that's it for me. thanks for watching the sunday show. follow us on x, instagram, tiktok, threads, using the handle weekend capehart. you can also listen to every episode of our show as a podcast for free. just scan the qr code on your screen right there, right now to follow. i'm andrea canning and this is dateline. >> he calls 911 and says his wife appears dead. >> he said anna found her in the bathtub. >> i've never seen my son shell shocked. >> it was a case taylor made

for the tabloids. >> you have this beautiful woman, a tall handsome guy. greed, infidelity. >> he's sleeping around with other women. >> a failing marriage with millions at stake. >> he didn't have anybody of his own. >> this is getting ugly. >> yes. she said we're broken, and she cried. >> was it a fall on the top or a husband's fall from grace? >> we believe it was a staged accident. >> he was adamant about his innocence. >> the case bothered me for a long time. >> he said to me, you have to help me kill my parents. >> you can't even think of the magnitude of it all. >> hello and welcome to dateline. shelly and rod coveland met and married in a matter of months. soon they had two young

children, a nest egg worth millions. and then on the brink of a new year, tragedy struck. pointing to a diabolical truth that would tear two families apart. here is endgame. >> normally full of lights with people rushing somewhere or nowhere. take a short walk uptown maybe, 25 minutes on foot. >> i started my own family here on the upper west side just steps from central park.

during the day, this neighborhood is buzzing with families. at night, it's quiet and safe. but just two blocks from where i lived in the early morning hours of new year's eve, 2009, something terrible touched this neighborhood. it happened inside this pricey apartment building on west 68th street. around 7:00 a.m., a man named rod covlin called 911 to say his 9-year-old daughter, anna, found his wife, shele, unconscious in the bathtub. rebecca rosenberg, then a reporter for the new york post, covered the case. >> he sees his wife in the tub. he pulls her out, puts her face up on the ground and starts performing cpr. and then he calls 911, and they tell him to keep performing cpr. >> this is a horrible scene? >> i would imagine absolutely devastating for their daughter. >> the emts arrived in minutes.

they found no pulse. 47-year-old shele covlin was beyond help. >> the police come to the scene, eventually a detective comes to the scene. >> detectives found a tub full of bloody water and shele wrapped in comforter on it next to her. above the tub, a cabinet. they believe she grabbed it and landed hard in the tub. and so investigators began the difficult process of deconstructing a life that had just come to a sad and mysterious end. the police would soon learn that shele covlin was larger than life. nobody admired her more than her sister, eve and brother-in- law, mark carstadt. >> we would have a blast and laugh a lot. she was a lot of fun. >> she graduated with a marketing degree. and then my dad had asked her if she wanted to come and work

with him at merrill lynch. >> shele eventually became a wealth manager. the money was good and so was the prestige. >> shele was fancy. she was smart, she was educated. >> reporter: shele's friend, stephanie goldman, remembers the day they took her to the friars club. >> it was wintertime, she was wearing her fur coat, her mink coat. men just came over to her. it was like being swept off her feet. >> she's got the finance job, the style, i mean it sounds like she was kind of the classic new york city woman? >> absolutely. absolutely. she was. >> in february of 1998, shele went to a jewish singles mixer in manhattan, where sparks flew with a guy she met there. his name, rod covlin. she called her sister that night with an outrageous announcement. >> she was all giggles, and she said i met a guy, really nice guy. and she said we're on our way

to the airport to elope. she was laughing. and i said shele, please don't do this. >> eve talked her sister out of it that night, but shele was serious and so was rod. shele was 11 years older than him, but that didn't seem to matter. his parents, dave and carol covlin said he adored her right from the start. >> he told us he has a girlfriend, and we have to meet her. i said okay, passover is coming up. we don't have time right now. no, you have to meet her. >> a brunette back then, shele married rod six months later and reality set in as they settled down to life as a couple. it wasn't exactly bliss because while shele was a stunning overachiever, rod was, well, not in the same league. he was a stock trader of middle end success. >> what i did see was a guy who really had a lot of big ideas, and was unable to execute on any of them. >> but he had a couple of

