Murder suspect accused his New York financier wife of sexually-abusing their toddler before killing her; Rod Covlin killed Shele Danishefsky, to get her $5million inheritance – prosecutors
Murderer Rodrick ‘Rod’ Covlin, 45, accused New York financier wife of sexually-abusing their son, two, before killing her to get her $5million fortune, court told
Former ex-stock trader Rod Covlin, then 36 is facing a wrongful death suit for allegedly strangling his rich, beautiful wife Shele Danishefsky Colvin in New York nearly a decade ago
Mother-of-two Danishefsky, 47, was found dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apt by her 9-year-old daughter, Anna on New Year’s Eve in 2009
The couple were in the midst of a bitter divorce, Shele called police when Covlin, then 36, failed to return their two children, Anna and two-year-old Miles, home on time in July 2009
Shele sobbed to NYPD Sergeant Crystalee Vargas, ‘Oh my God, I’m so scared, I’m so scared’, the jury at Covlin’s murder trial at Manhattan Supreme Court heard
Covlin had taken the children to New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, claiming Shele had sexually abused their son
No signs of abuse were found and the children were reunited with Shele when authorities ruled their mother posed no danger to them
Prosecutors say Shele had planned to write her estranged husband out of her will and $5million fortune just one day before her death
Three years into the murder investigation Covlin attempted to frame his 12-year-old daughter Anna for the murder
He wrote a note purporting to be Anna stating:
‘I lied. She didn’t just slip. That day we got into a fight about her dating … I got mad so I pushed her, but it couldn’t have been that hard!…’
Anna was aged 9 when she discovered her mother dead in the water at the New York apartment – Covlin wrote a fake confession on Apple notes which then synced to Anna’s emails
At the time of her death, Rod was 36 and Shele, a UBS executive from a wealthy background, was 47. She was the sole breadwinner and he was pursuing his backgammon passion
New York based money manager Shele Denishofsky Colvin, allegedly murdered by her backgammon-loving husband Rod Covlin to get hold of her $5million fortune, prosecutors said Monday.
Former stock trader Rodrick ‘Rod’ Colvin had accused by his wife of sexually assaulting their son Myles, then two, shortly before her death.
47-year-old UBS executive Shele Danishefsky Colvin [left] was in the midst of divorcing her much younger husband Covlin, then 36, when she was killed on Dec 31, 2009.
She was found dead in her upper West Side bathtub. Her scalp was cut and the death was ruled an accidental fall.
Her Orthodox Jewish family refused an autopsy, and she was buried almost immediately, following religious tradition.
However, when detectives learned that the mother-of-two and her estranged husband were in the midst of a bitter divorce, the investigation intensified.
The district attorney’s office persuaded Shele’s family to exhume the body, and in July 2010, the medical examiner ruled she had been strangled.
In later court papers, it emerged she told friends she feared her husband meant to kill her and she had obtained an order of protection.
Roderick Covlin, a former trader who founded the U.S. Backgammon Federation in 2009, was never been arrested or charged.
But now he is the target of an unusual wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court by Public Administrator Ethel Griffin, a little-known county official who handles estate complications.
Pictured in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, backgammon buff Rod Covlin, 45, is accused of strangling his then 47-year-old wife Shele Danishefsky in her Upper West Side apartment back in 2009
Victim: Shele Danishefsky [photo], was in the midst of divorcing her much younger husband Rod Covlin when she was found dead on New Year’s Eve in 2009
During the wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed against Roderick Covlin, in Manhattan Supreme Court by Public Administrator Ethel Griffin, a little-known county official who handles estate complications., Sgt. Vargas on Monday testified that during the hug, Shele blurted out, “Oh my God, I’m so scared, I’m so scared.”
But Judge Ruth Pickholz said the sergeant was not allowed to tell the jury that Shele told her Covlin was going to kill her, ruling it inadmissible hearsay.
Shele was found dead in her bathtub on Dec. 31. 2009, the apparent victim of a fall in the tub where she drowned. She was 47.
Court papers revealed that Covlin attempted to frame his nine-year-old daughter Anna by writing a note purporting to be from her
‘I lied. She didn’t just slip. That day we got into a fight about her dating … I got mad so I pushed her, but it couldn’t have been that hard!
‘I didn’t mean to hurt her! I swear! But she fell and I heard a terrible noise and the water started turning red and I tried to pull her head up but she remained still…’
At the time of her death, Rod was 36 and Shele, a UBS executive from a wealthy background, was 47. She was the sole breadwinner and he was pursuing his backgammon passion
Shele was immediately buried without an autopsy after her Orthodox Jewish family waived the post-mortem examination at the advice of a rabbi.
NYPD Sergeant Crystalee Vargas testified thatShele Danishefsky was in tears when Rod Covlin did not return home with their children. That she also feared for her own safety
When Shele’s body was exhumed months later, an autopsy revealed the hyoid bone in her neck was fractured, a hallmark of strangulation.
Furthermore it was revealed that while Shele waited frantically at home for word of her children’s location, Rod Covlin brought the two – Anna, then 9, and Myles, then 2 – to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital complaining that Shele had been sexually abusing Myles.
The pediatrician on duty that night, Dr. Robert Best, had difficulty remembering the events of the hospital evaluation, but was emphatic that they were in no danger at their mother’s home.
“Out first duty is to protect the children,” Best said. “And in this case, they were sent home to their mother.”
But Angelberth Ezeogu, a child protection specialist with the Administration for Children’s Services, said Covlin balked at allowing the children to return to Shele.
Crime scene: Shele Danishefsky, 47,was found dead in the bathtub of her Upper West Side apartment on New Year’s Eve in 2009. Prosecutors allege estranged husband Rod Covlin murdered her
After more than an hour of persuasion, The father relented and the kids were reunited with their mother around 5:30 a.m.
Ezeogu said he interviewed Shele and inspected the apartment to make sure the kids would be looked after.
“It was OK,” he said. “I felt comfortable dropping the children off.”
Covlin was arrested after his then-girlfriend went to the police and gave enough information to get an indictment him on the charges, after she said Reportedly, he ‘made statements implicating himself’ in the 2009 slaying.
was reported to police in 2015 by his girlfriend after she recorded a phone call two years earlier during which he described another plan to kidnap Anna and marry her off in Mexico to get his hands on their money.
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