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But now the setting of a lingering mystery, california's lost coast. in 1997, a pretty teenager named karen mitchell was helping out at her aunt annie caspar's shoe store. >> i did not ever meet robert durst, but my manager, she said she remembered him because he just dressed as a woman. >> reporter: karen might well have met robert durst, said aunt annie. she often helped eureka's homeless population, people among whom bob was known to mingle. we can't know for sure. but we do know she was in bob's neighborhood. more than once. >> karen used to go to trinidad on the bus. i mean, they could ha...

>> reporter: would he save her? susan didn't know, said barbara. and then, just before christmas, 2000, she said susan let her know that bob was on the way with money. >> he said, "i'll bring it." and that's what happened. but i can't prove it. >> reporter: l.a. cops have long suspected bob did go to susan's house in l.a. but not to bring her more money. to prevent her from talking. ever. we do know from flight records, and bob's own personal account, that he did go to california. christmas 2000, robert durst was on the move again. late december he flew here to eureka, california. he had owned...

You know, and try to match it up, you know, and most of the time he couldn't. so i would try and help him match. >> reporter: kay had seen her share of cross-dressers, but there was something different about this one. >> he wanted to be somebody else besides robert durst. >> reporter: which might explain another untold story of those years -- an odd and so far unexplained habit of frequenting eureka's seedy side. >> hanging out at a -- it was a homeless shelter/soup kitchen. >> reporter: wait a minute. he bought a house and he hangs out at a homeless shelter? >> he's hanging out at a homeless ...

And then matt birkbeck, who authored a book on durst called "a deadly secret," got a tip from some independent investigators also working the case, a possible connection. >> there were credit card records that placed durst in the eureka area the day that this girl disappeared. >> reporter: the transaction was just up the coast in trinidad, maybe 20 minutes or so by car from that spot where the witness saw a girl picked up on the road in eureka. and then, before the trial in galveston, birkbeck heard this. >> i have a really good source that was close to the defense team. and i was told that du...

You know, so he -- it wasn't outstanding. and then he would get a skirt, you know, and try to match it up, you know, and most of the time he couldn't. so i would try and help him match. >> reporter: kay had seen her share of cross-dressers, but there was something different about this one. >> he wanted to be somebody else besides robert durst. >> reporter: which might explain another untold story of those years -- an odd and so far unexplained habit of frequenting eureka's seedy side. >> hanging out at a -- it was a homeless shelter/soup kitchen. >> reporter: wait a minute. he bought a house a...