American millionaire Robert Durst has died in prison at the age of 78, according to his attorney.
Durst died in a California prison, where he was serving a sentence following a US court ruled last September that he was guilty of the murder of his girlfriend, Susan Berman.
Durst killed his girlfriend to prevent her from speaking to the police regarding his wife’s disappearance. Police believe that he also killed two other people.
Chip Lewis, Durst’s attorney, confirmed that his client died at San Joaquin General Hospital while in a California Penitentiary.
He added that the death was “natural”, and that Dorset was suffering from many health problems.
Durst was serving a life sentence following being sentenced last October for the murder of his trusted girlfriend and spokeswoman Berman.
The millionaire’s trial was postponed for a year due to the spread of the Corona virus. Two days following the ruling, he was taken to hospital for treatment for COVID-19 and put on a respirator, according to his lawyer.
Durst’s investigation began following the court used a recording of his confession made in one of a series of documentaries produced by HBO in 2015.
Durst appeared in the last scene of this movie, as if talking to himself, saying, “What did you do, you killed them all, of course.”
Some prosecutors in the case suggested that Durst killed his elderly neighbor, Maurice Black, who exposed Durst’s identity while he was on the run, in Texas, in 2001.
Durst denied the accusation, claiming that he accidentally killed him before dismembering his body and dumping it in Gulfstone Bay.
After 45 days of chases, Durst was arrested by police for stealing a chicken sandwich from a Pennsylvania grocery store a few miles from the college he attended as a young man.
In his rented car, authorities also found thousands of dollars, drugs and the driver’s license of his neighbor, Maurice Black.
Durst defended himself in his 2003 trial, and the court acquitted him following claiming that he had fled because he believed his account would not be believed.
Durst was also suspected of being behind the 1982 death of his wife, Cathy Durst, whose body has not yet been found, and who was declared legally dead in 2017.
“After 40 years of seeking justice for her death, I know how upset this is to Kathleen Durst’s family,” District Attorney Mariam Rocca said in a statement.
“We had hoped that they would have the opportunity to see the accusations brought once morest Dorset in the murder of Kathleen because we know that all families never stop seeking to close their families’ cases, achieve justice and hold perpetrators to account,” she added.
The statement said the county attorney general’s office will release more information on Kathy Durst’s case in the next few days.