talents, martial arts. >> and he won money. >> two years after she married rod, shele gave birth to baby anna. >> she was inseparable from anna. she was doting on that child. she was an incredible mom. >> a second pregnancy followed, twins, but that ended in tragedy. >> so they were born prematurely, and then they died. >> oh my gosh. >> one at childbirth and one like a few hours later. >> how did she handle that? how do you support her? >> devastating. >> the entire year was a nightmare for her. >> then in 2006, shele had a baby boy. she and rod named their son, miles. but now three years later, shele was dead, and the scene inside that apartment on the upper west side was chaos. mark says eve could barely function. >> when i first saw her, she

walked down the corridor, and she was as white as a sheet. she was in terrible shock. >> karl was an nypd detective. he was there too, pondering various scenarios. >> i've been to places where people have fallen in a tub and anything is possible. >> in this case, that would be an understatement. this mystery is about to heat up. turns out the covlins seemingly perfect marriage was anything, but. coming up, a whirlwind romance that ended in a storm. >> she said he doesn't get a job and he is just hanging around the house. she was very frustrated. she said he's driving me crazy. >> and it might get worse. >> when shele told me he was going to be living across the hall, my first instinct was i don't think this is a good idea. >> when dateline continues.

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because breathing should be beautiful, new year's in the big apple is usually a happy time, celebrations everywhere new year's in the big apple is usually a happy time. celebrations everywhere and the promise of fresh starts and new dreams. but for those who knew and loved shele covlin, 2010 began with sadness. shele's sister, eve and her husband, mark, couldn't believe the mother of two was gone. >> did it kind of hit you later

the more emotional side of things as you think about your life without her and the children without her? >> right. you can't even think about the magnitude of it all. >> shele's in-laws, cheryl and david covlin were also shocked. their son, rod, called with the news. >> did you get any details? >> nothing. >> when you arrived, what's going on? >> roderick was sitting on the couch. i have never seen my son shell shocked and speechless in my life. >> the next few days were a blur. for religious reasons, the family decided not to have an autopsy performed. >> he went with his rabbi who said don't do the autopsy. >> it was only as friends and

family gathered for the jewish period of mourning that they had time to think about the vibrant woman they just lost. >> she was an incredibly devoted mother. she was an incredible person. >> but what was also on their minds was dark and troubling. shele's rocky marriage to rod. >> she says he doesn't get a job. he goes to the gym twice a day, and he is just hanging around the house. and she was very frustrated. she said he's driving me crazy. >> in 2009, shele confessed to her sister that her marriage was in serious trouble. >> and she said we're broken and we just have to part ways. and she cried. she wept to me. >> one thing, mark and eve say came between the couple was rod's dramatic mood swings. >> rod has and always has a violent explosive temp iter. he could be sitting very calmly in the chair and something

could set him off and in seconds, he'll literally explode. >> shele also complained about his obsession with back gamon. >> did he ever say why? >> i think he forged relationships in the bakeapple monocommunity. i said you've got a family. >> the covlin's saw changes in shele, ones they thought was equally damaging to the marriage. >> she started going to the friars club from once a week, it became much more frequent than that. >> the couple seemed to be living separate lives in what had to be a painful moment. shele told her sister it wasn't the backgammon or the fact that

rod wasn't pulling his weight that pushed her to separate. it was rod's cheating. >> she believes he left an e- mail up, so she would purposely see it from another woman. and she confronted him and he said that yes, he's sleeping around with other women, and he wants an open marriage. he still loves her and wants an open marriage. >> most women don't want to go along with the open marriage concept. >> right. she was one of those who said absolutely no. >> by june, rod had moved out, and he didn't go far. shele arranged for him to live for free in an apartment across the hall to make it easy for the kids. her close friend, stephanie goldman, wasn't happy with the arrangement. >> when shele told me he was going to be living across the hall, my first instinct was my goodness, i don't think this is a good idea. >> nevertheless shele was moving on, and so was rod. >> he was very charming,

