linda is the strongest person, incredible person. i could not-- i didn't know she had that much in her to be that strong. i think philip would have really been proud of linda. i think he would have been happy with her. dennis murphy (voiceover): of course, philip is gone now. carey, too. and craig is locked away, two life sentences plus another 85 years. effingham county had never seen the likes of what happened to the heidts and hopes never to again. i'm arod covlining, andcalls 911 and says." that his wife appears dead. he said that anna found her in the bathtub.

i've never seen my son shellshocked. andrea canning: it was a case tailor-made for the tabloids. you have this beautiful woman, a tall, handsome guy, greed, infidelity. he's sleeping around with other women. andrea canning: a failing marriage with millions at stake. he didn't have any money of his own. this is getting ugly. yes. she said, we're broken. and she cried. andrea canning: was it a fall in the tub or a husband's fall from grace? we believe that 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 about the magnitude of it all. [theme music] hello, and welcome to "dateline." shele and rod covlin met and married in a matter

of months. soon, they had two young children, a tony manhattan address, and a nest egg 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 two families apart. here is "endgame." [music playing] if you had to pick one place that screams new york city, it's usually this. times square is 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, will be 25 minutes on foot. and the endless racket of tourist hotspots and commerce gives way to a quieter vibe. here you find the tree-lined 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 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 am, a man named rod covlin called 911 to say his nine-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. then he calls 911, and they tell him to keep performing cpr. this is a horrible scene. and i would imagine absolutely devastating

for their daughter. andrea canning: 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. andrea canning: detectives found a tub full of bloody water and shele wrapped in a comforter on the floor next to it. above the tub, a cabinet with a door hanging off its hinge. they surmised shele 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 end. the police would soon learn that shele danishefsky covlin was larger than life. nobody admired her more than her sister eve and brother-in-law marc karstaedt. we would have a blast. we would 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. andrea canning: shele eventually became a private wealth manager. the money was good. so was the prestige. stephanie goldman: shele was fancy. she was smart. she was educated. andrea canning: shele's friend, stephanie goldman, remembers the day shele took her to the upscale friars club. stephanie goldman: it was wintertime. she was wearing her fur coat, her mink coat. men just came over to her. they-- it was like being swept off her feet. she's got the finance job, the style. the-- i mean, it sounds like she kind of was the classic new york city woman. absolutely. absolutely, she was. andrea canning: 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, a 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. andrea canning: 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, say he adored her right from the start. he told us he has a girlfriend, and we have to meet her. and i said, ok, passover is coming up. we don't have time right now. no, you have to meet her. andrea canning: 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 middling success. what i did see was a guy that really had a lot of big ideas and was unable to execute

on any of them. andrea canning: but he had a couple of talents, martial arts and backgammon. and when he sat down and played-- he won. --he won. and he won money. andrea canning: two years after she married rod, shele gave birth to baby anna. marc karstaedt: she was inseparable from anna. she was doting on that child. she was an incredible mom. andrea canning: a second pregnancy followed, twins. but that ended in tragedy. so they were born prematurely, and then they died. andrea canning: oh, my gosh. one, i think, at childbirth and one, like, a few hours later. how did she handle that? how did you support her? it's just such an awful thing. devastating. the entire year was a nightmare for her. andrea canning: then in 2006, shele had a baby boy. she and rod named their son myles. but now three years later, shele was dead. and the scene inside that apartment on the upper west side was chaos.

marc 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. carl roadarmel was an nypd detective. he was there too, pondering various scenarios. i've been to places where people have fallen in a tub. and it's-- anything's possible. andrea canning: 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's just hanging around the house. and she was very frustrated. she said, he's driving me crazy. andrea canning: and it might get worse. when shele told me that he was going to be living across the hall, my first instinct was, i don't think this is a good idea. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues.

