Accused wife killer Rod Covlin 'tried to marry off 13-year-old daughter' video

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Fairfax Media Australia

Accused wife killer Rod Covlin 'tried to marry off 13-year-old daughter' video
Last updated 17:35, November 11 2015

A former US stockbroker and renowned backgammon player accused of strangling his wife to death in her Manhattan apartment had attempted to marry off their 13-year-old daughter in Mexico to gain access to her million-dollar inheritance, a court has heard.

Details of the bizarre alleged plot were revealed this week in the Manhattan Supreme Court, where Rod Covlin, the founder of the US Backgammon Federation, appeared at a bail hearing charged with murdering his estranged wife, Shele Danishefsky Covlin.

Prosecutors allege that Mr Covlin, 42, killed his wife and left her body in the bathtub of her upscale Upper West Side apartment around New Year's Eve in 2009.

. . .

That plot allegedly involved marrying off his daughter in Mexico so he could claim the $US1 million ($1.4 million) inheritance his late wife had left her.

Read more: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/73937600/accused-wife-killer-rod-covlin-tried-to-marry-off-13yearold-daughter

[Demeter]

1. Man busted in wife’s killing told girlfriend what he’d done, sources say

MORE DETAILS IN THIS ACCOUNT

http://nypost.com/2015/11/03/man-busted-in-wifes-killing-told-girlfriend-what-hed-done-sources-say/

A failed stock trader who for years has been the prime suspect in his wife’s murder was finally arrested Sunday after allegedly blabbing to his girlfriend about what he had done, sources told The Post. Rod Covlin, 42, “made statements implicating himself” in the New Year’s Eve 2009 slaying of his banker wife, Shele Danishefsky Covlin, who was found dead in a bathtub at her Upper West Side apartment, law enforcement sources said.

Covlin was less than two months away from inheriting half of her $4?million fortune until prosecutors charged him with murder Monday. The fortune has been kept in a trust due to a wrongful-death suit filed against him in 2011. Under an agreement, Covlin could inherit the funds if he was not found responsible for Shele’s death, if the Manhattan DA said he was no longer a suspect or if six years passed after her death, court papers say. Dec. 31 will mark the six-year anniversary of the 47-year-old mother’s slaying.

When Covlin’s girlfriend went to authorities, she gave them the ammunition to indict him, sources said. Covlin — a Columbia grad who sponged off his wife while pursuing a passion for backgammon — was arrested on a warrant at the Metro-North station in Scarsdale at around 11 a.m. Sunday as he headed to his weekly visit with their kids, who live with his parents.

“He was totally stunned,” said a source. “He wasn’t expecting this at all. He had a blank stare on his face.”

Covlin, who faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted, was ordered held without bail.


Shele’s body was found by the couple’s then-9-year-old daughter face-down in the bathtub of her West 68th Street home. Their son, then 3, was asleep in another room. Shele, who worked for UBS, was set to meet with lawyers the next day to cut Covlin from her will. Her estate included more than $3.5 million in life insurance policies...Shele’s divorce lawyer, Dominic Barbara, told The Post: “The moment I was told she died, I said, ‘He killed her’ .?.?.? He was violent.” Shele had received a “get,” the Jewish equivalent of a divorce, and gotten a restraining order against Covlin a month before she died. But he still had keys to her apartment. In fact, he was living in an apartment across the hall.