intelligent, funny, in a quirky sort of way. i really enjoyed playing backgammon with him. >> deborah met rod at a backgammon tournament. months later their relationship became romantic. >> i wasn't looking for any sort of a relationship. and he was, you know, pretty aggressive. i'm considerably older than rod. and so it never occurred to me that he would be interested in me in that way. >> so it surprised you? >> it surprised me. and of course, it made me feel good, a younger man, being attracted to me. >> meanwhile shele was working with divorce attorney lance meyer. >> we talked about all the problems she was having with her husband and the concern she had about herself, her children, and she was really trying to figure out the best way to go about proceeding with a divorce case. >> by fall she was dipping her toe in the dating pool again. >> she was on jay date, she had met some gentleman.

>> j date, the jewish dating website? >> yeah, yeah. >> shele seemed on track to make a fresh start in 2010 until that fresh start ended in with a seemed like a deadly accident. >> when i heard she slipped and fell in the tub, my initial reaction was she wouldn't even take a bath. >> and now shele's friends and family were wondering about the story rod told police that his daughter, anna, called him that morning in a panic and let him into the apartments because he didn't have a key. >> i was very suspicious. >> suspicions that only deepened when mark learned the medical examiner wasn't sure either. >> i'm reading the death certificate and i saw the cause of death was undetermined. >> shele's loved ones aren't the only ones without doubt.

coming up. >> she had bruising to her lip, appeared to have some scratch marks. she had bruising to her right hand. >> and rod said he had pulled shele's wet body out of the tub, so why wasn't he wet? >> two officers found this unusual and noted this. how old wow you not get wet? when dateline continues. with a statin, leqvio is proven to lower bad cholesterol by 50% and keep it low with 2 doses a year. common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, and chest cold. ask your doctor about twice-yearly leqvio. lower. longer. leqvio® (aaron) i own a lot of businesses... so i wear a lot of hats. my restaurants, my tattoo shop... and i also have a non-profit. but no matter what business i'm in... my network and my tech need to keep up. thank you verizon business. (kevin) now our businesses get fast

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it just didn't make sense. htthe moment shele covlin's family heard about the death, they felt it didn't make sense. >> how do you fall in a bathtub? i started thinking and thought shele takes a bath? she showers, you know. she's not taking a bath. >> plus shele had gotten a keratin hair straightening treatment the morning. she wasn't suppose to get her hair wet for several days. >> they say don't wash your hair for 72 hours. not even go to the gym. >> it had is the legally blonde moment that any woman who knows about a keratin treatment is not going to expose your hair like that. >> her death did not sit right with lead detective either. while she felt her death could have been an accident, details at the scene bothered him. the way that cabinet door had been yanked down. the blood in the tub, and marks on shele's body.

>> she had bruising to her lip, appeared to have some scratch marks, and she had bruising to her right hand. >> what the detective would learn later cast suspicion on rod. rod told an officer he had to pull her wet body out of the tub, yet his clothes were bone dry. and then new york post reporter rebecca rosenberg. >> two officers found this unusual and noted this. how did you not get wet? he wasn't wet at all and it wasn't consistent with the story he had told. >> and their doorman remember rod doing something early that morning that was highly unusual for him. he stopped by the front desk to get a snack, even bought the doorman a snickers bar. >> the doorman thought it was weird because rod covlin usually wasn't chatty in all the years he had been there and never offered to bring him anything back. >> suspicious details indeed. the detective was hoping more clues would emerge from an

