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Boyfriend Charged With Murdering Arkansas Police Dispatcher in 2011

Dawna Natzke was last seen leaving a party with her boyfriend in 2011.

ByABC News
November 27, 2013, 1:19 AM
Kevin Duck was arrested Nov. 26, 2013 in Burlington, Colo.
Kevin Duck was arrested Nov. 26, 2013 in Burlington, Colo.
ABC News

Nov. 27, 2013— -- The former boyfriend of a murdered Arkansas police dispatcherhas been arrested just one day after a warrant was issued naming him as the suspect in the 2011 murder.

Kevin Duck, 30, was arrested Tuesday in Burlington, Colo., and charged with first-degree murder after authorities received information he was in the area. His bond has been set for $250,000. Duck has not yet been arraigned and he does not have a lawyer.

Duck is accused of killing Dawna Natzke, 46, a Hot Springs Village police dispatcher who was last seen leaving a holiday party with Duck on Dec. 21, 2011. A witness told police that Duck was seen forcibly pushing Natzke out the door, according to the arrest warrant issued Monday.

Natzke's burned car was found the day after the party by police. Police found her body in a remote area of the Ouachita National Forest on New Year's Eve, about 5 miles from where her burned-out car had been found.

Body Found Near Home of Missing Police Dispatcher Dawna Natzke

Duck initially told investigators that they left the party around 10 p.m. and returned to Natzke's home, according to the arrest warrant. When he awoke the next morning, Natzke was gone, he told police.

A toxicology report indicates that Natzke, a mother of three, likely died from blunt force trauma and drowning within three to four hours after leaving the party, the arrest warrant says.

The arrest warrant notes that Duck was late to work the day after Natzke disappeared. Duck's boss at Lester's Quality Auto Service told police Duck seemed disinterested in the search for Natzke and never asked for days off to search for her before the body was found.

Although Duck wasn't considered a suspect at the time, his father says he knew police would eventually zero in on his son.

"Kevin is the person of interest, the only person of interest," Duck's father, Luther, told ABC News affiliate KATV last February.

The FBI used Duck's cellphone records to link him to the area on the same day Natzke's car was found, the arrest warrant states.

A friend, Patty Hathaway, told The Associated Press in early 2012 that shortly after Natzke's disappearance, she had received an odd text message from the woman's phone. Hathaway said she had texted Natzke the day after the party to say she wasn't pleased with how Natzke's boyfriend had "pushed" her out the door.

Nearly two hours later, Hathaway received a text from Natzke's phone, saying: "He didn't push me I fell and he caught me. I had taken a pain pill and was tour up."

Hathaway said she didn't believe Natzke wrote the message. "I know she knows how to spell," she said then.

Natzke's phone, according to the arrest warrant, was never found.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.