Durst’s wife is officially dead: judge
It took only 35 years, but Kathie Durst has finally been declared dead.
A Manhattan judge officially laid to rest the first wife of oddball real-estate heir Robert Durst in a decision made public Thursday.
Kathie vanished from the couple’s weekend home in Westchester County in 1982.
Robert has never been charged in his wife’s disappearance, but he remains the only suspect. He famously appeared to confess to killing her in the 2015 HBO documentary “The Jinx.”
The death delcaration, by Surrogate’s Court Judge Nora Anderson, allows Kathie’s long-suffering siblings to pursue a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Robert, who they say killed her and hid her body.
Anderson’s ruling sets Kathie’s date of death as Jan. 31, 1982, the last time the 29-year-old medical student was seen by Robert at their home in South Salem.
Durst is currently in jail awaiting trial in Los Angeles over the 2000 death of friend Susan Berman. Lawenforcement officials believe Durst killed Berman to prevent her from cooperating in an investigation into his wife’s disappearance.
Two years ago, Durst was caught on a mike saying, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course,” while he was being interviewed for the documentary.
Kathie’s family is going after her former husband’s massive inheritance. He received $65 million in 2007 to cut ties with his family. The Durst Organization, run by his younger brother Douglas, built 1 World Trade Center and 4 Times Square.
A lawyer for Robert Durst did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Judge Anderson issued Kathie’s death declaration four days after Robert Abrams, a lawyer for Kathie’s sister, Carol Bamonte, claimed that an attorney appointed by the court to represent the deceased woman’s interests tried to derail the declaration proceeding because of ties to Robert Durst.
Abrams said in court papers that the court-appointed lawyer, Charles Capetanakis, was biased in favor of Robert because Capetanakis was a co-defendant in a $10 million legalmalpractice suit with Stephen Holm, an attorney for the real-estate scion. The suit was dismissed in 2015.
A rep for Capetanakis declined to comment.