True Crime Vault: New Year's Evil

Summary

---

20/20 True Crime Vault: "New Year's Evil"

Podcast Summary
Date: March 10, 2026
Host: ABC News
Episode Focus: The unexplained and ultimately tragic death of Shelly Danishefsky Kovlin on New Year’s Eve, 2009. The episode unravels the true crime mystery through family interviews, investigator insights, trial coverage, and reflections on justice.

---

Episode Overview

This episode explores the chilling case of Shelly Kovlin—a vibrant, accomplished mother of two—who was found dead in her Manhattan apartment on December 31, 2009. Originally ruled an accident, Shelly's story twists through religious, familial, and legal challenges, leading to her body’s exhumation, a homicide ruling, and the eventual conviction of her estranged husband, Rod Covlin.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Shelly’s Life & Background (00:41–07:00)

• Shelly is portrayed as warm, driven, and at the center of her family’s life.
  • “She would walk into a room and she would light it up.” – Shelly's Sister (Eve), (03:28)
• Success in finance, dedication to her Orthodox Jewish faith, and later, heartbreak through infertility struggles and loss of newborn twins.
• Marriage to Rod Covlin described as romantic, but marred by stress and Rod’s employment struggles.

2. The breakdown of the Kovlin Marriage (07:00–13:18)

• Shelly becomes the family’s breadwinner as Rod pursues backgammon professionally.
  • “Backgammon’s Rod’s main focus. So Shelly’s the major breadwinner…” – Private Investigator RJ Decker, (10:14)
• Marital strain escalates with Rod’s affairs, culminating in his request for an open marriage.
  • “She was disgusted. She said, this is not okay for me and it’s not okay for my children…” – Shelly's Sister (Eve), (12:08)
• Divorce filed after emotional abuse and fear for her safety.

3. Custody Battle & Rod’s Alarming Behavior (13:18–22:23)

• Bitter custody dispute with Rod making a false accusation of child abuse against Shelly, leading to police intervention.
  • “His hatred for me is stronger than his love for his children.” – Shelly's Sister (Eve), (20:06)
• Supervised visitation imposed on Rod by the court.

4. A New Beginning for Shelly... Until Tragedy (22:23–34:43)

• Shelly regains confidence, starts dating, and plans for the future; talks about changing her will and formally divorcing Rod.
• On New Year’s Eve morning, Shelly’s daughter Anna finds her mother’s body in the bathtub, sparking devastating family and official reactions.

5. Initial Investigation & Religious Complications (34:43–41:35)

• Early police conclusions rule Shelly’s death as accidental due to a slip and fall, with no signs of forced entry, and consistent stories from Rod and Anna.
• Religious customs prevent an immediate autopsy and allow for the bathroom’s quick cleanup, potentially eliminating forensic evidence.
  • “Without an autopsy, sometimes people can get away with murder.” – Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes, (41:24)

6. Family Doubts and The Push for Justice (41:35–49:33)

• Family’s suspicions grow, especially after learning her death is officially “undetermined” and not an accident.
• Shelly had reportedly warned family, “If something happens to me, he is your number one suspect. You look into Rod Covlin.” – Shelly’s Sister (Eve), (42:36)
• Family and private investigators press for exhumation and a real investigation.

7. The Autopsy & Revelations (49:33–53:54)

• Autopsy finds scratch marks, petechial hemorrhages in the eyes, and a fractured hyoid bone—a clear sign of manual strangulation.
  • “When you put together all the evidence, the scratch marks to the face, the petechia in the eye, and the broken hyoid bone, there’s no way this is not a chokehold.” – Private Investigator RJ Decker, (53:21)
• Shelly’s cause of death reclassified as homicide by neck compression.

8. Building the Case Against Rod (53:54–65:14)

• Focus turns on Rod: motives (loss of inheritance and custody), inconsistencies in his narrative, and evidence of prior assault and threats.
• Rod’s erratic post-incident behavior, including violent altercations with his parents and alleged murder plots.
• Key digital evidence from Rod’s computer and girlfriend’s accounts bolster the case.

9. The Trial and Prosecution Strategy (65:14–76:47)

• The highly circumstantial nature of the evidence; prosecution relies on testimony from Rod’s romantic partners and digital behavior.
• Martial arts evidence and Rod’s own demonstration of a chokehold video from jail presented as significant proof.
  • “Is that particular move consistent or inconsistent with the chokehold that is taught in martial arts? It’s consistent as taught in martial arts.” – Private Investigator RJ Decker, (77:06)
• Motive tied to preventing Shelly from changing her will—worth over $5 million.

10. Conviction, Aftermath, and Family Divisions (77:56–84:10)

• Jury convicts Rod Covlin of second-degree murder (80:22), a verdict bringing relief to Shelly’s family.
  • “It was justice for Shelly, and she can rest.” – Shelly’s Sister (Eve), (80:41)
• Rod maintains innocence, points to lack of direct evidence.
• In a deeply emotional moment, daughter Anna reads a statement at sentencing defending her father and calling the conviction unjust (81:43).
• Rod receives 25 years to life and files appeals; family focus shifts to the future wellbeing of Shelly’s children.

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “If something happens to me, he is your number one suspect.”
  — Shelly’s Sister (Eve), recalling Shelly’s warnings (42:36)
• “Without an autopsy, sometimes people can get away with murder.”
  — Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes (41:24)
• “The question was never, is he going to kill Shelly? The question was always, when.”
  — Matthew Bogdanos, Prosecutor (68:11)
• “Justice has a single voice, and that voice tells you he is guilty. Not because I say so, but because he is.”
  — Prosecution closing argument (79:00)
• “My mom passed away. My dad has been taken away for so long already. Please let us know that it will come to an end.”
  — Statement by daughter Anna, read at sentencing (81:43)

---

Important Timestamps

• 00:41–03:16: Shelly’s last day and discovery of her death
• 07:44: The loss of twins & its impact
• 11:20–13:08: Marital breakdown leading to divorce
• 20:16: Rod’s attempt to suspend visitation backfires
• 24:26: Initial police at the scene—accident theory
• 41:24: “Without an autopsy, people can get away with murder”
• 53:21: Medical evidence of homicide
• 65:01: Rod’s surprise arrest six years later
• 80:22: Jury verdict—Guilty
• 81:43: Anna’s sentencing statement

---

Final Reflection

The episode meticulously traces the transformation of an apparent tragedy into a murder case, highlighting the tenacity of Shelly’s family, the intersection of faith and law, and the enduring emotional scars on all involved. The pain of Shelly’s loss lingers, underscored by the profound divisions and lingering questions within her family, especially as her children seek closure in the aftermath.

---

Transcript

[Ashley Flowers]

Some cases fade from headlines, some never

[Narrator/Reporter]

made it there to begin with.

[Ashley Flowers]

I'm Ashley Flowers and on my podcast

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

the Deck, I tell you the stories

[Ashley Flowers]

of cold cases featured on playing cards distributed in prisons designed to spark new leads and bring long overdue justice. Because these stories deserve to be heard and the loved ones of these victims still deserve answers. Are you ready to be dealt in? Listen to the Deck now, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome Back to the 2020 True Crime Vault. That awful day, December 31st.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Shelly's last day. You see the last time she's captured on video, which is entering the building at about 8pm Rod says his daughter called him, said, something's wrong with mommy. He sees his wife face down in the bathtub.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I got a call from Shelly's babysitter. She said to me, there's been an accident. Shelly slipped and fell. And I said, rose, is Shelly alive? And she said, no, I heard that

[Ashley Flowers]

she had slipped in the bathtub and died. Obviously that was beyond shocking because she

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

was young and she had little children.

[Ashley Flowers]

As a detective, you could understand why this did look like an accident.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Absolutely.

[Ashley Flowers]

Your sister's 47 years old, pretty healthy.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Did it make sen?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

But there are some things that seem inconsistent with a simple slip and fall.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She says, I may need to drop my kids off by you. I'm afraid for my life.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They don't dust for fingerprints. They take any DNA evidence.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

At this time, the family objected to an autopsy.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

I hate to say this, but without

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

an autopsy, sometimes people can get away with murder. Good morning America on this New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009, we're gonna go for high in the city's 38 degrees today.

[Ashley Flowers]

It's December 31, 2009, and New Year's Eve preparations are underway in Times Square.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

In just a few hours, Times Square is gonna be transformed into the biggest New Year's Eve party in the world.

