Police: UCF faculty member’s wife fatally stabbed him and tried to cover it up
The wife of a University of Central Florida faculty member found dead in his Winter Park home in January was arrested on a murder charge Wednesday, accused of fatally stabbing him during an argument and attempting to cover up the killing, records show.
Danielle Redlick, 45, called 911 the morning of Jan. 12 and reported a “tragedy” at her home, police said. Her husband, 65-year-old Michael Redlick, was dead.
“He’s stiff and he might have had a heart attack. I don’t know,” Danielle Redlick said, according to a charging affidavit.
But Winter Park police say her story quickly changed — and unraveled completely as the investigation progressed.
“We had an altercation and he stabbed himself, and I ran and hid in the bathroom and when I came out I was trying to help him and saw he was lying in blood and then I tried to help him and I couldn’t,” Danielle Redlick told the 911 dispatcher, the affidavit states. “...I’ve been trying to figure out what to do.”
Danielle Redlick, whose arrest came 3½ weeks after her husband’s death, faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. She is being held in the Orange County Jail.
Wife: Husband stabbed himself
When police got to the couple’s Temple Drive home Jan. 12 they found Michael Redlick on the floor near the entrance. There was blood on his jeans and on towels surrounding his body, as well as a blood trail leading to the master bedroom, records show. Some of the stains had circular marks in them, as if someone had tried to clean them up. The house smelled like bleach, Winter Park Sgt. Lisa Supat wrote.
Danielle Redlick insisted to investigators that her husband got drunk, got angry, and stabbed himself, records show.
She told Department of Children and Families officials that she was in the kitchen eating a McDonald’s hamburger when Michael Redlick took a bite of the burger and spit it in her face, leading to a fight. She said she grabbed a serrated kitchen knife — but her husband took the it away and “began making stabbing motions toward himself,” Supat wrote.
Danielle Redlick said she ran to the bathroom and locked the door, then came out when she stopped hearing her husband to find him on the floor, not moving. She said she could not find a phone and kept slipping on his blood, so she got some towels to clean it and kept checking to see if he was dead, records show.
Danielle Redlick said she collapsed next to her husband trying to revive him, records show.
“[Danielle Redlick] remembered lying next to the victim thinking ‘what am I going to do,’” Supat wrote. Danielle Redlick said she woke up Saturday morning, tried to clean up some more, and finally called police about 9:30 a.m. — about 11 hours after she said the fight began, the affidavit states.
Detectives said they were able to disprove her story.
Medical examiner Dr. Sara Zydowicz ruled Michael Redlick’s death a homicide and said his stab wound did not look self-inflicted. Micheal Redlick would have died within minutes of the stabbing, and some of his injuries appeared defensive, she told detectives.
Danielle Redlick’s phone showed that she was checking her messages on a dating application, MeetMindful, about two hours before she called 911, even though she said she did not call for help right away because she could not find her phone, the affidavit states.
A Winter Park police officer arrested Danielle Redlick at the Temple Drive home about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to her arrest affidavit. She quickly asked
for a lawyer, Officer Justina Lopez wrote, and “made no statements in my presence.”
Marriage ‘irretrievably broken’
Court records show Danielle Redlick filed for divorce from Michael Redlick in March 2018, describing their then-13-year marriage as “irretrievably broken.” A judge dismissed the petition in November, indicating that Michael Redlick had not been properly served with divorce papers.
In her divorce petition, Danielle Redlick sought to share custody of the couple’s two children – now 15 and 11 — as well as alimony and the “exclusive use” of the couple’s home on Temple Drive. Court paperwork described Danielle Redlick as an unemployed communications professional and photographer.
She also sought the restoration of her name prior to marriage: Danielle Drohan.
A person who knew the Redlicks told detectives their relationship was “rocky” and “toxic,” records show. Another friend said Danielle Redlick would get angry when she drank too much, and once started throwing punches after about five drinks on a night out.
After her husband’s death, paramedics took Danielle Redlick to a hospital because she had tried to hurt herself, records show. Her medical records revealed she had alcohol in her system.
At the time, Danielle Redlick was not allowed to drink. She was on probation from a January 2018 arrest in Seminole County on charges of resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct. Police arrested her on a probation violation charge Jan. 23.
Reached by phone last week, she said her family was grieving and declined comment.
Victim’s colleague ‘deeply saddened’
Michael Redlick joined UCF in 2013, according to the university. He was the director of external affairs and partnership relations for the DeVos Sport Business Management Program.
Before coming to UCF he worked in marketing for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Cleveland Browns and Memphis Grizzlies, according to his university biography.
Richard Lapchick, chair of the DeVos program, said he was stunned to hear of the arrest and his thoughts immediately went to the well-being of the couple’s “amazing” children. Lapchick had gotten to know the Redlicks over the years at social gatherings and described them as “enjoyable people to be around.”
“My primary thought after today’s news is that we are deeply saddened by it and all our thoughts, prayers and actions are focused on the children and the family and ways we can support them,” he said. “Our students feel the same way.”
Lapchick said he and his wife had been in contact with Danielle Redlick and her two children since the death and brought them a meal last Saturday. Danielle Redlick gave no indication that an arrest was imminent, Lapchick said.
“[I’m] heartbroken,” he said. “For the kids especially.”
Lapchick sent students and staff an email informing them of the news. He said he had received “literally hundreds” of emails since Michael Redlick’s death from current and former students expressing their grief.
“I think they saw Mike really cared,” Lapchick said. “He pushed them to do more than they thought they could do.”