Kathleen Durst's Family Sues Heir, Murder Suspect Robert Durst For $100 Million
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Kathleen Durst's 101-year-old mother-in-law and three sisters are using an obscure state law on burial rights to demand $100 million from New York real estate heir Robert Durst.
As WCBS 880's Alex Silverman reported, the New York Times said the family spells out in the lawsuit what they have long believed – that Robert Durst, 72, murdered his wife back in 1982 and then did away with the body.
Durst was ordered held on a federal weapons charge in New Orleans, after he was arrested at a hotel there in March. Authorities said he had a gun and marijuana in his room. He also also faces a murder charge in an unrelated California case.
Durst's arrest came on the same day the finale aired of "The Jinx," an HBO documentary about Durst, the disappearance of his Westchester County wife in 1982, writer-friend Susan Berman's death and the death and dismemberment of a neighbor in Texas in 2001.
Durst was tried only for the Texas killing, but he was acquitted of murder after successfully arguing he killed his neighbor in self-defense.
He is charged in Los Angeles with first-degree murder in Berman's death.
In the series finale of "The Jinx," Durst was asked about similarities in handwriting in a letter he wrote and another linked to the Berman killing. Later, filmmakers said Durst wore his microphone into the bathroom.
Durst was recorded saying — apparently to himself — "There it is, you're caught" and, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course."
Durst also made headlines in May, after cameras at a CVS drugstore in Houston captured him last year peeing on candy that was on display at the checkout counter.
He is expected to be sentenced in a few weeks in the Louisiana gun charge, before being extradited to California to face the charges in the Berman case.
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