One cigarette butt and DNA match: How police decoded decades-old murder mystery

A cigarette butt has cracked a decades-old

cold case

involving the

rape

and

murder

of Boeing instructor

Dorothy Silzel

, who was killed 44 years ago in her Kent, Washington, home.

Kenneth Kundert

, 65, was

arrest

ed this week in connection with Silzel's death, according to the New York Post.
Silzel, 30, was found dead on the second floor of her home during a welfare check in February 1980.

She had been last seen alive on February 23 of that year.
DNA evidence leads to arrest
According to the Seattle Times, a medical examiner determined that Silzel had been sexually assaulted, suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and died from strangulation. DNA samples were collected from the crime scene at the time, but DNA technology was not advanced enough to identify the killer.

The case remained unsolved for over 40 years until it was reopened in March 2022, when a

forensic genealogist

uploaded a DNA profile to two databases.
The profile suggested 11 possible suspects who were all first cousins. Kent authorities narrowed it down to Kundert in September and requested help from an Arkansas sheriff’s office to obtain his DNA.
Suspect apprehended
The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office was already investigating Kundert for another assault case and interviewed him. During this interview, Kundert smoked cigarettes but kept the butts in his pocket.

In March, Kent police followed Kundert to a Walmart parking lot, where he discarded an all-white cigarette. Investigators retrieved three all-white cigarette butts from the trash, and one matched the DNA from Silzel's body.
“There was no known connection between the suspect and the victim,” according to reports.
However, a relative of Kundert lived near Silzel’s apartment at the time of the killing. Kundert, then 20, was also known to have worked in Washington around 1987.
Kundert was arrested on August 20 by Van Buren sheriff deputies and is being held on $3 million bail.
He is expected to be extradited to Washington at a later date.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson

said, “Kundert will face murder charges once he’s brought back to the West Coast.”