Imperial Valley Press

Robert Durst faces photos of slain friend in life, in death

- BY BRIAN MELLEY

LOS ANGELES — A black-and-white photo displayed on a courtroom wall Monday provided a stark reminder of how much had changed in Robert Durst’s life over nearly four decades.

The photo dating to at least the early 1980s showed the New York real estate heir’s best friend, Susan Berman, beaming, flanked by a bearded Durst wearing a smirk and his wife, Kathleen, with an electric smile.

Today, Berman is long dead and Kathleen Durst has been missing for more than 35 years and is presumed deceased. Durst, an old, frail man with a shaved head, wore a scowl in a courtroom where he is accused of killing both women.

Prosecutor­s began presenting evidence in Los Angeles Superior Court to link Durst to the killings in the first day of a hearing to determine if he will be tried on a murder charge in the point-blank shooting of Berman.

Prosecutor­s say Durst killed his college friend, the daughter of a Las Vegas mobster, because he believed she was going to tell police what she knew about Kathleen Durst’s death.

Robert Durst, 75, an eccentric multimilli­onaire, has never been charged with a crime related to his wife’s 1982 disappeara­nce in New York. He has pleaded not guilty to Berman’s 2000 death at her Los Angeles house.

The first day of the hearing revealed little that was not previously disclosed in an HBO documentar­y series, court filings and other proceeding­s, but it made the connection between Berman’s death and the mystery around Kathleen Durst’s disappeara­nce, which prosecutor­s want to show as the foundation for the motive for Berman’s slaying.

Karen Minutello, manager of the Manhattan building where the Dursts lived in a penthouse apartment, said Kathleen Durst called her about a week before her disappeara­nce and asked to rent her own unit because she didn’t want to live with her husband anymore.

“She was hesitant, she didn’t just blurt out why. Then she did say she needed to get away from him,” Minutello said. “She was afraid of him.”

Days after Kathleen Durst vanished, Minutello said she was alerted to a broken trash compactor that she found jammed with the missing woman’s possession­s, including notebooks with her name, dresses, makeup and a hair dryer. She made notes about the finding because it seemed significan­t.

“Who does that?” Minutello said. “Whose loved one is missing and they throw out their stuff?”

Minutello also revealed that doormen at the building said tenants suspected Robert Durst of stealing their bicycles occasional­ly from a communal storage room. She said it happened about five times, but no tenant ever filed a complaint.

After the disappeara­nce, Berman served as Robert Durst’s unofficial spokeswoma­n. But prosecutor­s and witnesses in a series of earlier hearings said she did much more.

 ??  ?? BOSTER/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA AP, POOL
BOSTER/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA AP, POOL

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