THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
As investigations began, suspicion fell on Susan’s landlord and the underworld crime syndicate because of her father’s mob connection.
But another person of interest to the police was Robert Durst. Rumours circulated that the police had been looking to interview Susan about Robert’s possible involvement in his wife’s disappearance – and then she’d been killed.
Two years after Susan’s death, detectives obtained a handwriting sample from Durst under a judge’s order but when questioned about
whether or not he had written the note, Durst denied he had anything to do with it.
But a cloud of suspicion had followed him now for some time…
There was the mysterious disappearance of his wife Kathie, who was understood to have wanted a divorce, and, although he was never charged with harming his wife, it was thought that Susan had evidence pointing to the contrary.
And then there was the death of Durst’s neighbour, Morris Black, back in September 2001.
By then, Robert was in hiding and bizarrely living as a mute woman – Dorothy Ciner – in Galveston, Texas.
One afternoon, however, he had come home and found
Black sitting in his living room watching
TV. He immediately feared his neighbour had taken the gun that Durst hid in his oven.
When he asked where the gun was, Black allegedly stood up and pointed it at Robert.
‘I was concerned that Morris was going to shoot the gun, most likely at my face,’
Durst later testified in court. A tussle had ensued, the men had fallen, resulting in the gun discharging and Morris died.
Durst claimed he’d acted in self-defence, then panicked as he was already under scrutiny. ‘I just didn’t think I’d be believed,’ he stated.
He dismembered his former friend’s body and disposed of it in Galveston Bay, but Morris’ head was never found.
Durst was acquitted of murder but the question remained: who killed Susan?