Arrest made in 2009 Upper West Side strangling case

Manhattan DA Cy Vance has announced an indictment in a 2009 murder case on the Upper West Side.

Police found Shele Covlin, 47, dead in her apartment in the early morning hours of Dec. 31, 2009. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide the following April.

Her husband, Roderick Covlin, 42, has been arrested and indicted on two counts of second-degree muder.

“On the final day of 2009, a47-year-old mother of two was found dead in her apartment,” Vance said. “An investigation over the ensuing years has resulted in her husband being charged with her murder. It is our hope that this prosecution will bring justice for Ms. Danishevsky Covlin, and provide closure to her grieving family and friends.”

Roderick Covlin now lives in New Rochelle, according to police and prosecutors. Jail records show he was arrested on Sunday and is being held at the Manhattan Detention Complex.

Vance’s office said that according to the indictment and statements made in court, Covlin killed his estranged wife inside her apartment between Dec. 30 and 31.

The New York Post previously reported that Shele Covlin, a financial advisor, was found dead in her bathtub. She lived in an apartmentwith her two children across the hall from her husband, and they had an order of protection against him.

Shele Covlin’s death was initially thought an accident, but after approval by a rabbi and under suspicion of murder, her body was exhumed and an autopsy found she had been strangled to death.

The New York Daily News reported that a judge did not grant Roderick Covlin his wife’s $1.6 million insurance policy in 2011.