MARCH 8th 2023
March 8th 2023
June 6th 2023
June 6th 2023
THE MARKLE FILE: TRUTH, LEGACY, AND THE MATHEMATICS OF FRAUD
A Deep Investigation into Family Betrayal, Manufactured Disinheritance, and the Price of Silence
By Ronan Ashcroft & Liora Vale Project Black Phoenix & Ashcroft & Vale Investigative Media
THE OFFICE, LATE NIGHT
The office is quiet except for the hum of computers and the methodical turning of pages. Liora Vale sits across from a desk piled high with documents—trust indentures, text message threads, vital records, deed recordings, military memorabilia photographs. Her face is tight. She looks up from a set of transcripts.
"God, man," I say, leaning back in my chair, staring out into the Las Vegas night. "This Markle case is insane."
Liora looks at the stack shaking her head. She lets out a long, measured breath. "I know."
"I mean," I continue, tapping the file folder, "we're not even talking about ambiguity here. We're talking about mathematical impossibility. We're talking about people who literally trapped themselves in their own lie."
Liora finally sets down the documents and meets my eyes. "That's what gets me. They had one job—keep the story straight. And they couldn't even do that."
This is what started Project Black Phoenix. This is what started the documenting of everything. Because the things these family members were saying—the rumors, the whispering campaigns, the back-alley maneuvers—they just weren't adding up. They never added up.
And now we're going to walk through exactly why.
THE BIRTH OF A LIE: CONTEXT AND SETUP
Before we can understand the fraud, we need to understand the family.
- Victorville, California—not Las Vegas. A deliberate choice.
A woman in financial desperation, unable to care for another child, sought help. She was pregnant yet again. Another woman—Velma Ann Markle—had spent years yearning for a child she thought she couldn't have. Their paths crossed and plans were made. They travelled to California, just outside Clark County, Nevada. What happened next became family lore, told at funerals and family dinners for decades: an informal arrangement. A birth. A baby handed over. A new name. A new life.
But here's the detail that matters: Velma Ann Markle worked at the Clark County Health District. She was a very respected woman in this community. Her reputation was unshakable. And she knew exactly how systems worked—vital records, registrations, the bureaucratic machinery that governed identity and legitimacy.
So when the time came, they didn't go to a Las Vegas hospital. They went south to Victorville. In the 1970s, Las Vegas wasn't a huge town. When you're a person of standing—when people know you, when your integrity is your currency—you don't take unnecessary risks. You don't show up in your neighborhood suddenly pregnant when you've never been pregnant before. You don't invite questions.
Josh remembers his mother explaining it: They went to Victorville so that nobody would recognize her. So that the birth would be legitimate and documented. So that Peter would have a birth certificate that was real, that was legal, that couldn't be questioned.
And crucially—so that Velma Ann Markle didn't have to do anything wrong at her work.
That's the operative fact. Velma's integrity was unshakable. She spent 44 years at the Clark County Health District. She managed vital records. And she made damn sure that when Peter came into the family, it was done the right way—not through her office, not through her position, but through legitimate channels in another county. A California birth certificate, issued in Victorville, registered under Velma Ann Markle's name.
The story Carl Markle—Josh's father—told at his wife's funeral was tender: Velma sitting on the bed with the birth mother. The nurse walking in with the newborn child. The moment of introduction. And when the nurse holding the child said, "Mrs. Markle," both women looked up. Both said, "Yes." It's become a family joke over 56 years. A moment of coincidence and grace that defined the trajectory of a child's entire life.
That child was Peter J. Markle.
The whole neighborhood knew. It was never a secret. Nobody questioned it because Velma Ann Markle was the kind of woman whose word was worth more than any paperwork. She showed up with a child and the community accepted it as truth because she was trusted.
For 56 years, Peter was treated as family. Loved. Included. Given every opportunity.
