New York Post, Friday, March 13, 2020nypost.comPolice on Thursday col-
lared the prime suspect in the
cold-case murder of 19-year-
old Lorraine Snell, who was
found strangled to death in
the back of a station wagon in
Brooklyn in 1980.
James Burrus — who was
once married to Snell’s
cousin — was linked to the
death via DNA evidence
found beneath the victim’s
fingernail, according to the
Brooklyn DA’s Office.On Sept. 25, 1980, Snell at-
tended a party at an East Flat-
bush catering hall and was
seen leaving with Burrus at
about 11 p.m. The next day, her
body was found in a station
wagon parked in a C-Town su-
permarket where Burrus had
previously worked.
Burrus pleaded not guilty
to second-degree murder
Thursday and was held with-
out bail. He faces 25 years to
life. Andrew DenneyBust in 1980 B’klyn slay
Michel Roux, the French-
born chef who had a pro-
found influence on Britain’s
fine-dining habits, has died.
He was 78.
Son Alain and daughters
Francine and Christine an-
nounced his passing Thurs-
day, describing Roux as a
“humble genius.”
“We are grateful to have
shared our lives with this ex-
traordinary man and we’re soproud of all he’s achieved,”
they said. “A humble genius,
legendary chef, popular au-
thor and charismatic teacher,
Michel leaves the world reel-
ing in his wake.”
The chef had a longstand-
ing lung condition, idiopathic
pulmonary fibrosis.
Roux is perhaps best
known as the founder of Le
Gavroche in London with his
older brother Albert in 1967.In 1972, he set up The Wa-
terside Inn in Bray-on-
Thames, 30 miles west of
London.
In 1985, The Waterside re-
ceived its third Michelin star.
Alain has been chef patron
there since 2002.
Le Gavroche, which is now
run by Albert’s son, Michel
Jr., also had three stars for
more than a decade from
1982, before losing one. APAu revoir to three-star chef
Weird
trueBUTNow that’s a deep cut.
A Canadian band set a new
world record when it played
a concert 6,213 feet below sea
level in a nickel mine.
The Shaft Bottom Boys
rocked out for 50 minutes in
the cavernous Creighton
Mine in Vale, Ontario, earn-
ing the record for deepest un-
derground performance.
The band played covers of
tunes by The Tragically Hip.
Scientists named a new
species of insect after Lady
Gaga because it boasts styl-
ishly “wacky” horns.
Brendan Morris, a graduate
student at the University of
Illinois, named the newly
found treehopper bug
Kaikaia Gaga, in honor of the
flamboyant pop diva.
The creature also has “out-
rageous” colors and unusual
sex organs.
A British bandit got burned
when he tried to rob a store
— and ended up with a face
covered in chili powder.
The masked crook walked
into an A1 Convenience store
in Birmingham and de-
manded cash, according to
cops and video footage.
But instead of handing it
over, the clerk tossed a cloud
of the eye-stinging substance
at him. The would-be thief
fled empty-handed.
A Florida man was busted
for flashing a fake US Mar-
shal badge in order to swipe
two boxes of potatoes, ac-
cording to police.
Leroy Stotelmyer, 60, tried
to pull off the veggie heist at a
Publix grocery store in Palm
Coast, but a security officer
confronted him, arresting
officers said.
Keep your claws off the cam!
A crab made off with
a $4,000 thermal-imaging
camera that scientists had
set up on an island off main-
land Australia.
The crafty crustacean
swiped the gadget from re-
searchers studying fruit bats
on Christmas Island, accord-
ing to Annabel Dorrestein, a
Ph.D. candidate from West-
ern Sydney University.
She spotted claw marks on
a tripod where the camera
had gone missing — and a
trail leading to a burrow of
aptly named robber crabs.
Natalie O’Neill, Wires
By Rebecca Rosenberg in LA
and Bruce Golding in NYA defense lawyer for Robert
Durst on Thursday pointed to a po-
tential new suspect in the 1982 dis-
appearance of Durst’s first wife —
Robert’s late father, real-estate mag-
nate Seymour Durst.
During cross-examination of a
prosecution witness at Durst’s Los
Angeles murder trial, defense law-
yer David Chesnoff asked whether
Kathie McCormack Durst ever ex-
pressed fear “that Seymour Durst
was going to kill her.”
“She was wary of the family a lit-
tle bit, yes,” answered Dr. Marion
Watlington, Kathie’s medical-
school mentor.
Chesnoff then rephrased his
question, asking, “ ‘She was wor-
ried that the father was going to
kill her.’ Do you remember saying
that?”
“Yes, I do. Yes,” Watlington an-
swered in LA County Superior
Court. It was unclear when and to
whom Watlington made the re-
mark.
Judge Mark Windham in-
structed the jury before and after
Watlington’s testimony that it
wasn’t evident that Seymour
Durst actually killed Kathie.
Watlington, a former professor
at Western Connecticut State Uni-
versity, said she befriended Kathie
while Kathie was a nursing stu-
dent there, and later mentored her
when Kathie attended the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine in
The Bronx.
Watlington, who now lives in
Bermuda, also described a phone
conversation during which Kathie
told her of being badly beaten by
Robert Durst and said she feared
he might kill her.
“She said, ‘Should anything hap-
pen to me, you make sure you
don’t let the bastard get away with
it,’ ” Watlington testified.
Watlington also said she “had
this sick feeling” when she saw
Kathie’s photo illustrating an arti-
cle in The Post about her disap-
pearance.But Watlington said she was ba-
sically dismissed when she called
cops at a phone number included
in the report.
“They were very quick to say,
‘Yes, yes, we’ve heard from other
people about this’ — and hung up
on me,” she said.
Watlington’s testimony came on
Day Six of Robert’s trial in the
murder of his best friend, Susan
Berman, whom prosecutors allegehe shot execution-style in 2000 to
keep her from cooperating with a
renewed investigation into his
suspected slaying of Kathie.
His family owns The Durst Or-
ganization, which has developed
about a dozen Manhattan sky-
scrapers, including the iconic One
World Trade Center, which it co-
owns with the Port Authority.
Also testifying Thursday was
Kathie’s brother, Jim McCormack,who stared daggers at Durst from
the witness stand after testifying
in vivid detail about how Durst
physically abused Kathie at a fam-
ily Christmas party.
McCormack did everything but
openly accuse Durst of killing his
sister, the youngest of four sib-
lings, on the day she disappeared.
“There’s no doubt in my mind
that she died Jan. 31, 1982,” McCor-
mack said while glaring at Durst.bro’s story: Jim McCor-
mack (right), whose sister Ka-
thie, the long-missing wife of
her alleged killer, Robert Durst
(above at trial), testified Thurs-
day about his family’s anguish.Helayne SeidmanDurst ‘dad’ ploy
Defense
suggests
pop was
the killer