A billionaire surname, a broken childhood, and a vanishing that still chills the room—our Part One on Robert “Bob” Durst maps the fault lines before the earthquake. We start where the story truly begins: a boy watching his mother fall from a roof, a family that won’t speak of it, and a grief that hardens into distance. From Scarsdale to UCLA and back, Bob tries on new skins—bohemian, businessman, heir—while a lifelong loyalty with Susan Berman takes root in LA. Then the Vermont detour arrives: a small health food store named All Good Things, a soft-life dream that can’t outrun the pull of New York power.

When Bob returns to the Durst Organization, the contrast sharpens. He and Kathie McCormack marry, move into a penthouse with a postcard view, and live in a tension between quiet thrift and staggering wealth. Kathie pushes forward—nursing success and a drive toward pediatrics—while Bob narrows the world around her. Jealousy masquerades as concern. Control becomes routine: who she sees, what she spends, how late she stays out. Friends see the change. Hospital records whisper what words won’t. When Kathie seeks a divorce and a modest settlement for someone tied to a multibillion-dollar empire, Bob counters with financial lockout and renewed pressure.

The ending of Part One lands in South Salem. A dinner party hosted by Gilberta Najami, a different look on Kathie’s face and clothes, the calls from Bob, the early exit, and then silence. No sensationalism here—just a pattern that true crime listeners recognize: unprocessed trauma, coercive control, escalating risk, and a final night that feels prewritten by everything that came before. We pause on that threshold, ready to step into Part Two with questions about Susan Berman’s role, shifting alibis, and the machinery of power that surrounds the Durst name.

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