Instead, they found the cottage ransacked, McCormack's mail left unopened, and her belongings in the trash.
When Robert was seven, his mother died as a result of a fall from the roof of the family's Scarsdale home; he later claimed that, moments before her death, his father walked him to a window from which he could see her standing on the roof.
The couple returned to , where they married on April 12, 1973—Durst's 30th birthday.