Westchester DA confident prosecutors would have convicted Robert Durst in 1982 killing of his wife

A top local prosecutor says only Robert Durst’s death spared him from a long-awaited conviction in the 1982 disappearance of his wife.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said Wednesday that her office had amassed enough evidence for a guilty verdict against Durst for the murder of his spouse Kathleen Durst — who was last seen alive nearly 40 years ago.

“We were able to reach the point where we felt confident that we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Robert Durst murdered Kathleen Durst in Westchester County,” she said, citing “new, legally-admissible evidence” in New York based on his conviction last year in a California murder case.

Durst, 78, died on Jan. 10 while serving time for the 2000 killing of Susan Berman, with California prosecutors successfully arguing his one-time best friend was killed over fears she was poised to admit providing a phony alibi for the one-time Manhattan real estate magnate in Kathleen’s death.

Berman was executed with a point-blank gunshot to the back of her head inside her Los Angeles home.

Two months ago, Westchester County prosecutors announced a second-degree murder indictment against Durst for killing his first wife, last seen alive on Jan. 31, 1982. Her body has never been recovered, even as the case generated new interest following the damning documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”

In a 12-page release, Rocah cited a number of early missteps by investigators in the case — most prominently the probe’s initial Manhattan-based efforts rather than taking a harder look at the South Salem home shared by the couple before Durst reported his wife missing.

The husband claimed that he dropped his wife off at a suburban train station, where she headed to the couple’s Riverside Drive apartment in Manhattan. Durst also told police that he called her from a payphone to insure she arrived safely, steering authorities toward the city rather than their Westchester home.

The report said the result was “missed opportunities to obtain physical evidence in Westchester County where she was actually last seen alive.”

Even as contradictory evidence emerged, “the focus of the investigation remained in New York City,” the report concluded. “... After the Manhattan-centric investigation failed to locate Kathleen or her body, the investigation went cold.”

Durst, once an heir to the family-owned real estate empire The Durst Organization, dodged prison for decades until he was finally charged and convicted last year in the Berman cold-case killing.

The family of Kathleen Durst announced plans last week for a $100 million lawsuit against Durst’s estate, with the Westchester County indictment reopening the door after a prior attempt was nixed by the statute of limitations.

During his testimony last year in Los Angeles, Durst denied killing both Berman and his wife before acknowledging he would have lied about the murders if he was responsible.

Rocah said her review of the case was not launched as an exercise in finger-pointing.

“This report is not about assigning blame, but rather looking at how we can better serve justice in future cases,” she said. “... It will also shed some light on some of the reasons it took nearly 40 years to charge Robert Durst with her murder.”