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 have met. it's definitely a possibility. she liked unusual people. she liked to pick their brain, and talk to 'em. >> reporter: the day she vanished, karen left the shoe store to walk to her job at a nearby daycare center where she'd arranged to have annie pick her up after work. >> and as i came down, i had this weird feeling like something was off. >> reporter: it was. karen never made it to work. her mother, mary caspar, lived in los angeles. no forgetting what that phone call was like. >> we drove from southern california up here. and i remember hanging flyers at th