Pre-Trial Witness Says Slain Friend Warned Her About Robert Durst: 'If Anything Ever Happens to Me, Bobby Did It'
Years before her murder, Susan Berman warned a friend that anything ever happened to her, her close friend, real estate scion Robert Durst, was behind it, according to a friend’s testimony.
The bombshell allegation was made by Berman’s friend Miriam Barnes, 66, who testified Tuesday during a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles of Durst’s murder trial in Berman’s death. The judge has allowed some witnesses to testify early in the event they die prior to Durst’s trial.
Barnes testified that Berman asked her to stop by her apartment because she had something she wanted to tell Barnes about Durst.
“I’m going to tell you something, but I need you not to ask me any questions,” Barnes testified, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I did something today.”
According to Barnes, Berman didn’t elaborate, but simply said, “If anything ever happens to me, Bobby did it.”
Berman, the daughter of a mob boss, was found shot to death in her home in December of 2000 shortly after New York investigators reopened the case of the 1982 disappearance of Kathleen Durst, Durst’s first wife, whose remains have still never been found.
Prosecutors allege Durst killed Berman, his close friend, because she knew too much about Kathleen’s disappearance.
Durst has pleaded not guilty in Berman’s death.
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Also testifying Tuesday was former New York police detective James Varian, who interviewed a neighbor of the couple’s after Kathleen disappeared. Varian, who read from a report, testified that the neighbor relayed to him that in late 1981, Kathleen climbed out of her own window and into hers.
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Kathleen told the neighbor that Durst “beat her and wanted to kill her,” Varian alleged, according to Reuters.
Durst, who has said he is in declining health since a bout with esophageal cancer in 2007, was arrested in New Orleans in March 2015, the day before the finale of the HBO docuseries The Jinx, which chronicled his life and alleged crimes.
