A cold case that has remained unsolved for over four decades has finally seen a major breakthrough. The 1980 murder of Dorothy Silzel, a 30-year-old Boeing instructor and part-time pizza worker, has been linked to 65-year-old Kenneth Kundert, thanks to DNA evidence from a discarded cigarette butt. The arrest marks the resolution of a case that has haunted authorities and the community for 44 years.
The crime: Brutal killing in Kent, Washington
Dorothy Silzel was found raped and strangled in her Kent, Washington, condo on February 26, 1980, during a welfare check three days after she was last seen alive on February 23. According to the New York Post, the crime scene revealed signs of a violent struggle. Silzel had been brutally beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted, her body left partially naked in her home. At the time, investigators collected sperm samples from the crime scene, but the DNA technology available in 1980 was not sophisticated enough to identify the perpetrator. The evidence was preserved, with the hope that advancements in forensic science would one day provide answers.
The breakthrough: DNA and modern forensic techniques
The case remained cold for more than 40 years until March 2022, when a forensic genealogist uploaded the DNA profile from the crime scene to two genealogical databases. This new line of investigation identified 11 potential suspects, all of whom were first cousins, according to court documents.
By September 2022, Kent authorities had zeroed in on Kenneth Kundert, narrowing down the list of suspects. Coincidentally, Kundert was already under investigation for an unrelated assault case in Arkansas. During an interview with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, Kundert displayed unusual behavior—he meticulously collected every cigarette butt he smoked, storing them in his pocket.
The critical clue: A discarded cigarette butt
Earlier this year, while Kundert was smoking in a Walmart parking lot, he carelessly discarded a cigarette butt into a receptacle. Detectives, who had been closely monitoring him, retrieved the butt from the bin and sent it to a lab for DNA analysis. The results were conclusive: the DNA from the cigarette butt was identical to the DNA evidence collected at the 1980 crime scene, definitively linking Kundert to the murder of Dorothy Silzel.
Although there was no apparent direct connection between Kundert and Silzel, investigators discovered that a relative of Kundert’s lived in an apartment near Silzel’s home at the time of the murder. Additionally, Kundert had worked in Washington state around 1987, seven years after the crime. On August 20, Kundert was arrested by deputies from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office. He is currently being held on $3 million bail and is expected to be extradited to Washington in the near future. This arrest brings long-awaited closure to a case that has puzzled investigators for more than four decades, thanks to a discarded cigarette butt and the power of modern forensic science.