LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Real estate heir Robert Durst, who was already sentenced in Los Angeles County to life in prison without parole for gunning down a friend in Benedict Canyon, was indicted today in New York on a second-degree murder charge for allegedly killing his first wife, Kathie.
Kathie Durst, who vanished on Jan. 31, 1982, at age 29, has never been found. Los Angeles County prosecutors argued during Robert Durst's trial that he killed Susan Berman in Benedict Canyon in December 2000 because she was going to speak to New York investigators conducting a renewed investigation into Kathie Durst's disappearance and presumed death.
The indictment comes about a week and a half after a police investigator in New York filed a criminal complaint against Durst charging him with second-degree murder.
"When Kathleen Durst disappeared on Jan. 31, 1982, her family and friends were left with pain, anguish and questions that have contributed to their unfaltering pursuit of justice for the last 39 years," Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah said in a statement announcing the indictment. "The District Attorney's Office reinvigorated its investigation into Robert Durst just 10 months ago when I took office, launched the Cold Case Bureau, and dedicated the resources and skill that I thought this case deserved."
"Thanks to the incredible hard work of our assistant district attorneys, the district attorney's criminal investigators and the New York State Police, we have taken a huge step forward in the pursuit of justice for Kathie Durst, her family and victims of domestic violence everywhere."
During his Los Angeles County trial, Durst repeatedly denied killing his wife or having any role in her disappearance.
It was unclear when Durst would face trial in New York, if at all. The 78-year-old defendant was already in frail health, and then contracted COVID-19 at the end of his Los Angeles County trial, leaving him temporarily on a respirator.
Durst was never charged with Kathie Durst's disappearance despite a number of efforts to close the case. Investigators reopened the case in 1999, searching a lake and the couple's home.
Shortly after Durst was convicted in Los Angeles, Kathie Durst's family issued a statement in which they said, "Today, more than ever before, it is clear that she was murdered by Robert Durst in Westchester County, New York, on January 31, 1982. The evidence is overwhelming. Although Durst has now been rightly convicted of killing Susan Berman, who helped him conceal the truth about Kathie's death, the McCormack family is still waiting for justice. Kathie is still waiting for justice."
"The justice system in Los Angeles has finally served the Berman family. It is now time for Westchester to do the same for the McCormack family and charge Durst for the murder of his wife, Kathie, which occurred almost 40 years ago. They have had interviews, statements and documents for months," the family said in its statement.
Durst has been behind bars since March 14, 2015, when he was taken into custody in a New Orleans hotel room hours before the airing of the final episode of the six-part HBO documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," which examined the disappearance of Kathie Durst and the shooting deaths of Berman and Morris Black, Durst's then-neighbor in Texas in late 1982.
Durst was tried for Black's killing and dismemberment, but he was acquitted, arguing that the gun went off accidentally during a struggle.
Prosecutors in that case alleged that Black had figured out Durst's trueidentity and was prepared to contact authorities searching for him in connection with Kathie Durst's disappearance.