44 years after woman murdered in suburban Seattle, DNA on cigarette leads to suspect in Arkansas
New DNA recovered from a cigarette has helped police in Washington state make an arrest in a decades-old cold case, authorities said this week.
Dorothy Marie Silzel was last seen alive on Feb. 23, 1980, in Kent, Washington, the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office said on social media. She was found dead in her condo three days later after a welfare check was requested. Local police found that she had been sexually assaulted and deemed her death to be a homicide via strangulation, according to the Seattle Times.
DNA evidence was collected from the crime scene, CBS affiliate KTHV reported, but it wasn't until years later that the technology would advance enough to help link that evidence to possible suspects. In March 2022, Kent police began pursuing possible DNA matches and came back with 11 suspects, according to the station. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said on social media that his office's sexual assault kit initiative funded forensic genetic genealogy testing that "narrowed the list of suspects."
One of those suspects was Kenneth Kundert, who at the time was living in Van Buren County, Arkansas. He had lived and worked in Seattle in 1987, but no earlier records were available. Police also found that he had a family member who had lived near Silzel at the time of her murder, and he had misdemeanor convictions in King County throughout the 80s and 90s, according to the Seattle Times.
Kundert was already under investigation for assault in Arkansas, and during an interview with him about the crime, Van Buren County detectives tried to get a sample from him, but according to charging documents and police, he put extinguished cigarettes and a water bottle that he drank from in his pocket and declined to give a voluntary sample.
Kent police began conducting surveillance on Kundert while he lived in Arkansas. Eventually, he dropped a cigarette before entering a store. The cigarette was recovered and tested for DNA.
The DNA on the cigarette matched the DNA that was found in Silzel's condo, police said.
Members of the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office and detectives with the Kent Police Department arrested Kundert on August 20.
Kundert has been charged with first-degree murder, according to KTHV. He is being held on a $3 million bail, the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office said.
Ferguson said on social media that Kundert was expected to be extradited from Arkansas to Washington to face charges.