Charlie tells his mom in another conversation that she's done nothing wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything to anybody.

Somebody is fishing.

Let them fish. But there's more audio prosecutors have pointed to as suspicious. Jailhouse calls between Donna and Charlie after his conviction. Hello. This is a prepaid collect call from Charlie, an incarcerated individual at the Lyon County Jail.

Yeah, these are all in November, mostly of 2023, and she's distraught. I don't get it.

I don't get it. I said to Herbie, I'm pleading God, our family was cursed.

She has talking about fleeing, talking about leaving the country.

We've looked at all the places. I mean, I could go to Korea and China, but there's no extradition. But we're looking for places that there's no extradition.

The FBI arrested Donna Adelson at the airport in Miami as she and her husband were going to Vietnam, where they had bought one-way plane tickets. It was caught on video, which we played in our last state line.

A team of federal agents and police officers swore formed the jetway.

Donna's attorney has argued in court she was just going on vacation, and if she wanted to, she could have fled years earlier. He tried to get the trip excluded from Donna's trial, but the judge denied that motion. Which brings us to last week when the trial was set to begin. Donna and Charlie, as we mentioned, shared the same lawyer, Dan Rashbaum. It was an objection from Charlie that really derailed this trial, right?

Yeah, I mean, that's how it appears. Charlie had to sign a waiver to say, yes, it's okay, even though he represented me, it's okay to represent my mother as well. But Charlie is on the list to testify, and he's talking to his appellate lawyer, apparently, and says, no, I'm not going to do the waiver. So Dan Ratchbaum says to the judge, finally, I'm withdrawing from the case. Donna Adelson is in tears at that moment in court. So it was quite a mess to happen at the very last minute when everyone was gearing up for trial.

Does this seem like a a possible crack in Charlie and Donna's close relationship?

Yeah. I mean, it's hard to say. We don't know what's in Charlie's mind exactly, but this definitely came as a surprise, I think, to her and everyone else in the court.

Donna's current lawyer, he gave a press conference and said, Plea negotiations may not be on the table. Is this a new twist?

He said that they would be open to speaking with prosecutors, which through everyone a little bit. It is the first time that that's really It's been a realistic option that's been discussed.

Okay, a lot of balls in the air on this one, Brad. Thank you so much for bringing your years of knowledge on this case to Dateland True Crime Weekly. We appreciate it. Sure.

Glad to be here.

Up next, we're headed to the West Coast and a case that got everyone talking, the murder of a tech exec on the streets of San Francisco.

Ready, actors. A new horror movie with a promising young star. She was so good at playing a killer. But where did the performance end? And reality began. Cut. A story with surprises even Hollywood couldn't have imagined. I'm Keith Morison. Think you've heard every Dateland story? Think again. Listen to Kill a Roll and a dozen other riveting series when you follow the Dateland Originals podcast. For true crime fans, nothing is more chilling than watching Dateland. Have you ever seen such a thing before? For podcast fans, nothing is more chilling than listening.

What goes through your mind when you make a discovery like that?

And when you subscribe to Dateline Premium, it gets even better. Excuse me, I sound a little skeptical. Every episode is ad-free.

Oh, wow. So this could be your ace in the hole.

And not just ad-free, you also get early access to new intriguing mysteries and exclusive bonus content. So what were you afraid of? Dateline Premium. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or datelinepremium. Com. You ready for what's coming? The air hung heavy in the courtroom. The people pressed shoulder to shoulder. They heard the gossip and the whispers about a family teeming with passion and hate about a mysterious disappearance. And a pile of bones found burning in a lime pit. And now they wanted to know what really happened. But even they were not prepared for the story that came spilling out. The secrets, the lies, the confession Passions, and the ending so unimaginable. And now you will hear it, too. The Dead Alive: A Morison Myst, a true story that became a classic novel. Listen now to wherever you get your podcasts.

In April of 2023, a man was stabbed under the San Francisco Bay Bridge. He staggered down the street, dripping in blood asking people for help. Nobody did. And he called 911 himself. There's a male screaming help saying someone's dead me. He's bleeding out. Medics are on code 3. He is outside on the street. But it It's too late. Bob Lee, a 43-year-old tech executive who co-founded Cash App, died a few hours later on an operating table at San Francisco General Hospital. When the news broke, the first stories featured fellow tech workers worrying about random crime. We have a right to go to walk the streets at night. They'll say... The city's murder rate is up in recent years, along with robberies, thefts, and assaults, and homelessness is skyrocketing. But when the police made an arrest in Bob Lee's murder, they revealed he hadn't been robbed, and the person who attacked him wasn't homeless, wasn't random. It was the older brother of a woman he liked to party with, and the coverage of the case began to change. The report also shows Lee had several drugs in his system at the time of death. Alcohol, cocaine, and ketamine.