[Ashley Flowers]

Meantime, a a mile and a half north, a tragedy is unfolding inside a Manhattan luxury apartment building. The unexpected death of 47 year old mom of two, Shelly Kovlan.

[Narrator/Reporter]

There's a lot of shock at this Upper west side address. Shelly was a healthy, vibrant woman in the prime of her life.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I was living in the building at

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

the time when I heard the tragic news that a young mother had lost her life by slipping in a bathtub. Shelly was an acquaintance. I knew her from the lobby. She seemed like a very lovely person and very attentive to her kids.

[Narrator/Reporter]

People describe Shelly as very warm and a really kind person. She's very beautiful blonde, very petite. She's five' four.

[Ashley Flowers]

How did you see Shelly growing up as the older sister?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

She was a great sister. She was very loving, she was fun, she was energetic, she was electric.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She would walk into a room and

[Ashley Flowers]

she would light it up.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Shelly was the glue that kept us all together.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Shelly was an Orthodox Jew. Her religion was very important to her and she lived a traditional Jewish life.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

My father came from a very religious home himself and we were observant. Modern Orthodox family.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

After studying marketing in college, Shelley later develops a passion for numbers and begins to climb the corporate ladder of New York's world of high finance.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Shelley was very driven. She worked at Merrill lynch with her father and her brother as wealth manager, and then they were recruited to ubs.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was it that made her so good at what she was doing?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Such an honorable person and a reliable person. In our business, to be trusted, to be, you know, a valued advisor is so important. In addition to her career success, Shelly was longing to start a family.

[Ashley Flowers]

You had found love and got married to Mark. Shelly in her early 30s, still trying to find, you know, that right person. What was that like for her?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I'm sure it was very frustrating. She was looking for Mr. Right. She wanted to be married, she wanted children. That's what she wanted.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I met Shelley February 15, the day after Valentine's Day in 1998, at a Jewish singles party at a place called Le Barbette. We started chatting and, I mean, we hit it off.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was it about her that sparked interest for you?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

She was smart. We wanted the same things in life. There was just an instant connection.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They met and just fell head over heels for each other.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

He was a Much younger man, 6, 2, good looking, blue eyes, solid muscle, and he completely swept off her feet.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They had this whirlwind bromance, even though there was this significant age gap. He was 25 at the time, she was 36.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She called us probably around 11 o'. Clock. She was giggling and she said, I met a guy and we're flying to Las Vegas to elope. And I said, oh my God, Shelly, please don't do this, please don't do this.

[Ashley Flowers]

He said he met this most wonderful

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

woman in the world and he proposed marriage that night. Rod is a graduate from Columbia University with a degree in civil engineering, and he lavishes Shelly with attention. Just six weeks after they meet, Rod and Shelly are engaged.

[Ashley Flowers]

So he was smitten. Said she's terrific and I guess she felt the same way because they got

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

married within six months early on things were fantastic. We did everything together and we enjoyed each other's company very much.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They moved into a very nice apartment in the Dorchester Towers on the Upper west side.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It's located in an affluent area just blocks from Lincoln center and Central Park. This is the same neighborhood serving as a backdrop for Only Murders in the Building, the popular Hulu series about a trio of true crime fanatics intent on solving a murder in their own building. I don't lock my door. Never have. That's insane. Neighborly.

[Ashley Flowers]

I mean, a murderer probably lives in the building.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I lived in the Dorchester for 15 years, 24, seven doorman. I felt very safe there.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's a very family oriented part of Manhattan.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelly's younger sister knows that she desperately wants to start a family.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She didn't get pregnant right away, you know, she was in her 30s and so she knew she just wanted to go straight to ivf. And the first one worked.

[Ashley Flowers]

They have a baby girl, Anna. How happy was the family? Everyone was thrilled.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She was elated. She loved being a mother.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

When we finally had Anna, it was fantastic. I always made her birthday cakes for her parties. We did science projects together. I mean, it was great. I taught her how to make balloon animals. We'd go to the playground and she would make balloon animals for the other kids.

[Ashley Flowers]

Rod and Shelly want to expand their family and soon she's pregnant again with twins. But there are complications. The babies are born prematurely at just six months.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She delivered them. One died at birth and the other one died several hours later.

[Ashley Flowers]

How did that impact her?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She was devastated. She really was.

[Ashley Flowers]

That heartbreak had to be tough on the marriage.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It was.

[Ashley Flowers]

How did that affect your son and his wife? They were all very, very upset for quite a while.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

A year and a half later, Shelly gives birth to a son who they name Miles.

[Ashley Flowers]

This is the four of them. That's very sweet. Very, very sweet family.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She had her girl and she had her boy. Yeah.

[Ashley Flowers]

And the family was happy for her?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Absolutely, very, yes.

[Ashley Flowers]

Did the happiness return to the marriage?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

You know, initially, sure. But I think that it unfortunately didn't change things for very long.

[Ashley Flowers]

I think at that point the marriage was deteriorating. Rod had barely worked at all.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He always had a bit of difficulty with steady employment. He was a stockbroker at one point. That didn't quite work out.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

She really would have loved to stay

[Ashley Flowers]

home and be with the kids, but

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

she saw that was not in the card. I mean, he couldn't hold a job.

[Ashley Flowers]

And just as Shelley and Rod's relationship seems to be crumbling, her family Says he makes her a shocking proposition.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Backgammon is not simply a matter of shaking the dice. It's how you use particular role that you get. And it appeals to people who are very mathematically minded.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was it about the game that attracted you?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

There is plenty of math and there's a lot of deep thought required, which again is very surprising given the fact that there are dice involved in the game.

[Ashley Flowers]

Fair to say it became an obsession?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I don't think so. I think if I'd say a passion. Rod spent a lot of his time and whatever money he was making on his dream of becoming a professional backgammon player. Backgammon's Rod's main focus. So Shelly's the major breadwinner in the family. And according to her family, it takes a terrible toll on their marriage.

[Ashley Flowers]

Whenever we would have family gatherings, he would sit on the side and either play backgammon on the computer or have a game going.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He is online at all hours, pulling all nighters and just constantly reaching out to women.

[Ashley Flowers]

Were other women starting to catch your eye?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Sure, sure. I definitely dated.

[Ashley Flowers]

Even though you were married?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Correct.

[Ashley Flowers]

So you began to see other women.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I did, I did. Rod often liked to take his dates to a place called Lure Fish Bar. It's an upscale restaurant in lower Manhattan known for its yacht like interior decorated.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He went on dates with numerous women. He favored this location because I believe he said, quote, they had yummy drinks.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

As Shelly and Rod approach their 10 year wedding anniversary, their marriage unravels.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She discovered that Rod was having an affair. It wasn't just one affair, it was several. He had left up an email from one of the women and so that's how she found out.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

At a certain point there probably wasn't very much love between Shelly and me. We were, I guess, out of love and, you know, we had two kids.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yet Shelly doesn't say anything to Rod at the time. And the couple celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary. Shelly tells her sister that's when Rod makes a stunning proposition.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He said to her he wanted to have an open marriage. He still loved her, but wanted an open marriage.

[Ashley Flowers]

Ten years after they've been married. Yeah. How did she respond to that?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Oh, she was disgusted. She said, this is not okay for me and it's not okay for my children to see it. That anybody should be treated like this.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Here's a traditional Jewish woman and her husband wants an open marriage. And she swiftly rejected the idea. But that really caused a lot of problems. Not long after that, he returned home at 6am smelling of perfume.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

A few days later, Shelly tells her sister Eve that she had gotten fed up with Rod, writing in an email, I confronted him about my suspicions of him being with other people. And he confirmed and admitted to cheating. In March of 2009, Shelly contacted me because just wanted to get an idea of what her options were, how she could protect her kids, how she could protect her future and really prepare herself for the next step, which would be actually filing for divorce.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelly doesn't move forward with the divorce at that time, but her family says that her husband's cheating and his constant absences were becoming unbearable for her.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

He was having these affairs. She just didn't want to be anywhere close to him. He came up with the idea that he would leave the apartment if she would sign the lease next door. The apartment across the hall became available and the kids wouldn't have me out of their life any more than was absolutely necessary. So there was always this thought of doing what was best for the kids from both of us. I did not feel it was the best idea having them in such a close vicinity to each other. But Shelly thought it might provide a little bit of consistency for the children. She loved her children, and that was what she lived for. Ann and Miles, in every fiber of her body, she loved them.