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did it kind of hit you later, the more emotional side of things as you think-- oh, for sure. --about your life without her-- right, exactly. --and the children without her? right. you can't even think about the magnitude of it all. andrea canning: shele's in-laws, david and carol covlin, were also in shock. their son rod called with the news. david covlin: he says, shele's dead. i don't think i've ever made it to manhattan faster in my life. did you get any details-- no. --in that first phone call? nothing. no, he just said, shele's dead. when you arrive, what's going on? roderick was sitting on the couch. he was in shock. honestly, i've never seen my son shellshocked and speechless in my life. andrea canning: the next few days were a blur. for religious reasons, the family decided not to have an autopsy performed. my father-in-law obviously made the final decision. he went by his rabbi, who said, don't do the autopsy.

andrea canning: it was only as friends and family gathered to sit shiva, 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. andrea canning: 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. and she was very frustrated. she said, he's driving me crazy. andrea canning: in 2009, shele confessed to her sister that her marriage was in serious trouble. eve karstaedt: and she said, we're broken, and we just have to part ways. and she cried. she wept to me. andrea canning: one thing marc and eve say 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 a chair, and something can set him off. and in seconds, he will literally explode. andrea canning: shele also complained about rod's growing obsession with 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. andrea canning: 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 and going to backgammon too much. i said, you've got a family. andrea canning: the covlins say they saw changes in shele too, ones they felt were equally damaging to the marriage. she started going to the-- friars. --friars club. from a once a week, it became much more frequent than that. andrea canning: 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 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'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. andrea canning: 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 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. andrea canning: nevertheless, shele was moving on,

and so was rod. he was very charming, intelligent, funny in a quirky sort of way. and i really enjoyed playing backgammon with him. andrea canning: debra oles met rod at a backgammon tournament. months later, their relationship became romantic. debra oles: i wasn't looking for any sort of relationship. and he was-- you know, he's pretty aggressive. and i think i was naive in the fact that i'm considerably older than rod. yeah, like-- so it never occurred to me that he would be interested in me in that way. so it surprised you when he-- - it surprised me. - --made an overture? right. and of course, it made me feel good, you know, a younger man being attracted to me. andrea canning: meanwhile, shele was working with divorce attorney lance meyer. 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 the divorce case. andrea canning: by fall, she was dipping her toe in the dating pool again.

eve karstaedt: she was on jdate. she had met some gentlemen, and-- andrea canning: jdate, the jewish dating website? yeah, yeah. andrea canning: 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 a bath. andrea canning: 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 apartment because he didn't have a key. i was very suspicious. andrea canning: 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. she appeared to have some scratch marks. and she had bruising to her right hand. andrea canning: 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 would you not get wet? andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. to love your shower again with jacuzzi bath remodel. you can get a beautiful new bath or shower installed in one day. that's right. one day. and at a price you can afford. in fact, there's never been a more affordable time to call than now with this love your shower sale. we're waiving all installation costs and postponing all payments for up to one year,

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from the moment shele covlin's family 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 a bathtub? and then i started thinking, and i said, shele takes a bath? she showers. you know, she's-- she's not taking a bath. andrea canning: plus, shele had gotten a keratin hair straightening treatment the previous morning. she wasn't supposed to get her hair wet for several days. they say don't wash your hair for-- 72 hours. andrea canning: yeah. not even supposed to go to the gym. this is what's been sort of labeled the "legally blonde" moment-- yep. --that any woman who knows about a keratin treatment to straighten your hair is not going to expose your hair like that. shele's death didn't sit right with lead detective carl roadarmel either. while he 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. she appeared to have some scratch marks. and she had bruising to her right hand. andrea canning: and what the detective would learn later cast suspicion directly on rod. rod told an officer that he had to pull shele's wet body out of the tub. yet, his clothes were bone dry. then "new york post" reporter rebecca rosenberg. 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 wasn't wet at all, and it wasn't consistent with the story he had told. andrea canning: and their doorman 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 doorman a snickers bar. rebecca rosenberg: the doorman thought this was weird because rod covlin usually wasn't chatty in all the years he'd been there, never offered to bring him anything back. andrea canning: 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. how did you feel about that? i was uncomfortable. but if that's what the family wanted, i mean, i'm-- you always want to try to help the family the best you can. it's a hard time. andrea canning: 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 you're not satisfied? not at all. the private investigator had started-- had started talking to friends of shele's, and we had a flood of information that was extremely suspicious. people were telling us things that were very worrying. andrea canning: including things that confirmed what the family had already seen for themselves. shele's divorce attorney lance meyer. lance meyer: he would belittle her.

