An Arkansas man has been arrested for the rape and murder of a Boeing worker who was killed more than four decades ago.
New DNA collected from a cigarette helped Washington State Police arrest Kenneth Duane Kundertaged 65, for the murder of Dorothy Marie Silzelaged 30, committed in 1980.
Although some DNA evidence had been recovered from the crime scene decades earlier, technology was not advanced enough to help link that evidence to potential suspects at the time, CBS affiliate KTHV reported.
Silzel was last seen alive on February 23, 1980. in Kent, Washington. Her family and friends, who called her Dottie, said she worked two jobs: as an instructor at Boeing Aircraft Company during the day, and some nights at Gaetano’s Pizza.
On the night Silzel disappeared, he left Gaetano’s between 10pm and 11.15pm after finishing his shift, but was never seen again.
She died strangled
Three days later, when Silzel failed to show up for work at Boeing, a family friend and a Kent police officer conducted a welfare check at her condo, which was just three blocks from the pizzeria.
Silzel’s naked body was found on the second floorA robe was wrapped around her arm, and she had marks on her neck that appeared to be bruises.
An autopsy determined that Silzel was sexually assaulted, suffered blunt force trauma to the head and died from strangulation.
At that time, semen was found on her body and robe, according to charging documents, which note that “as DNA technology advanced over the years, a male DNA profile was obtained.”
Then, in March 2022, DNA evidence collected from the crime scene and analyzed with updated technology led investigators to identify 11 possible suspects, including Kundertand ten people who were related to him.
By September 2023, investigators had zeroed in on three family members, including Kundert. The trio was being investigated for an assault in Arkansas.
The test that revealed everything
But detectives struggled to collect the key DNA evidence needed to identify him as a suspect, as Kundert refused to voluntarily give a sample.
During an interview with detectives discussing the assault case, he smoked a pack of cigarettes and drank from a water bottle, according to charging documents. But after finishing each cigarette, he carefully placed the butts, as well as the crushed water bottle, into his pocket.
Now that they believed Kundert was the murderer, Kent police detectives kept tabs on him in his hometown in Arkansas.
While smoking in a Walmart parking lot earlier this year, Kundert dropped a cigarette butt into a containerOfficers recovered it and later compared it in a lab to DNA from the crime scene.
Kent Police Department detectives and Van Buren County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Kundert on Tuesday at his home near Clinton, Arkansas.
His arraignment, when he is expected to enter a plea, is scheduled for Aug. 29 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, Washington, said Casey McNerthney of the King County District Attorney’s Office.
“Killers who think they got away with murder should be nervous every time someone knocks on their door because no matter how many years have passed, that knock is going to come,” McNerthney said.
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