[Ashley Flowers]

In April of 2009, even though they're separated, Rod and Shelly take their kids to New Jersey for the week long Jewish holiday of Passover. They stay in the same hotel, but in different rooms.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

The four of them had gone away for Passover week together and Rod left. Midway through the holiday.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

He leaves his family to head to Las Vegas with another woman to attend a backgammon tournament. Though they're no longer together as a couple, Shelly's family says Rod is still incredibly demanding of her.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

When he came back and Shelly had come back from Passover, his suitcase was not unpacked and his laundry was not done. He flew off the handle. And mind you, he was already living in the apartment across the the hall. At that point she called me absolutely weeping.

[Ashley Flowers]

He expected her to unpack his suitcase.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Good morning America and Happy Mother's Day

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

to all the special women in our lives.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Thank you.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Happy Mother's Day to everybody out there.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

On Mother's Day, Shelly organizes an outing with Rod's family, hoping to maintain a relationship for the sake of the children.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

They had gone to the Botanical Gardens as a family together with his parents in public, Rod went into this major explosive temper rage and was screaming at Shelly. And he was calling her every ugly name in the book.

[Ashley Flowers]

In front of the children.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

In front of the children. And that's when she communicates with me and says, I may need to drop my kids off by you. I'm afraid for my life.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

She was texting me and calling me frantically. It's hitting the fan. Said he's going to move back into my apartment and kick me out at Botanical Gardens. Ready to proceed. And she followed up with a what should I do? That's the last straw for Shelly. She decides to file for divorce.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She changed the locks immediately once she knew that the papers were being served on him. His divorce papers.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Rod had pretty standard visitation with the children. He was seeing them on a regular basis.

[Ashley Flowers]

But soon there's a fight over custody of the children.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This is where it really gets extremely ugly. One night when Rod is supposed to return the children, he doesn't show up. Shelly is in a panic.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Every possible horrible thought was going through her mind.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He was charming, very charming, intelligent, funny in a quirky sort of way. And he was a good backgammon player.

[Ashley Flowers]

It's the 4th of July weekend in 2009. Shelly has already filed for divorce, and Rod is now in Michigan at a backgammon tournament. Here he runs into another backgammon player named Deborah, who he had become Facebook friends with. Deborah asked 2020, not to show her face during our interview.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

It never occurred to me that he would be attracted to me. I'm a lot older than he is. But when Rod wants something, you know, he can be very aggressive. The first time we met, he, you know, asked me out for a drink, asked me if I wanted to play a couple of games. After we walked back to the hotel, and, you know, went to his room, and I went into the restroom, and when I came out, he was, like, nude from the waist on down. And he came, like, came at me, and, I mean, I didn't say no.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He begins the relationship with Deborah Ules. She's a woman from North Carolina and about 14 and a half years his senior.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He said that he had been separated for, I think he said, seven months at that point, and she had filed for divorce. To me, it was just like what you'd hear of a typical divorce custody battle.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

But after Rod comes back to New York, things take a dark turn. During a scheduled visit with the kids

[Narrator/Reporter]

one night, when Rod is supposed to return the children, he doesn't show up.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She called me, and she was frantic, and she said, I don't know what. I said, is everything okay? She says, no, I don't know where my children are. And Rod was supposed to return them. He's not answering any text messages. He's not answering phone calls and I don't know where they are.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Shelly is in a panic. She is beside herself. She calls the police, she calls hospitals. She doesn't know what to do.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Shelly has no idea where Rod is. All attempts to reach him go unanswered. And she is desperate. I received frantic phone calls and emails from Shelly. She was crying. She was extremely concerned that something really bad had happened. God forbid there was an accident. She thought maybe he fled with the children. Every possible horrible thought was going through her mind.

[Ashley Flowers]

But in reality, what had happened was something Shelly couldn't have even fathomed. It turns out Rod had taken the children to a nearby hospital, claiming that his wife had sexually abused their two year old son, Miles.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

One, two o' clock in the morning, Child Protective Services got involved. They were up at the Columbia Presbyterian.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

ACS was interviewing them to make sure that there were no concerns about their safety. And until all these interviews and medical examinations were done, the children were not returned home to her.

[Narrator/Reporter]

There was an investigation and it was determined that there was just no basis for this at all.

[Ashley Flowers]

This was getting ugly.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She said, his hatred for me is stronger than his love for his children.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We immediately began to draft an application to suspend all of Rod's visitation based upon his behavior.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This really backfires on him. The judge is so outraged that she now says, you can only visit with the children now with the supervision of someone else.

[Ashley Flowers]

You had to be present for him to see.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

They had to be supervised after he took them to the hospital. Despite the custody issues, as the months go by, Shelly seems to be finding herself again.

[Ashley Flowers]

Though the divorce wasn't legally finalized yet, Rod offers Shelly a religious document called a get, which terminates the marriage under Jewish law.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

The GET allowed her to start dating. And so she started to kind of get out there and she was on J date and just meeting other men.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Shelley also begins meeting friends at the Friars Club. It's a private gathering spot in Manhattan that's known for those televised celebrity roasts. The Friars Club has a long and

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

distinguished tradition of paying tribute to the

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

very finest entertainers in our nation's history. Tonight, they've broken with that tradition and are honoring Jerry Stone.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This whole new chapter of her life was opening and she just looked really, really great. And it seemed as though she was very excited about her future.

[Ashley Flowers]

Were you starting to see a different Shelly? Yeah, a lot more of the old Shelly.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And it was like this really bright

[Ashley Flowers]

light and it was Showing again after being dimmed for so long. Yeah, it was sparkly again. Was she happier from what you could see?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I think she was hopeful, yeah.

[Ashley Flowers]

Hopefully she was helpful by the end of the year. How was she?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She seemed fine, you know, getting on with things. She was just on the phone with work. Another call coming in was a fella she was dating and, you know, things were, things were good for her. Things seemed pretty good.

[Ashley Flowers]

So it looked like she was about to get this divorce and move on with her life.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Exactly.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

But on the morning of New Year's Eve, Shelly's nine year old daughter makes a gruesome discovery.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Rod says his daughter called him very distraught, said something's wrong with mommy.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It's the morning of New Year's Eve, 2009. Rod Covlin, who's living across the hall from his estranged wife, says he gets a frantic call from their nine year old daughter, Anna. I got a call from Anna in the morning and she stuttered out something about mommy and the bathtub. And she was distraught. I mean, clearly distraught.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And he rushed across to the apartment

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

and he told her to let him in. He said he came into the apartment.

[Ashley Flowers]

Inside, Rod says he heads into the bathroom and finds a horrific scene.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Shelly was floating in a pool of dark water. I mean, bloody water. Yeah, I grabbed her, I pulled her out.

[Narrator/Reporter]

He says that he pulls her out and then he eventually calls 911 and they tell him to perform CPR on his wife.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

On surveillance footage, you can see members of the New York Fire Department arrive, followed by paramedics. He continues to do CPR until EMS arrives and they come in and pretty quickly say that she's. She's gone. She's been dead a significant period of time. I get to the scene, I walk back to the bathroom. I observed the victim, Shelly Kavin, laying on the floor. There was a blanket over her. There was bloody water.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In the tub above the bathtub, there is a cabinet door. And when police come in, the cabinet door is halfway off its hinges. Rod tells that he thinks his wife had a terrible accident

[Ashley Flowers]

that awful day. December 31, 2009. How did you get word that your grandchildren's mother was dead?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Rod called us. I have never ever before or since seen my son in that state of mind. He said, they told me I had to keep doing CPR until they got there and I did it.

[Ashley Flowers]

How distraught was Rod?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Horrible. He was completely, completely and totally. I've never seen him out of it before. That morning, Shelly's nanny arrives and is stunned to learn of her death. And she immediately reaches out to Shelly's sister, Eve.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I got a call from Shelly's babysitter and she said to me, there's been an accident. Shelly slipped and fell in the bathtub. And I said, rose, is Shelly alive? And she said, no, I just had this involuntary scream that came out and just extreme grief.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Eve had said that there was an accident.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I think I didn't believe it when I heard it. And I just wailed and I just cried.

