Email My Alibi

Does anyone believe that murderers tell the truth? After putting together Love You to Death, a true crime book, I can safely say that answer is no. However, one Manhattan man takes the lying game to a whole new level of scumminess. Roderick Colvin tried to set his daughter, who happens to only be 9-years-old, up for the murder of his wife. Father of the year is already decided fellas, maybe next year.

Not only was Roderick "Father of the Year," but he was husband of the year as well. On his tenth wedding anniversary to Shele Colvin, he asked her to consent to an open marriage. What an anniversary present! Nothing says "I love you, honey" like saying that you want to bang other people and don't really care if your partner sleeps around or not. Most men who cheat don't ask their partner, they just go and do it, then face the consequences later on. Not Roderick, it was almost as if he wanted to throw the fact that his dick was being stuck into other people in his wife's face.

That conversation went about as well as one would realistically expect it to. Shele turned down his request and countered with one of her own. She wanted a divorce. Not an unreasonable request after her husband said that he wanted to bang everything that moves. There was the fact that Shele was the one making all the money in the relationship. Maybe it was an agreement that had been made, or maybe Roderick couldn't keep it in his pants long enough to find a job, only he knows for sure.

As with almost every single case in LYTD, money was a big factor in Roderick killing Shele. If they got divorced, he would not see a dime of the money from Shele. Presumably, there was a prenup in place that would prevent him from getting alimony or any kind of divorce settlement. And this did not sit well with Roderick, how would he impress his lady (or gentleman) friends if he didn't have any money?

He strangled his wife and then threw her into the bathtub in 2009, according to prosecutors. He was mad as hell that she would dare try to divorce him, and that she would make public in the divorce suit why she was leaving him. Divorce documents reveal what Shele thought about her husband's proposal, in no uncertain terms. “I had absolutely no interest in such a sick and twisted concept, and no longer wanted to share a bed with the defendant,” In his view, she was an evil bitch who was trying to leave him penniless. And all because he wanted a side piece or two.

After the act was done, he was convinced that nobody would ever figure out that Shele had been murdered. Her family had already opposed an autopsy on religious grounds, and she was buried with the assumption that she had slipped and fallen in the shower. Though officials marked her death as undetermined. After about five years, in 2014, the family agreed to have the body exhumed because something didn't seem quite right.

That is what led investigators to believe that Shele had been strangled. During the course of this investigation, it came to light that Shele had cut Roderick out of her will altogether—on the day that she was killed. Which gave further credence to the murder theory that was rapidly forming. What was one to do?

Blame the 9-year-old daughter, of course. Who wouldn't believe that a child could kill their parent? And that said child would then email it to some unknown person. With access to his daughter's email account, Roderick began to develop the dastardly lie. A draft of the email read:

“I heard [sic] her go into her room and run the bath so I went in and argued some more and she told me to go back to my room and I got mad so I pushed her, but it couldn’t have been that hard! I didn’t mean to hurt her! I swear! But she fell and I [sic] heard a terrible noise and the water started turning red and I tried to pull her head up but she remained still…”

Upper West Side Guru Meredith Kurz said it best, "Yikes! I'm guessing he doesn't get Fathers Day cards." One would hope not. Though family may be shielding the girl from what is happening at her father's trial right now, it has to be difficult for her.

Roderick would have gotten away with it, if he hadn't bragged about his plot to an ex-girlfriend in 2010. "If she [his daughter] confesses to killing Shele or killing her accidentally, then the suspicion would be off me, and I would get custody," Why do some straight guys always tell female companions what their plan is to get rid of the main woman in their lives is? They have to realize that if the relationship goes awry, the girlfriend/lover/whatever will tell the police what they know. Or maybe not.

Roderick Colvin is currently on trial for the murder of his wife. This strange and twisted tale promises that there will be some more to it by the time it is finished.