Arkansas man arrested in 1980 murder of Kent woman

DNA cracks 1980 rape, murder of Boeing worker in Kent

An Arkansas man has been arrested and charged with the 1980 rape and murder of 30-year-old Dorothy Silzel in Kent.

KENT, Wash. - An Arkansas man has been arrested and charged with the 1980 rape and murder of 30-year-old Dorothy Silzel in Kent.

King County prosecutors have charged 65-year-old Kenneth Duane Kundert with murder in the first degree.

Kent Police Department detectives and Van Buren County Sheriff's deputies arrested him on Tuesday at his rural home near Clinton, Ark.

Kundert is being held on $3,000,000 bail awaiting extradition back to Washington state.

Suspect in cold case finally in custody after almost 45 years

The arrest brings an end to almost four and half decades of searching for a suspect.

"First it was outrage, then it was overwhelming joy that we get some closure. Hopefully, we can convict this guy of doing what he did. He's a monster," said her niece, Leanne Milligan.

Dorthy ‘Dottie Silzel’ was a regular volunteer for Special Olympics, hugging each athlete that crossed the finish line.

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On Sunday, more than two dozen of Silzel's family members gathered at her grave at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton to remember the woman who loved volunteering for the Special Olympics and to thank Kent police Sgt. Tim Ford for his work.

Ford spent more than 11 years trying to solve the case and told her family that he didn't do it alone, crediting his colleagues at the Kent Police department for never giving up.

"Tim has definitely elevated the Kent Police Department very high," said Silzel's sister-in-law, Carol Yantzer. "This is our private celebration of joy and gratefulness, but it gives hope to so many other families who are out there," she said.

Kent Police have arrested a suspect in the 1980 murder of Dorothy 'Dottie' Sizell

A beloved Boeing instructor and devoted aunt remembered fondly decades after her tragic murder

Silzel, whose family and friends called Dottie, was single and lived alone and worked two jobs. By day, she was an instructor at Boeing Aircaft Company. Some nights, she also worked at Gaetano's Pizza to earn extra income.

"Aunt Dottie was my dad's youngest sister and the baby girl of a family of nine," said Milligan. "I remember when we were little kids, she would hand sew a whole box of Barbie doll clothes and give them to all of her nieces. She was that kind of person."

Milligan was 20 years old when Dottie was killed. She idolized her and remembers how much she loved her career. "She was only 10 years older than I am. She worked at Boeing. I got a job at Boeing, and we were more alike at that time of our lives."

She says Dottie's murder hurt her dad to the core and wishes the arrest had come before he died.

"The first thing I wanted when we found out he was arrested, I just wanted to pick up the phone and call my dad and say, 'Dad, we've got him.'"

Kent PD shares details about arrest in 1980 cold case murder

The Kent Police Department held a news conference Wednesday to share more about the arrest of the suspect charged with murdering Dottie Silzel in 1980.

The last time Silzel was seen in Washington

Silzel was last seen on the night of Feb. 23 when she left the restaurant between 10 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. after her shift ended.

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OIympia man arrested for murder in 40-year-old Everett cold case after DNA matched to evidence at scene

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OIympia man arrested for murder in 40-year-old Everett cold case after DNA matched to evidence at scene

DNA evidence helped detectives crack a decades-old cold case involving the murder and sexual assault of a woman in Everett.

Gaetano's Pizza was only three blocks from her condominium on 106th Avenue Southeast.

When she didn't show up to work at Boeing for two days, a Kent PD officer and a family friend went to her condo to check on her.

They found her front door locked and three newspapers on the front porch. They went around to the back side of the condo and discovered her sliding glass door open about 16 to 18 inches with the drapes drawn. Crime scene technicians later determined the screws that affixed the locking anchor to the door frame were loose, allowing entry.

Both entered through the door and found her nude body upstairs on the second floor in a room that appeared to be used for sewing. There was a brown robe wrapped around her lower left arm and hand as well as marks on her neck that appeared consistent with bruising.

An autopsy determined she suffered a blunt impact to her head and died from strangulation. Investigators at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab received various swabs from her body and the robe collected during the autopsy. Using a microscope, technicians were able to locate semen.

Numerous detectives were assigned to the case

Over the years, Kent PD assigned numerous detectives to follow up on the case, but it grew cold until it landed on Detective Tim Ford's desk more than 11 years ago.

He started at the beginning, organizing the evidence. Even as he received other work assignments, he continued to investigate Silzel's murder, following up on tips and leads and meeting with her family members.

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In March 2022, Senior Forensic Genealogist Misty Gillis at Identifinders International in California began work to identify potential suspects. She located ancestry matches for eleven potential suspects.

Detectives narrowed down the suspect list thanks to DNA technology

In 2016, the WSP crime lab used advancements in DNA technology to obtain a DNA profile of the suspect. It was entered into the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database, which contains profiles of convicted offenders, but no match was found.

By Sept. 2023, detectives had narrowed the suspect list down to Kenneth Kundert and his brother, who was later excluded after he voluntarily provided a DNA sample. Kenneth refused to let his DNA be tested. At the time, detectives noted that when he finished smoking a cigarette, he would put the butt in his pocket instead of throwing it away.

During his interview, he told detectives he had worked on Boeing planes. While that claim has been unsubstantiated, a search by the Employment Security Department showed he worked in Seattle and in Snohomish County in 1987. Records prior to 1987 were not available.

Investigators did discover that his brother possibly lived at Comstock Apartments in Kent, about 1200 feet away from where Dottie was murdered.

On March 22, 2024, Kent Detectives flew to Arkansas to conduct surveillance on Kundert. Court documents say they followed his silver Dodge Ram to a Walmart Store and saw him holding an all-white cigarette in his left hand as it hung out of a driver's door window. When he exited the truck, he dropped the cigarette butt in a receptacle outside.

Investigators collected all the cigarettes and found only three all-white cigarette butts inside. The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab obtained a DNA profile from one of the cigarette butts that matched the DNA profile of Dottie's killer.

"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's been, that knock is coming," said Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Court documents say Kundert's DNA is not yet in the CODIS database, but he has a history of convictions and arrests for misdemeanor offenses in four states.

In Washington, his criminal history includes misdemeanor convictions in King County in the 1980s and 1990s. He also has a conviction for DUI in Oregon in 1992.

Kundert's arraignment for first-degree murder is scheduled for Aug. 29.