But here's the critical question we need to ask America: Does a non-biological child, adopted informally through a vital records registration in another state, with no formal adoption paperwork executed in Nevada, have the legal standing to execute binding trust documents in his home state? Does he have the standing to sign away property? Does he have the standing to lock a biological blood son out of his inheritance?
The answer, under law, is no.
But Peter Markle didn't just sign away Josh's inheritance. He became a trustee. He became the gatekeeper of Josh's parents' legacy. And in March 2023, he made a decision that would trap him in a lie so fundamental, so mathematically impossible, that it would become the cornerstone of this entire investigation.
THE CLIMAX OF A MANUFACTURED LIE: THE MARCH 8 IMPOSSIBILITY
This is where the fraud breaks down completely.
On March 8, 2023, a trust document was supposedly executed. According to the paperwork in front of us—the Grant, Bargain, Sale Deed dated March 8, 2023, recorded in Clark County, Nevada—Peter J. Markle and Shawnee J. Cardinal (another sibling) became trustees of the Carl R. Markle and Velma A. Markle Revocable Living Trust. The document purports to convey property "for good and other valuable consideration" to these trustees.
But here's the critical part: According to the trust language itself, Section 1.03 explicitly states that "Joshua H. Markle and his issue shall be disinherited and treated as though they had predeceased the Trustors."
So, according to their own timeline and their own paperwork, Josh was completely disinherited as of March 8, 2023. He had no inheritance. He had no claim. He had no stake in anything.
Fast forward to June 2023. Three months later.
Josh's mother has passed away. The estate is in flux. And then we have the text message exchange—documented, timestamped, preserved in evidence—where Peter and Shawnee are actively discussing the disposition of estate assets-with Josh.
The exact conversation, referring to a vehicle-was highlighted and underlined in Josh's file:
"Dad was going to sell it, but we know if he does that, it will decrease your inheritance, so we thought it would be better for you if he gave it to you now."
Let that sink in for a second.
You cannot decrease an inheritance that, by your own previous fraudulent timeline, supposedly didn't exist.
This is not ambiguous. This is not a matter of interpretation. This is not a gray area. This is a mathematical, legal, and moral impossibility.
Either the March 8 disinheritance document is a complete and total fabrication—forged, backdated, or falsified in some other material way—or they are caught red-handed lying to everyone's faces about what they actually did.
They trapped themselves. They sat in that June conversation, discussing Josh's inheritance as if it existed, while simultaneously claiming (via the March document) that it didn't.
There is no third option.
THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY: WHO IS ACTUALLY SIGNING THESE PAPERS?
This is where we move from timeline fraud into a deeper legal problem.
Liora sets down another document. "Look at the signatures on the March deed," she says.
I lean forward.
The March 8, 2023 Grant, Bargain, Sale Deed was executed—or purports to have been executed—by Carl R. Markle and Velma A. Markle as trustees of the Carl R. Markle and Velma A. Markle Revocable Living Trust. The deed conveys property to Peter J. Markle and Shawnee J. Cardinal as new trustees.
But let's ask the foundational question: What is Peters J. Markle's actual legal status?
Peter J. Markle was registered at birth as the biological child of Velma Ann Markle and Carl Markle in California in 1970. No formal adoption papers were ever filed in either state. No legal proceeding was ever conducted. He was informally placed into the family. The system accepted the vital records registration, and life went on.
Now here's the critical legal question: If Peter Markle—a non-blood heir with no valid legal adoption paperwork—can execute trust documents, can sign away property, and can lock the only true blood son out of his inheritance, what does that mean for the concept of legal standing itself?
And what does it mean that Peter Markle did this while simultaneously holding a history that makes his authority even more questionable?
CHARACTER AND CONSEQUENCE: THE DESERT STORM QUESTION
There's another layer to Peter's character that matters here, and Josh remembers it vividly.
"He was my big brother," Josh says. When we asked him about Peter's military service he replied "I looked up to him. But I remember—I remember he came home from leave during Desert Storm and I was so excited. Peter had went AWOL. He ended up in the brig."
