He was the true property inheritor who many suspected was answerable for the loss of life of his first spouse, Kathleen McCormack Durst, when she vanished below suspicious circumstances in 1982. Robert Durst‘s second spouse, nonetheless, Debrah Lee Charatan, was with him till the tip.
Durst was born in New York Metropolis on April 12, 1943, right into a rich household identified for its actual property empire. Durst’s father Seymour Durst was a outstanding property developer and the top of The Durst Group. The household was exceptionally prosperous and the younger Durst attended prestigious colleges, together with the Horace Mann Faculty in New York Metropolis and Lehigh College in Pennsylvania, the place he graduated with a level in economics.
His connection to a number of suspicious deaths was the topic of The Jinx documentary collection by Andrew Jarecki. Within the collection’ ultimate moments, he seemingly confesses to a few murders on a dwell mic whereas within the toilet: “There it’s. You’re caught. … What the hell did I do? Killed all of them, in fact.” (The quotes have been later revealed to have been manipulated for dramatic impact however the manufacturing.)
When he died behind bars in 2022, convicted for the 2000 homicide of his longtime pal, Susan Berman, Robert Durst‘s spouse inherited a big fortune. Right here’s what we learn about the place Debrah Lee Charatan is now.
The place is Robert Durst’s second spouse now?
Debrah Lee Charatan presently serves as president of BCB Property Administration, Inc. in New York Metropolis. In accordance with the New York Instances, Durst and Charatan met in 1998, launched by a mutual pal at an actual property dinner.
In 2000, when the investigation into his first spouse Kathie’s disappearance was reopened, Durst was stated to have panicked and proposed to Charatan and gave her energy of lawyer over his financial institution accounts and enterprise affairs. “I needed Debbie to have the ability to obtain my inheritance, and I meant to kill myself,” he stated in a 2005 deposition. “It was our understanding that until I used to be married to him, I couldn’t profit from any of the trusts,” Charatan stated in her personal deposition.
“She’s not some opportunistic lady who got here into Bob’s life for financial acquire. She was very profitable, a millionaire a number of instances over lengthy earlier than she met Bob,” stated Amir Korangy, writer of TheRealDeal.com instructed CNN in 2015. However Susan Criss, the retired choose who presided over the 2003 trial, noticed, “It’s very clear that she solely cares in regards to the cash.” In accordance with sources, she solely briefly lived with Durst they usually had been separated, although they have been nonetheless married.
Durst’s internet value was estimated to be $100 million, per the New York Instances, which is a drop within the ocean in comparison with that of the Durst empire—Forbes journal estimates the household’s fortune at $8.1 billion. The Durst household owns extra than 16 million sq. ft of actual property in New York and Philadelphia, together with a ten % stake in One World Commerce Middle.
When Durst died behind bars in 2022, Charatan inherited a big fortune. Not lengthy after, Kathie Durst’s household sought greater than $100 million from Durst’s property and his widow in a wrongful loss of life go well with. Robert Abrams, the household’s lawyer, claimed Charatan quietly married Durst in 2000 to assist him evade authorities after the investigation into Kathie Durst’s disappearance was reopened.
Abrams stated the go well with is an “vital step towards justice for Kathie and towards exposing the corruption that allowed Robert Durst to go unpunished,” including that when Charatan was appointed executor, she would “apparently search to gather the stability of her husband’s curiosity within the Durst household Trusts, which we imagine was promised to Ms. Charatan in change for serving to Robert Durst evade justice in reference to the murders of Kathie, Susan Berman, and Morris Black.”
He additionally instructed the Related Press: “We’re not about to let Debrah Charatan dissolve the belief and get tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} extra. You don’t get tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in America for overlaying up a homicide.”