he would yell at her. he'd call her ugly. he would make fun of her looks. so he was a demeaning person. he would go low. andrea canning: so low, in fact, that at one point during their divorce, rod tried 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 ubs. so it was a very serious thing. he was trying to hurt her and her family. andrea canning: 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. he was beyond angry. she was taking away the thing he apparently cared about the most. andrea canning: a couple of weeks after shele's death, her family took their private investigator

over to her apartment to check out the scene. something caught the investigator's eye. the cabinet that shele had supposedly grabbed as she fell, the screws had been pulled out of the wall. he thought that would have taken more force than the 5 foot 4, 132-pound shele could muster. that would have taken a lot of strength to pull the actual door of the cabinet off. something that shele wouldn't have been able to do, he didn't believe? most likely. so there's no doubt in your minds now that this is a staged accident. we believed it was a staged accident. andrea canning: but none of this was a smoking gun. the only way to know for sure how shele died was to exhume her body and do an autopsy. two months after shele's death, at the family's urging, her body was pulled out of its grave and re-examined. detective roadarmel was in the room with the medical examiner. what are you seeing? what are you thinking? pretty much near the end of it, he looked at us.

he showed us the hyoid bone that was broken. that's in the neck? inside the neck area. and he says it was going to be a homicide. andrea canning: 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? covlin had access. he was right across the hall. he had motive. and he is not a sympathetic guy. andrea canning: a trial of lies, secrets, and surprises. wow. so this is getting ugly. yes. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. >> productive day. >> get 24. >> hour. >> continuous relief that. >> does not fade. >> does not fade. >> be wise.

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>> something you can. sign and make official. >> start your will at trust and wilcom now and make it count. >> hi, i'm richard. >> lui with the news. >> update roughly 21 people from arkansas. >> to. >> pennsylvania are under some measures. >> of flood. >> alert this weekend. much of the eastern half of the united states is bracing for severe

weather. >> with life threatening flash flooding possible. >> snow is. >> set to blanket the. upper midwest. >> through to new england and. >> in texas, health officials. >> confirming at least 49 cases of measles. the majority of those. cases are school aged kids. in gaines county, which kids. in gaines county, which borders new mexico. welcome back to "dateline." i'm andrea canning. two months after shele covlin died under 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. then the investigation stalled, and shele's loved ones feared the case would go unsolved. but they didn't know that 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 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, we're about to arrest rod covlin for the murder of shele covlin. so i started to get very emotional. and she says to me, are you ok? and i said, i've just been waiting a really long time to hear those words. andrea canning: it would take three more years for rod's trial to begin. bailiff: the people of the state of new york versus roderick s. covlin. andrea canning: after waiting so long for justice, eve and her husband marc steeled themselves. why was it important for you to be there? so i can tell you that on december 31, i said, i'm not leaving until they take shele's body out.

and then when it came 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-- andrea canning: prosecutor matthew bogdanos 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. only one person had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to have done this. andrea canning: prosecutors admitted their case wasn't a tidy 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 this jury? what they have going for them is that obviously covlin had access. he was right across the hall. he had motive. and he is not a sympathetic guy.

andrea canning: prosecutors presented witnesses who said rod didn't even try to hide his abuse of his wife. the family nanny told the jury that at one point, he had become enraged and violent. she said to me, she said rod throw 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 don't know what he'll do. andrea canning: the prosecutor described shele as a textbook victim of domestic abuse. the question was never, is he going to kill shele? the question was always, when? andrea canning: 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 myles.

it turns out that he took him to the hospital and made allegations that shele had sexually abused their son. ugh. wow. so this is getting ugly. yes. andrea canning: 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 emails. he was reading through things, 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 emails. andrea canning: 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 emails shele sent just

two days before her death. she reaches out to an attorney and-- and also tells several people that she wants to change her will and essentially write rod covlin out of her will. andrea canning: the state said 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. and i did ask her what the problem-- if something was wrong. she was worried that her ex-husband was following her. andrea canning: 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 logged 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 into the night. but suddenly, his online presence stopped at 1:03 am. no sign of him until he popped up on 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, that this was like his way of building an alibi. andrea canning: 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 as the result of neck compression, and i classified her death as a homicide. andrea canning: strangulation, not an accidental fall. and in another sinister twist, prosecutors believe that 3 and 1/2 years after shele's death, rod drafted a note composed from his 12-year-old daughter's email 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-- who does that to a child? right. marc karstaedt: who basically frames a child? right, on their own. andrea canning: 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 seeing rod covlin in there? terrifying. andrea canning: 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. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. i told myself i was ok with my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms... ...with my psoriatic arthritis symptoms. but just ok isn't ok.

