SARAH RISTEVSKI ‘IT WAS LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER’ “I LOVE MY DAD NOW, I LOVED HIM BEFORE AND I’LL LOVE HIM IN 11 YEARS WHEN HE’S HOME”
A BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT LOOKS INTO THE DEVASTATING INTERVIEW WITH THE 24-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER OF MURDERED WOMAN KAREN RISTEVSKI
The daughter of murdered Melbourne woman Karen Ristevski spoke publicly for the first time in a devastating interview with 60 Minutes.
Sarah Ristevski, 24, stood by her father Borce after he was convicted of the 2016 manslaughter of his 47-year-old wife, Karen.
In the emotional and moving TV interview, graphic designer Sarah refused to speculate what happened on the day her mother was killed.
Shockingly, and despite her father’s own admission he killed Karen on June 29, 2016, Sarah told interviewer Liz Hayes she still loves her dad and firmly believes in his innocence.
“I asked him. I asked if he’d had anything to do with it,” Sarah said. Liz then asked Sarah if she believed Borce, 55, when he said he didn’t do it.
“He’s my dad and nothing has changed,” she added.
More eyebrows were raised when Sarah provided a glowing character reference for her jailbird father before sentencing, in which she describes him as “loving, caring, sympathetic, protective and charismatic”.
The young woman’s
behaviour after her mother’s death has been scrutinised intensely by the media for the past four years, particularly after she broke her silence in the Nine Network interview.
For many viewers, Sarah’s body language revealed more than her words.
Speaking with New Idea, body language expert Louise Mahler analysed Sarah’s movements and conduct during her interview and revealed what she really meant by her guarded answers.
“Watching Sarah Ristevski on 60 Minutes, there were massive inconsistencies,” Louise explains.
“This was evidenced in her unswerving support of her father’s innocence, despite his guilty plea, her blank looks when asked about her own involvement and her extensive pauses before answering critical questions about discussion with her father.”
When asked about Sarah’s frequent requests for breaks during the interview, Louise says there could be a number of reasons.
“What it may mean is she feels sick or perhaps has cystitis. Honestly, the possibilities are endless,” she says.
“What we perceive it to mean is escape and possible deceit. Breaks in airflow when speaking are considered as a break in commitment of life-force to the engagement. We are momentarily running from the conversation.”
It seems clear, however, that Sarah is at odds with her grief over mum Karen’s death and her love for her father.
Louise says Sarah’s age worked against her during the jarring and painful interview.
“She may have a lack of awareness of what she is facing, and certainly a lack of experience in facing it.
“Whereas she may have seen what has happened in court, this trial by media is different. In court you are judged on what is said. Here, we are watching, more than listening to her words,” Louise says.
“In court you can take a break and not be judged, but on the television it is a bad sign. Watching her here was seeing a lamb to the slaughter.”
While there is no suggestion Sarah has engaged in any wrongdoing or is in any way involved in her mother’s disappearance, many viewers speculate that the grieving daughter is not telling the whole truth.
As Louise explains, Sarah’s body language betrayed her, and could mean she is hiding her true feelings.
“Her body language is congruent with a story that is different from that given by the police. Indeed, the police are seen as a common enemy between her and her father, and having a common enemy is a tool of cultish behaviour,” Louise continues.
“She referred to her mother as ‘she’ … and she told us her mother “wanted her (Sarah) to succeed and her love was her business”.
On the other hand, she said: ‘Daaaaaad’s filming it”, with huge love and elongation on the word ‘dad.’ She loves her father and shows distance from her mother.”
Borce pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Karen in 2019 and was sentenced to 13 years behind bars.
Sarah ended the interview by confirming that, despite everything, she still loves her father and will be there for him upon his release from prison.
“I love my dad now. I loved him before and I’ll love him in 11 years when he’s home,” Sarah said.
“I’m not just going to give up on someone, especially when I’m so close. It’s my dad.”