autopsy, but remember, shele's family didn't have one done for religious reasons. >> if that is what the family wanted. you want to try to help the family as best as you can. >> there wasn't much he could do and her family hired a private investigator. >> so you're not satisfied? >> not at all. >> he started talking to friends of shele's. we had a flood of information that was extremely suspicious. people were telling us things that were very worrying. >> including things that confirmed what the family had seen for themselves. shele's divorce attorney, lance meyer. >> he would belittle her, call her ugly, he would make fun of her looks, so he was a

demeaning person, and he would go low. >> so low, in fact, that at one point during their divorce, rod tried to undermine her at work. he called her company to report she was on drugs, unstable, and depleting their joint bank account. >> he was trying to get her to lose her job and it was obviously, she worked in a family operation within ubs, so it was a very serious thing, trying to part her and her family. >> the company determined shele was drug free and found that rod was taking much more money from their account than she was. the divorce got uglier. the two squabbled over child support. at one point a judge told rod he could no longer play backgammon. something he blamed on shele. >> she was taking away the thing he cared about the most. >> and her family took their private investigator over to

her apartment to check out the scene. something caught their eye. the cabinet she supposedly grabbed, the screws had been pulled out of the wall. he thought that would have talken more force. >> it would have taken a lot of strength to pull the door off. >> something shele wouldn't be able to do? >> most likely. >> no doubt in your mind this is a staged accident? >> we believe it was a staged accident. >> but none of this was the smoking gun. the only way to know for sure was to do an autopsy. two months after her death at the family's urging, her body was pulled out of the grave and re-examined. detective was in the room with the medical examiner. >> what are you seeing and thinking? >> near the end of it, he looked at us and showed us the bone that it was broken. >> that's in the neck?

>> inside the neck area. he said it will be a homicide. >> wow. >> and shele had been choked to death. coming up. >> the question was never is he going to kill shele? the question is always when. >> what do they have going for them with this jury? >> covlin had access. he was right across the hall. he had motive. and he is not a sympathetic guy. >> a trial of lies, secrets, and surprises. >> so this is getting ugly? >> yes. >> when dateline continues. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention.

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i'm richard lu with a news update. benny gantz is resigning from his post. he says netanyahu's real war to the victory of gaza. and president trump is set to virtually meet with a probation officer today. it comes a little over a week

after his conviction on 34 felony counts in his historic hush money trial. trump's sentencing is set for july 11. now back to dateline. m andrea. two months after shele covlin died welcome back to dateline. i'm andrea canning. two months after shele covlin died after suspicious circumstances, her family urged investigators to exhume her body and perform an autopsy. the medical examiner's chilling conclusion, shele was strangled to death. and then the investigation stalled and shele's loved ones feared the case would go unsolved, but they did not know even years later, authorities would have no intention of letting that happen. back now to endgame. shele covlin had been found dead in her bathtub in december

of 2009. investigators long believe her husband, rod, killed her, but they didn't have enough evidence to prove it. after nearly six years of slowly building a case, prosecutors timely became convinced they had enough to persuade a jury. in november of 2015, shele's sister, eve, got word from the district attorney's office. >> she said we're about to arrest rod covlin for the murder of shele covlin. so i started to get very emotional. she says to me are you okay? i said i've been waiting a really long time to hear those words. >> it would take three more years for rod's trial to begin. >> the people of the state of new york. >> and after waiting so long for justice, eve and her husband, mark, steeled themselves. why was it important for you to be there? >> so i can tell you on december 31, i said i'm not leaving until they take shele's body out. when it comes to the trial, i said i will be there every

single day, so she knows that i'm there for her along with the rest of the family. >> there's only one person. >> reporter: prosecutor described rod covlin as a cold- blooded killer, determined to get his wife out of his life. take their children and seize her assets at any cost. >> and only one person had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to have done this. >> prosecutors admitted their case wasn't a tidy one ready for csi, but they put a lot of sir circumstantial evidence. he was across the hall and he's not a sympathetic guy. >> prosecutors presented witnesses who said rod didn't even try to hide his abuse of