[Ashley Flowers]

Your sister's 47 years old, pretty healthy.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

God, it didn't make sense.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And it could have been a slip, could have been a fall. She had bruising to her face, like a scratch mark, some bruising to her hands. It didn't really look consistent with a fall, but a lot of people fall in the tub and die in New York. I wanted a second opinion, so I called over to the homicide squad, asked Detective Mooney to respond, over. My boss called and said, can you meet me at this address? The TUO has got a suspicious death. I walked down the hallway to where her. Her body is. But I. I'm paying attention to what the rest of the apartment looks like. It's clearly a lived in apartment where there's two little kids that are there. And I get to her bedroom and I can see that there's some disarray in there. The bed is not, certainly not made, but it doesn't even look like anybody was really sleeping in it. This is because Rod took the, the top sheet and the comforter off the bed to drape over her body because he didn't want the kids to see her is what he, what he said to us. Anna was trying to shield Miles. I was trying to shield Anna. It was, it was a nightmare of a. Of a scenario.

[Ashley Flowers]

Did you get to talk to Anna?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I got to sit in on her interview with one of the detectives.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And he started questioning and she told them that mommy had tucked the two of them into bed in her bed.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She said that she woke up at either one or three o'clock in the morning. She doesn't really remember.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Heard the bath running, went in and looked and saw her mother in the tub.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

And she thinks her mother is washing her hair. So she goes back to sleep. When she wakes up at 7 o', clock, she goes back and she sees her mother is still in the bathtub, though this time her head was submerged. And so that's when she said she realized something was wrong.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Rod opined that she must have been standing in the tub and slipped and grabbed this cabinet Door and yanked it out and fell down and hit her head and then drown it in the bathtub.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Detectives had no reason to believe that it was a crime scene. There's nothing there that would say, hey, this wasn't an accident. Father, daughter story matched up. And looking at the scene and listening to what the husband had to say, it made sense that she accidentally fell.

[Narrator/Reporter]

They have a crime scene guy coming and take pictures, but they don't take any forensic evidence. They don't dust for fingerprints, take any DNA evidence at this time.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

This was pretty much of an airtight surveillance system that was set up on that building. So this eliminates any possibility, in my opinion, of a stranger having come in and done this.

[Ashley Flowers]

You're a private investigator, but you were a detective with the New York City police for six. The thinking was that she may be grabbed for the cabinet. So as a detective, you could understand why this did look like an accident.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Absolutely. It would have been obvious if there were gunshot wounds, stab wounds, some type of ligature mark around the neck, something that would indicate that this was anything other than an accident. None of that was present.

[Ashley Flowers]

The water in the tub though, is bloody. Why would it be if there was no sign of any foul play, if

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

she accidentally slipped, fell, landed face down in the water over the course of time after you pass away, blood pools. Gravity pulls it down. The blood would start to seep out through the nostrils and discolor the water.

[Ashley Flowers]

No forced entry.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

I looked at the lock photos. We have no forced entry, no stranger in the apartment, no sign of a

[Ashley Flowers]

struggle in the house.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

No sign of a struggle. I mean, just a normal apartment.

[Ashley Flowers]

She's got two children in the household. Presumably they would have heard if there had been something that happened.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

That's correct. The nine year old daughter had a very consistent story with Rod Covlin's story.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I need to do an investigation to try to figure out exactly what happened. But until I had anything concrete, I had to go with an accidental fall. But there's a big problem. Before detectives can determine what exactly happened to Shelly, the scene would be scrubbed clean.

[Ashley Flowers]

This show is sponsored by Bombas. If people are asking you if you're still working on your New Year's resolutions, well, here's a new one to add to your list. Get more comfortable. And you can do that with Bombas. Bombas makes everyday go to items that bring serious comfort, like luxurious Sunday slippers that feel like you're walking on clouds, sweat wicking sports socks tailored to any sport or activity you can come up with. And premium everyday T shirts that are flexible, breathable and buttery soft. And your feet will love wearing the sport socks to the gym or lounging in your Sunday slippers at home on a rainy day. And there's an added bonus for every item you purchase, an essential clothing item is donated to someone facing housing insecurity. That's one purchased, one donated with over 150 million donations and counting, head over to bombas.com 20 and use code 20TWENTY for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O-M-B-A-S.com 20 and the code TWENT Y at checkout 2020 is partnering

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

with Vibes open ear wireless headphones that's Vybz if you listen to a lot of True Crime, you probably like to listen with a good pair of headphones. But it can be tricky to find a pair that provides great sound quality that's not too immersive. Because when you're out with a podcast during a late night dog walk or a pre dawn run, you don't necessarily want noise cancellation that blocks out the sounds around you. That's why you want to get yourself a pair of Vibes, your perfect companion in audio. They're designed for maximum comfort with ultra lightweight earbuds that just sit outside the ear canal, and they offer crystal clear audio no matter what you're listening to. Whether it's your favorite song or a sound rich True Crime podcast, it'll come across loud and clear and silky smooth. The battery lasts up to 10 hours per charge, and they come in a range of sleek, modern colors and styles. So what are you waiting for? Order now and you'll be listening to better sound with better headphones before you know it. For a limited time, our listeners can get more than 60% off a pair of Vibes wireless headphones. Just go to abcsecretsavings.com 2020 Again, that's abcsecretsavings.Com 2020abcsecretsavings.com 2020.

[Ashley Flowers]

As Shelly's family grapples with her death, they can't understand how a day that started, like any other, could end in such a tragic way.

[Narrator/Reporter]

December 30th, Shelly's last day. She has a hairstylist come to her home to give her a keratin treatment, which is a hair straightening treatment. There's surveillance video in the building and you actually see her leaving for work at 11am after her keratin treatment

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

at around 6pm, Shelly leaves work and heads to the Friars Club, hangs out for

[Narrator/Reporter]

a little bit, chats with some friends, and then she goes home to see her children. You see the last time she's captured on video, which was entering the building at about 8pm talking on her cell phone.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelby says goodnight to her nanny and apparently begins helping her daughter Anna with her homework.

[Narrator/Reporter]

One of the last Google searches on her computer was for long division. She goes online onto JDate at one point to see if she has any messages. And that's the end of her online activity.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

The morning after, Anna finds her mom's body in the bathtub. Jelly Danishevsky Covlin, 47 years old, a mother of two, found dead.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I pretty quickly heard that she had

[Ashley Flowers]

slipped in the bathtub and died.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Obviously, that was beyond shocking because she was young and she had little children. I had two little kids as well, and I quickly ran out and bought

[Ashley Flowers]

nonstick bath mats for the tubs.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

The thought of something like that happening

[Ashley Flowers]

to my kids or to myself or,

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

you know, was really, really a scary thought.

[Ashley Flowers]

I don't think they had a rubber mat in the bottom of the tub. It could have been just a tragic accident.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Yes, but to police, there are some things that seem inconsistent with a simple slip and fall. I look at her body and I see things that are suspicious to me. She has some scrapes, but I didn't see her the day before. Whatever they are, there are questions that need to be answered, and those questions can be answered by a pathologist. Shelly's body is taken from the apartment to the medical examiner's office for further examination.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

So once the detective left the scene that day, the door is being guarded by a police officer. I mean, it's still technically, you know, a potential crime scene. It's being safeguarded. During the time that the officer was there, a member of a religious organization showed up.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We have an organization that helps families in time of need. In the Jewish custom, it is customary to collect all bodily fluids and to be buried with the deceased. The same way that God put you on this earth is the same way you should go back to God.

[Ashley Flowers]

Remember, Shelley's family belongs to a form of Judaism called Modern Orthodox, and this is one of the practices they observe.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Shelley's rabbi reached out and called us that there's a cleanup that has to be done. I went down to the apartment. There were police officers there. They allowed me in. He was let in at some point, which I had no idea about. More than likely, had I still been at the scene, I doubt very seriously that I would have allowed him to go in there. The bathtub was the bulk of where I had to clean up. I was in the apartment that evening for approximately an hour and a half, two hours.