He looks like a frail old man who couldn’t hurt a fly – but is Robert Durst really a serial killer? The 76-year-old American, who once killed his neighbour and got away with it, is on trial in Los Angeles for the murder of his best friend, 55-year-old Susan Berman, who was found shot dead in her apartment on Christmas Eve, 2000.
Over the years, Durst, who has amassed a personal fortune of more than $100 million, has been linked to other suspected murders, including that of his first wife, Kathleen, who vanished in 1982.
But until now, Durst has lived as a free man.
In 2001, just months after Durst allegedly murdered Susan in LA, he moved to Texas where he shot dead his neighbour Morris Black, chopped up his body and dumped it in a river.
He later went on trial for Black’s murder, and admitted to shooting the elderly man, beheading him and carving up his body, but said he’d done so out of self defence after an argument. To the dismay of prosecutors, the jury found Durst, who had dressed as a woman to avoid detection, not guilty of murder.
“The case of Robert Durst is truly remarkable – I think it’s one of the weirdest, most fascinating stories ever told!” US crime reporter Diane Dimond tells New Idea.
Diane appears in a two-part documentary about Robert Durst that is currently airing on Foxtel’s Investigation Discovery.
It tells how, as a child, Durst, whose father was famous New York realtor Seymour Durst, had a life of great privilege.
But at just 7 years old, he watched his mother commit suicide, plunging off the balcony at the family’s high-rise New York apartment.
Clearly traumatised by the tragedy, he grew up with few friends, and psychiatrists believed he was borderline schizophrenic.
“He was a real loner, and didn’t even get on with his brothers or his father,” Diane explains. But at university, Durst managed to make a close friend: Susan Berman, the daughter of a mobster, who later went on to become a well-known author and magazine journalist.
“Their relationship was apparently platonic, she was a loyal friend and very supportive of him,” says Diane.
In 1971, aged 28, Durst fell in love with medical student Kathlen Mccormack, a tenant from whom he’d been collecting the rent. They married on April 12, 1973, Durst’s 30th birthday.
But the marriage soon soured, and in 1979, Durst began a three-year affair with Prudence Farrow, the sister of actress Mia Farrow.
According to friends, Kathie became terrified of Robert, confiding he’d become violent and that she wanted a divorce.
Then, on January 31, 1982, Kathie disappeared, after failing to turn up at a bar where she was to meet a friend.
It was five days before Durst reported her missing. Officers found his stories didn’t add up and became highly suspicious of the property tycoon. But they were unable to prove that Durst was behind Kathie’s death. To this day the case remains unsolved.
“Susan Berman always defended her friend Robert to the press, but she knew all his dark secrets,” says Diane.
Eighteen years after Kathie’s disappearance, a new detective team re-opened her case, contacting Susan Berman to arrange to interview her.
“Just days before Susan died, she phoned her good friend Robert Durst saying, ‘they’re re-opening the investigation into Kathie; they’re coming to California to interview me’, says Diane Dimond.
Soon after, on December 24, 2000, Susan was found dead in her Los Angeles home, shot in the back of the head.
“Susan Berman was paranoid about security – but there was no sign of forced entry or robbery; so it looked like she’d let a friend in,” says Diane. “Who would want her dead?”
Durst was questioned, but police were unable to prove he was involved.
But years later, Durst let down his guard, agreeing to a filmmaker’s request to make a documentary about him. Durst handed over personal letters, credit card details and other information. The papers contained handwriting evidence that would become key new evidence.
Famously, Durst was also caught on microphone saying: “I killed them all, of course.”
On March 14, 2015, Durst was arrested and charged with the murder of Susan Berman. The trial began late last month.
“The whole of America is watching this trial with interest,” says Diane Dimond, who says police now suspect Durst could be linked to the murders of at least three other women across the US.
“Durst is extremely wealthy, he’s a loner, and over the past 40 years he’s been constantly on the move. He’s a very mysterious little man.”
• Robert Durst: An ID Murder Mystery airs on Foxtel Channel 616; Tue. Mar. 10 & Tue. Mar. 17.