It was two years and one day after Durall took his wife out for dinner and drinks, and then, in their bedroom, beat her so viciously that Fleck, who has presided over many homicide trials, called photos of Carolyn Durall's body some of the most "horrific" she had ever seen. 7, the jury convicted Durall of first-degree murder. A few weeks later, he took police to a wooded area two miles off Interstate 90, where Carolyn's body was buried, with the agreement that his doing so would never be revealed to a jury.ĭurall's trial began in June and was marked with bizarre twists, one coming near the end when he claimed strangers had abducted his wife and forced him to accompany them to the wooded area where they buried her and made him clean up the blood in the house.Īfter only two hours of deliberation Aug. 26, 1998, and charged with first-degree murder. Letters in Carolyn's desk, detailing her unhappiness with Durall, helped link him to her disappearance. They were concerned when she did not show up for work and could not be reached at home. He told police, his three young children, his wife's friends and family that she had "run off" from their Renton home while he was upstairs taking a shower.īut her co-workers at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Bellevue knew she was planning to divorce Durall. KENT - On the Internet dating service he used before his wife's death, he was known simply as "Freedom."īut that's what Robert Durall lost yesterday in King County Superior Court as Judge Deborah Fleck ordered him to the exceptional sentence of 46 years and eight months in prison for the murder of his wife, Carolyn.Īs Durall sat weeping, Fleck called the murder a case of "aggravated domestic violence preceded by a pattern of psychological abuse."ĭespite being educated, professionally successful and a church leader, Durall was typical, Fleck said, of abusers who, despite their community standing, control their partners through psychological abuse and intimidation.ĭurall, who will be 43 this month, reported his 36-year-old wife missing in August 1998.
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