[Ashley Flowers]

The notion that a scene is cleaned up so quickly due to religious reasons, have you seen that before?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Yeah, absolutely. I investigated, you know, many Jewish natural causes deaths, accidental deaths, and this is common, this is part of their religious belief. All parts of the body have to be buried with the body. Whether it's blood, tissue, hair, whatever might be there, it can gets cleaned up and it all gets buried with the body. The body gets buried whole.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Meanwhile, down at the coroner's office, the medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Hayes, had just finished conducting an external examination of Shelly's body when he receives a call from Shelly's family. We called the medical examiner who at that point wasn't sure. He'd only had a cursory look at Shelly. So we asked him, how does a healthy 47 year old woman suddenly die like this? Tell us what could have been cause of death. So he said, well, you know, I don't know, it could have been a fall, it could have been a heart attack, it could have been a drug interaction, it could have been any one of those things. The only way we would know is by doing an autopsy. The medical examiner, Dr. John Hayes, would later say that as he's about to make his first incision, he's told to stop. The family initially wants an autopsy, but then the Jewish official who cleaned up the scene calls them. And this individual had called me, said, listen, I heard that the family are looking to do an autopsy. It's a terrible mistake. It's a terrible mistake because I've just come from the police and I spoke to the medical examiner and both of them say it's an accident. Under Jewish law, if it's an accident, you can't do the autopsy.

[Ashley Flowers]

By that point, Dr. Hayes, boss, the chief medical examiner had determined that there wasn't enough that was suspicious to warrant overruling a religious objection. If there's no autopsy, then there's nothing really for the ME to do than to be able to say there was a cause of death.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

No, the medical examiner, without conducting an autopsy can't assume anything other than whatever the police say.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

The family objected to an autopsy. Shelly was buried. After the body's buried, we kind of slowed down because we really didn't have a cause of death. An accidental death has no meaning to the homicide squad. We got plenty of other work to do. You know, there was no reason for me to continue with this. So I just went about my business. The children had been living with Shelly during the couple's contentious custody battle. The question now was, where would they go? Initially, we had thought we were going to be taking temporary custody of the children. Police officer in charge said that the children would have to go home with their maternal aunt and uncle. Upon hearing that news, Anna threw the mother of all fits.

[Ashley Flowers]

She wanted to stay with her daddy.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

She wanted to stay with her daddy. Unbeknown to us, the Covlins, that's Rod and his parents, had called Child Protective Services. The woman from Child Protective Services said, sweetheart, who do you want to go home with? Anna raised one hand and pointed at me, raised her other hand and pointed at my wife. And she said, those grandparents. The bottom line was the children were signed or given to the Senior Covenants. That's where the women live.

[Ashley Flowers]

A week after her death, Shelly's family goes to the funeral home to pick up the death certificate.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And when they read it, that's when everything changes. I opened the envelope to look at a death certificate, and I see the cause of death. Death is listed there as undetermined. And my heart lost a beat.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

We were absolutely stunned. I mean, we buried her based on, you know, the initial thought that it was an accident.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

I hate to say this, but without

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

an autopsy, sometimes people can get away with murder. The family sees only one way forward. They need to exhume Shelley's body.

[Ashley Flowers]

What they find and what we learn Inside A replica 2020 built of Shelly's bathroom. Does this bring back your memories of the scene?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Oh, absolutely.

[Ashley Flowers]

Would help answer the big question. Was her death truly an accident?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Was it possible? Sure, it was possible until I actually got into the bathroom. My.

[Ashley Flowers]

You're finding your wife dead in the tub. The children are there. What do you think has happened? Why is she dead?

[Narrator/Reporter]

This is such a sensational story that at this Tony Upper west side address, you now have a murder.

[Ashley Flowers]

But this is your wife. This is the woman that you fell in love with.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I was administering CPR to somebody who was a corpse. I mean, it wasn't my wife anymore.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She said to me numerous times, if something happens to me, he is your number one suspect. You look into Rod Covlin.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

We want her out of the ground. We want her body telling its story.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And Amy looks up at us, and he goes, this is gonna be a homicide.

[Ashley Flowers]

So this is kind of a replica that 2020 built of Shelly's bathroom. So you had suspicions right away?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Oh, yeah.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

The whole cabinet looked staged.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Red flags were going up all over

[Ashley Flowers]

the place you began to think that she had been murdered.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We're talking about absurd, ridiculous murder plots with zero evidence. It's Several days after 47 year old mother of two, Shelly Coughlin is found dead in her bathtub. And rumors are swirling around Dorchester Towers, her luxury high rise in New York's Upper west side. What started as a slip and fall turned into rumors of possibly a murder involving her ex husband who lived right across the hall.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelly's family is devastated and struggling to come to terms with her death.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

We were in this fog of pure shock and just extreme grief.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And it's not until after they received Shelly's death certificate from the funeral home that they learned she had suspicious scratches on her face and that her cause of death was ruled undetermined. I called up a private investigator and I asked him what does undetermined mean? And he said, case undetermined pending police investigation. In other words, it's a suspicious death. And my heart sunk.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Mark actually took charge. Mark took it upon himself to play detective and he did a very good job at it. He went out, he spoke to people, he never stopped.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

A lot of information was starting to come in and it was, was very suspicious. Red flags were going up all over the place and a lot of it was pointing to Rod. Rod and Shelley were going through this incredibly contentious divorce and a brutal custody battle for their two kids. But now there are new revelations about how bad it had all become. For instance, they learned the night of her death, Shelly was telling friends at the Friars Club she was planning to remove Rod from her will.

[Narrator/Reporter]

She, she had told several people that she planned to change her. Well, she'd reached out to an estate lawyer. She'd even told her doorman that she planned to change her will.

[Ashley Flowers]

Do you think Rod knew this?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We really believed he knew this. You're talking about five and a quarter million dollars.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Another suspicious element here is that her iPhone's nowhere to be found in the apartment.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

She was observed on surveillance video walking into the building, talking on that cell phone. How did the phone disappear from the apartment if in fact this was just an accidental death?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

This information adds to what they already knew about Rod, that Shelly feared him. She would regularly say she was afraid of Rod. That was consistent from the very beginning.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelly's family says that Rod actually assaulted her during that argument over his laundry.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She called me, absolutely weeping because he pushed her to the ground in an argument in front of the children.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I was getting very loud and, you know, angry, and she started pushing at me and I took her And I. I mean, I put her on the floor, shoved her. No, I. I specifically, I did not shove her. I grabbed her, held her, and in a controlled but, you know, quick fashion, put her on the floor. So, yes, there was one incident that got physical between us.

[Ashley Flowers]

Yet Shelly seems to have become so frightened of her husband. She's granted an order of protection during divorce proceedings.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

She said to me numerous times, if something happens to me, he is your number one suspect. You look into Rod Covlin,

[Ashley Flowers]

there was no acceptance in your mind that this was an accident. You began to think that she had been murdered.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We absolutely believed she'd been murdered. And in our heart of hearts, we believed he murdered her. I hired private investigators to help with the investigation into her death.

[Ashley Flowers]

Former NYPD detective Mike Swain was one of those private eyes that Mark hired to begin investigating Shelly's death.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

The NYPD was basically closing the case. Without an autopsy, there is no cause of death. And this was going to be a very, very uphill battle. We would need to exhume the body.

[Ashley Flowers]

Shelly's family took this video after they were allowed into the apartment with Swain. It would later be used in court.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

I needed to get into the apartment. I needed to see the scene. Maybe something was missed.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

2020 built this model recreation of the bathroom where Shelly was found.

[Ashley Flowers]

So this is kind of a replica that 2020 built of Shelly's bathroom. Close.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Very close.

[Ashley Flowers]

Does this bring back sort of your memories of the scene?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Oh, absolutely.

[Ashley Flowers]

What did you notice right away when you got here?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

First thing was the cabinet. The story was that she slipped, fell, and possibly grabbed onto the cabinet, yanking it off its hinges and winding up deceased.

[Ashley Flowers]

Did that make sense to you initially?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Was it possible? Sure, it was possible. Until I actually got into the bathroom through myself. I realized how high this cabinet is. I realized how far away from the tub it is.

[Ashley Flowers]

There are little knobs here, too. Does that make sense that somebody who's relatively short, 5, 4, could actually catch that knob for support?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

It's not like a doorknob where you're actually going to grab onto it with a hand. It's a little, tiny knob. She wasn't a very big woman. I don't know if I could take this knob, put my hand on it, and put all my dead weight and yank that out of a wall. I certainly don't think she could have done that.