his wife. the family nanny told the jury at one point he had become enraged and violent. >> he said to me, rod threw her down on the floor. and when he asked her to go into the bedroom, she said she was scared of going in there with him because she doesn't know what he'll do. >> the prosecutor described shele as a textbook victim of domestic abuse. >> the question was never is he going to kill shele. the question is always when? >> shele was living in fear, prosecutors said, because her estranged husband was boiling with rage in their custody battle. shele's divorce attorney, lance meyer, took the stand to say how rod had even used his son as a weapon. >> mr. covlin took the children and accused shele of abusing miles. >> it turns out that he took them to the hospital and made

allegations that shele had sexually abused their son. >> wow, so this is getting ugly? >> yes. >> prosecutors said those disturbing and false accusations were just one example of how rod was becoming unhinged. he was also obsessively tracking shele's every move with secretly installed software on her computer. rod told this coworker that it enabled him to read her e- mails. >> he was reading and he was upset with the number of people that she was talking to, and he was upset about the way he was being portrayed in her e-mails. >> by late 2009, he was also deeply in debt with virtually no income. still even with their divorce pending, he believed he would gain control of her $5 million estate if she died. but then rod found some e-mails shele sent just two days before her death. >> she reaches out to an

attorney and also tells several people she wants to change her will and essentially write rod covlin out of the will. >> that's when rod snapped and hatched his plan. the night of december 30, her friend, melissa fields, saw her and sensed something was wrong. >> shele was nervous when we first met up and she was looking around quite a bit. i did ask her what the problem, if something was wrong. she was worried that her ex- husband was following her. >> on what would turn out to be her last night alive, shele remained in fear. it was all heavy on her mind when she got home to her apartment that night at 7:51, caught here on security cameras. later she log on to her online dating profile at 10:13. the last activity on any of her devices. rod, meanwhile, was across the hall. he was usually online playing backgammon late until the

night, but suddenly his online presence stopped at 1:03 a.m. no sign of him until he popped up on the surveillance video in the lobby at 4:13 a.m. >> the allegation was that he wanted to be seen on camera. >> he wanted to make an alibi that this is a way of building an alibi. >> the prosecution called the new york state medical examiner. in the autopsy, he had noticed those scratches on her face. and that fractured bone in her neck. >> my conclusion was that she had died at the result of neck compression and i classified her death as a homicide. >> strangulation, not an accidental fall. in another sinister twist, prosecutors believe three and a half years after shele's death, rod drafted a note composed of his 12-year-old daughter's e- mail account pretending to be her. it read, i lied. she didn't just slip. i got so mad, so i pushed her. i didn't mean to hurt her, i

swear. it was never sent, but it did hit the tabloids after it was filed with the court. >> what father does that? >> who does that to their child? who basically frames a child? >> right. >> prosecutors didn't get that note admitted into trial. they were about to bring forward a star witness whose explosive allegations would rock the courtroom. coming up. >> what was it like walking into that courtroom and seeing rod covlin in there? >> terrifying. >> she fell in love with one rod covlin. then she says she met the other. >> he said you have to help me kill my parents. >> when dateline continues. tid a proven choice to help restore what's yours. opzelura is the first and only fda-approved prescription treatment for nonsegmental vitiligo. proven to help repigment skin over time.

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ask your eczema specialist veteran prosecutors will tell you that once they've built their case for the jury, they try to put a closer on the stand, veteran prosecutors will tell you once they build a case with the jury, they will try to put a closer on the stand. >> and nothing, but the truth? >> yes. >> in the trial of rod covlin, the closer turned out to be none other than deborah oles, his backgammon buddy and former lover. taking the stand, sunglasses on. >> what was it like walking into that courtroom and seeing rod covlin in there? >> terrifying. i had to look at him one time, once, and just to point him out and say that's who he is. >> deborah testified she got a

