Robert Durst, real estate heir convicted of murder, dies at 78
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Robert Durst, heir to a New York real estate fortune whose life read like the twisted plots of true-crime stories and was convicted of murder, has died. He was 78.
Robert Durst, heir to a New York real estate fortune whose life read like the twisted plots of true-crime stories and was convicted of murder, has died. He was 78.
He died on Monday of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Stockton, California, the New York Times reported, citing his lawyer. Durst was serving a life sentence at the California Health Care Facility.
Sick with COVID-19, he had been placed on a ventilator days after he was sentenced in October, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said at the time.
Durst, whose family manages about 15 million square feet of premier office and retail space in New York City and co-developed One World Trade Center, was found guilty in September of killing his longtime confidante Susan Berman two decades years ago in California.
Prosecutors said Durst shot and killed Berman at her Beverly Hills home just before Christmas in 2000, because she helped him cover up the murder of his first wife Kathleen McCormack Durst almost four decades ago, and he feared Berman might expose him to authorities. The killing occurred days before New York investigators were to talk to Berman about the disappearance of Kathie Durst.
Kathie Durst, a medical student, disappeared one January night in 1982 after she left the couple’s mansion in Westchester County, north of New York. She later was declared dead although her body was never found. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2015 after the release of a documentary film that presented evidence linking Durst to Berman’s death and included his apparent confession.
