A woman’s killing was unsolved for 44 years. A cigarette butt just led to an arrest, police say

DNA evidence from a cigarette butt has led to an arrest in the 1980 killing of a woman in Washington state, police said this week.

DNA evidence from a cigarette butt has led to an arrest in the 1980 killing of a woman in Washington state, police said this week. Kenneth Duane Kundert, 65, was arrested in Arkansas last week on a warrant accusing him of murder in the death of 30-year-old Dorothy “Dottie” Maria Silzel, police in Kent, Washington, said Wednesday. Silzel was found dead on February 26, 1980, inside her home in Kent, about 30 minutes south of Seattle, Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla said in a Wednesday news conference. She died from strangling or suffocation, and suffered a blow to her head, police said, citing an autopsy report. She also had been sexually assaulted, according to court documents provided by prosecutors. Silzel was last seen three nights earlier leaving a pizza shop where she worked on the weekends to supplement her income as a full-time training supervisor for Boeing, police said. Friends and colleagues requested a welfare check at Silzel’s home after she had not reported to work at Boeing for two days, which was highly unusual, according to police. Although DNA technology was not advanced enough to identify a suspect at the time, DNA evidence was collected during the initial investigation, police said.