Woman who fled country arrested for 2011 slaying of elderly Seattle man Kuyng Hee Dowdle, 47, had been at large since Toshio Ota's death

CrimeStoppers issued a missing persons bulletin for Toshio Ota shortly after he was discovered to be missing in March 2011. CrimeStoppers issued a missing persons bulletin for Toshio Ota shortly after he was discovered to be missing in March 2011. Photo: Via CrimeStoppers Photo: Via CrimeStoppers Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close Woman who fled country arrested for 2011 slaying of elderly Seattle man 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

Police arrested a 48-year-old woman Thursday in connection with the 2011 death of a Seattle man she had once called a friend.

Toshio Ota, 75, had seemingly disappeared in March 2011, court documents said. It was 1 1/2 years later that his body was found in the Columbia River, just south of Vantage, an Eastern Washington town located on Interstate 90.

A woman who once worked for Dowdle told police that she had contemplated ways to kill Ota because she had been cut from his will, according to police reports.

Prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge in June 2016 against onetime Federal Way restaurant owner Kuyng Hee Dowdle, who had reportedly left the United States for Japan about a month after Ota's disappearance. Wanted on a $5 million warrant, she was arrested in Japan and extradited to Seattle. She was booked into King County Jail midday Thursday.

Seattle police gave few details on how Dowdle was located and arrested, but said they worked with the Japanese National Police and U.S. Marshals Office to detain her.

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Investigators believed Ota was killed sometime between March 12 and March 15 that year, court documents said. No one knew anything was amiss until March 28, when the manager of his Westlake condominium building told Ota's relatives that newspapers were piling up at his doorstep.

The manager searched Ota's condo at the family's request and found no sign of him. His car remained in the building's garage.

Police then searched the unit and found no evidence of foul play, but found his last computer activity occurred March 12, 2011.

Financial records indicated he had loaned a total of $100,000 to several people, and that Dowdle owed him $40,000. An email between Ota and Dowdle indicated he asked her to start repaying him $1,000 per month, police records noted.

Ota's brother contacted police March 30 after he found a returned check labeled "insufficient funds" at the condo. The check was reportedly written from the account of Izakaya, Dowdle's restaurant that had recently closed.

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That day, detectives contacted Dowdle, who said she was looking for Ota because she "needs him" and that he was like a father to her, according to police statements. She claimed he visited her restaurant twice or three times per week and that they had traveled together.

The next month, Ota's brother brought a bank statement to police showing withdrawals for $4,000 and $2,000 dated two days after Ota disappeared. Bank staff later told police that someone tried to cash a third check from Ota's account for $4,000, but was turned away.

Police interviewed a woman who cashed the other two checks. She said she worked for Dowdle at Izakaya and that Dowdle asked for her help in cashing them, reports say. She also mentioned that she had never been paid for her work at the restaurant, so she planned to deposit the $2,000 check into her own account.

The woman knew Ota and had known him to type out checks for Dowdle, but noticed that the most recent checks she saw from Ota's account were hand-written. Regardless, she said she cashed two checks and asked for a friend to cash the third -- the one that was turned away, reports indicated.

Later, she said, the $2,000 check was returned to her. She attempted to call Ota several times in late March and April, but could never reach him.

The woman went on to say that Dowdle had spoken of several ideas on ways to kill Ota because he had dropped her from his will, according to the police report. Dowdle allegedly mentioned poisoning Ota with Drano and ant poison, crushing sleeping pills to put into his food at the restaurant, and asking a friend if he would kill Ota.

That friend who was approached in the murder plan spoke to a Federal Way detective and said Dowdle and her roommate met with him at a Starbucks in January to enlist his help. He said he did not know anyone willing to help them kill Ota, nor was he willing to assist them, police reports said.

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Dowdle also allegedly asked him whether he could burn her business down for insurance money.

Later that April, Ota's brother received another bank statement indicating a check addressed to Dowdle was cashed for $10,000 from Ota's account.

Detectives also interviewed a woman with whom Dowdle stayed for a few days before she left for Japan. She claimed Dowdle was closing her restaurant, leaving her apartment and traveling to Japan for "business," according to court documents. The woman helped Dowdle move out of her apartment April 8 and drove her to the airport April 10.

During her stay at the woman's house, Dowdle allegedly mentioned she had five signed checks from Ota's bank account and that her ex-roommate wanted to poison him, but she didn't want to.

The investigation appeared to stall until November 2012, when the Grant County Sheriff's Office distributed a statewide bulletin reporting a body found floating in the Columbia River near Vantage. Dental records connected the body to Ota in June 2013. He appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma to his head, probable cause reports said.

In October 2013, detectives interviewed a couple who claimed they helped Dowdle move a heavy suitcase to Eastern Washington. The couple and a friend met Dowdle early the morning of March 15, 2011, in a rented mini-van. They believed they were helping her move a suitcase of "books" she needed to hide, according to reports.

They stopped at several places along I-90 to scout locations for the suitcase, but they continued down the freeway until they reached the Vantage area. The friends took the suitcase from the back of the minivan and kicked it down an embankment into the river where I-90 meets state Route 26. One of the men later showed the location to police.

Detectives matched bank withdrawals from her restaurant's account to locations along the I-90 route. They also discovered a second cell phone of Dowdle's, which they used to pin her location to the address of Ota's condo on March 13, the last day he is believed to have been alive.

Several witnesses during the investigation told detectives that Dowdle was an "avid gambler" and that she had received other loans, as well as $30,000 cash and a $40,000 limit credit card to support her restaurant from another man, according to the probable cause statement. She is also charged with four counts of forgery.

Dowdle is scheduled to appear in King County Superior Court for an arraignment Dec. 10.

SeattlePI reporter Lynsi Burton can be reached at lynsiburton@seattlepi.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LynsiBurton_PI. Find more from Lynsi here.