On a November day in 1996, the life of 12-year-old Kara Rudd, a White female from Longview, Washington, was tragically cut short. On November 21st, Kara made the fateful decision to skip school at Monticello Middle School. She was last seen getting into a Pontiac Firebird belonging to a man she knew and trusted, a man her family had once allowed to live in their garage, a man she and her sister called "Uncle Joe." That man was Joseph Kondro, a childhood friend of Kara's mother.
This trust would be horrifically betrayed.
Kara's absence from school quickly raised alarms, and a search was initiated. For six agonizing weeks, her family and the community held onto hope, but as winter set in, that hope began to fade. Investigators focused their attention on Kondro, who was known to frequent the Mount Solo area. It was there, on January 4, 1997, that their grim search came to an end. Kara's body was discovered hidden beneath the rusted shell of an abandoned Volkswagen in a ravine. The investigation would later reveal that Kondro had raped and strangled her.
The discovery of Kara's body and the subsequent forensic evidence, including DNA, solidified the case against Joseph Kondro. He was arrested and, while awaiting trial for Kara's murder, was also convicted of the rape and molestation of two other young girls. Faced with the possibility of the death penalty, Kondro struck a deal with prosecutors. He confessed not only to the murder of Kara Rudd but also to the 1985 murder of another young Longview girl, 8-year-old Rima Traxler.
Kondro admitted to taking Kara to a secluded swimming hole and then to an abandoned house where he committed the heinous acts. His confession brought a dark chapter in Longview's history to a close, but it did little to erase the pain of the families he had destroyed. In 1999, Joseph Kondro was sentenced to 55 years in prison, ensuring he would never again pose a threat to the community. He died in prison in 2012.
