(feature article)

In 2019, they managed to solve a mysterious murder that happened ten years ago in a family of Wall Street financiers. On the morning of December 31, 2009, nine-year-old Anna found her mother, 47-year-old Shele Danishefsky-Kovlin, dead in the bathtub. She called her father, Roderick Kovlin, who lived next door. Shortly before her death, Shele filed for divorce, but rented an apartment for her husband nearby so that the children could see him.

Rod called the rescue service. Then he allegedly pulled the body out of the water, covered it with a blanket and tried to do artificial respiration. But it was too late to save Shele. Fresh scratches were visible on her face, and blood was flowing from a deep wound on her head. The man pretended to be agitated: he trembled, tried to hug the policemen and repeated that he could not believe what had happened.

If you study the biography of Roderick, it is very easy to understand who is responsible for the death of Shele. He was an aspiring trader, and his wife served as vice president of a large financial company.

Roderick did not manage to build a career, so he lived without any embarrassment on his wife’s salary and took money from his parents. He did not work anywhere for a long time and spent his free time on hobbies and affairs on the side. Shortly before the divorce, he regularly met with two dozen mistresses.

Shele filed for divorce when Rod openly stated that he wanted an open relationship. After parting, she confessed to her relatives that she was afraid of revenge and was thinking of paying off her husband with money. The fears were not in vain. The husband began to harm her: he lied to her superiors that she was taking drugs and, moreover, accused his wife of molesting their three-year-old son.

However, the medical examination did not confirm his words, and he was convicted of slander. He was forbidden to meet with the child unattended, as well as to approach Shele. On December 29, 2009, she asked a lawyer in writing to delete Rod from her will. Woman wanted that in the case of her death, four million dollars went exclusively to her children, and her husband was left with nothing. Their meeting, which never took place, was scheduled for January 1, 2010.

Instead, on January 1, her body was handed over to a pathologist. He found four coin-sized bruises on her right wrist and a large bruise on her index finger. Her parents banned autopsies for religious reasons. Oddly enough, the cause of death was considered an accident, and neither fingerprints, nor DNA samples, nor other evidence were searched at the place of death. Shele was buried two days later.

Soon, relatives began to recall suspicious details preceding her death. For example, the day before the death of Shele, she did keratin hair straightening, after which it could not be wet for three days. In addition, all the acquaintances knew that she did not like to take a bath and preferred a shower. Then the sister remembered that Shele had complained about her husband and said that he hated her.

In April 2010, the family agreed to exhume the body. The medical examiner found evidence that the woman was strangled. The prime suspect, of course, was Rod. And the motive was obvious – he learned about his wife’s desire to delete him from the will and dealt with her.

In 2015, he was exposed by one of his mistresses – Debra Oles. After their quarrel, she went to the police and said that Rod confessed to her in the murder of his wife and attempts to take possession of the will. It also became known that two years earlier he had saved a confession of murder on his daughter’s phone. The letter said that the girl was angry with her mother and pushed her, because of which she fell into the bathtub and died. He hoped that the false confession would remove the guilt from him.

In 2019, the case was reviewed by a jury. They listened to the police, who were the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy, forensic experts, relatives and acquaintances of Shele and Rod’s mistresses, including Debra Oles. The children begged the judge to mitigate the sentence, but the request was denied. Roderick Kovlin was sentenced to life in prison.

March 24, 2021