photos. a girl smiling out into a world of possibilities. stolen, on a cold, december night. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. for watching i'm natalie morales, and this is dateline. >> red cauldron calls 9-1-1 and says his wife appears dead. >> he said that he had found her in the bathtub. >> i have never seen my son shell-shocked. >> it was a case tailor-made with the tabloids. >> we had this beautiful woman, a tall handsome guy, breed, infidelity. >> he is out with other women. >> a failing marriage with millions at stake. >> he didn't have any money of

his own. >> this is getting ugly. >> yes. >> she said she were broken, and she cried. >> was it a fall in the tub, or husbands fall from grace? >> we believed it was a staged accident. he was adamant about his innocence. >> the case bought me for a long time. >> he said to me you have to help me kill my parents. >> and i can't even think about the magnitude of it all. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello and welcome to dateline. shelley and roderick covlin met and married in a matter of months. soon they had two young children in manhattan. and an estate worth millions. then on the brink of a new year, tragedy struck. first responders thought it was an accident. but troubling clues quickly surfaced, pointing to a diabolical truth that would

tear to families apart. here's andrea with endgame. >> if you had to pick one place that screams new york city, it's usually this, times square, the city's heart and soul, and normally full of noise and lights and people rushing somewhere. or nowhere. take a short walk uptown however, maybe 25 minutes on foot, and the endless tourist hotspots and commerce gives way to a quiet -- >> here, you find the treeline streets and cozy apartments of the upper west side. >> 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 quite 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 am, a man named roderick covlin to say his 90 what find his wife shelley unconscious in the bathtub. rebecca rosenberg, a reporter for the new york post, knows this case inside and out. >> he sees his wife in the tub. he pulls her out, puts her face up on the ground, and starts performing cpr. then he calls 9-1-1, and they tell him to keep performing cpr. >> this is a horrible scene. >> and i will mention it was utterly devastating for the daughter. >> they empties 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 shelley

wrapped in a comforter around the floor next to her. above the tub, a cabinet with a door hanging of its hinge, chile had grabbed it as she fell, 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 and. the police would soon learn that shele covlin this was larger than life. nobody admired her more than her sister eve, and brother marc karstaedt. >> we would have a blast. we would laugh a lot. she was fun a lot. >> she graduated with a marketing degree, and then my dad had asked her if she wanted to come and work with them at le errol lynch. >> shele eventually became a private wealth manager. the money was good, and so was the priest stage. >> shele was fancy. she was smart. she was educated.

>> shelley's friend remembers the days she took her to the club. it was wintertime, she was wearing her coat. men just came over to her. it was like being swept off her feet. >> he's got the finance job, the style -- she kind of was the classic new york city woman. >> absolutely. absolutely she was. >> in february of 1998, shele went to a jewish single mixer and manhattan were sparks through with a guy she met there. his name, roderick covlin. she called her sister that night with an outrageous -- >> she was all giggles and said i met a guy, really nice guy, and she says we are on our way to the airport. she was laughing, and i said shelley please don't do. this >> evening her sister out of it that night, but shelley was serious, and so was rod. shelley was 11 years older than

him, but that didn't seem to matter. his parents, david carroll, said they adored her right from the start. >> he told us he had a girlfriend, and we have to meet her. and i said okay, they're coming up we don't have time for that -- now >> know you have to meet. her >> a brunette back then, shelley mary brought six months later. and as reality settled, -- it wasn't exactly blessed, because while he was a stunning overachiever, rod was well not in the same league. he was a stock trader of middling success. >> when it did seem was a guy that 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 backgammon. >> we sat down and played, he won. and he won money. >> two years after she married rod, shelley gave birth to baby anna. >> she was inseparable from

anna. she was always with that child. she was an incredible mom. >> a second pregnancy followed, twins. but that ended in tragedy. >> so they were born prematurely, and they died. >> oh my gosh. >> a childbirth in one few hours -- >> how did she handle that? how did you support her? it's just an awful thing. >> devastating. >> the entire year was a nightmare for her. >> then in 2006, shele had a baby boy. she and rod made her son miles, but now, three years later shele was dead. and the scene inside that apartment on the upper west side with chaos. mark says even could barely function. >> when i first saw her work walking down the corridor, and she was as white as sheet, she was incredible shock. >> he was an nypd detective, he was there to. pondering various scenarios. >> i think the places where people have fallen in the tub,

