Woman found dead in condo 44 years ago, cops say. Now, cigarette leads to man’s arrest
Dorothy “Dottie” Silzel was last seen alive on Feb. 23, 1980, leaving the evening shift at her part-time time job at a Washington pizzeria, according to officials.
Silzel was also working full-time as an instructor at Boeing Aircraft Company, and her family and friends became concerned when she didn’t show up for work for two days, according to court records.
Officers found the 30-year-old woman dead in her condo on Feb. 26 while conducting a welfare check, authorities said.
An autopsy revealed Silzel died from asphyxiation and her death was ruled a homicide, court records show.
Silzel’s body also showed evidence of blunt force trauma to the head and sexual assault, authorities said.
For 44 years, Silzel’s case remained unsolved.
Now, thanks to advancements in DNA technology, an Arkansas man has been arrested in connection to Silzel’s death, according to an Aug. 20 news release from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office.
Kenneth Duane Kundert, 65, of Clinton was arrested Aug. 20 on a first-degree murder charge, court records show. Attorney information for Kundert was not available.
Court records show Kundert had no connection to Silzel other than having relatives who lived in an apartment complex “within eyesight” of Silzel’s home.
Kundert is being held on $3 million bail, court records show.
Genealogy Databases
Although the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab was able to locate sperm on Silzel’s body in 1980, it took until 2002 for investigators to be able to create a genetic profile from it, according to charging documents.
The profile, called Individual A in the absence of identification, was entered into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, but returned no matches, authorities said.
CODIS is a searchable computer program with access to local, state and national databases containing DNA profiles of convicted offenders, crime scene evidence and arrested individuals, among other sources, officials said.
In 2022, a forensic genealogist with a company called Identifinders International uploaded Individual A’s profile into two public ancestry databases and returned 11 potential suspects including Kundert and 10 family members, authorities said.
Investigators began collecting “covert DNA samples” from the suspects and comparing them to Individual A’s profile, eliminating those that did not match, court records show.
DNA on a Cigarette Butt
While interviewing Kundert in 2023 about an unrelated assault in Arkansas, investigators tried to collect his DNA from discarded items, but he never threw anything away in front of them, court records show.
Kundert smoked a pack of cigarettes during the interview, but after finishing each one, he placed the butt in his pocket, according to court records. Kundert crushed a used water bottle and took it with him, and declined to give a voluntary sample, authorities said.
On March 22, 2024, while conducting surveillance on Kundert, investigators saw him discard a cigarette butt outside Walmart and collected it after he entered the store, court records show.
The DNA on the cigarette butt matched the profile of Individual A, according to court records.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 2:20 PM with the headline "Woman found dead in condo 44 years ago, cops say. Now, cigarette leads to man’s arrest."