[Ashley Flowers]

So the idea is that if she's in the tub and she's fallen and

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

she's grabbing for this, imagine trying to grab that knob. Look where you look where you are. The distance to the cabinets. Why wouldn't you try to brace yourself on this?

[Ashley Flowers]

Horses. Yes, exactly.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Why would you reaching up.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

The family came out of that apartment feeling that we just have to continue to move forward. We want her out of the ground. We want her body telling its story and we want justice.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The police get permission to dig up her grave so they can now do the autopsy. That should have been done from the beginning.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We actually watched them dig the body up. They harnessed a rope around it. They pulled it up.

[Ashley Flowers]

It must have been the pain all over again.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

It was. I remember sobbing all night. I was not crying.

[Ashley Flowers]

You'd put her to rest and then she had to be disturbed.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Exactly. Exactly. It was for good cause.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

We're actually in this room with the medical examiner when he's doing the autopsy. When he looked up at us, it was shocking. Holy mackerel. I was shocked. Friends like these the Murder of Skyler. Nice. Is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+911. Do you have an emergency? I have a 16 year old daughter. Can't get a hold of her. I am scared to death.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

We wanted to talk to Skyler's friends.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

They're not telling the full story. The truth is gruesomely horrific.

[Narrator/Reporter]

How could you do this to your best friend?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

There's a darker secret that's not been said. Watch the new Hulu original series. Friends like these the murder of Skylar Nese on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply from 30 for 30 podcasts. Did you say someone got shot? Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down the key to this case. It's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth? They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

We had a killer amongst us.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Murder at the U. Listen now. It's now two months after Shelly Coughlin's been laid down to rest and investigators have exhumed her body to complete an autopsy. We watched the body be rolled into the medical examiner's office to do the autopsy. Dr. Jonathan Hayes, the medical examiner on the case, begins the autopsy by noting those same scratches on Shelley's face that had raised suspicions during the first, first examination before the autopsy was stopped.

[Ashley Flowers]

The fact that there are scratches and lacerations to the face is an indication that there may be more afoot. Then the medical examiner notices a new injury. Two pinpoints in Shelly's right eye, known as petechia. A petechia is Like a red spot or a dot in the eye.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

And that was a telltale sign assigned to him.

[Ashley Flowers]

Petechia are not typically seen in a normal person. Petechia, though tiny, have major medical implications. They're very often caused by pressure applied to the neck or strangulation. It raises red flags, but obviously it's

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

gotta be looked into further.

[Ashley Flowers]

You can't draw conclusions just from the petechia. Then, as the autopsy continues, the medical examiner makes a shocking discovery. There's a bone in Shelly's neck that is completely fractured. The hyoid bone. The hyoid bone allows you to chew and swallow.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It's very easy to break. And if it does, there may be a chokehold here.

[Ashley Flowers]

When you put together all the evidence, the scratch marks to the face, the petechia in the eye, and the broken

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

hyoid bone, there's no way this is not a chokehold. We're actually in the room with the medical examiner when he's doing the autopsy, and he looks up at us and he goes, this is going to be a homicide. I was. Holy mackerel. I was shocked. Six weeks later, the official autopsy report is issued. The cause of death is listed as neck compression. The manner of death, homicide. Shelly Kovlin's death is now officially a murder.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I remember exactly where I was. Mark called me and he said, the results are back. It was murder. And I remember I just kept saying, oh, my God. Oh, my God.

[Narrator/Reporter]

There's a lot of shock. This is such a sensational story that at this tony Upper west side address, you now have a murder.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I was horrified. I mean, just the thought of somebody murdered in the building was really awful.

[Narrator/Reporter]

So this is now a homicide, but the DA doesn't feel like it has enough yet to bring an indictment. Rod's the suspect, but they have a very circumstantial case.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

June 2nd was the day we finally got a warrant to process the apartment.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Investigators for the first time treat it as an actual crime scene.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I obviously knew we were six months behind the eight ball for the investigation, but I was pretty excited by then. The apartment has been badly contaminated, Forever tainted. Remember, the bathroom has been cleaned by a religious official. They allowed him to go into that apartment and with peroxide, wash down the bathroom. You got to be kidding me. I had no idea Patrol let somebody into that crime scene. If it was my decision, nobody would have been in that apartment.

[Ashley Flowers]

The crime scene had been compromised. But police did have those original pictures that were taken on the morning of Shelly's death. And those photos now raise several red flags.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Some of the things that might not have looked very suspicious when you thought that it was an accidental death. Now you take a different look at it. This is no longer a slip in the tub, which would mean that the tub itself is part of the staged crime scene.

[Ashley Flowers]

There are clothes on the floor. There's some water on the floor. What's leading the DA to think that this is suspicious?

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Picture a lot of water coming out with that body.

[Ashley Flowers]

But there is some water on the floor.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Yeah.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

There's obviously dry blood. So there obviously was some type of bloody water that came out of the tub.

[Ashley Flowers]

There was talk about Rod's clothes being dry.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

For somebody that had lifted a body out of the water moments earlier, why wasn't he wet?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I had pulled Shelly out. I was soaking wet. So I raced across the hall. I stripped my clothes off, and I changed my clothes.

[Ashley Flowers]

Even in this moment of distress, you're thinking about changing your clothes.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I'm thinking about comforting my kids. I couldn't fathom the idea of hugging Anna and Miles and, you know, soaking them with Shelly's blood.

[Ashley Flowers]

We went back to that bathroom replica to get an idea of other red flags that stood out.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

The only towel was a towel on the rail, which a hand towel wasn't a bath towel. If somebody's coming into to take a bath, I sort of would want to see a bath towel someplace.

[Ashley Flowers]

But many people go to the bathroom, forget their towel.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

Absolutely. This is all just basic speculation. It's all circumstantial. The other thing was there was shampoo conditioner out. The way the story was presented was that she was going to be washing her hair.

[Ashley Flowers]

Not many people wash their hair while taking a bath.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

And that came out from the nanny, that the positioning of the shampoo and the conditioner. It's always in the shower, because that's where she washed her hair in the shower, not in the bathtub. So all of these little things, when you put them all together and add them up, it creates a picture. The district attorney was going to have to build a circumstantial case.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

So two weeks later, investigators decide to pay a visit to one of Rod's confidants, his girlfriend, Deborah Oles.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

When I came home, detectives from New York were behind me in my driveway, and I talked to them. I just gave them whatever information I could.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Oles gives them access to her online backgammon records. And that's a gold mine for investigators, because she'd been playing backgammon and chatting with Rod online. The night of Shelly's death, he was

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

actually very quiet that night. He didn't have a lot to say.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Once Rod and Deborah Oles finish gaming online, about 1am he tells her he's gonna go do some work for a backgammon organization he was involved in. But security cameras would show that Rod was up and active in the middle of the night. What would surveillance footage show about Rod's movements the night of Shelly's murder?

[Ashley Flowers]

As the investigation into the death of Shelly Covlin continues, detectives begin to retrace her husband's actions the night of her murder. They learned that Rod and Deborah Oles had been playing backgammon online that night.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

We finished our matches 1.03am I wanted to play a little bit longer, but he said he had to go.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then he goes completely dark online. There's no activity, nothing on his computer, nothing on his phone. This is a guy who usually was up all night online the whole time.

[Ashley Flowers]

Why did you go dark after 1am?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I took a nap. I know it, it certainly sounds strange, but it wasn't unusual for me to catch a three hour nap in the middle of the night and then get up and start being active. Sometime around 4 o' clock in the morning, Rod comes downstairs. He engages in conversation with the concierge,

[Narrator/Reporter]

says, hey, what do you want? Can I get you something? And this kind of struck the doorman.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

He doesn't speak to the employees in the building in a friendly manner ever.

[Narrator/Reporter]

So the doorman finally said, okay, get me his Snickers.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

So he came back with a candy bar and gave it to the guy on the desk. It's a feeble attempt to sort of visually alibi himself.

[Ashley Flowers]

Rod leaves the building one more time at 5:02am to go by seltzer, and then isn't seen again until first responders arrive at Shelly's apartment. Deborah Olds remembers the phone call from Rod that next day.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

It just seems so surreal. I'm like, what? What do you mean she's dead? He said it was an accident.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

In the months after Shelly's death, the relationship between Rod and Deborah intensifies. She frequently drives to New York to stay with Rod, who had now moved in with his parents, but they say was a tense situation.

