A Deadly Secret: The Story of Robert Durst by Matt Birkbeck

Author:Matt Birkbeck [Birkbeck, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Retail, True Crime
ISBN: 9781101987421
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

14

The dried mud on the outer edges of the old cupboard was rock hard and reddish in color, yet stood out like a shining beacon.

The cupboard was square, roughly two feet on all sides, and was inserted into the wall in the dining room. It had once been pulled out from the wall for some unknown reason, then put back in, the person pulling it out apparently leaving their partial handprints on the edges. Behind the wall was a space that opened wide at knee level. The only way to search inside the wall was to tear it down.

As forensic specialists gazed at what appeared to be partial handprints, once hidden in darkness and long forgotten, one of them told Becerra the reddish color appeared to be blood that was mixed in with the mud.

It was the first clue they had found in the home, and Becerra hoped there would be more.

Gabrielle Colquitt had given Becerra permission to search every last crevice in her pretty little home, and with the arrival of spring, he didn’t waste any time. He brought in the special units, including divers to search the murky waters of Lake Truesdale, where they waded through the water in grids, marking off sections of the lake. The lake bottom was soft, the divers’ feet sinking into the mud like quicksand.

Becerra didn’t hold out much hope that the lake would turn out to be the last resting place for Kathie Durst. She had disappeared in late January, a time when the surface was usually frozen solid.

And like the lake, the property around the house had been frozen and digging a grave would have been all but impossible. But he brought in the cadaver dogs anyway to remove any lingering doubt that Kathie’s remains were buried somewhere near the house.

Becerra thought he knew where Kathie Durst was. He just wanted to be sure.

Over the course of the spring and summer, Becerra quietly visited Hoyt Street more than half a dozen times. The forensics team examined the mud prints and searched downstairs in the crawl space, delicately digging through the loose dirt, a painstaking search that lasted more than six hours.

Each visit was a stealth mission. When the lake was dredged, nosy neighbors were told the police in the water were conducting an exercise. And when the house was searched, investigators used unmarked vans and plainclothes.

Becerra would come back to the house yet again and examine the living-room floor. Colquitt had told the investigator months earlier, during their first meeting, that when she bought the home in 1994 from David and Carmen Garceau, they had told her of the mysterious holes.

Becerra eventually found the Garceaus, who repeated their story to him.

Robert Durst had agreed to sell the house to them in February 1990, but only on the condition that they lease it back to him for three months.

Bobby had never given a reason why. The Garceaus were barred from entering the house until the last day of May.

It was an odd arrangement, said David.

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