the anything is possible. >> in this case, that would be an understatement. >> the mystery is about to heat up. it turns out the confluence 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's just hanging around the house. and she was very frustrated. she said he's driving me crazy. >> and it might get worse, -- >> when shelby told me that he was going to live across the wall, my first instinct was i don't think this was a good idea. >> when dateline continues. ne continues at this homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon, there's no telling what we might bundle! homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon! bundle cars, trucks, colonials, bungalows, and that weird hut your uncle lives in. so strike up the homeandautobundle xtravafestasaveathon band for the deal that started forever ago and will probably never end.

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shele covlin, 2010 began with sadness. >> shele's sister eve and her husband marc, and believe the mother of two was gone. did a kind of hit you later, the more emotional side of things? did you think about your life without? >> right. exactly. >> and the children without her? >> right. you can't even think about the magnitude of it all. >> shele -- dl endgame 1--'s in laws, were also in shock. their son, rod called with a new. >> he says, shele is dead. i don't think i've ever made it to manhattan faster in my life. >> did you get any details on that first phone call? >> no. nothing. >> no, he just said chile is dead. >> when you arrive, what is going on? >> robert was sitting on the couch. >> he was in shock. >> honestly, i've 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. >> my father a lot obviously made the final decision. he went by his rabbi who said, don't do the autopsy. >> it was only as friends and family gather to -- 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 said, he doesn't get a job. he goes to the gym twice a day. and he's just hanging around the house. 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. >> she said, were broken and we just have to part ways. and she cried. she wept to meet.

>> one thing marc and eve said came between the couple was rod's dramatic mood swings. >> rod has and has always had a violent, explosive temper. he could be sitting very calmly in each year, and something can set him off and in seconds, he will literally explode. >> shele also complained about rod's growing obsession with back backgammon. >> it became a passion and then an obsession. for him. >> did he ever say why? >> i think he had forged relationships in the backgammon community, that he really liked. >> even rod's parents felt their son was spending too much time on the game. >> i told him that he was being a little ridiculous with the backgammon. going to backgammon too much. i said, you've got a family. >> the colvin said they saw sheen changes in shele, to. once they thought were equally

damaging to the marriage. >> she started going to the fire scrub. >> from once a week, it became much more frequent than that. >> the couple seemed to be living separate lives. in what happened to be a painful moment, shele told her sister it wasn't the backgammon or the fact that rod was it pulling his way that pushed her to separate. it was rod's cheating. she >> believes that he left an email up so she would purposely see it, from another woman. and she confronted him and he said that yes, he slipping around with other women. and he wants an open marriage. he still loves her, but once an open marriage. >> most women don't want to go along with the open marriage concept. >> 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 whole, to make it easy for the kids. her close friend stephanie goldman wasn't happy with the arrangement. >> when shele told me that 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 and in a quirky sort of way. and i really enjoyed playing backgammon with him. >> debra oles met rod at a backgammon tournament. months later, their relationship became romantic. >> i was looking for any sort of relationship. and he was pretty aggressive. i think i was naive in the fact that, i'm considerably older than rod. so, it never occurred to me that he would be interested in me in that way. >> so, it surprise you when he made an overture? >> right, of course it made me feel good. you know, for a man to be attracted to me. >> need, shele let's working with divorce attorney, lance meyer. >> we talked about all the problems she was having with her husband and the concerns

she had about herself, her children. and she was really trying to figure out the best way to go about proceeding with the divorce case. >> by fall, she was dipping her toe in the dating pool again. >> she was on jdate. she had met some gentlemen >> jdate, the jewish dating website? >> yeah, yeah. >> shele seemed on track to make a fresh start in 2010. until, that fresh start ended in what seemed like a deadly accident. >> when i heard that she slipped and fell in the tub, my initial reaction was, she wouldn't even take the bat. >> and now, shele's friends and family were wondering about the story rod told police. that her daughter called him that morning in a panic and let him into the apartment, because he didn't have a key. >> i was a very suspicious. >> suspicions that only deepened when marc learned the medical examiner wasn't sure either. >> i'm reading the death

