Convicted murderer Robert Durst has died in prison at the age of 78.

Durst had contracted Covid-19 last year and was undergoing treatment when he died of cardiac arrest on January 10, 2022, at the San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockon.

At the time of his death, he was in the custody of the California Department of Corrections.

Durst was the millionaire murderer who had evaded arrest after the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen Durst.

The New York real estate tycoon accidentally confessed to the murder of longtime friend Susan Berman in the infamous TV documentary, The Jinx.

The Disappearance of Kathleen Durst

In 1973, 30-year-old Durst married 19-year-old Kathleen McCormack, a student dental hygienist.

Their marriage quickly soured, and Kathleen often told friends she was fearful of her husband.

Kathleen was last seen on January 31, 1982, when she turned up at a dinner party thrown by her friend Gilberte Najamy in Connecticut.

After a phone call from her husband, she decided to return home to South Salem, New York.

Durst reported Kathleen missing on February 5, later explaining he waited to do so because her duties at medical school often kept her out of the house for days at the time. It was not until after he realized it had been too long that he filed a report with the police.

To this day, the disappearance of Kathleen remains a missing persons case, although speculation has arisen about Durst murdering her in a fit of anger.

Durst Murders His Closest Confidante

Durst appointed longtime friend Susan Berman, daughter of Las Vegas gangster David Berman, as his unofficial spokesperson. 

On December 24, 2000, Berman was found dead in her home in Los Angeles after neighbors informed the police that her door was open and a dog was loose. Investigators revealed she had been shot execution-style.

Four months before her death, Berman had written Durst a letter asking for money. He sent her two checks of about $25,000 each.

The primary evidence located at the murder site was an anonymous letter written to the Beverley Hills police informing them of a “cadaver” at Berman’s home.

The LAPD brushes Durst aside as a suspect, believing he was too close to Berman to consider killing her.

Durst Dismembers Morris Black

To escape heightened media attention, Durst moved to Galveston, Texas.

In September 2001, body parts of his elderly neighbor, Morris Black, were found in the bay. Police located the packing for a bone saw and address of the boarding house, where they found a receipt with Durst’s name on it.

Durst was finally arrested a month later when Police found him living under an alias. Their search of his car brought the bone saw used to kill Black.

Durst managed to post a $30,000 bail and disappear until his eventual arrest in November.

He was tried for Black’s murder in 2003, where he admitted to dismembering the body. Due to a lack of forensics, the jury declared him not guilty.

HBO’s The Jinx: The Life and Death of Robert Durst

While being interviewed on camera, Durst denied having anything to do with his wife’s disappearance and the murder of his friend Berman.

In 2014, creators of the documentary located and rearranged audio of Durst muttering to himself in the bathroom, not realizing he was wearing a mic when admitting to the murders. 

Durst was officially charged with first-degree murder in 2015 and spent the next few years flipping between ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ for his series of crimes.

Durst contracted Covid in October 2021 and was officially charged with the murder of Kathleen on October 22.

Unfortunately, neither her family nor the public will ever know what happened to Kathleen now that Durst has died. Still, many will continue to assume he murdered her or arranged to have her killed.