The affidavit further outlined investigators' theory of the case: that Markel's death was a contract killing, in which Charles Adelson (the brother of Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson) and Donna Adelson (Charles' and Wendi's mother) had used Katherine Magbanua as an intermediary to hire Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera for the killing. According to the affidavit, the motive was the desire of the family of Wendi Adelson to allow her to relocate to the Miami area with the children. Katherine Magbanua, who had mothered Garcia's two children, was alleged to have been the link between the Adelson family and Garcia and Rivera. Investigators alleged that neither Rivera nor Garcia knew Markel but that Charles Adelson (Wendi Adelson's brother) was in a "personal relationship" with Katherine Magbanua, that Magbanua received a large amount of money from the Adelsons following the killing, that Magbanua was the first call Garcia dialed after Markel was murdered and that Charles and Donna Adelson disliked Markel. The affidavit further noted that Wendi Adelson had been granted 50-50 custody when the couple's acrimonious divorce had been finalized in 2013, when Markel had won an order prohibiting her from moving to Miami with the children. In 2014, Markel filed a motion that would have prohibited his mother-in-law from being alone and unsupervised with the children due to alleged disparaging remarks about their father.