New York real estate heir Robert Durst listens to opening statements in his murder trial on March 4, 2020, in Los Angeles.
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In pictures: Real estate heir Robert Durst

Updated 12:43 PM ET, Thu August 5, 2021

New York real estate heir Robert Durst listens to opening statements in his murder trial on March 4, 2020, in Los Angeles.
Etienne Laurent/Pool/Getty Images

Investigators say they believe real estate heir Robert Durst, 78, was behind the slaying of writer Susan Berman, Durst's longtime friend who was shot dead in her Beverly Hills, California, home in 2000.

Durst is also the focus of the HBO documentary series "The Jinx," which explores his wife's 1982 disappearance and investigators' suspicions that Berman was killed because she knew what happened to her.

Durst has long maintained he didn't kill Berman or have anything to do with his wife's disappearance.

Defense attorneys Dick DeGuerin, right, and David Z. Chesnoff adjust Robert Durst's wheelchair as attorneys begin opening statements in his murder trial at Inglewood Courthouse on May 18, 2021.
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Attorney Dick DeGuerin waves his hat to end a media briefing outside the courthouse following a preliminary hearing for Durst in Los Angeles on December 21, 2016.
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Durst arrives in a wheelchair for his arraignment on capital murder charges related to the death of Susan Berman, on November 7, 2016, in Los Angeles.
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Durst is accused of killing Berman inside this Beverly Hills home in 2000.
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Berman and Durst are pictured together in the 1990s. For years, speculation has swirled about who could be responsible for Berman's death.
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Durst is transported from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court to the Orleans Parish Prison after his arraignment in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Durst faced felony firearm and drug charges in New Orleans, and was charged with first-degree murder in Los Angeles.
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Durst leaves for a lunch break after appearing in a criminal courtroom for his trial on charges of trespassing on property owned by his estranged family, in New York, on December 10, 2014.
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Durst is escorted into the courtroom for a parole revocation hearing held by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on January 13, 2006, in Houston.
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Durst is featured on the front page of the New York Daily News on November 12, 2003. At the trial, Durst testified he hid out in Galveston, Texas, and posed as a mute woman because he was afraid as he faced increasing scrutiny, Court TV reported.
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Durst appears in a Galveston courtroom for an unrelated case in 2003. Durst admitted then that he had killed and dismembered Morris Black, a neighbor in Galveston, but he argued he'd shot Black in self-defense during a struggle. A jury found Durst not guilty, but he remained in jail for a time because of a bail jumping charge.
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Private detectives comb a portion of Galveston Bay in search of Morris Black's remains in February 2002.
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