Detective: Durst’s wife told neighbour of beating, threats
LOS ANGELES — The missing wife of New York real estate heir Robert Durst once told a neighbour that her husband had beat her and she feared he would kill her, a retired detective testified Tuesday.
Kathleen Durst had climbed out her Manhattan penthouse window in her pyjamas and knocked on a neighbour’s bedroom window for help, James Varian said at a rare pretrial hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Prosecutors are recording testimony from witnesses who are old, ill or fear for their safety and may not be available at Durst’s trial on a murder charge.
Durst, 74, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the shooting death of his best friend, Susan Berman, in Los Angeles in 2000.