The estranged husband of an Upper West Side wealth manager who was found strangled to death on New Year's Eve 2009 has never been formally charged in her death—but he has now been hit with a wrongful-death suit by her estate. Roderick Covlin, a former trader who founded the U.S. Backgammon Federation, has been accused in the suit of murdering Shele Danishefsky Covlin. Public Administrator Ethel Griffin, who handles estate complications, alleges Covlin “intentionally, deliberately, willfully, wantonly, maliciously, brutally and without provocation or just cause did strangle, choke, strike, injure, assault, abuse, beat and murder” his wife.
Danishefsky Covlin, a 47-year-old UBS wealth manager, was found dead in her upper West Side bathtub on New Year’s Eve 2009 by her 9-year-old daughter; her scalp was cut, and the death was initially ruled an accidental fall. She was buried almost immediately by her Orthodox Jewish family without an autopsy. But after detectives found out she was embroiled in a bitter divorce from her husband (with whom she had two children), and learned she had previously obtained an order of protection against him, they insisted on exhuming her body. A medical examiner later ruled she was actually strangled to death.
Friends previously said the victim had told them "more than once that 'he threatened to kill me.'" There was another wrinkle which caught investigators' eyes: Danishefsky Covlin left an estate of at least $1 million, which was to be split 50-50 between her estranged husband and their two children. Sources told the Post the UBS Wealth Management vice president had a meeting scheduled, the day after her death, with a lawyer to amend her will to exclude her husband. The aim of the public administrator’s suit is to keep the money away from Roderick Colvin.
Police are also still investigating him: “There is still an active criminal investigation,” said Mitchell Studley, attorney for the public administrator. “We hope there will be a determination by the DA shortly.” he said, adding that the office has a two-year deadline to file wrongful-death claims.
