Kathleen McCormack, The Missing Wife of Murderer Robert Durst

On January 31st, 1982, Kathleen McCormack, 29, was driven by her husband, Robert Durst, from their home in South Salem, New York, to a train station in Westchester. Kathleen boarded a train to Manhattan, or at least that is what Robert told investigators five days later when he reported her missing.

Robert also added that he spoke to her that night on a payphone, she was confirming that she had arrived at the couple's apartment in Manhattan.

But Durst, a multimillionaire, misled authorities from the very start, and Kathleen was never found.

Their Marriage

Kathleen McCormack was born on June 15th, 1952, she grew up near New York City. She worked a number of part-time jobs and attended New Hyde Park Memorial High School. She was 19 when she met her future husband, Robert Durst, 28-year-old son of a wealthy real estate magnate.

It was 1971 when the pair started dating, after two dates, Robert convinced Kathleen to move to Vermont with him to run a health food store with him. But, the couple didn't stay there for long before they moved back to New York.

They married 1973 and they traveled to numerous countries together around the world. They would party at clubs such as Studio 54, and attended prestigious social events, and they would mingle in the affluent society of the city. Their dream of a marriage soon took a turn for the worst.

Kathleen discovered she was pregnant in 1976, even though she wished to have a baby, Robert didn't, so he forced her to get an abortion. Kathleen's family discovered that Robert threw water on her head on the way to the procedure after reading her diary.

They also discovered that Kathleen had been slapped and punched multiple times during their marriage. And before her disappearance in 1982, her family even witnessed Robert's behavior in person, he had yanked her by the hair just because she wasn't ready to leave a party.

Her family encouraged her to leave him and report him to authorities, but she said she was afraid to do so. Even while still married to Robert, she started to pursue her own dreams, she enrolled in nursing school followed by medical school.

She was only a few months away from graduation when she went missing.

The Investigation

Robert's initial statement to the police was that Kathleen never arrived in Manhattan on January 31st, 1982. But, some workers at the couple's apartment in the city mistakenly believed that they had seen her that night, this complicated the investigation.

A phone call was supposedly made by McCormack to her medical school after her disappearance. During this call, "McCormack" stated that she would not be attending class the following day. Authorities now believe that this call was actually made by a friend of Robert's.

Investigators also discovered evidence that seemed to point to Robert. One neighbor of the couple in Manhattan apartment claimed that Kathleen once climbed across the balcony and pounded on the window and begged to come inside because Robert had beaten her, that he had a gun, and that she was afraid that he would shoot her.

A housekeeper at the couple's South Salem home showed authorities blood that she found in the dishwasher, she told investigators that Robert ordered her to throw away some of Kathleen's personal items after her disappearance.

Kathleen's family and friends started their own investigation, they found her diary that uncovered the years of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Robert, as well as suspected extramarital affairs. Her friends also found suspicious notes in Robert's garbage at the South Salem home, one of which said: "Town dump, bridge, dig, boat, other, shovel, car or truck rental."

The police continued to focus on Manhattan during their search and didn't charge Robert in connection with her disappearance. To further cloud their investigation, there were statements made by some of Robert's close friends as well as an unofficial spokesperson, Susan Berman, who is believed to have made the phone call to Kathleen's school.

Susan was a well-known author during this time, so she was considered a credible voice. She suggested in multiple statements that Kathleen ran off with another man. Which didn't seem entirely implausible, considering that both Robert and Kathleen had affairs during their marriage.

It wasn't long before the case ran cold because there was no body found.

In 1990, 8 years after she disappeared, Robert divorced his wife and claimed "spousal abandonment" and that he was receiving no communication from her after she left South Salem. This was a different explanation than the one that he provided to the cops, he claimed he spoke to her on a payphone the day she arrived in Manhattan.

But, the spotlight was off of Robert at this point, and it seemed like it was going to stay this way, until the case was reopened.

Robert Goes Into Hiding and Two Murders

The case was officially reopened in 2000, 18 years after Kathleen disappeared. Jeanine Pirro, Westchester County District Attorney, believed that Kathleen was a victim of homicide. So, she allowed investigators to reopen the case.

Robert was still not charged in connection with his wife's disappearance, but he went into hiding that November. He had plenty of money and resources due to him being an heir to a multimillionaire, so he fled to Galveston, Texas. He rented an inexpensive apartment and disguised himself as a mute woman named "Dorothy Ciner." He also ended up getting remarried to Debrah Charatan, a New York real estate broker.

In December Robert's friend Susan was found murdered in her home in California. She was shot execution-style in the back of her head, this happened shortly after investigators reached out to her about Kathleen's case. It was assumed that she was ready to cooperate with the police and tell them everything she knew.

After Susan's body was found, the police department received a cryptic note about her death, the note included just her address and the word "cadaver." Fingers were pointed at her business manager and criminal underworld figures, her father was a Vegas mob boss. Robert's name did come up, but he wasn't charged with anything initially.

Another person close to Robert was found murdered, his elderly neighbor in Galveston, Morris Black. The dismembered torso and limbs of Morris were found floating in garbage bags in Galveston Bay in September 2001. Robert was unable to escape suspicion, he was soon arrested for the murder, but he was let out the same day after he posted the $300,000 bond. He then was on the run for seven weeks before he was found shoplifting in Pennsylvania.

Robert admitted to the murder and dismembering of Morris Black, but he was found not guilty in November 2003 because he claimed the murder was in self-defense. It is believed that Morris was suspicious of Robert's disguise and could have figured out his real identity.

There are still many questions about Robert's connection to Susan's murder and Kathleen's disappearance, but he wasn't charged with the murder or disappearance.

Robert's Confession

If Robert decided to to stay silent after his 2003 acquittal in the Morris Black murder case, he could have possibly gotten away with nearly everything. But, in 2010, he reached out to filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, after Andrew released a scripted movie about Robert's life called All Good Things. Robert wanted to tell his story his way in the form of a documentary and Andrew Jarecki agreed.

During the filming of the series, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, new evidence emerged in the Susan Berman case. Sareb Kaufman, Susan's stepson, gave Andrew and his fellow producers a letter that Robert penned to Susan. The handwriting had a striking resemblance to the infamous "cadaver" letter, including a misspelling of "Beverly Hills."

Robert denied that he wrote the "cadaver" letter to Filmmakers after Susan's death, but he did end up making admissions during the HBO interviews, stating he lied to detectives early on during the Kathleen McCormack case so police would leave him alone. But, his most damning admission was one he was caught saying on a hot mic while he was in the restroom: "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." He also said, "There it is, you're caught."

He got arrested on March 14th, 2015, one day before the final episode of his documentary aired. Authorities believed they had enough evidence to charge him with Susan's death. And in 2021, Robert was found guilty of murdering Susan and sentenced to life in prison.

Days after he was convicted, Robert was charged with Kathleen's murder, at this point his first wife had been missing for almost 40 years and was declared legally dead. Robert died in prison in January 2022, he was 78 years old, so he was never officially brought to trail.

To this day, authorities still don't know how Kathleen was killed or where her body is. And it remains unclear whether it'll ever be found.