Valerie McDaniel

Valerie McDaniel was a veterinarian turned villainess who was involved in a bizarre double murder-for-hire plot in 2017.

Valerie McDaniel was the girlfriend of Leon Jacob, but she was previously the wife of record producer Marion "Mack McDaniel for 17 years. The marriage ended amid Valerie's claims of infidelity, leading to Valerie meeting Jacob sometime in 2016. Jacob was a failed doctor who had been married in the past and was in a relationship with Meghan Verikas, who accused Jacob of stalking her.

Jacob decided to concoct a murder-for-hire plot against his ex-girlfriend, paying Army veteran Zach Azzeh $9,900 to kidnap and eventually kill Verikas. Valerie decided to use his scheme to have Mack killed, doing so out of fear that she would lose custody of her daughter with Mack. She paid Azzeh $10,000 to have Mack shot, with the plan to make the murder look like a carjacking. Azzeh was actually a police informant and he reported the couple after their meeting, and on March 10, 2017, he met the couple and reported that Mack had been shot and showed them video of Verikas tied up. The couple feigned shock, but they were found out as masterminds and arrested.

Valerie was released on bail, but on March 27, 2017, she jumped to her death off her seven-story apartment. Two days before her suicide, Valerie left a recording claiming that she didn't plan on attempting to have her husband killed, and that she never wanted to harm the father of her daughter.