Dateline associate producer Kelly Moody has spent the last year digging into the facts of the case. We asked her to bring us up to speed on her reporting about that night and the real Bob Lee. Hi, Kelly.

Hi, Andrea. Nice to be here with you.

So there was so much early speculation, as we mentioned, about this crime. Set us straight on everything, starting with, where did this happen?

This was a pretty nice neighborhood that was right by where the Giants played baseball in this touristy stretch along Embarcadero. He was found on the sidewalk around 2:30 in the morning, overnight from Monday into Tuesday.

Okay, so what was Bob doing in San Francisco in the first place? He didn't live there, is that correct?

He had previously lived there. His children still lived there, and his daughter was actually in a play that weekend. So he came into town from Miami for this play and to also do a little work, do a little play. Bob had a really big friend group and was beloved loved. Many of them were fellow tech entrepreneurs. He often was investing in friends' startups and business projects, and he was expected to return back to Miami on Tuesday morning. And a friend was actually going to take him to the airport But when friends and family were unable to get a hold of him, they started looking at his location with find by on their phones and saw that he was actually at a police station.

Yeah, this is where it gets really scary.

Turns out he He's actually not at the police station. His phone is. He's in surgery because he had been stabbed three different times, twice in the chest, once through the heart.

We know that the first media reports are that this is a random attack, but within just hours, Does police dismissed that theory.

So according to charging documents, they were able to find a trail of Bob's blood on sidewalks, and that led them to an area where they were able to recover a kitchen knife with a her inch blade. And so they started looking through surveillance video, and they actually found who they believed to be Bob arriving nearby in a white BMW. He wasn't alone. Bob was with another person.

And this is the person police end up arresting. He's a man named Nima Momene, and he's the brother of a woman Bob sometimes partied with. Her name is Khazar.

They had immigrated with their mother from Iran to the United States when they were young teenagers. So Bob knows Nima socially as Khazar's brother.

What is the prosecution saying happened the night Bob died?

Prosecutors believe that Bob and Khazar had seen each other a couple of times that weekend with a few others they were partying with. Then at one point, they believe that Khazar may have passed out from drug use, and her brother, Nima, found out about it. And according to the prosecution brief, Nema may have thought that Cazar was sexually assaulted while she was under the influence of drugs.

Whatever happened is murky, but we do know that according to the prosecution brief, Nema facetimed Bob, possibly to confront him, and then Bob went over to Cazar's apartment.

Yeah. So there's quite a bit of surveillance video, and in In that surveillance video, we can see Bob Ubers over to Khazar's apartment where Nema is.

And then an hour and a half later, an elevator camera captures Bob and Nema leaving the apartment together. And here's the thing, they look fine, even friendly. It makes you wonder about the prosecution's theory that Nema was angry with Bob.

Yeah. Unfortunately, it doesn't have audio, but we do see them going down the elevator together, and then Bob gets into the passenger seat of Nema's white BMW, and then we can see them drive away together toward the Bay Bridge.

The street cameras, when they're outside the building, are not as sharp. Yeah.

But there is a grainy shot of what the prosecution says is the two of them standing outside the car when one of them, the figure that's wearing roughly what we see Nema wearing in the elevator shot, suddenly moves toward the figure they say is Bob. And then it looks like Bob is walking in the direction of the sidewalk where he's later found found, while what looks like Nema follows him for a couple steps, then seemingly throws something, gets back in the car, and drives away.

According to the prosecution, that figure is Nema throwing the knife, which then police find.

Yeah, they've since tested it and found that Bob's DNA was on the blade and Nema's was on the handle.

So that's all we know right now of the prosecution's case. Last week, the defense filed a motion outlining what they plan to argue in court. What have they revealed so far?

From what we can tell, they to argue self-defense. They believe that Bob had this sudden flash of aggression, and Nema stabbed him to defend himself.

What about the prosecution's argument, though, that Nema brought the knife from his sister's apartment? That would mean that the murder could be premeditated and not self-defense.

