In July 1980, 21-year-old Susan Vesey was killed inside her Everett, Washington apartment, hours after her birthday, while her two small children slept nearby. In June 1984, 42-year-old Judy Weaver was killed in her home on Rucker Avenue, and her bedroom was set on fire to destroy the evidence. Both cases went cold for more than four decades.
The break in the older case came from evidence that had been sitting in a box since 1984: a ligature used to bind Judy Weaver’s wrists, tested for DNA years after DNA profiling existed at all, and eventually run through CODIS. The database hit connected the two killings and pointed to a suspect who had no idea a decades-old sample was still waiting for him. Investigators then ran an undercover operation, posing as researchers conducting a chewing-gum study, to collect a fresh, discarded DNA sample and confirm the match without tipping him off. A phone call from a victim’s husband in 2025 helped reopen the older of the two killings and tie the threads together.
On April 16, 2026, Mitchell Gaff, 68, pleaded guilty in Snohomish County Superior Court to two counts of first-degree murder with premeditated intent. On May 13, 2026, Judge Edirin Okoloko sentenced him to a minimum of 50 years in prison and a maximum of life — a minimum the judge set to match the number of years the families had waited for an answer.
Sources
Reporting by The Daily Herald (HeraldNet), Everett, WA; ABC News; KOMO News; the City of Everett and the Everett Police Department; and Snohomish County Superior Court records, including the charging documents and the State’s sentencing memorandum.
Related reading
No well-reviewed book has been written about this case specifically yet. For readers who want more on Washington State cold cases solved by preserved DNA evidence: a search of related true crime titles on Amazon.
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