Murder in the Spotlight in New York Will Contest

Reviewed by Attorney Kim Hegwood

Dawn Mark, the daughter of a housewife who was stabbed and strangled 33 years ago says that her aunts took a cheap shot at her when they recently brought up her mom’s murder in a court battle over a $23 million estate.
Dawn, who was just three years old when tragedy struck, claims her aunts’ recent accusation that her dad was responsible for the unsolved murder was intentionally hurtful and has no bearing on their fight over the estate.

An article from DNA Info entitled, “Keep My Mother’s Murder out of Our Family Court Battle, Daughter Says,” explains that Dawn and her two aunts are fighting over the will of her grandmother and their mother, Marcia. The aunts claim that Dawn and her dad and lawyer Mitchell Lapidus stole at least $10 million in the last years of Marcia’s life, when she was mentally incapacitated. The aunts believe that Franklin Mark hired a hit man to kill his wife, Gail, in 1982.

The two brought up the murder in the court case because they want to depose Lapidus, who helped draft Marcia’s final will. The will leaves $8 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the remainder of her estate to Dawn, according to court records.

Whether the tactics will work in challenging the will remain to be seen, but the New York Police Department re-opened an investigation into the murder after the website’s story.

Reference: DNA Info (November 19, 2015) “Keep My Mother’s Murder Out of Our Family Court Battle, Daughter Says”

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