[Ashley Flowers]

He had brought Deborah into the house, so that was a source of some concern.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Oh, that was a source of huge conflict.

[Ashley Flowers]

We just didn't think it was a healthy situation for the children.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Anything could set him off. He could be charming. One minute and seconds later, he could fly into a rage. Rod got so mad, he shoved his dad as hard as he could. His dad went flying into to the next room and hit his head on the floor.

[Ashley Flowers]

So there was sort of a volatile situation happening.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Yes, there was.

[Ashley Flowers]

Were you worried? Were you scared of your son? Not really.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Not really?

[Ashley Flowers]

Not really, no. Yet. Rod's parents filed a new custody petition arguing that he was an unfit parent. In your October 2012 custody petition, you even painted a picture of kind of a violent man saying that he had assaulted you both.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

If you take two alpha males and you put them in the same house together, you're gonna have conflict. It was not a happy situation. Carol and Dave are granted custody after evicting Rod from their house, accusing him of suddenly spending his kids college savings, as heard in this dramatic audio recording that would later be played in court. I know how much money you've taken from your children, you steal from your children you stole before you're stealing their college money. No, no, I'm not threatening.

[Ashley Flowers]

By October 1st, okay, you were frustrated.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Extremely, yes, extremely.

[Ashley Flowers]

Rod told us that he left the house willingly, but Deborah Olds says that he was extremely upset that his parents were granted custody of his children.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He was enraged. His parents took custody of his children away from him, took control of the money, and he was enraged.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

According to Deborah Oles, Rob proposes a horrifying plan right as superstorm Sandy is hitting New York.

[Ashley Flowers]

It is happening right now. Hurricane Sandy corner crashing on shore. Winds now at 90 miles per hour.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He wanted to go over and kill his parents. She said that because electricity was off, their alarm system would be off. And he wanted to kill them, set the house on fire. I'm trying to think of something to say to stop this lunacy. And then I said, how are you going to explain your presence there? You miraculously just happened to be there to save Anna and Miles.

[Ashley Flowers]

In the midst of this investigation, some shocking revelations. Authorities say that your son had actually plotted to kill you both. Did you believe it? No, no, no, no. We were laughing because they were so absurd.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Rod also denies ever trying to kill his parents and no charges are ever filed. But to Deborah Olds, it was no laughing matter.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

It doesn't matter how much I care for a person, I'm not going to sanction cold blooded murder.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Deborah ultimately flips on Rod. She comes forward to police with several hard drives from Rod's computer that he had given her for safekeeping. She explains to us that he would give her these hard drives and say, take these home with you and put them in a closet.

[Ashley Flowers]

Investigators combed through nearly 2 million documents on these hard drives, building a case against Rod Kovlin.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

At the end of the day, there was no smoking gun there. You just keep piling up rocks until you have a pile big enough that you think that you can win a case with it. Prosecutors have spent years building that case, but it's largely circumstantial. Still, they finally feel they have enough evidence against Rod to bring an indictment. Almost six years after the death of his wife. We had to Scarsdale train station. He had pulled up in a car, said, you're under arrest. Handcuffed them, put him in the back of the car. He looked shocked.

[Ashley Flowers]

The 42 year old's house of cards came crashing down here at the Metro north station in Scarsdale yesterday morning. After six long years, his world was just turned upside down and he never saw it coming.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Mr. Covlin is stunned. He's stunned by what has happened.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was that moment like for you to hear that he was arrested for your sister's murder?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I started to tear up. I said, I've just been waiting so long to hear those words.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It's the backgammon champions match of his Life, the People vs. Roderick Kova. But it's no slam dunk. Remember, there's still no physical evidence tying him to the murder, so prosecutors plan to play their ace card. Rod's former flings under oath and oversharing.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

His face, his eyes, they were getting glossy like, almost like psychotic.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It's the paradise podcast.

[Ashley Flowers]

I am your host, Ryan Michele Bathe

[Narrator/Reporter]

with my husband Sterling.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

What's up?

[Ashley Flowers]

Join us here on Hulu and Hulu on Disney where we'll discuss each episode with the cast and and crew of Paradise. I'll be getting all the secrets from Dan Fogelman, James Marsden, Shailene Woodley, Julianne Nicholson and Sterling Kelby Brown. Paradise, the official podcast is now streaming and stream paradise on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I'm RJ Decker, the private investigator uncovering the Sunshine State's darkest secrets. Tuesdays it's the the premiere of ABC's

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

hottest new crime show.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

RJ freaking Decker. As I live and breathe, he's a private eye. It's not a standard murder. Some binger and a public mass trying to get sent back to prison. Today you go to prison one time and suddenly it's all the jokes. RJ Decker. Series premiere Tuesdays on ABC and stream on hul. A little over nine years after Shelly Kovlin was found dead in that bathtub, Rod Kovlin is about to face a jury opening statements underway today in the trial of Roderick Covlin. Prosecutors say he staged the scene of his wife Shelley's strangulation back in 2009 to make it look like a drowning.

[Ashley Flowers]

People of the State of New York versus Ronald Rick Coblin. You attended the trial every day.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Every day, Every day. We all did.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And then you have Rod's mother who sits on the opposite side of the gallery.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was the hardest part for you? The first time I saw him walk in with handcuffs. That had to be difficult.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Yes. This was not an accident. The defendant did it.

[Ashley Flowers]

Leading the prosecution, Matthew Bogdanos, a former boxer and a war veteran. His nickname, the Pit Bull.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

The question was never, is he going to kill Shelly? The question was always, when defending Kovlan is Robert Gottlieb. No one will ever know the truth. A former prosecutor who now represents many high profile defendants, one fact is undeniable. There is no evidence whatsoever proving that Mr. Kotlin had anything to do with his wife's death. This is very much a circumstantial case. Seven weeks of testimony, much of which had little to do with what actually happened that night. This is one of the main reasons he murdered his wife. The money. She was going to change her will. In lieu of any hard physical evidence, McDonald's tries to paint a character profile of Rod Kovlan, one of an obsessive, dangerous man. To do that, he calls to the stand women who Covlin courted online. One is Patricia Swenson.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Defendant kept asking me out on dates and asking me to travel around the country with him.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

The jury hears about one of those dates. Go ahead, hit play. A weekend in Gettysburg. And they see a video Kovlin shot on that trip. Oh, I'm getting you. No, I so have you. It's video. It's video. I got some video going. I am the good stuff. Scenery. Don't worry.

[Ashley Flowers]

Coughlin may sound light hearted in the video, but Swenson testifies that totally changes later at brunch when he begins talking about the wife from whom he says he separated.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He said that he wanted to kill her or he wanted her dead.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Obviously, Deborah Oles testimony was very significant.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He had a mercurial temper. It didn't take much to set him

[Ashley Flowers]

off to make that case that Rod had an explosive relationship with his own parents. Prosecutors present a video that Deborah Olds recorded.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

What are we looking at?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

That's a picture of Rod approaching his parents front door.

[Ashley Flowers]

She testifies that the video shows Rod finding himself locked out of his parents house.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

They changed the lock. What just Happened.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He said they changed the lock.

[Ashley Flowers]

She tells the jury about that plot that Rod allegedly had to kill his parents during Hurricane Sandy.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

More than a million people in 11

[Ashley Flowers]

states are already without power.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He said that because there was no electricity, the alarm would not be on. He wanted to go see through a window in the basement, kill his parents and set his house on fire. I was not about to be a party to murder. I tried talking, talking him out of it.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Were you able to talk him out of this?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Yes.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Oles testifies about three other plots she claims Kovlin revealed to her. And incredibly, one of them supposedly involved his 12 year old daughter.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

He wanted his daughter Anna to poison Rod's parents. He said that if Anna was able to kill his parents because she was a child, if she got jailed at all, it wouldn't be for very long. And I said, you cannot do that to your child.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Were you able to talk about.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Yes,

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

we're talking about. About absurd, ridiculous murder plots with zero evidence. You don't have any audio or video of any of those incidents, Correct?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

I do not.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

When you spoke to Detective Mooney, did you not say. I just thought it was typical of a bad divorce.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Yes.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Other witnesses discussed Rod Covlin's behavior the night before the body was discovered. Rose Reed, the former nanny, testified Rod asked her if she would be staying in the apartment for a sleepover. Had he ever asked you if you were going to have a sleepover before?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

No. No.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

That's the first time.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

That's the first time he asked me.

