The erroneous handwriting analysis by a document examiner caused serious delays in authorities efforts to tie Robert Durst to a friend’s death 14 years ago, a search warrant states.

Durst, a millionaire who was part of a New York real estate family, came to the public’s attention recently as HBO aired a series of documentary-style episodes on his links to three deaths, and the Los Angeles Police Department arrested him in New Orleans shortly before the finale was to air.

He was charged with murdering Susan Berman with a gun in California in December 2000. The documentary tied him to the disappearance of his first wife in New York in 1982, a 71-year-old neighbor in Texas who was found chopped up in the Galveston Bay in 2001, and Berman, who was the daughter of a mobster and a close friend of his, according to a Associated Press report. Durst was acquitted in the Texas case.

Authorities swept through Durst’s home in Houston, and the warrant sheds more light on the case, including the fact that police focused on handwriting from Durst early on after coming into possession of a note that provided a tip on Berman’s death, according to the report. The LAPD had document examiner William Leaver examine the note, who determined that the envelope and note were most likely written by Berman’s manager Nyle Brenner.

Authorities later determined Leaver’s supervisor approved the assessment without performing her own technical review, the report states.

By 2003, Leaver had concluded the handwriting was actually probably Durst’s, but Durst had been charged with the murder in Texas of Morris Black. The problems meant the valuable time was lost in the investigation.

The case went cold until 2012, when HBO began working on the documentary, titled “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.” The filmmakers, who interviewed Durst, shared their information with the police, including an apparent confession to the killing.