Note: This Is Not The Actual Crime Scene |
But Roderick Covlin denied involvement, and law enforcement authorities
eyed but never accused him until Monday, when he was charged with murder
in a case full of dramatic twists: a death initially seen as accidental
and later ruled a homicide, an exhumed body, a divorce that was
reaching a crucial point and a trail of accusations in civil court
papers.
Covlin's lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said his client was "stunned" by the
Sunday arrest. "There can be no credible evidence, because he did not
kill his wife," Gottlieb said after a brief court appearance.
Shele Covlin, 47, was a money manager at UBS,
part of a finance family in which she worked alongside her brother and
father. Her 42-year-old husband, known as Rod, had been a trader and was
a noted figure in the backgammon world, having helped found the U.S.
Backgammon Federation.
After years of marriage and two children, their relationship was falling
apart. He had moved into an apartment across the hall in their Upper
West Side building, and they were embroiled in a bitter divorce,
according to court papers filed in Manhattan Surrogate's Court, which
handles estates.
And Shele (pronounced SHEE'-lah) Covlin was due to meet an attorney on
Jan. 1, 2010 — the day after she died — to cut her husband out of her
will. He stood to get half her roughly $4 million estate, with the rest
going to their children.
"She was fearful for her life, believed Rod intended to kill her, and
there was some urgency to make changes in her will," documents filed in
Surrogate's Court say.
Then their daughter, 9 at the time, found Shele Covlin lifeless in the tub.
With the only obvious sign of trauma a cut on the back of her head,
investigators initially thought she had slipped and fallen. After her
Orthodox Jewish family objected to an autopsy for religious reasons, the
cause of her death was listed as undetermined.
But as an investigation began, her body was exhumed and autopsied with
her family's permission. Medical examiners concluded in April 2010 she
had been strangled.
And her relatives — and later, a court agency — said Roderick Covlin was to blame.
Her father scorned his son-in-law as "an animal" in a newspaper
interview, and the family fought him for custody of the children. His
guardianship was eventually suspended after information on the criminal
investigation surfaced.
Members of Shele Covlin's family declined to comment outside Manhattan court Monday.
And the Manhattan public administrator, a government figure who handles
complicated estates and was named temporary custodian of Shele Covlin's,
filed a 2011 wrongful death suit accusing her husband of killing her.
Roderick Covlin, meanwhile, has been living in his parents' house in
suburban New Rochelle, New York. He was held Monday as his attorney
prepares an argument for bail.
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