At the time Kathleen Durst vanished in 1982, Ms. Berman served as a shield between Mr. Durst and tabloid reporters eager to discover what had happened. Ms. Obst was the second “mystery witness” to appear in the hearings — her name was not publicly revealed until she took the stand. Ms. Obst testified that Ms. Berman had once told her, “Kathie was a coke head and disappeared.”In 1982, when Mrs. Durst vanished, Ms. Obst was working with Ms. Berman to turn her recently published book, “Easy Street,” into a movie. One day, Ms. Barnes testified, Ms. Berman called her, asking her to come over to her apartment right away. After she appeared in an article about Ms. Berman in December, the prosecutor asked her to come to Los Angeles to testify.

Source: New York Times April 27, 2017 10:52 UTC