Robert Durst, who was convicted of murdering his best friend and had been charged with killing his first wife, has died at 78, PEOPLE confirms through multiple sources.
“Mr. Durst passed away early this morning while in the custody of California’s Department of Corrections,” one of Durst’s attorneys, Chip Lewis, tells PEOPLE in a statement. “We understand that his death was due to natural causes associated with a litany of medical issues we had repeatedly reported to the court over the last couple of years.”
LewistoldThe New York Timesthat Durst went into cardiac arrest Monday morning at a medical facility in Stockton, Calif., and could not be revived.
Durst, a scion of a prominent New York City real estate dynasty, was convicted in September for the 2000execution-style murderof Susan Berman, the 55-year-old daughter of a Las Vegas mob boss. Prosecutors said Durst killed the Los Angeles author because she knew too much about the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst, whose remains have never been found.
Berman, who met Durst at UCLA in 1965, was his unofficial spokesperson after Kathleen’s disappearance. Prosecutors said she helped him cover up the murder and was marked for death when she told Durst that Los Angeles and New York investigators wanted to interview her.
Jefferson Siegel/NY Daily News via Getty Images.
In October Durst wassentenced to life in prisonwithout the possibility of parole for Berman’s murder. Later that month,authorities in New York charged Durstwith second-degree murder in connection with the presumed death of his first wife, Kathleen.
In a statement to PEOPLE on Monday, the attorney for Kathleen’s family said: “Although Robert Durst has died, the ongoing investigation into those who helped him coverup her murder continues. On January 31, 2022, the 40th anniversary of Kathie’s murder, we will provide a further update. In the interim, please say a prayer for Kathie and his other victims.”
Robert and Kathie Durst.REX USA
Durst, the former scion of one of New York City’s wealthiest and most powerful real estate families, had a strained relationship with his younger brother, Douglas, who took over the family’s real estate empire after their father, Seymour, died. Douglas later testified that he came to Los Angeles with a security detail because he believed Durstwould like to murder him.
The brothers had a falling out in the ’90s after Douglas was put in charge of their father’s real estate empire. Durst — who was known for his cheapness, would burp in people’s faces and had an odd habit of urinating in garbage cans at the office — also allegedly became angry over a multimillion-dollar inheritance settlement in 2006 over his share of the trust, Douglas testified.
In aNew York Timesarticle, Douglas described how his brother had previously showed up in his driveway carrying weapons and had threatened he might have to “Igor” him, an alleged reference to Durst’s multiple dogs named Igor that died mysteriously.
Douglas Durst.AP/Shutterstock
Durst became a tabloid fixture in 1982 when his 29-year-old medical student wife, Kathleen, vanished. Durst didn’t report her missing for five days and told police that she had arrived at their South Salem, N.Y., cottage and consumed a bottle of wine, during which time they quarreled, and then he put her on a train to New York City.
Kathleen’s family didn’t believe his story and believed he killed Kathleen because she planned to leave him. Different investigators picked up the case over the years but ultimately Durst was not arrested.
He was back in the news again in 2001 when the severed limbs of 71-year-oldMorris Blackwere found in plastic bags in Galveston Bay in September 2001.
As it turned out, Durst was a neighbor of the victim and was living at the dingy $300 a month apartment undercover as a mute woman named Dorothy Ciner — the name of a high school classmate.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
After his arrest in the Black slaying, Durst failed to show up for a bond hearing — skipping out on $300,000 bail — and became the target of a nationwide manhunt. He was caught two months later, in November 2001, in Pennsylvania shoplifting a newspaper, a $5.99 chicken salad hero and a Band-Aid from a Wegman’s despite having $500 in his pocket and over $30,000 in in his rental car.
Durstwent on trialin Texas in 2003 and the jury bought his claim that he shot Black in self-defense and then carved him up with a paring knife, two saws and an ax and subsequently disposed of the body in a panic. After pleading guilty to bond jumping and evidence tampering relating to the disposal of Black’s body, Durst was sentenced to five years. He was released on parole in 2005.
Susan Berman.HBO
The evening before the finale ofThe Jinxaired, Durst was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting of Berman.
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said Durst shot Berman in the back of the head around Dec. 23, 2000, in her Los Angeles home when she told him that Los Angeles and New York investigators wanted to interview her about the disappearance of Kathleen.
Lewin said Berman actually lied to Durst and that detectives hadn’t yet reached out to her. But her assertion “sealed her fate,” he said.
Robert Durst.EPA/KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/POOL
In May of 2021, the Westchester County district attorney Mimi Rocah announced her office had reopened the investigation into Kathleen Durst’s disappearance.
source: people.com
