Police Explore Possible Robert Durst Link in Middlebury College Student's 1971 Disappearance
Robert Durst has now been associated with five deaths or disappearances.
— -- Police in Middlebury, Vermont, said they are looking for a possible link to the 1971 cold case disappearance of a Middlebury College student in connection with real estate scion Robert Durst, who is currently being held in New Orleans on weapons charges.
Durst owned a health food store called All Good Things in Middlebury at the same time 18-year-old Lynne Schulze was reported missing, police said.
"We are aware of the connection between Robert Durst and the disappearance of Lynne Schulze. We have been aware of this connection for several years and have been working with various outside agencies as we follow this lead," Middlebury police said in a statement today.
"This is an ongoing criminal investigation and the Middlebury Police Department is not releasing any other details," the statement continued.
Police are examining Durst's actions in connection with five deaths or disappearances in four states: two in California, one in New York, one in Texas and one in Vermont, according to law enforcement authorities.
On March 14, Durst was arrested by FBI agents at a New Orleans hotel in connection with the death of his friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles in 2000.
Durst's attorneys have said Durst is innocent.
"Bob Durst didn't kill Susan Berman and he doesn't know who did," Dick DeGuerin, his attorney, said outside court last Tuesday.
Durst has denied killing Berman, but some believed he had a motive, allegedly wanting to silence her about the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathleen Durst, in New York.
Kathleen Durst was officially declared dead in 2001, and Durst has said he has no idea what happened to her.
Durst is also being examined in connection with the 1997 disappearance of 16-year-old Karen Mitchell.
Mitchell was last seen at a mall in Eureka, California, police said. Durst was living in Trinidad, California at the time, which is 25 miles north of the mall.
Investigators never arrested anyone in connection with Mitchell's case, though they do believe she "met foul play."
"We are certainly interested in any information that may or may not come out of interviews with Mr. Durst," Eureka police chief Andy Mills told ABC affiliate KAEF. "If information comes to us that allows us to further our investigation we will certainly take the opportunity to do that."
Durst was also charged in the 2001 killing of a neighbor in Galveston, Texas, but he claimed self-defense and was later found not guilty.