So the defense is challenging that, and they say Bob is the one who brought the knife, but there is a bit of a wrinkle there. Prosecutors say that Nema actually has a history with knives. There's one story of him being previously arrested in 2005 for stabbing two men in a fight, but he was released as at that time it was deemed that it could have been self-defense. Then there are a couple of other occasions over the years when he was detained by police and was found to have knives on him then as well.

Cazar is on the witness list. That doesn't necessarily mean she'll take the stand. But if she does, do we have any idea what she might say about what happened or how her brother was acting?

The texts that have been presented in court so far are the ones where she is telling her brother, quote, Nobody touched me, and you're scaring me, you're psychotic. She also texted Bob the morning that he died, apologizing for her brother.

So when does the trial begin?

Jury selection is set to start next week, so trial is expected to start soon.

Kelly, thank you for joining us and for following this story.

Thank you, Andrea.

When we come back, it's Dateline Roundup. Another woman comes forward to accuse Sean Combs. And closure for the community where Chad Daybell, the self-proclaimed doomsday prophet, once lived. Plus, we've got some tips on how to avoid financial scams.

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Drink responsibly. Visit drinkware.

Ie. Hey, guys. Willy Geist here, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit Down podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with 16-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys, to talk about a career full of beautiful music and the new Broadway musical inspired by her own life.

You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.

Welcome back. Joining me for this week's Roundup is Dateland producer, Marissa Meyer. Welcome, Marissa. Hi, Andrea.

Thank you for having me.

Okay, so for our first story, we've got the latest on Sean Diddy Combs, who has been in jail since being indicted last week on federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. He is facing more legal troubles this week. Marissa, what is there with this case?

So this Tuesday, Gloria Alarid, who, as you know, is a very famous attorney, she has represented a lot of women in some very high-profile cases. She held a press conference representing a woman named Thalia Graves.

Thalia, through her attorneys, sued Sean Diddy Combs, and another individual and other entities.

In this lawsuit, Graves is saying that Combs and his bodyguard drugged her, and she's alleging that they sexually assaulted her in 2001.

The trauma of the assault has taken a toll on my mental health. Graves is alleging that Combs may have filmed the incident. This is what we've been hearing, that there's all these videotapes, and we don't know that for sure, but that's what's been said about a lot of the other cases.

Yes. In this one, too, she's accusing Combs of not only recording the assault, but she's also accusing him of sharing it and is alleging that he was selling it as pornography.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment. Has he or the bodyguard said anything about this new lawsuit?

As of right now, neither of them have commented.

Okay, well, we will keep you posted on this developing story, rapidly developing. Next up, we're off to Kentucky, where a courthouse shooting last week shook a small town. Marissa, tell us what happened there.

It's a really curious story, Andrea, and it's one that is just developing, so we're going to find out more and more. What we know so far is that a Whitesberg judge, Kevin Mullen, was shot to death in his chambers. Police are saying that the sheriff, Sean Steins, was the one who did it. Witnesses had supposedly heard gunshots after the two men had been arguing, and then Sheriff Steins turned himself into authorities at the scene.

Do the police have any theories about what motivated this shooting?

That's the thing. They're saying that right now that They're looking into it, but they're not sure yet.

That's the question.

We're still trying to get answers to, what led up to the actual shooting itself and the moments prior to.

On Wednesday, Steins was arrained and pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder. We'll update you as the case moves forward. For our final story, we're off to Idaho, the home of doomsday Prophet Chad Daybell, the man convicted of murdering his wife, Tammy Daybell, as well as two children of his second wife, Laurie Vallaud Bell in 2019. Marissa, there was some big news out there over the weekend. Yes.

So the Daybell's family home was demolished this weekend, and this house was a really big part of the case because it's not only where Tammy Daybell was murdered, but it's also where the children's remains were later found, too.

Nate Eaton, a reporter for East Idaho News, who we had on the podcast during Chad's trial, was actually there during the demolition. Salem.

They're about to start demolition on the home behind me.

They have the backhoe there ready to go. A not for a reference has bought the house, and they plan to turn it into a place of healing now that it has been demolished.

Well, that's Nice. Yeah. Thank you so much for the updates on these stories, Marissa, and for joining us on Dateland True Crime Weekly.

Of course. Thank you, Andrea.

