Those three chilling words, killed them all, sent shockwaves throughout the nation. Combined with his arrest the night before, the finale of The Jinx put Durst on the front burner of the national news cycle. And that included, after tweleve long years, attention to other cases, including that of Karen Mitchell.
On Wednesday, March 18, the FBI issued a nationwide alert to police departments in cities where Durst was known to have lived to review cold case missing-persons files. Durst, the FBI now believed, could very well be a serial killer. Earlier that day in New Orleans, police had released the search warrant issued on Durst’s Houston apartment. Inside they found a latex mask, fake identifications, more than $42,000 in cash, and three books, two of which were copies of A Deadly Secret.
Kathie and Bobby, New Hyde Park, New York, Christmas, 1979.
Courtesy Jim McCormack
Kathie with Igor at Seymour Durst’s Katonah, New York, estate, circa 1978.
Courtesy Jim McCormack
Graduation day, Western Connecticut State College, May 1978. Kathie Durst kneeling on left, Eleanor Schwank on far right.
Courtesy Eleanor Schwank
Ellen Strauss, 1981. The would-be attorney kept her notes and documents on the Durst case in a safe-deposit box.
Courtesy Ellen Strauss
Eleanor Schwank, Nantucket, 1981. Eleanor blamed Bobby soon after leaning of Kathie’s disappearance.
Courtesy Eleanor Schwank
Mike Struk, detective NYPD. Lead investigator on the Durst case, 1982.
Courtesy Mike Struk
Joe Becerra, investigator, New York State Police, 2001. Becerra reopened the Durst case in 1999 after receiving a tip.
Courtesy Frank Becerra
Private investigator Bobbi Sue Bacha in her Webster, Texas, office, 2002. Her relentless work on the Durst case exposed more of Bobby’s secrets.
Courtesy Bobbi Sue Bacha
Bobby Durst at his extradition hearing in Easton, Pennsylvania, January 2002.
© Pete Shaheen/AP Photo
Photo © by Kevin Mingora
Matt Birkbeck is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of The Quiet Don, Deconstructing Sammy, and A Beautiful Child. His work has been featured in a host of publications including Reader’s Digest, Playboy, Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and People magazine. He has appeared on a variety of network and cable news programs, including CNN, ABC’s 20/20, NBC, CBS, and Investigation Discovery, among others, and was celebrated by the New York Times Book Review for his “killer leads, gripping kickers, and sensational descriptions.” Visit him online at mattbirkbeck.com and twitter.com/MattBirkbeck1.
*Michael Burns denied dealing drugs or having an affair with Kathie Durst, see chapter 7.
*Name has been changed to protect identity.
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A Deadly Secret: The Story of Robert Durst Page 29
