Durst linked to missing Vermont woman

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Robert Durst, the real estate millionaire who has been charged with murder and weapons offenses following an HBO documentary, has been linked to the 1971 disappearance of a Middlebury College female student, town police say.

"We are aware of the connection between Robert Durst and the disappearance of Lynne Schulze," Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said in a statement. "We have been aware of this connection for several years and have been working with various outside agencies as we follow this lead."

Durst owned and operated the All Good Things health-food store in Middlebury during the early 1970s, police said.

Schulze, 18, a Middlebury College freshman, was last seen standing across from the heath-food store and the Vermont Transit bus station on Court Street at about 2:15 p.m. Dec. 10, 1971, officials said. She also was seen earlier — at about 12:30 p.m. — outside the store eating dried prunes purchased at Durst's store.

Hanley, whose department said Monday that he was unavailable for comment, noted in a news release that the Schulze case was reopened in 1992. The department made no mention of why the case was reopened then.

"Although technically labeled 'cold,' the case has been continuously generating leads since the investigation was re-opened. We continue to follow up on all leads that we receive in this case," the veteran chief wrote.

The Schulze investigation is not classified as a homicide, but it is one of the top whodunit cases for Middlebury police, along with the unsolved killing of a Porter Hospital nurse.

Hanley said because the matter was an ongoing investigation, police would release no additional details.

He asked that anybody with information call town police at 802-388-3191.

The 71-year-old Durst is a member of a wealthy New York real estate family that runs 1 World Trade Center. He's charged with killing a woman 15 years ago in Los Angeles. He's been ordered held on weapons charges in Louisiana, where a judge decided he's a flight risk and a danger to others after considering what FBI agents found in his hotel room: an elaborate disguise and other escape tools.

Durst was arrested at a hotel in New Orleans, where he had registered under a fake name and was lying low while HBO aired the final chapters of his life story, a documentary series called The Jinx.

The authorities said FBI agents found Durst's passport and birth certificate, stacks of $100 bills, bags of marijuana, a gun, a map folded to show Louisiana and Cuba and a flesh-toned latex mask with salt-and-pepper hair.

Durst's lawyers say his arrest was illegal. They say the timing of an agent's inventory proves the search was illegal.

Durst appeared in court Monday with his hands shackled to his sides in padded cuffs. He has been in a prison's mental health unit for nearly a week. Prison officials have called him a suicide risk.

Contributing: The Associated Press