An Arkansas man is officially being charged with a Seattle area murder he allegedly committed more than 40 years ago.
Police announced they have charged Kenneth Kundert, 65, with the murder of Dorothy Silzel in Kent, Washington on February 23, 1980. The arrest was made thanks to several years of DNA surveillance in which police collected several samples from Kundert's first cousin to eventually pinpoint the suspect.
Silzel, 30 at the time, was last seen on that date leaving a local restaurant in which she was employed between 10 and 10:15 pm.
A few days later, friends and family who hadn't heard from Silzel contacted authorities for a welfare check.
When authorities checked her condominium on February 26, they discovered her dead. Her death was initially ruled a homicide by strangulation. Police also noted the victim was found sexually assaulted.
While investigators collected DNA from the crime scene at the time, technology was not advanced enough until recently to be able to narrow down the suspect.
However, Kent Police began focusing on DNA evidence from the case in March 2022.
After reviewing the evidence, police were able to narrow a suspect list down to 11 potential suspects.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a social media post that the sexual assault initiative helped fund forensic genetic genealogy testing that helped authorities narrow down a list of suspects.
Ultimately, Kundert, who was living in Van Buren County, Arkansas, was considered the lead suspect.
While there were not a lot of records available, police did find Kundert lived and worked in the Seattle area at least in 1987. Kundert also had a family member that lived near Silzel at the time of the murder.
Police then attempted to obtain a DNA sample from Kundert but he declined and placed an extinguished cigarette and a plastic drink bottle in his pocket.
Police then began to surveil him in Arkansas and were able to pick up a cigarette butt he dropped.
When the DNA from the discarded cigarette matched the DNA collected from the crime scene, police moved forward with Kundert's arrest.
Kundert was officially charged with premeditated first-degree murder on August 20, 2024, with a $3 million bail set.
The arrest was made by the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, along with members of the 20th Judicial District Drug Task Force, assisted detectives from the Kent Police Department.