Kathleen McCormack, the wife of alleged killer Robert Durst, must be officially declared dead for her family’s $100 million lawsuit against the troubled real estate heir to move forward.
On Friday, Manhattan Surrogate Court Judge Nora Anderson asked her siblings, “Is there any evidence that Kathleen Durst is deceased?”
When Kathleen Durst disappeared in 1982, Durst was the only suspect and was recently caught in what appears to be a confession to the murder in the HBO documentary, “The Jinx.”
The New York Daily News reported that the same judge did declare Kathleen Durst deceased in 1988 but for limited insurance purposes. Alex Spiro, the brother’s lawyer, said he’d file the necessary paperwork to have the missing woman officially declared dead.
The family filed the wrongful death lawsuit in November.
Durst, who is currently jailed on federal gun charges in Louisiana, is expected to plead guilty. He was extradited to Los Angeles to face trial in the death of his friend and confidant Susan Berman, who was killed in 2000. [NYDN] — Dusica Sue Malesevic