Smiling sweetly for the camera, this is Susan Berman as she looked when she met the man who would become her lifelong friend - and alleged killer - Robert Durst. Three decades after these happy photos were taken she was murdered in cold blood - a crime for which her University of California pal Durst has now been charged. These never-before-seen student photos of Susan obtained exclusively by Daily Mail Online were taken at UCLA, where the pair met. Durst, now 71, was sensationally charged with the writer's murder last Saturday - the day before his shocking 'confession' to the killing aired in HBO documentary The Jinx. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO . Graduate: Susan Berman as she was when she graduated from UCLA in 1967. She returned as a graduate student and met Robert Durst who was also there as a graduate student . Charged: Durst smiling as he leaves court in New Orelans last week. He was wanted in California for the murder of Susan Berman after the HBO documentary series The Jinx produced new evidence about her death . Victim: Susan Berman, pictured in Las Vegas in 1996. She was shot dead in her Beverly Hills home on Christmas Eve 2000 and although Robert Durst was a suspect, he was never arrested until now . Friends: Susan Berman and Robert Durst together. They had become close friends when they met at UCLA where both were graduate students. A friend speculated that they bonded over the loss of their parents . Berman had been his close friend and acted as his spokesman in the wake of the disappearance of his wife in 1982. Although Durst was suspected of being involved in the disappearance, he was never charged. Susan's family are now hoping 'justice will prevail', 15 years after the 55-year-old was found gunned down, 'execution-style' at her Beverly Hills home on Christmas Eve 2000. Durst was questioned over Berman's murder but only arrested when the finale of HBO's The Jinx last week revealed new evidence, including an apparent confession when he was taped saying: 'Killed them all.' Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online, Susan's cousin Deni Marcus said: 'I really want justice to prevail for my lovely cousin who should be here now watching my son, her nephew, all grown up and she does not get to do that. 'The loss of my cousin has never stopped stinging. We have been waiting for justice and I don't want anything to impede it. 'Please, please let there be justice for all [the victims] including my cousin.' Deni is the first family member to speak to the media since Durst's dramatic capture and arrest. Speaking from her home in Los Angeles, Deni continued: 'I want the process to proceed, I want it to be swift and be without a circus. 'Liberty and justice for all and I'm hoping it will be that for my cousin.' Deni added that the family are grateful to HBO for bringing the world's attention to Susan's brutal murder. She said: 'Anything that got us to this place I'm just grateful for it. Grateful and hopeful.' Susan met Durst in 1967 at UCLA.She had graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology the spring before but returned to UCLA as a visiting student for two terms. Durst enrolled to study Economics in UCLA'S graduate school that same year. One close friend of Susan since the 1970s recalled how her friend first encountered the eccentric real estate heir in a chance meeting on campus. Sorority girl: In her 1965 UCLA yearbook picture, Susan Berman posed (top left) along with other members of her sorority Phi Sigma Sigma . Close: Susan Berman (right) and her cousin Deni Marcus (left) at a party. Marcus told Daily Mail Online that she hoped justice could be done swiftly and 'without a circus' Youth: Durst in 1961 in the Scarsdale High School, New York, yearbook. The friend, who asked not to be named, said: 'I think he saw her and was interested in her. I recall a story that he saw her and for some reason they started talking, it was an extremely casual thing.' Asked why Susan liked Durst, the pal reasoned: 'Their parents were both deceased.' Paying tribute to Susan, the friend said: 'She was into people, she was very interested in how people behaved. That was what she liked to write about, she was trying to make sense of her life. She was a very loyal friend, always there for you. 'You could talk to her about anything. When we were bored she always kept Scrabble on the table, if we were bored or upset, she would say "let's play Scrabble".' The friend is convinced Durst killed Susan and hopes there is enough evidence to convict him, adding: 'I think the DA has got a really good case, I'm really hoping he will be able to make it this time. He's had 15 years to gather evidence. I think he can do it.' In her 1965 UCLA yearbook shot Susan appeared on a page with her sorority Phi Sigma Sigma. In the second shot she is seen in her graduation outfit in 1967. Daily Mail Online tracked down one of her sorority sisters from UCLA at the time who spoke glowingly of her former friend. The former student who still lives in Los Angeles, but asked not to be named in fear of how Durst got off last time he was charged with murder, said: 'She was a smart girl. 'She was a darling, very cute, very honest, very bubbly, full of life and trying to make friends. She said her parents had both died and she was from Las Vegas. 'She was just a darling person, very friendly. She did not know much, she was quite innocent, completely I would say. 'I knew her for about two years from the sorority. She would speak to me about different things. I felt terrible when I heard about her being murdered. 'I felt so horrible for her. Truthfully I have been watching this case for years because Durst was the suspect. 'I have been watching for 15 years and I never believed it would blow up like this.' Clue: The spelling error in a letter sent to Berman by Durst and in an anonymous letter sent to police was uncovered by The Jinx's producers. It is now part of the reason for the arrest warrant issued in California . First 'victim': Kathleen Durst with Robert before she disappeared in 1982. Crime scene: The Benedict Canyon, LA, home of Susan Berman, where she was found murdered on Christmas Eve 200. Speaking out: Deni Marcus, Susan Berman's cousin . The friend - who knew Susan in her freshman and sophomore year - never met Durst. She said: 'I never knew him, I don't think I was there when she met him.' Durst himself, speaking on The Jinx, says: 'My very first summer there [at UCLA] I met Susan. We became best friends right away.' And he explained: 'Susan and I would spend a lot of time together we could talk, we had the thing in common, both of her parents died when she was young and I had one parent die when I was young. 'Rich, Las Vegas, mobster father.' When asked for the official records of when Susan and Durst attended UCLA, spokesman Ricardo Vazquez said: 'Susan Berman was an undergraduate student between summer of 1964 and spring of 1967. 'She got a Bachelor degree in Sociology. She came back as a visiting student in fall 1967 until winter 1968. Robert Durst was a graduate student in Economics between fall of 1967 and Spring of 1969. He did not complete the course.' Berman's murder is the charge which Durst was arrested over last week in New Orleans in a dramatic swoop by local officers. They were acting on a warrant issued in California after the HBO series came up with new evidence, including how a letter Durst sent to Berman and an anonymous one telling police they could expect to find a 'cadaver' at her house contained the same mis-spelling of Beverly Hills as Beverley Hills. Durst was also captured on tape saying to himself, after filming had ended: 'There it is. You're caught. Killed them all. Of course.' His lawyer is challenging the 'confession', describing it as 'one of 100 possible things', including a Shakespearean 'soliloquy'. He could face the death penalty under special circumstances that allege he ambushed her and murdered a witness to a crime. Durst was transferred to a prison wing for the mentally ill in New Orleans last week - while he awaits extradition to LA to face the first-degree murder charge - because he is considered a suicide risk. In 2003 he was acquitted of the murder of Morris Black, a neighbor in Galveston, Texas, who he admitted killing in self-defense. He also admitted dismembering the dead man's body.
Susan Berman became friends with eccentric real estate heir Robert Durst when they both studied at UCLA . She was found gunned down at her Beverly Hills home on Christmas Eve 2000 - a crime for which Durst has now been arrested . Her cousin Deni Marcus is first family member to speak since dramatic arrest and tells Daily Mail Online: 'I really want justice to prevail.' Berman pictured as a sorority member and graduate of UCLA where she studied after both her parents' death . Friend from the time says she believes Durst and Berman bonded over both being orphans .