The eldest son of New York City real estate magnate Seymour Durst, he garnered attention as a suspect in the unsolved 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen McCormack; the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman; and the 2001 killing of neighbor Morris Black.

[12][13] Later that year, Durst enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he met Susan Berman, but eventually withdrew from the school and returned to New York in 1969.

[16] For almost his entire adult life, Durst was the subject of investigation and speculation concerning three alleged crimes: the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen "Kathie" McCormack; the 2000 murder of his longtime friend, Susan Berman; and the 2001 death of his neighbor, Morris Black.

[10][19] At the time of her disappearance, McCormack was a medical student in her fourth and final year at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in The Bronx, hoping to become a pediatrician—she was only a few months short of earning her degree.

On December 24, 2000, Berman was found murdered execution-style in her home in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, California, after her neighbors called the police to report that her door was open and one of her dogs was loose.

[24][48] Although Durst confirmed to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) that he had sent Berman $25,000, and faxed investigators a copy of her 1982 deposition regarding his missing wife, he declined to be further questioned about the murder.

[50] A study of case notes by The Guardian cast doubt on whether the LAPD had made such a call, or whether then-Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro had scheduled an interview with Berman at all.

[48] After being tipped off by his sister Wendy that the McCormack investigation had been reopened, Durst went into hiding and moved to Galveston, Texas, disguising himself as a mute woman to avoid police inquiries.

[52] On November 15, 2000, Galveston landlord Klaus Rene Dillman was contacted via telephone by a man claiming to serve as aide to a deaf-mute woman named Dorothy Ciner.

[54] On November 30, Durst was caught inside a Wegmans supermarket in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after trying to shoplift Band-Aids, a newspaper, and a chicken salad sandwich, despite having $500 in cash in his pocket.

[71][72] Jarecki and producers Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier realized they had uncovered potential criminal evidence and delivered the second letter to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

[83][84][85][86] In addition to a .38 caliber revolver loaded with four live rounds and one spent shell casing, police recovered five ounces of marijuana; Durst's birth certificate and passport; maps of Louisiana, Florida and Cuba;[81][87] a "flesh-toned" latex mask;[83] the fake Texas I.D.

[82][88][89][90] Police discovered a UPS tracking number, which led to an additional $117,000 cash and a pair of shoes in a package sent to Durst by a friend in New York,[50][91] which was seized after his arrest.

In regards to the investigation, Lewin claimed to have found information uncovered by the filmmakers of The Jinx to be compelling, and repeatedly flew to New York to interview witnesses, including friends of Durst and Berman's.

[81] In an effort to hasten his extradition to California and avoid a protracted court battle in Louisiana,[99] DeGuerin raised questions about the validity of the New Orleans arrest and hotel room search, observing a local judge did not issue a warrant until hours after his client was detained.

[81][83] In failing to produce the arresting officers subpoenaed for a probable cause hearing, Durst's attorneys charged that Louisiana prosecutors engaged in a "misguided attempt to conceal the facts from the court, the defendant, and the public".

[109] DeGuerin confirmed rumors Durst was in poor health, stating he suffered from hydrocephalus and had a shunt put into his skull two years before, as well as spinal surgery and a cancerous mass removed from his esophagus.

[116][117] A preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for October 2017,[118] but was postponed to April 2018 to accommodate Durst's defense team, some of whom suffered damage to their homes and offices from Hurricane Harvey.

In October 2018, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Windham ruled that enough evidence existed to try Durst for the murder of Berman, and that he would be arraigned November 8, 2018.

"[124][125] On May 17, Windham granted Durst's defense team a four-month postponement of his trial after they raised concerns about the volume of evidence in the case and conflicts with attorney schedules.

[126] On September 3, 2019, Windham rejected an attempt by Durst's attorneys to strip the producers of The Jinx of protection under California's journalist shield law by having them declared "government agents."

[139] Jail doctors determined Durst was able to appear in court after the emergency hospitalization, which was for a urinary tract infection and sepsis, and Windham reconvened the trial on June 14.

[146] Days after the Berman murder, police were reportedly examining connections between Durst and the disappearances of 18-year-old Lynne Schulze from Middlebury, Vermont,[147] and 16-year-old Karen Mitchell from Eureka, California.

[152][153] Author and investigative journalist Matt Birkbeck reported in 2003, and again in his 2015 book A Deadly Secret, that credit card records placed Durst in Eureka on November 25, 1997, the day Mitchell vanished.

"[32] From 2015 on, Durst had a number of significant medical issues, including major surgeries for esophageal cancer, having a shunt installed in his brain for hydrocephalus, and cervical spinal fusion.

[180][181] At the time of Berman's murder in Los Angeles, Durst had just sold a home in Trinidad, California,[47][154] but maintained an office in Eureka while renting in nearby Big Lagoon.

[186][187] In November 2015, McCormack's three sisters and 101-year-old mother sued Durst for $100 million, citing his apparent role in her murder and his denial to her family of the "right to sepulcher", a New York law that grants immediate relatives access to a deceased person's body and the opportunity to determine appropriate burial.

The McCormack family's attorney, Robert Abrams, called Durst the "poster child" for why courts block defendants from disposing of assets while civil lawsuits are pending.

[189] In July 2016, the family asked the Surrogate's Court in Manhattan to "declare that Kathie died on January 31, 1982, when she was murdered by her husband, Robert Durst" so the sepulcher lawsuit could proceed.

[192][193][194] In July 2014, Durst was arrested after turning himself in to police following an incident at a Houston CVS drug store in which he allegedly exposed his genitalia without provocation and urinated on a rack of candy.