certificate and i saw that the cause of death was undetermined. >> shele's loved ones are not the only ones with growing doubts. investigators zero in on troubling clues. coming up -- >> she had bruising to her lip. chip here to have some scratch marks. and she had bruising to her right hand. >> and rod said he had put shele's wet body out of the top, so, why wasn't he wet? >> two officers found this unusual enough to notice. how would you not get wet? >> when "dateline" continues. - i can't believe you got me this! - yes, verizon is giving one to everyone when they trade in their old or damaged phone. - oh! so like every sister can get this? - yeah. - every aluminum siding installer? - why not? - every doula? - they would have to! every customer, new and old, can get iphone 13 pro on us. because everyone deserves better. - everyone! - horse trainers! - manicurists! - you get the new iphone! - we're alone. - i know.

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heard the story of her death, a slip and fall in a bathtub full of water, they felt it just didn't make sense. >> how do you fall in the bathtub? and then i started thinking and i said, shele takes a bath? she showers. you know? she's not taking a bath. >> plus, had shele gotten a carotene here straightening treatment the previous morning. she was supposed to get her here wet for several days. they say don't wash your hair for 72 -- >> for 72 hours. not even supposed to go to the gym. >> this is what has been labeled a legally blonde moment. that any woman who knows about a carotene treatment is not going to expose your hair like that. >> shele's didn't death didn't

sit right with the lead detective either. while he felt her death could have been an accident, details of that scene bothered him. the week that cabinet door had been yanked down. the blood in the tub. the marks on shele's body. >> she had bruising to her lip. she appeared to have strapped scratch marks. and she had bruising to her right hand. >> and what the detective would learn later cast suspicion directly on rod. rod tooled an officer that he had to pull shele's wet falling out of the tub. yet his clothes bone dry. new york post reporter, rebecca rosenberg. >> two officers found this unusual and noted this. how would you not get wet? he was wearing a light colored shirt. he just was it where at all. and it was inconsistent with a story he had told. >> and their demand remembered rod doing something early that morning that was highly unusual for him. he stopped by the front desk on his way out of the building to get a snack. even bought the dormant a

snickers mark. >> the dorman thought this was work because roderick covlin usually wasn't chatty in all the years he had been there. never offered to bring anything back. >> suspicious details, indeed. the detectives was hoping more clues would emerge from an autopsy. that remember, shele's family did not have one done for religious reasons. how did you feel about that? >> i was uncomfortable. but if that's what the family wanted, i mean, you always want to try to help the family. the best you can. it's a hard time. >> but without autopsy results, he says there wasn't much he could do. so, less than a week after shele died, her family hired a private investigator. >> so, we are not satisfied? >> not at all. >> private investigator had started talking to friends of shele's, and we had a flood of information that was extremely suspicious. people for telling us things

that were very worrying. >> including things that confirmed what the family had already seen for themselves. shele's divorce attorney, lance meyer. >> he would be a little her, he will yell at her, he would call her ugly. he would make fun of her looks. so, he was a demeaning person. >> he would go solo in fact, that one point during their divorce, rod try to undermine her at work. he called her company to report that shele 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 -- so yes, it was a very serious thing. he was trying to hurt her and her family. >> that 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 plea

backgammon, something he blamed on shele. >> he was beyond angry. she was taking away the thing he apparently cared about the most. >> a couple of weeks after shele's death, her family took their private investigator over to her apartment to check out the scene. something called the investigators i. the cabinet that shele had supposedly corrupt as she fell, the screws had been pulled out of the wall. he thought that would've taken more force than the five foot four, 132-pound shele could muster. >> it would've taken a lot of strength to pull the actual door of the cabinet off. >> something that shele would have been able to do, you didn't believe? >> most likely. >> so, there was no doubt in your minds now that this is a staged accident? >> we believed it was a staged accident. >> but none of this was a smoking gun. the only way to know for sure how shele died was to exam her body and do an autopsy. two months after shele's death, at the families urging, her

body was pulled out of its grave and reexamined. detective -- was in the room with the medical examiner. what are you seeing? were you thinking? >> pretty much near the end of it, he looked at us, showed us the bone that it was broken. >> that's in that neck? >> inside the neck area. and he says, it's going to be a homicide. >> wow. >> shele had been choked to death. >> coming up -- >> the question was never is he going to kill shele? the question was always, when. >> what do they have going for them with this jury? >> colvin had access, he was right across the call. he had motive and he's not a sympathetic guy. >> the trial of lies, secrets and surprises. >> wow, so this is getting ugly. >> yes. >> when "dateline" continues. n "dateline" continues kly... instantly ready to start working. so you can bounce back fast with

