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“The Westchester County District Attorney's Office can confirm that a complaint charging Robert Durst with the murder of Kathleen Durst was filed in Lewisboro Town Court on (Oct.) 19, 2021,” Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah announced. "We have no further comment at this time.”
The second-degree murder complaint comes after Kathie Durst’s family called for a criminal investigation after Durst was convicted for murdering his friend and alibi Susan Berman in California last month.
“We are very happy with this development,” an attorney for Kathie Durst’s family said in a statement. "At this time, we will not be making any further comments until the grand jury process is completed."
Berman was a friend of Durst's who prosecutors said helped him cover up his wife, Kathie's, disappearance in New York, in 1982, in the Northern Westchester hamlet of South Salem in the Town of Lewisboro.
Kathie’s body has never been recovered, and no one has ever been charged in the case.
Last week, Durst, age 78, was convicted in California of first-degree murder in Berman’s death in December 2000.
During the Berman trial, Durst testified that he waffled many times about whether or not he saw his wife get onto a commuter train heading toward Manhattan on the night she went missing in 1982.
During his testimony, Durst also stated that he lied to police in saying that he later spoke to her on the phone following her disappearance from their Westchester home.
“Everyone has asked me that question, and I have changed my mind maybe a dozen times," Durst said under questioning at his Los Angeles murder trial. "Did I actually see Kathie walk through the doors and onto the train? The answer is no. But there is no place else to go.”
Prosecutors in Los Angeles also alleged that Durst killed his wife in their Westchester home during the German trial.
“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 forty years ago,” her family said at the time.
“Westchester DA Rocah has assembled a team of cold-case prosecutors and investigators every bit the equal of those in Los Angeles. It is time for Westchester to finally do the right thing.”
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