[Ashley Flowers]

The defense portrays it as an innocent question since Kovlan knew that Shelly was coming home late. But the prosecution says what's really strange is the idea that Shelly would have taken a bath that night at all.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Why don't you stop it?

[Ashley Flowers]

They called to the stand Adam Amonoff, the stylist who did Shelly's hair earlier in the day.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Tell us the instructions you gave Shelly. No wash, no shampoo, no gym. Be careful from the rain.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Anybody who's ever had this treatment done knows you cannot get your hair wet. It's this Legally Blonde moment in this case.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Had you ever gotten a perm before?

[Ashley Flowers]

A Legally Blonde moment? Because of how similar it was to this scene in that famous movie?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

Because isn't it the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you're forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

risk of deactivating the ammonium thyglocalate? Because someone gets a hair treatment, it doesn't mean that you can't clean yourself for 72 hours. You didn't tell her that you couldn't fake, did you? Yes or no? But as the trial focuses even more on exactly what happened in that bathroom, what will a video recorded in jail reveal?

[Ashley Flowers]

Today, Rod Covlin seemed dazed as he

[Narrator/Reporter]

sat in a courtroom charged with second degree murder.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Nothing, absolutely nothing was done on December 31st when they were there inside the apartment.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I think that the testimony about the police investigation was really stunning to a lot of people.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Did you make any handwritten notes of any of the interviews you took that day? I don't believe so. While you were there, you didn't have any indication that Mr. Coplin would not speak with you, did you? No, sir. Fair say that you considered that this could potentially be a homicide? Yes, sir. No, the lack of investigation on December 31, that's a legitimate complaint. But what's the point? What would have been found?

[Ashley Flowers]

Remember, there was a delay before an autopsy was done, which the medical examiner, doctor, Dr. Jonathan Hayes, testifies concerned him.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

When I opened up the bag and saw her, I turned to my colleague and said, she needs an autopsy. Because I was. Why did you say that? I was struck by injuries she had on her face. She had scratches on her face, which I considered suspicious. And then Dr. Hayes tells the jury about his findings during the autopsy and the conclusion he reached about Shelly's cause of death. The cause of death was neck compression, and this fit well with a chokehold. One of the most striking things was the scratches on her face. As the person is put into the chokehold, they're going to fight back. And they fight back by trying to claw the arm away from the neck. And in doing so, they will sometimes scratch their face. The hardest part is just to get underneath the chin.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And that was a really significant part of the trial, is when this martial art expert got up there and performed the choke hold on a skeleton.

[Medical Examiner Dr. Jonathan Hayes]

When I'm here, I can just put

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

my hand under or over the top, depending upon which way you grab, and you can just start to pull back. And it's really that simple.

[Narrator/Reporter]

How you could have that kind of neck compression and would be able to, he said, Within 10 seconds, kill somebody.

[Ashley Flowers]

Rod Koblin had posted on Facebook that he had studied taekwondo for 11 years. But did he know how to do a chokehold? That's where a video becomes a key piece of evidence.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

You've seen this video before? Yes.

[Ashley Flowers]

Bogdanos introduces this recording from when Rod Covlin was in jail awaiting trial. That's him talking to another inmate. Watch what he does with his arms.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Did you see that? Yes.

[Ashley Flowers]

He's making two distinct movements.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Is that particular move consistent or inconsistent with the chokehold that is taught in martial arts? It's consistent as taught in martial arts. It's a single armed chokehold.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I believe that was quite damning for the defense.

[Ashley Flowers]

Gottlieb dismisses that tape.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

All he is doing is demonstrating to this guy. Another inmate in jail a few months before the beginning of the trial. This is the way the DA Is saying, I killed Shelly Covlin. But prosecutors have more. They bring in Shelly's estate attorney, who tells the jury about those plans she was making to change her will. Just before she died, she said, I need to change my will. I want to make sure that Rod doesn't get any part of my estate.

[Ashley Flowers]

And how would Rod have known about her communications with that lawyer? Rod's friend testifies that Rod told him he installed a keystroke logger on Shelly's computer, which allowed him to spy on her.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

On the very day she is going to write the defendant out of a will for $5.2 million. On the very day she has a fatal accident. Are you kidding me? The defense denies a keystroke logger was ever found on the computer. You are the final arbiters of the facts.

[Ashley Flowers]

After prosecutors rest their case, who does the defense call to testify? No one.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Once you call a single witness, you change the entire dynamic of the jury deliberation. It's no longer an evaluation as to whether or not the government proved its case, as opposed to do we believe the defense.

[Ashley Flowers]

So the trial moves straight to closing arguments.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

You may detest him. You may not even be able to stomach him if the proof isn't there. It is right. It is no to stand up and to say not guilty, even if it hurts, even if it's difficult. Justice has a single voice, and that voice tells you he is guilty. Not because I say so, but because he is. Thank you.

[Ashley Flowers]

As the jury heads off to deliberate, nobody knows what they're thinking or that there is still a big shock ahead from none other than Shelley's daughter, Anna.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A lot of us were very surprised by how quickly the jury came back.

[Ashley Flowers]

I couldn't breathe.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I was terrified, really. I'll say this is the first count

[Ashley Flowers]

of this indictment, charging the defendant, Roderick Hovland, with the crime of murder in the second degree. Guilty or not guilty?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Guilty.

[Ashley Flowers]

What was the first emotion for you? It was relief.

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

It was justice for Shelly, and she can rest. And that guy is hopefully Going behind bars, please God, for the rest of his life.

[Ashley Flowers]

And behind bars is where I talked with Rod, where even now he maintains his innocence. You sit here convicted of murdering your wife.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Correct.

[Ashley Flowers]

Did you kill your wife?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

No, I did not. I absolutely did not.

[Ashley Flowers]

But a jury of your peers are convinced that you did. Why should people believe you?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

You don't have to believe me. You have to believe the actual evidence. There just isn't evidence that I did this thing. The murder ten years ago, the conviction last month, the sentencing today for 45 year old Roderick Coughlin.

[Ashley Flowers]

And at that sentencing hearing, a surprise.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I'm going to be reading this for Anna, Rod's mother. Carol reads a statement from his daughter Anna, who by then is 18 years old.

[Ashley Flowers]

I love my mom and I will always love my mom. My father has never hurt anyone, nor has he committed a murder. My mom passed away. My dad has been taken away for so long already.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

Please let us know that it will

[Ashley Flowers]

come to an end. What was that moment like for you to hear your daughter essentially defend you?

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

It was overwhelming. She's the only person in the world who knows for a fact what happened that night. The only person. And she knows that I didn't do this. The judge sentences rod to 25 years to life in prison. I mean, the appeal was voluminous. It was over 350 pages. And there were many independent bases for the appeal. There was some prosecutorial misconduct. There was the admission of the video from prison which should not have been permitted. The character assassination. It was impossible for Rod to receive a fair trial.

[Ashley Flowers]

The district attorney's office rejected those claims. And in May of 2022, that appeal is denied. District attorney Alvin Bragg says he hopes that it'll bring closure to the family. But Anna then sends him a follow

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

up letter saying, I am Shelly's family. My brother is Shelly's family. And this decision has not brought us closure. My grief is not aided by the malicious, unjust imprisonment of my father. That is an open wound caused by your office.

[Ashley Flowers]

How worried are you for Miles and Anna going forward?

[Shelly's Sister (Eve)]

My concerns are for them to grow up to have wonderful lives.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

I think it's important for the kids and for the world to know she hands had a tremendous mission in this world. Between the way she cared for her kids with every fiber of herself and just, you know, a good, honorable person. She was someone who had that light and spread that light in this world. And that's, you know, that's what makes the tragedy that much greater.

[Ashley Flowers]

Difficult for the family. During my prison interview with Rod, Kovlin. He told me that he speaks to his son Miles every day. That's possible. And we've also learned that his daughter Anna has gotten married.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

On the legal front, we should mention that Rod Covlin's lawyer tells us that they have filed a motion to vacate his murder conviction. We'll stay on the story in the meantime. That is our program for tonight. I'm David Muir.

[Ashley Flowers]

And I'm Debra Roberts. From all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault Friday nights at 9 on ABC. You can also find all new broadcast episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.

[Private Investigator RJ Decker]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states.