late night call from rod on that fateful new year's day. >> he told me his wife had an accident, and died. my very first thought was that is a really weird coincidence in timing and that basically solves all of his problems. but then i felt guilty thinking about it because the paper said it was an accident. he said it was an accident. >> like he needed money? >> right. >> they've broken up and then she dies? so it makes rod's life easier? >> right. >> then he was very adamant about his innocence, always. >> and after that, their long distance relationship progressed in fits and starts. they would often play backgammon online. deborah would drive from her home down south to tournaments, sometimes picking up rod in new york and taking him with her. and then one day in 2010, the police paid her a surprise visit. >> i answered all their questions, and i offered to give them a copy of the games

that he would play, so they would have exact times we played and that was it. >> they thought he was guilty and said he was a very bad person. i didn't believe him at that time and i never saw the monster that i came to know until later. >> but the monster was lurking. she began to see how volatile rod could be. >> he had a temper that did not take much to set him off. >> she also saw terrible fights that he would have with his parents. by 2012, rod and his children were living with his parents in a new york city suburb and the fighting was constant. >> rod brought his arms back and shoved his father. his father went flying into the

room, hit his head on the floor. >> eventually his parents evicted him. deborah said he hatched bizarre plots to kill his parents. she told the court about one he dreamt up when super storm sandy struck the east coast. >> he said that because there was no electricity, the alarms would not be on. he wanted to go through a window in the basement, kill his parents, and set his house on fire. i was just stunned. >> he was going to -- >> he wanted to go over there, kill his parents, set fire to the house, and somehow get his kids out safely. and you know, i discussed it with him for 15 minutes and i'm like no, you're not going to do this. and then finally i said just how are you going to explain miraculously that you just

happened to be there to save your children and finally, you know. he finally backed down. >> she said the poison plot that called for anna to participate. >> he wanted her to put rat poisoning in their food or sugar. >> how am i suppose to protect his parents if i don't know what he's plotting, you know? i can't be there and protect them if i'm not there he won't let me know what's going on. >> you're helping the situation, being the voice of reason for rod? >> either try to talk him out of it or have enough proof to go to the police. >> by this time, deborah rented an apartment for herself and rod to live in north of new york city. but she was growing wary of his anger, exacerbated by his lured

schemes. one day she testified things came to ahead. >> we were in the car driving, and he said to me, you have to help me kill my parents, and i said i'm not going to help you kill your parents. he asked me like four, five times. finally i said i'm not going to help you kill your parents. even if i wanted to, which i don't, you kill me too. and he had a creepy laugh. and he looked at me in a way like oh, you're just now figuring this out. and he said, "no, i only want to kill the people who try to take my children away from me. >> did you believe now that rod killed shele? >> there was no question of doubt that he killed her at that point. >> finally rod and deborah split. in august of 2014, she called investigators and told them everything she knew. and now she told a jury and she was about to get grilled by rod covlin's defense attorneys.

coming up. >> so is it fair to say, yes or no, you weren't jealous? >> no. i was mad at him. i was mad at him for a lot of reasons. >> questions and after nine years, an answer. >> charging the defendant, roderick covlin with the crime of murder in the second degree. >> how hard was it waiting for the verdict? >> oh my gosh, that was so painful. i had such butterflies. >> when dateline continues. but this is my story. ( ♪♪ ) and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open for a full 24 hours and prevents future flare-ups. trelegy also improves lung function, so i can breathe more freely all day and night.

