Chewing gum DNA cracks 40-year-old murders as predator gets life for killing two women

DNA recovered from chewing gum has solved two murder cases in Washington state that were more than 40 years old. The accused, Mitchell Gaff, pleaded guilty in April 2026 to murdering Judith 'Judy' Weaver and Susan Vesey, and a Snohomish County Superior Court judge sentenced him in May to 50 years to life in prison.

In June 1984, Weaver was found bound, sexually assaulted and strangled inside her apartment off Rucker Avenue in Everett. Investigators said Gaff had sliced her clothing with a knife and set a fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.

The investigation first focused on Weaver's fiance, Bill Richards. Weaver's daughters told investigators that the couple had a volatile relationship. Richards remained a suspect until his death in 1994.

Vesey was found beaten and bound inside her Everett home on June 2, 1984, the morning of her 21st birthday.

The case turned in November 2023, when Everett Police Department Detective Susan Logothetti submitted evidence from Weaver's case for modern DNA testing after obtaining a DNA sample through a ruse involving chewing gum. Gaff was arrested in May 2024 on the basis of that sample. DNA evidence then linked him to Vesey's murder as well.

Everett police said Gaff's statements about the murders matched evidence investigators had gathered.

Court records document a long history of sexual violence. In 1979, a jury convicted Gaff of first-degree burglary and second-degree assault after he bound a woman's hands, repeatedly struck her with a pistol and smashed her head against concrete before she escaped. He received probation and work release.

While still on probation in 1984, he broke into an Everett home and raped two teen sisters, ages 14 and 16, at knifepoint. A judge imposed an exceptional sentence of 138 months and revoked his probation, requiring him to serve his sentences consecutively.

Before Gaff's scheduled release from prison, Washington authorities petitioned to commit him to a secure facility as a sexually violent predator. During psychological evaluations, Gaff admitted to making obscene calls and committing sexual assaults, including six rapes. A jury found that he met the legal criteria for civil commitment, and the Washington Court of Appeals upheld the decision in April 1998.

A psychologist who testified for the state diagnosed Gaff with sexual sadism and concluded that he posed a risk of reoffending. A defense expert, meanwhile, believed Gaff could live safely in the community under controlled conditions.

By 2005, state evaluators decided Gaff no longer required maximum confinement and approved his transfer to a less restrictive setting. In 2006, he left Washington's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island for a secure halfway house in Seattle's SoDo district.

The agreement required GPS monitoring and supervision whenever Gaff left the facility. It also required him to give up his right to challenge his sexually violent predator status for eight years. In September 2018, a court dismissed his sexually violent predator petition and unconditionally released him from civil commitment. He later lived in Olympia under the alias 'Sam Wise Price.'

Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and author not affiliated with the case, said that if a predator confessed and discovered there would be no consequence, he would likely feel emboldened to repeat it. She added that it is tricky to hold such offenders beyond their sentence, because it sometimes means proving they are an imminent danger, not just a possible one.

Police are now investigating whether Gaff had more victims. 'This is ongoing. I absolutely believe there are more victims,' Logothetti said. She said detectives have compared details from Gaff's disclosures with unsolved cases across Washington and other states, but have not identified additional victims or crimes since his 2024 arrest or 2026 guilty pleas.

Gaff's defense attorney, Heather Wolfenbarger, declined to comment. Anyone with information about other potential victims linked to Gaff is urged to call the Everett Police Department tip line at 425-257-8450.