Susan Berman, Kathleen Durst & Morris Black

Case background and investigation

Susan Berman, a 55-year-old writer, was found dead in her home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles on December 24, 2000. According to CBS News, she had been shot at close range in the back of the head. An anonymous note sent to Beverly Hills police directed officers to a body at her address and misspelled the city's name as "Beverley".

Berman was a longtime friend of Robert Durst, a member of a New York real estate family. Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst, disappeared on January 31, 1982, at the age of 29, according to the Westchester County District Attorney's Office. She was a medical student at the time, has never been found, and was declared legally dead in 2017, PBS NewsHour reported.

In 2001 Durst was living in Galveston, Texas, where he shot his neighbor Morris Black and dismembered the body, which was recovered from Galveston Bay. Durst told a Texas jury that the gun went off during a struggle, and he was acquitted of murder in 2003. He served a prison term for offenses connected with the disposal of the body, PBS NewsHour reported.

Durst took part in the HBO documentary series The Jinx, whose makers found a letter in his handwriting carrying the same misspelling as the anonymous note. He was recorded on a live microphone saying "killed them all, of course." He was arrested in New Orleans in March 2015, the night before the final episode was broadcast.

At trial in Los Angeles, prosecutors argued that Berman was killed because she was preparing to tell investigators that she had helped Durst with a false alibi after his wife vanished. Durst testified, acknowledged writing the note, and denied killing Berman. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder on September 17, 2021, and he was sentenced on October 14, 2021 to life in prison without parole.

The Westchester County District Attorney's Office filed a complaint against Durst on October 19, 2021, and a grand jury indicted him on November 1, 2021 for second-degree murder in the death of Kathleen Durst. He died in custody in California on January 10, 2022, aged 78, before that case could be tried. Because his appeal in the Berman case was still pending, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge vacated that conviction on February 25, 2022, according to Oxygen. As a result, no conviction stands against Durst for any of the three deaths.