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here's what's happening. a trail degrade near in more

tunnel leading to at least three confirmed deaths. amtrak says there were approximately 146 passengers, and 16 crew members on board. the ntsb is launching an investigation. miami made an arrest in collection to a last shooting memorial me can. it happened outside a miami banquet hall. it faces three counts of first degree murder. 20 counts of attempted murder. two suspects remain at large. now back to dateline. ck to dateline welcome back to dateline. i'm natalie morales. two months after he shele covlin died under suspicious circumstances, her family urged investigators to consumer body and perform an autopsy. the medical examiners chilling conclusion, shele was strangled to death. then the investigation stalled, and shele's loved ones feared

the case could go unsolved. but they did know that even years later, authorities would have no intention of letting that happen. once again, here's andrea andrea canning with "endgame". >> shele covlin have been found dead in her bathtub in december 2009. investigators have long believed her husband rod had killed her, but they didn't have enough evidence to prove it. then, after nearly six years of slowly building a case, prosecutors finally became convinced they had enough to persuade a jury. in november 2015, shele's sister eve got word from the district attorney's office. >> she said were about to arrest rod covlin for the murder of shele covlin. so i started to get very emotional, and -- i've just been waiting a really long time to hear those words. >> it would take three more years for roth's trial to begin. >> after waiting so long for

justice, even her husband mark steeled themselves. >> why was it important for you to be? they're >> so i can tell you that on december 31, i said i'm not leaving until they take shele's body out. i said i will be there every single day. i should be there for her along with the rest of the family. >> there is only one person -- >> prosecutor matthew bogdanos described rod covlin as a cold blooded killer, determined to get his wife out of his life, take their children, and sees her assets at any cost. >> only one person had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to have done this. >> prosecutors admitted the case wasn't a tiny one ready for csi, but they put a lot of

circumstantial evidence in front of the jury. >> we know it's a circumstantial case, but what do they have going for them with history? >> when they have going for them is that obviously coughlin had access to -- he had motive and he is not a sympathetic guy. >> prosecutors presented witnesses who said rod didn't even try to hide his abuse to his wife. the family told the jury that at one point, he had become enraged and violent. >> she said to me, she said rod through her on the floor. and when he sort of was going to the bedroom, she said she was scared of going in there with him, because you don'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 shelley? the question was always when? >> shele was living in fear, prosecutors said, because her estranged husband was boiling

with rage in their custody battle. shele's diverse attorney lance myers took the stand to say how rod had even used his son as a weapon. >> rod coughlin took the children, and accused shelley of abusing miles. >> it turns out that he took them to the hospital, and made allegations that shele had sexually abuse their son. >> 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 excessively tracking shele's every move with secretly installed software on her computer. rod told this coworker that it enabled him to read her emails. >> he was reading through her emails, and was upset with a number of people that she was talking to. and he was upset about the way he was being portrayed in her

emails. >> by late 2009, he was also deeply in debt, with virtually no income. still, even with their divorce spending, he believed he would gain control of her 5 million dollar estate, if she died. but then, rod found some emails sent just two days before her death. >> she reaches out to an attorney, and also tell several people that she wants to change -- >> the state said that's one rod snapped, and hatched his plan. the night of december 30th, a friend of melissa feel sorry and send something was wrong. >> shele was nervous when we first met up and she was looking around quite a bit. i didn't ask her what the problem, whether something was wrong. she was worried that her ex husband was following her. >> i want to 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 at night at 7:51. caught here on security cameras. later, she logged onto 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 into the night. but suddenly, his online presence stopped at 1:03 am. no sign of him until he popped up that surveillance video in the lobby at 4:13 am. >> the allegation was that he wanted to be seen on camera -- >> yes he wanted to make an alibi. this was like his way of building an alibi. >> the prosecution called the new york state medical examiner. in the autopsy, he had noticed that there are scratches on her face, and that fractured bone in her neck. >> my conclusion was that she had and neck compression, i classify the death as a homicide. >> strangulation -- not an accidental fall.