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andrea canning: welcome back. the prosecution's case against rod covlin ended with a bombshell. on the stand, his former lover, debra, welcome back. the prosecution's case against rod covlin ended with a bomb shell. on the stand, his former lover, deborah, described in chilling detail how after his wife, shele died, rod planned to kill his parents in order to regain custody of his children. his alleged targets were in the courtroom, hanging on every word. and now the defense was about to dissect deborah's story. here is the conclusion of endgame. >> carol covlin sat behind her son during the long weeks of trial. >> why was it important for you to be there? >> he's my son. i think any mother would do that for their child. >> you had to listen to your son being called a bum and

abuser and a killer. how did you handle that? >> you want to call them liars, but you can't. >> and alleging that rod had wanted to kill you. and we are talking about arsenic, rat poisoning. >> reporter: deborah's claims were laughable. >> the alleged murder plots are a farce. and he tried to poke holes in deborah's testimony, starting with the stories of the plots. >> were you scared? >> yes. >> did you call the police? yes or no, did you call the police? >> no. >> he said deborah's stories of rod's temper didn't add up either. >> time and time again when she's saying he felt bullied by rod, she was afraid of him. the only thing she ever says in her e-mails is i love you.

dear, i love you over and over again. >> despite her denials, gottlieb said deborah was crushed when their relationship ended. >> is it fair to say yes or no, you weren't jealous? >> no. i was mad at him. i was mad at him for a lot of reasons. >> and is it fair to say you have a history and admitted to being a habitual liar? >> that is disgusting and false. that is not true. >> the defense conceited rod wasn't always a stand up guy, but he said that didn't make him a murderer. >> you may despise him. you may not even be able to look at him. you may want to convict him to convict somebody of murder. there has got to be proof.

>> there was none. zero evidence. no signs of a struggle. he said rod couldn't have slipped into her apartment and killed her like they argumented because there was no evidence he had a key. remember, rod said little anna let him in that morning. >> there has been no evidence he was ever in the apartment on december 30 or december 31 before 7:00 a.m. >> no evidence either they said about what had caused her injuries. >> they used back hose to exhume. they used shovels to get to the coffin. >> carol said there was nothing she heard in court to convince her shele's death was a tragic accident. when you see the photos, it doesn't look like she slipped and fell. >> not really if you look at her face, if she slipped and fell and hit her face.

>> where did her scratches come from then? i mean you don't get scratches by falling in the bathtub. >> i have no idea. i just, you know, again, you're left with a conundrum. >> a conundrum that would never be solved because of bungling by investigators. >> and you did not have any of those interviews on december 31, correct? >> not that i recall, sir. >> investigators had not dusted for fingerprints or collected dna samples. there was a long list of what investigators hadn't done at the scene. >> every single viewer would know that that's not the way you investigate a suspicious scene if there is a remote possibility that it could be a

homicide. it was disgraceful. >> in a bold move, the defense rested without calling any witnesses. after more tan eight weeks, it was up to the jury to decide. was this an accident or a cold- blooded murder? how hard was it waiting for the verdict? >> oh my gosh, that was so painful. i had such butterflies. that was bad. >> they didn't have to wait long. after only a day of deliberations, the jury was back. >> charging the defendant, roderick covlin with the crime of murder in the second degree, guilty or not guilty? >> guilty. >> do you want to pull the jurors? >> guilty. i have been through a lot of trials and i don't know if i have ever seen that many tears and hugs and it was incredible

to watch your family. >> it wasn't a moment of celebration, but a moment of relief for fear of what would have been if the wrong verdict came down. >> outside the courthouse, family and friends gathered. after all this time, they felt like they could breathe again. >> the first thing i thought was this is just for shele and she can finally rest. >> deborah hopes she can rest now too. the prosecution star witness is happy the jury believed her. >> it was like a huge weight has been lifted off of me, and i'm finally like completely, you know, it's done. >> do you regret the day you met rod covlin? >> i do. i red light do. >> one of his biggest supporters is his daughter, anna. both children live with rod's parents. how are the children doing?

>> they're holding it together as best they could. >> shele's children are growing up without much contact with shele's side of the family. is there anything that you want the children to know about their mother and how you feel about them? >> their mother with every breath she took and every ounce of her, she adored them. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm andrea canning. thank you for watching. i'm craig melvin and this is dateline. >> something is wrong here. the system doesn't want to acknowledge that they made a mistake, but you made a mistake. >> the detective was like you tell us you did this?