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future of tiktok in the us. >> reporting from philadelphia. >> el paso and. >> the palisades, virginia. >> from msnbc world headquarters >> from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. veteran prosecutors will tell you that once they've built their case for the jury, they try to put a closer on the stand, a witness who buttons everything up with a riveting tale. judge: --the truth, and nothing but the truth? yes. judge: thank you. andrea canning: in the trial of rod covlin, the closer turned out to be none other than debra oles, rod's backgammon buddy and his 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, just to point

him out and say that's-- that's who he is. andrea canning: debra testified that she got a late night call from rod on that fateful 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 and timing, and that really basically solves all his problems. but then i felt guilty about thinking that because he said it was an accident. and then the paper said it was an accident. you're saying coincidence like he needed money? right. they've broken up, and then she dies. so it makes rod's life easier? right. but then he was very adamant about his innocence, always. andrea canning: after that, their long-distance relationship progressed in fits and starts. they'd often play backgammon online. debra would drive from her home down south to tournaments, sometimes picking up rod in new york and taking him with her. then one day in 2010, the police paid her a surprise visit. i answered all their questions

and offered to give them a copy of the games, the games that we played, so they'd have exact times that we played. and that was it. did 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 had gotten to know him pretty well at this point too. - right. i never saw the monster that i eventually came to know until later. andrea canning: but the monster was lurking. as debra told the court, over time, she began to see just how volatile rod could be. he had a mercurial temper. it didn't take much to set him off. andrea canning: she also saw 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, like, 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. andrea canning: 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 one he dreamed up when superstorm 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, kill his parents set, and set his house on fire. i was, you know, just stunned. he was going to-- he wanted to go over there-- --set fire? --kill his parents, set fire to the house, and somehow get anna and myles out safely. and, you know, i just-- i discussed it with him for, like, 15 minutes or so. i'm like, no, you're not going to do this. you're not. 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, that, you know-- so he backed out? he finally backed out. andrea canning: then she said there was the poison plot that called for his young daughter anna to participate. he wanted her to, like, put rat poison in their food or, like, sugar for their tea or whatever. why don't you leave him at this point? how am i supposed to protect his parents if i don't know what's going-- what he's plotting? you know, i can't-- i can't be there and protect them if i'm not there. he won't confide in me and let me know what's going on. you're helping this situation as to be the the voice of reason for rod? either try and talk him out of it or have enough definitive proof where i can go to the police. andrea canning: by this time, debra had rented an apartment for herself and rod to live in just north of new york city. but she says she was growing weary of his anger

and exasperated by his lurid schemes. one day, she testified, things came to a head. we were in the car driving, and he said to me, you have to help me kill my parents. and i said, i am not going to help you kill your parents. and he asked me, like, four or five times. and i finally-- i was just like, i'm not going to help you kill your parents. and even if i wanted to, which i don't, you'd kill me too. and he had this kind of creepy laugh. and he looked at me in a way that like, oh, you're just now figuring this out? and then he said, quote, "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 susceptible of doubt in my mind that he killed her at that point. andrea canning: finally, rod and debra split. in august 2014, she called investigators and told them everything she knew. now, 4 and 1/2 years later, she had told a jury. and she was about to get grilled by rod

covlin's defense attorneys. coming up. robert gottlieb: so is it 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. andrea canning: questions, and after nine years, an answer. judge: how say you to the first count of this indictment 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. andrea canning: when "dateline" continues. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. [music playing] i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease.

