Manhattan, NY – When a money manager was found on New Year’s Eve slumped over in her bathtub with a gash on her head, cops believed she had tragically slipped and fallen to her death.
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Her grieving family buried the Upper West Side woman and tried to make sense of their loss. But then they started to question whether it was really an accident.
Now, after taking the rare step of exhuming her body for an autopsy, authorities have concluded Shele Danishefsky Covlin, 47, was strangled — and want to talk to her estranged husband about her murder, The Post has learned.
Shele, a UBS exec who handled hundreds of millions of dollars for clients, was scheduled to meet with a lawyer about removing Rod Covlin, 36, from her will just a day after she was found dead by their 9-year-old daughter, several sources said.
Shele also was embroiled in a divorce suit and fight with Rod — who lived in an apartment across from hers at 155 W. 68th St. — over custody of their daughter and son.
After her death, Shele’s purse and BlackBerry — which detailed meetings with her lawyer about her will and custody dispute — were missing, a family friend said.
Authorities now want to interview Rod, who has himself worked in the financial world, about Shele’s death, which the medical examiner on Thursday concluded was caused by a “neck compression.”
The Manhattan DA’s Office is investigating the crime. Rod Covlin — a top backgammon player who is chairman of the US Backgammon Federation — has not been charged.
“It’s devastating to think that she was murdered,” said Marilyn Chinitz, a lawyer for Shele’s brother and family.
“She was a healthy, beautiful, 47-year-old woman, and no one could understand how she could be dead, and the family could not eat or sit without understanding what happened.”
Rod Covlin, a Columbia and Fordham grad, did not respond to e-mails and calls for comment. His lawyer did not return telephone messages.
Shele, her dad, Joel Danishefsky, and brother Philip Danishefsky in January 2009 left their longtime positions with the Merrill Lynch unit of the Bank of America — where they jointly managed nearly $600 million of client funds — to join the UBS wealth-management division.
After being married for years, Shele and Rod split, and she sued for divorce last year. He moved out into an apartment across the hall.
On Dec. 31, Shele was found dead by her daughter in the bathtub. The daughter then alerted Rod Covlin and let him into the apartment, a source said.
Police at the time said Shele’s death appeared to be accidental, and that a cut on the back of her head was “consistent with a fall.”
She was buried almost immediately, and an autopsy was not performed because she and her family are Orthodox Jews. [reported here by VIN News]
But because of circumstances surrounding her death, the DA’s Office made the unusual request for a court order allowing Shele’s body to be exhumed.
“Clearly, it’s a bittersweet finding,” said Chinitz, the Danishefsky family lawyer. “They needed to know and they wanted to know how their daughter and sister died. We look forward to the truth coming out.”
Horrible! Very Orthodox indeed! The plot thickens!
shelle was a good friend of mine its very sad that a autopsy was not performed after death and avoiding the family of this pain of exhuming the body.may god bring solace to the family
Not the first time over-zealous refusals of a post-mortem has allowed someone to get away with murder.
Such a sad story they should go after the killer and hang him on the goerge wasington bridge
Interesting. In an old vosizneias post: http://www.vinnews.com/46008/2010/01/01/manhattan-ny-upper-west-side-jewish-mother-found-dead-in-the-bathtub-by-9yr-old-daughter/
They credit Misaskim with preventing an autopsy. Someone else also comments that a rail in the shower could have prevented her death. Interestingly, someone else responds maybe bolts in the door would have prevented her death. Eerie.
Just saw this on WPIX news
10. The cold weather burial may have given prosecutors/medical examiner’s office enough evidence to prove it was a homicide.
Horrible case…
Is this story accurate? She was 47 and he is 36?!
That is why D.A. offices across the states must stop listening to any religious requests and cutting corners on autopsies. This is not the first case or will be the last that because of religious intervention, murders go unsolved. All the superstition that comes along with anti-autopsy mentality almost let this lady go without justice.What a scary thought. What is worst is that the autopsy could have been done quick and she would be resting in peace. Exhuming a body causes even greater pain to the family then the initial process.
Why is everyone so quick to assume guilt? I think we need to wait to hear and see all the evidence. There is obviously a reason why he has not been charged.
actually, n a case where murder is possible, it’s a bezoyon hameis to NOT do an autopsy!!
like the young girl in mea shearim a few months ago who was found mysteriously dead, and the chareidim carried away the body in order to not allow an autopsy…
turns out that now there are stories that they killed her because she was living with a man….
It is kovod hamais to perform an autopsy which would verify who murdered the victim see chulin 8B
There are so many obscure details here, and unanswered questions. If anyone can enlighten me, I would appreciate it:
Why was this investigation only begun now… was there no previous suspicion that her husband might be the perpetrator?
Were there signs of break-ins – both to the apartment and bathroom?
Did he have the key to her apartment?
If they were separated, what was he doing across the hall in an apt – a bit strange…?
How did he allegedly kill her so quietly – with no sound or struggle that her daughter might have heard?
what about respecting a family and their loss. kavod hameis and kavod habreiyos.
Obviously you have no experience with these matters.