Durst receives a tip from his sister that one or more reporters has started asking the Durst Organization about a new investigation into the disappearance of his wife, Kathie Durst. One of those reporters is Charles Bagli of the New York Times.

Durst buys a $77,000 engagement ring for his girlfriend, Debrah Lee Charatan. He will later say that marrying her is part of a plan to live as a fugitive.

Durst applies for a marriage license in New York.

Susan Berman sends Durst a letter apologising that she was asking for financial help. Later, Durst sends Berman the second of two checks for $25,000.

Friends and family of Kathie Durst are invited to a meeting at the district attorney’s office of Westchester County – at which it becomes clear investigative interest is now waning. Several attendees urge investigators to talk to Susan Berman, but they are not taken seriously.

News of the investigation breaks in the press. Multiple source say state police investigator Joe Becerra appears to be most likely leaker that a new investigation has opened. (He did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Durst arranges to rent a cheap room in Galveston, Texas. He tells the landlord he is an assistant to a mute woman named Dorothy Ciner.

Disguised as the mute woman, Durst travels to Galveston and meets his roommate, Morris Black, who he will later kill.

The Westchester DA’s office receives a fax from Ellen Strauss, a friend of Kathie’s and a lawyer, with a map of Los Angeles pinpointing Susan Berman’s house in Benedict Canyon. No action is taken.

People magazine publishes an article about the investigation, naming Joe Becerra but not Jeanine Pirro, the county district attorney. Shortly thereafter, Pirro starts appearing on television to talk about the investigation.

Durst and Charatan marry at a New York office building, in a hasty ceremony officiated by a rabbi picked out of a phone book.

Durst flies to San Francisco and drives to his house in northern California.

In southern California, Susan Berman is murdered at her house.

Durst flies back to the East Coast from San Francisco, a six-hour drive from Los Angeles.