and in another sinister twist, prosecutors believe that we're in a half years after shele's death, rod drafted an ode composed from her 12-year-old's daughter email account, pretending to be her. it's read, i lied. she did 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 in the tabloids after it was filed with the court. >> what father does that? >> who does that to a child? who basically finds the child -- >> right. >> prosecutors didn't get that note admitted into trial, but 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 saying rod covlin in there? >> terrified. >> she fell in love with one

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once they built a case for the jury, they try to put a closer

on the stand, a witness who buttons everything up with a riveting tale. >> yes -- >> in the trial of rod covlin, the closer turn out to be none other than debra oles. rod's body and his former lover. taking the stand, sunglasses on. >> which was it like walking into that courtroom and seeing rod covlin in there? >> terrifying. i had to look at him one time once, just to point him out and say that's who he is. >> debra testified that she got a late night call from rod on that new year's day. >> he told me that his wife had an accident, and died. >> my very first thought was, that's a really weird coincidence in timing, and that really basically solve all this problems. but then i felt guilty about thinking that, because he said it was an accident in the paper said it was an accident.

>> you saying coincidence like he needed money? they broken, up and then she dies. so it makes rods life easier? >> right. but then he was very adamant about his innocence, always. >> after that, their long distance relationship progressed and fits and starts. they'd often play backgammon online, deborah would drive to her home -- sometime speaking abroad in new york and taking him with her. >> then one day in 2010, the police made her a surprise visit. >> i answered all their questions, and offered to give them a copy of the games that we played, backgammon games, so they had exact times that we played. and that was it. >> they tell you why they were? there >> they thought he was guilty. they said he was a really bad person, and i didn't believe them at the time. >> you have got to know him pretty well at this point to? >> right. i never saw the monster then i eventually came tunnel until later. >> but the monster was lurking,

as debra told the court overtime, she began to see just how volatile rod could be. >> he had a mercurial temperate and take much to set him off. >> she also so terrible fights that he had 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. >> one time during one of these fights, rod had brought his arms back, and he shoved his father as hard as he could. his father went flying into the room, hit his head on the floor. >> eventually, rod's parents evicted him, and kept his kids. rod was determined to strike back. debra says he hatched bizarre plots to kill his parents. she told the court about when he dreamt up with super storm sandy struck the east coast. >> he said that because there was no electricity, the alarms,

the alarm would not be on. he wanted to go through a window in the basement, to his parents and said his house on fire. >> i was, you know, just stunned! he was -- >> he wanted to go over there, kill his parents, set fire to the house and somehow get an and miles out safely. and you know, i discussed it with him for 15 minutes, and like no you're not gonna 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 -- >> he finally backed down. >> then she said, there was the poison plot that called for his young daughter anna to participate. he put rat poison in their food, and sugar for the tea. >> why don't you leave him at this point? >> all my supposed to protect its parents, if i don't know

what he's plotting? you know, i can be there and protect them, if i'm not there, he won't confided me and let me know what's going on. >> you're helping the situation as to be the voice of reason for rod? >> either try to talk him out of it or have definitive proof to go to the police. >> by this time, deborah has rented an apartment for herself and want to live in just north of new york city. >> but she said she was growing wary of his anger, and exasperated by his schemes. one day, she testified, things came to a head. >> we were in a car driving, and he said to me, you have to help me kill my parents. and i said i'm not going to become your parents. and he asked me for five times, and finally -- i'm not gonna help you call your parents. and even if i wanted to, which i don't, you kill me to. and he had this kind of peak repeal laugh. and he looked at me in a way,

that you just now figuring this out? and he said quote, know 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 exception in my mind that he killed her at this point. >> finally, rotten deborah split. in 2014, she called investigators and told them everything she knew. now, four and a half years later, she told the jury. and she was about to get grilled by rod goblins defense attorneys. coming up, so it is fair to say yes, you were -- >> no, i was mad at him. i was mad at him for a lot of reasons. >> questions and after nine years, an answer. >> how faith was the first kind of this environment -- rob coughlin, the kind of murder in the second-degree?

