Cigarette butt leads to arrest of suspect in 44-year-old murder case

Washington State police in the United States announced this week that new DNA testing on a cigarette butt has led to the arrest of 65-year-old Kenneth Duane Kundert, who is accused of raping and murdering a Boeing worker in 1980.

The case involved the death of 30-year-old Dorothy Marie Silzel of Kent, Washington, who was a Boeing employee.

Her murder remained unsolved for 44 years until recent DNA analysis linked Kundert to the crime.

When Silzel was found dead in 1980, DNA evidence was collected at the scene, but the technology at the time was not advanced enough to identify the perpetrator.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Kent police revealed that Silzel was discovered dead on February 26, 1980, in her home in Kent, about 30 minutes south of Seattle.

An autopsy conducted at the time showed that she had died from strangulation or suffocation and had suffered a head injury.

The prosecutor’s documents also indicated that she had been sexually assaulted.

Silzel was last seen on February 23, 1980, leaving a pizza shop where she worked on weekends.

Her family reported that she held two jobs—one as an instructor at Boeing Aircraft Company during the day and the other at the pizza shop at night.

She left the pizza shop at 10 p.m. that night and was never seen again.

After three days without her reporting to work, her colleagues and friends alerted the police, who conducted a welfare check at her home.

Silzel’s nude body was found on the second floor in a room resembling a sewing room.

She had bruising on her neck, and a robe was wrapped around her arm, according to FOX13.

The initial autopsy revealed that Silzel had suffered a traumatic injury, possibly from a forceful blow to the head.

DNA testing conducted during the original investigation produced a profile of an unknown man, whom the Washington State Patrol crime lab designated as “Individual A.”

The case languished for several years, passing from one detective to another, until it was reassigned to Detective Tim Ford 11 years later.

With advancements in DNA technology, investigators in 2016 were able to obtain a partial DNA profile from Silzel’s bathrobe, which matched the DNA of “Individual A.”

In March 2022, Senior Forensic Genealogist Misty Gillis at Identifiers International helped identify 11 potential suspects through ancestry matches.

Over time, detectives narrowed down the list to Kenneth Kundert and his brother, the latter of whom was eliminated as a suspect after voluntarily providing his DNA, according to FOX.

Kundert, however, refused to provide his DNA. Detectives observed that Kundert had a habit of keeping cigarette butts in his pocket rather than discarding them.

During surveillance in March 2024, investigators saw Kundert discard a cigarette butt, which they collected and tested for DNA.

On August 27, Kundert was arrested at his home by detectives from the Kent Police Department and Van Buren County sheriff’s deputies.

Kundert has a criminal history, including multiple misdemeanor offenses in four states.

Following Kundert’s arrest, Mcnerthney from the King County Prosecutor’s Office commented, “To killers who think they got away with it, they should be nervous about every knock on the door because it doesn’t matter how many years it has been, that knock is coming.”

Kundert is currently being held in an Arkansas county jail awaiting extradition.

He has been charged with first-degree murder, and his bail has been set at $3 million. No attorney was listed in court documents or online records.

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