Police are probing a link between millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst and an 18-year-old Simsbury native who went missing in Vermont more than 40 years ago.
Lynne Kathryn Schulze vanished during her freshman year at Middlebury College in 1971. Police have stopped short of calling Durst a suspect in her disappearance but said he was in the right place at the right time.
"I don't want to use the word suspect," Middlebury Police Chief Tom Hanley said during a news conference Tuesday. "This is a person that is very interesting to us."
Police revealed Tuesday that Schulze likely shopped at Durst's health food store not long before she went missing. She's presumed dead, likely the victim of foul play. But no one knows what happened to her.
"I would love to bring some resolution to this, whether it is with Robert Durst or another lead," said Middlebury Police Det. Kris Bowdish.
The case resonates back home in Simsbury too. Linda Oseychik, who purchased the house where Schulze and her siblings grew up, listened in on the news conference Tuesday.
"To lose a child and not know what happened, I would think your imaginings would be worse than any reality," Oseychik said. "If it does come to pass that Robert Durst was responsible, to me, that would be your worst imaginings."
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Oseychik said she's always hoped – but maybe not believed – that one day, Schulze would return to Simsbury.
"I had always hoped that someday, maybe if she did some home, she would come home to here, and we would do whatever it took to get her reunited with her family," Oseychik said. "But that's hasn't happened."
Simsbury police said they're doing all they can to bring closure to the case, offering help and support to authorities in Vermont.
In the meantime, questions linger and answers are few.
"We have always been cognizant of the pain the parents went through until their passing," Oseychik said. "It's always haunted us."