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on the stand, as former level debra oles 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 where in the courtroom, hanging on every word. now the defense was about to dissect deborah story. here's andrea canning with the conclusion of "endgame". >> carol cullen sat behind her son during the long weeks of trial. >> why was it so important for you to be? >> there it's my son. and i think any mother would be there for their child. >> you have to listen to your son being called a philanderer, and abuse are, and a killer. how did you handle? that >> i really wanted to get up and scream at them and call them liars, but she can't. >> one of the most explosive pieces of testimony was debra oles alleging that rod had wanted to kill you. and in grand fashion, we're

talking arsenic, right boys in. >> rods that, dave, said deborah's claims were laughable. the alleged murder plots are think our force. >> ross defense attorney agreed. during a testy examination he tried to poke holes in debra's testimony, starting with her story of those spots. >> were you scared? >> yes. >> did you call it? place >> yes or no? >> no. >> gottlieb says deborah stories didn't add up either. >> time and time again, when she is saying that she felt bullied by rod, she was afraid of him. the only thing she ever says in her emails is i love you, dear i love you, over and over again. >> despite her denials, gottlieb said deborah had been crossed when the relationship ended. her testimony, he said, was nothing more than words of a woman scorned. >> so it is fair to say, yes or

no? you were jealous? >> no, i was mad at him. i was mad at him for a lot of reasons. >> is it fair to say that you have a history and have admitted to be a habitual liar? >> that is disgusting and false. that is not true. >> the defense conceded rod wasn't always stand up guy. he said dad 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's got to be proof. >> there was not on, gottlieb said. zero evidence that there have been foul play. no signs of a struggle. he said rod couldn't have slipped into shelley's apartment and killed her, like the prosecution argued, because there was no evidence he even had a key. remember, rod said little anna had brought him in that morning. >> there's been no evidence

that mr. calvin was ever in the apartment on december 30 or december 31, before 7 am. >> no evidence either, gottlieb said, about one had cost shelley's injuries. he suggested one explanation, the exclamation. >> they used backhoes to zoom. they used shovels to get to the coffin. >> aaron said there was nothing she heard in court that convinced her shele's death was anything but a tragic accident. >> if you see those photos, doesn't it look like she just slipped and fell? it looks like someone did something to her. >> really, if you look at her paced if she slipped and fell and hit her face into the bathtub -- >> so did scratches come from? i mean you don't get scratches in a bathtub? >> it depends how they took her out -- >> i have no idea. >> many they're. >> i just, you know, again, you are left with conundrum. >> a conundrum that would never

be solved, the defense argued. because of bungling by investigators. >> we do not have any notes, or any of those interviews on december 31, correct? >> not that i recall, sir. >> investigators had invested for fingerprints, or collected dna samples. there was a long list, gottlieb said, of what investigators hadn't done at the scene. >> every single viewer would know that that's not the way you investigate a suspicious singing, if there's even a remote possibility that it could be a homicide. it was just disgraceful. >> then, in a bold move, the defense rested, without calling any witnesses. after more than eight weeks of testimony, 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. and i had such butterflies -- oh my gosh! that was bad. >> they don't have to wait long. after only a day of deliberations, the jury was back. >> the first -- charting the defendant rob coughlin with a crime of murder in the second degree, guilty or not guilty? >> guilty. >> judge -- you want to call the jurors? >> guilty. >> i've been through a lot of trials, and i don't know i've never seen that much emotion from a family and that many hugs and that many tears. i mean, it was pretty incredible to watch your family. >> it was a moment of celebration, it was a moment of relief. >> for fear of what would have been, if the wrong verdict came down. >> and outside the courthouse, family and friends gathered. >> after all this time, they

felt they could breathe again. >> first thing i thought, is justice virtually, and she could finally. >> rest debra oles hopes you can rest now. to 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? >> i do. i really do. >> rod is appealing his conviction. one of his biggest supporters is his daughter anna, both children live with his parents. how are the children doing? >> they're holding it together as best as they could. >> shele's children are growing up without much contact with shele's side of the family. >> is there anything 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 natalie morales. thank you for watching. you for watching >> i'm andrea canning and this is "dateline". >> two guys saw what they thought was a mannequin. she had wood piled on top of her. no identification. >> we all came together because by becoming volunteers to identify jane doze and john those. there's a passion trying to find out who our doe is. they would have this is your family you, want to give them closure. >> to our homicide detectives, is way above our means. >> i said, i think i know how we can do. it >> all of these people share something amount of our a