Murderer Robert Durst (Crime Documentary)
- 5 years ago
Robert Alan Durst (born April 12, 1943) is an American real estate heir, the son of New York City mogul Seymour Durst, and the elder brother of Douglas Durst, head of the Durst Organization. He is suspected of foul play against three individuals in different states: Kathleen McCormack Durst, his first wife, who disappeared in New York in 1982; Susan Berman, his longtime friend, who was murdered in California in 2000; and his neighbor, Morris Black, who was killed in Texas in 2001. Durst was the subject of a multi-state manhunt and was ultimately convicted of dismembering Black but acquitted of his murder.
On March 14, 2015, Durst was arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a first-degree murder warrant signed by a Los Angeles judge in relation to the Berman killing. On November 4, 2016, Durst was transferred to California and soon after was arraigned in Los Angeles on first-degree murder charges. A preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for October 2017 but was postponed to April 2018 due to the destruction of some of the homes of Durst's defense team during Hurricane Harvey.
Police have directly questioned Durst, and sometimes conducted searches, in connection to the disappearance of his first wife Kathie McCormack, and two homicides, Susan Berman and Morris Black. In one of those homicides, he was tried and acquitted.
Disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst
In the fall of 1971, Durst met Kathleen McCormack, a dental hygienist, whose nickname was "Kathie". After two dates, Durst invited McCormack to share his home in Vermont, where he had opened a health food store; she moved there in January 1972. However, Durst's father pressured him to move back to New York City to work in the family real estate business. Durst and McCormack returned to Manhattan, where they married in April 1973.
Shortly before her disappearance, McCormack was a student in her fourth and final year at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx and was only a few months short of earning her degree. She had intended to become a pediatrician. McCormack was last seen by someone other than Durst the evening of January 31, 1982, at a friend's dinner party in Newtown, Connecticut. Later on that night, McCormack unexpectedly arrived at the house of her best friend, who noticed she was upset and was wearing red sweatpants, which the friend found odd since McCormack had often dressed in much better quality clothing. She later left for South Salem, New York, after a call from her husband. Although the couple argued and fought, Durst maintained that he put his wife on a train to New York City, had a drink with a neighbor, and spoke to his wife by telephone later that evening. "That's what I told police," Durst later told documentary filmmakers. "I was hoping that would just make everything go away."
On March 14, 2015, Durst was arrested in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a first-degree murder warrant signed by a Los Angeles judge in relation to the Berman killing. On November 4, 2016, Durst was transferred to California and soon after was arraigned in Los Angeles on first-degree murder charges. A preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for October 2017 but was postponed to April 2018 due to the destruction of some of the homes of Durst's defense team during Hurricane Harvey.
Police have directly questioned Durst, and sometimes conducted searches, in connection to the disappearance of his first wife Kathie McCormack, and two homicides, Susan Berman and Morris Black. In one of those homicides, he was tried and acquitted.
Disappearance of Kathleen McCormack Durst
In the fall of 1971, Durst met Kathleen McCormack, a dental hygienist, whose nickname was "Kathie". After two dates, Durst invited McCormack to share his home in Vermont, where he had opened a health food store; she moved there in January 1972. However, Durst's father pressured him to move back to New York City to work in the family real estate business. Durst and McCormack returned to Manhattan, where they married in April 1973.
Shortly before her disappearance, McCormack was a student in her fourth and final year at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx and was only a few months short of earning her degree. She had intended to become a pediatrician. McCormack was last seen by someone other than Durst the evening of January 31, 1982, at a friend's dinner party in Newtown, Connecticut. Later on that night, McCormack unexpectedly arrived at the house of her best friend, who noticed she was upset and was wearing red sweatpants, which the friend found odd since McCormack had often dressed in much better quality clothing. She later left for South Salem, New York, after a call from her husband. Although the couple argued and fought, Durst maintained that he put his wife on a train to New York City, had a drink with a neighbor, and spoke to his wife by telephone later that evening. "That's what I told police," Durst later told documentary filmmakers. "I was hoping that would just make everything go away."