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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, described in chilling detail how, after his wife shelley 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. now, the defense was about to dissect debra's story. here's the conclusion of "endgame." andrea canning: carol covlin sat behind her son during the long weeks of trial. why was it so important for you to be there? carol covlin: he's my son. and i think any mother would do that for their child. andrea canning: you had to listen

to your son being called a philanderer, a bum, an abuser, and a killer. how did you handle that? carol covlin: you really wanted to get up and scream at them and call them liars, but you cant. andrea canning: one of the most explosive pieces of testimony was debra oles alleging that-- that rod had wanted to kill you and-- in grand fashion. were talking arsenic, rat poison. andrea canning: rods dad, dave, says debras claims were laughable. dave covlin: the alleged murder plots-- carol covlin: plots-- dave covlin: --i think are a farce. andrea canning: rods defense attorney, robert gottlieb, agreed. during a testy cross-examination he tried to poke holes in debras testimony. starting with her story of those plots. robert gottlieb: were you scared? debra oles: yes. robert gottlieb: did you call the police? yes or no, did you call the police? debra oles: no. andrea canning: gottlieb says debras stories of rods temper didnt add up either. robert gottlieb: 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 e-mails is, "i love you, dear. i love you," over and over again. andrea canning: despite her denials, gottlieb said debra had been crushed when the relationship ended. her testimony, he said, was nothing more than the words of a woman scorned. robert gottlieb: so, is it fair to say, yes or no, you were jealous? debra oles: no, i was mad at him. i was mad at him for a lot of reasons. robert gottlieb: is it fair to say that you have a history and have admitted to being a habitual liar? debra oles: that is-- that is disgusting and false. that is not true. andrea canning: the defense conceded rod wasnt always a stand-up guy, but he said that didnt make him a murderer. robert gottlieb: 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.

andrea canning: there was none, gottlieb said. zero evidence there's been foul play. no signs of a struggle. he said rod couldnt have slipped into sheles apartment and killed her, like the prosecution argued, because there was no evidence he even had a key. remember rod said little anna had let him in that morning. robert gottlieb: there's been no evidence that mister covlin was ever in the apartment on december 30 or december 31 before 7 am. andrea canning: no evidence either, gottlieb said, about what had caused sheles injuries. he suggested one explanation, the exhumation. robert gottlieb: they used backhoes to exhume. they used shovels to get to the-- the coffin. andrea cannin: carol said there was nothing she heard in court that convinced her sheles death was anything but a tragic accident. if you see those photos, doesn't look like she just slipped and fell. it looks like someone did something to her. carol covlin: not really. if you look at her face.

if she slipped and fell and hit her face into the bathtub. andrea canning: so where did her scratches come from then? i mean, you dont get scratches falling in a bathtub. carol covlin: it depends on whats in there, how-- how they took her out. dave covlin: i have no idea. carol covlin: no, we-- dave covlin: i just-- you know, again, you are left with a conundrum. andrea canning: a conundrum that would never be solved, the defense argued, because of bungling by investigators. robert gottlieb: you do not have any notes or any of those interviews on december 31, correct? carl roadarmel: not that i recall, sir. andrea canning: investigators hadnt dusted for fingerprints or collected dna samples. there was a long list, gottlieb said, of what investigators hadnt done at the scene. robert gottlieb: every single viewer would know that that's not the way you investigate a suspicious scene if there's even a remote possibility that it could be a homicide. it was disgraceful.

andrea canning: 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. andrea canning: how hard was it waiting for the verdict? eve karstaedt: oh, my gosh, that was so painful. and i had such butterflies. oh, my gosh, that was bad. andrea canning: they didn't have to wait long. after only a day of deliberations, the jury was back. unidentified woman: how say you to the first count of this indictment charging the defendant roderick covlin with the crime of murder in the second degree, guilty or not guilty? unidentified woman: guilty. unidentified woman: judge, move to the second count? do you want to poll the jurors? judge: poll the jurors. andrea canning: guilty. ive been through a lot of trials. and i dont know that ive ever 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. marc karstaedt: it wasn't a moment of celebration. it was a moment of relief-- eve karstaedt: right. marc karstaedt: --for fear of what would have been if the wrong verdict came down. andrea canning: and outside the courthouse, family and friends gathered. unidentified woman: finally. andrea canning: after all this time they felt like they could breathe again. eve karstaedt: the first thing i thought of was, it's justice for shele, and she can finally rest. andrea canning: debra oles hopes she can rest now too. the prosecution's star witness is happy the jury believed her. debra oles: it was like a huge weight has been lifted off of me. and im finally, like, completely, you know, it's-- it's done. andrea canning: do you regret the day you met rod covlin? debra oles: i do. i really do. andrea canning: one of his biggest supporters is his daughter anna. both children live with rods parents.

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