Robert Durst and his wife, Kathleen, who disappeared in 1982. (HBO)

Raised in a blue-collar, working class family on Long Island, Kathleen McCormack was renting an apartment in a building owned by Robert Durst’s family when she first met him. The pair wed, and over nine years, their relationship grew increasingly turbulent.

Those who knew Kathleen have recalled she was fearful of her husband and seeking a divorce. “She thought that her husband might hurt her,” a former medical school classmate testified in a pretrial hearing.

Durst acknowledged he wielded the power in their marriage, telling authorities in 2015: “I had the money. I was nine years older…. I had the education. I was calling the shots.” Prosecutors have argued that before Kathleen’s 1982 disappearance, the marital abuse escalated, as did her efforts to pursue a divorce.


Kathleen’s body was never found. Many of her family members, as well as prosecutors, believe Durst killed her, although no one has ever been charged. Durst’s attorneys have maintained their client was never prosecuted because he’s innocent.

The investigation into Kathleen’s death was reopened by New York authorities in 1999.