It's a detail Josh didn't fully understand as a child. But now, looking back at someone who abandoned his post, who deserted his commitment, who chose personal interest over obligation, there's a pattern.
Peter Markle deserted his post in the military. He abandoned his commitment to his country. He came home on leave and never went back.
And now, decades later, he's abandoning his responsibility to his family. He's abandoning the trust placed in him. He's abandoning the legal obligations that come with being a fiduciary. And yet the only true blood son was made to be the outsider?
Is it a perfect parallel? No. But it's a portrait of character. Of someone willing to walk away from duty when it becomes inconvenient.
The court will have to decide what that means in a legal context. But the American people should know it when they read this file.
THE WEIGHT WE CARRY: WHAT REMAINS WHEN EVERYTHING IS STRIPPED AWAY
Let me talk about Josh. Let me talk about Jessica. Let me talk about what they've endured.
Their rental history is destroyed. Their business is destroyed. Their families belongings—looted. Their numismatic collection—liquidated under duress. Their life savings—depleted by legal fees and the cost of fighting a family war they never started.
By the metrics that standard American society uses to measure success and stability—credit, housing security, business equity, savings—Josh and Jessica have lost everything.
And yet.
Walk into their home. Look at the walls.
There's a framed photograph of Josh and Jessica, dressed for an evening, smiling. There's a Purple Heart memorial flag—for Lewis, Josh's great uncle, who gave his life in World War II. There's the memorial flag for Josh's father, Carl Markle. And hanging from Josh's neck, every single day, is his father's dog tag, the one with his blood type, because Josh was his real blood son. Josh was told this in confidence as Peter was also handed one of Carls dog tags-not stamped with an incorrect blood type-and never to be seen again.
Josh wears his father's dog tag proudly.
Not because the tag is valuable. Not because it is. a financial asset. But because it's the only thing that connects him to a man he loved, a man who loved him back, a man who—despite what the forged paperwork claims—never disinherited his son.
And Josh's mother's last words—just to him, her last words on earth to anyone—were "I love you."
Not "I'm taking back your inheritance." Not "You've disappointed me." Just a mother's love to her son "I love you."
No piece of forged paper can rewrite a mother's love. No corrupt signature can strip away real legacy.
Here's what Josh and Jessica still have, despite having their lives put through a meat grinder, despite everything being stripped away: solid hearts.
They're still here trying to help people. They're still dreaming about Costa Rica. They're still planning to rescue homeless dogs, where the street dog crisis is real and ongoing. They haven't become bitter. They haven't become consumed by the injustice, though they would be justified in doing so.
They're still good people.
That matters.
THE LACK OF ADOPTION PAPERWORK: A LEGAL VULNERABILITY
Liora pulls out another file. "The adoption records," she says. "What do we have?"
I lean back. "What we have is an absence."
Here's the legal reality: When Velma Ann Markle brought Peter into the family in 1970, there was no formal adoption proceeding in Nevada. No court filing. No legal paperwork executed by attorneys in his home state. No judicial oversight.
What there was: a birth certificate issued under the name Velma Ann Markle as the mother, registered through California vital records in Victorville—not through the Clark County Health District, where Velma worked.
That's not legal adoption. That's a vital records registration in another state.
Now, in the 1970s, such arrangements were not uncommon. Informal placements happened. Families took in children. Systems were less rigorous. But the legal consequences are clear: without formal adoption paperwork executed, Peter Markle has no legal standing to execute binding trust documents as a fiduciary of that property.
This doesn't mean Peter wasn't loved. It doesn't mean he wasn't family. It means that legally, by the strictest interpretation, he has no standing to execute binding trust documents or to claim fiduciary authority over his Carl and Velma's estate.
Yet he did exactly that.
And the courts may need to look at whether a man with no legal adoption papers filed in any state, no formal claim to inheritance, and a history of abandoning obligations, had any right to sign away the inheritance of the biological son.
THE MATHEMATICAL TRAP: THEY CAUGHT THEMSELVES
This is what we keep coming back to.