In this week's Stay Safe, we've got some eye-opening numbers for you. According to the latest data from the Federal Trade Commission, more than 2 million consumers reported being the victim of financial scams last year, with losses adding up to billions of dollars. So what can you do to be on the lookout for scammers? We asked Today's show's Senior Consumer Investigative Correspondent, Vicki Wyn, to give us some tips, starting with something we all do a lot these days, online shopping. Hi, Vicki. Thanks for coming back.

Hey, Andrea. Great to be with you.

What online shopping scams should people look out for?

There are so many, but number one, you definitely want to make sure that when you are shopping, you're clicking on a legitimate website. You need to look for that retailer, enter in the website, look at the beginning of the URL. Does it say HTTPS, the The S stands for secure. It means that website is encrypted. That's what you want because you're going to be entering your financial information. Number two, if it's a site you haven't heard of, but you're pretty convinced that it is legitimate, enter the name of that site into Google and the word review. Look at that site on the website Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau, because this is where you can rely on crowdsourcing and your peers and other shoppers who've had an experience with the site to let you know, is it a green light? Should you proceed? Or Is it a red light? Should you stop? And so I really want to caution people against clicking on any links that are sent to them that are unsolicited from an unfamiliar retailer.

What about phone or text scams?

Andrea, as we have become more accustomed to living our lives on our phones, the scammers have kept up with that. Now they're sending pretty sophisticated-looking text. It's called smishing because it stands for short message service. So instead of fishing with the email, it's smishing with your text. It follows a similar pattern, asking to click on a link because of this great deal, or, Hey, there might be a problem with your order. Click here. We'll sort it out. Never click on any links that are sent to you via text or email.

All right, so you realize you've been scammed. What is the first thing you should do? Once once you know this has even happened?

This is so important. Number one, don't blame yourself. You're not the bad guy. The bad guys are the bad guys trying to take your money. You're the victim. So the moment that you start to feel in your gut that this conversation you're having via text or email or even on some of the social media messaging apps, when it starts to take a turn and suddenly this person you've never met is asking you for money or wants you to send gift cards or give them some of your personal information, that is when you should absolutely cut off communication. Stop replying. Here's the thing. Sometimes these scammers will get really aggressive at that point. Why aren't you messaging me back? That's when you know it's a scammer. I want you to feel okay walking away. Even if they threaten or try to extort you, odds are they will most likely just move right on to someone else.

So if you have already sent money, is it even possible at this point to get it back?

You know, that's the frustrating part, Andrea. You've got to report it right away. Time is of the essence. You're going to report it to your local law enforcement. If it was your bank account or your credit card that were compromised, you want to tell those companies right away because they can help stop a payment, perhaps, or they can put a freeze on your account. Sometimes credit card companies can to refund you, but you do also want to make sure that you report it to the FBI at ic3. Gov, the letters I-C and the number 3. Gov, and the FTC as well as FTC. Gov. Listen, they might not always be able to help you get your money back, but what happened to you might be part of something bigger that they're investigating. Also, it helps these government agencies put together press releases to warn people about the new and emerging scams because unfortunately, these bad guys keep trying to stay one step ahead of the consumer and the head of law enforcement.

Well, these scammers are getting so good, which means we have to get even better with our vigilance. Vicky, your tips are amazing. Thank you so much for coming back to the podcast to share all of this with us. Love to be with you.

Thank you.

That's it for this episode of Dateline: True Crime Weekly. Next week, we'll have everything you need to know about the Florida woman accused of the bizarre suitcase murder. Prosecutors say she zipped her boyfriend into a suitcase and left him die. Wait until you hear her defense. And coming up this Friday on Dateland, it's the season premiere. That's right. All new Two-Hour mysteries are back. And we're starting with a story I've been working on about a dad's 13-year quest for justice in his daughter's killing.

Something happened. Something bad happened, and I was pretty convinced of that.

Tune in to NBC Friday at 9:00, 8:00 Central to watch The Butterfly or stream it Saturday on Peacock. To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium. Thanks for listening. Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Frannie Kelly and Katie Ferguson. Our associate producers are Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey. Our senior producer is Liz Brown-Kurloff. Production and fact-checking help by Sara Kadeer. Veronica Mzezeca is our digital producer. Rick Kwan is our sound engineer. Original music by Jesse McGinty. Bryson Barnes is head of audio production. Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateland. All right. Thanks, everybody.

Have a good day.