Robert Durst Charged With Murdering Wife in 1982

Robert Durst has been charged with the death of his ex-wife Kathie Durst, who disappeared in 1982.

The Associated Press reports that Robert was accused of second-degree murder by a state police investigator, who filed a complaint against the real estate heir on Tuesday in Lewisboro, New York. A grand jury was summoned last week to begin hearing testimony from witnesses, which will take several weeks.

“The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office can confirm that a complaint charging Robert Durst with the murder of Kathleen Durst was filed in Lewisboro Town Court on October 19, 2021. We have no further comment at this time,” the office of Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah said in a statement.

Durst was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his good friend Susan Berman in 2000 in order to cover up Kathie’s death. According to Los Angeles prosecutors, Durst shot Berman after finding out she was going to speak to authorities about his wife’s disappearance. Berman allegedly told friends she supplied Durst with a fake alibi when Kathie went missing in New York.

Durst was recently hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, with his attorney Dick DeGuerin telling the court Durst is “very, very sick.” He was wheelchair-bound during his sentencing hearing for Berman’s death.

In August, Durst conceded during testimony that he wishes he never participated in director Andrew Jarecki’s The Jinx documentary, in which many believe he essentially confessed to multiple murders. When speaking to the jury, he said that appearing in the doc was a “very, very, very big mistake.”

Kathie Durst vanished on Jan. 31, 1982, at the age of 29. Authorities never found her body, and she was declared legally dead in 2017. Durst divorced her in 1990, alleging abandonment.