The March 8, 2023 document claims Josh was disinherited.
The June 2023 text messages discuss Josh's inheritance as if it exists.
These two things cannot both be true.
Liora points at the highlighted text again. "They had to know the contradiction was there. They had to see it."
"Unless they didn't think anyone would look," I say.
"Or they thought Josh wouldn't fight back."
That's the heart of it, I think. They manufactured a lie based on the assumption that Josh would either not know about it, or wouldn't have the resources or will to contest it. They thought silence could be purchased with intimidation and isolation.
They didn't account for Josh's integrity. They didn't account for Jessica's backbone. They didn't account for the fact that some people actually care more about truth than about money.
THE QUESTION FOR AMERICA
Ronan leans back and looks directly at the camera—because this is going to be read. It's going to be published. It's going to circulate.
"People are going to ask: 'Can't he just leave it alone? Can't he just move on?'"
I'll answer that directly.
Would you leave it alone if someone lied about you, systematically, across official documents?
Would you leave it alone if your wife was abandoned by a law enforcement officer across an international border?
Would you leave it alone if you lost seven years of your life to physical agony, institutional betrayal, and the trauma of watching institutions fail to protect you?
Would you leave it alone if your family tried to steal from you using forged documents?
Josh Markle didn't ask for this fight. He didn't wake up one day and think, "I'm going to spend my adult life fighting my siblings over an inheritance." He wanted to build a life. He wanted to get to Costa Rica. He wanted to rescue dogs. He wanted quiet dignity and the chance to do something good in the world.
Instead, he got fraud. He got betrayal. He got a family war waged against him by people he trusted.
But here's what Josh did: He documented everything. He preserved every piece of evidence. He built an airtight case. And he's putting it all out there—not for money, but for truth.
Because Josh has already pledged any monetary recovery from this estate to the VFW, to Wounded Warriors, and to the LDS Church. He's not fighting for personal gain. He's fighting because his name has been dragged through mud based on lies, and because his parents' legacy has been corrupted by people who never deserved access to it.
THE CHARACTER AT THE CENTER
Let me be clear about who Josh Markle actually is.
He's a man whose father gave him his true dog tag to wear. A man whose mother's last words were "I love you." A man whose great uncle Lewis died for this country and whose father served with honor.
He's a man who built a numismatic grading platform (MNM Coins) from nothing. A man who runs investigative journalism operations. A man who, despite having his life systematically destroyed, still dreams about rescuing homeless dogs in a foreign country.
He's a man who, when asked what he'd do if he won this case, said he'd give the money to veterans' organizations and his church.
That's not a man who "bled his parents dry." That's not a man who "borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars." That's not a man who deserves to be disinherited.
That's a man whose family stole from him and tried to make it stick.
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
Here's what we know:
- The March 8, 2023 trust document purports to disinherit Josh.
- The June 2023 text messages discuss Josh's inheritance as if it still exists.
- These facts are mathematically incompatible.
- Peter Markle has no legal adoption paperwork filed, therefore questionable authority to act as trustee of the Markle's property.
- The vital records themselves may be subject to challenge given the circumstances of their creation and Peter's lack of formal adoption in any state.
The evidence is locked down. The documentation is solid. The timeline is airtight.
And now it's out there.
THE FINAL QUESTION
So we put it to you, America. We put it to the electoral candidates standing for office right now, to the media figures who champion accountability, to the judicial officers who are watching this space:
Who is actually going to step in and do the right thing?
Josh and Jessica have had their lives destroyed. Josh should have righted this wrong a long time ago, but he tried to give everyone a chance. He gave every family member an opportunity to do the right thing. He gave them the benefit of the doubt.
They responded with fraud and silence.
The evidence is out. The photographs are published. The documents are on record. The mathematics of their lie is exposed.
Now we wait to see if the system is actually designed to protect the truth, or if it's just theater for the wealthy and connected.
The Markle file is open. Let's see who stands with Josh. Let's see who stands with truth.
