A piece of chewed gum provided detectives in Everett, Washington, with DNA that linked Level 3 sex offender Mitchell Allen Gaff to the 1984 murder of Judy Weaver and the 1980 killing of Susan Vesey, leading to a 50-year prison sentence.
For four decades, the killing of Judy Weaver remained one of the files in the drawer at the Everett Police Department north of Seattle. Weaver, a 42-year-old bar manager and divorced mother, was found dead on June 1, 1984, in her smoke-filled flat after being tied up, sexually assaulted, and strangled. For years, suspicion rested heavily on her fiancé, Bill Richards, who died in 1994 without ever being charged or cleared. But when Detective Susan Logothetti took a fresh look at the case in January 2023 under the direction of her department, advanced DNA testing pointed away from Richards entirely and toward a man who had never been on local investigators’ radar.
Undercover Energy-Gum Ruse Yields Saliva Sample
The name returned by the laboratory was Mitchell Allen Gaff, a Level 3 registered sex offender and sexually violent predator with a history of violent assaults. Gaff had spent 23 years in civil confinement and therapy on McNeil Island following an aggravated rape conviction before being released in 2018. Investigators say he later adopted the name Sam Wise Price, became a Buddhist, and lived quietly. Although his DNA profile matched material recovered from Weaver’s crime scene, detectives needed a fresh, uncontaminated sample to strengthen their case before taking him to trial.
Logothetti devised an unusual plan. Detectives linked DNA from both crime scenes to a fresh sample collected during a staged gum promotion. Laboratory testing on the saliva confirmed a definitive match to the 1984 crime scene evidence. Police arrested him and he was arrested for Weaver’s murder.
Expanding Investigation into the 1980 Killing of Susan Vesey
While preparing the Weaver case for trial, Detective Logothetti received a voicemail in January 2025 from Ken Vesey, whose 21-year-old wife, Susan, had been murdered on July 12, 1980. At the time of her death in her bedroom—where she was discovered hogtied, sexually assaulted, and strangled—Susan Vesey was a mother of two young children at age 21. Electrical cords had been used as ligatures, and Vesey’s clothing had been cut. Her three-month-old infant son was discovered on the bed beside her body, and her two-year-old daughter was also in the flat. Ken Vesey had long lived under a cloud of suspicion from some investigators despite witnesses supporting his alibi that he was working a night shift.
Recognizing similarities to the Weaver homicide, Logothetti submitted evidence from the 1980 Vesey crime scene for comparison against the DNA profile obtained from the undercover gum operation. Three months later, forensic reports confirmed that Gaff’s DNA was present throughout the Vesey crime scene. Prosecutors subsequently charged him with the second murder as well. Ken Vesey passed away on July 12, 2025—exactly 45 years to the day after his wife was found dead.
Guilty Plea and 50-Year Sentence Delivered in Court
Facing a scheduled trial in September 2026, Gaff pleaded guilty five months beforehand to the killings of both Judy Weaver and Susan Vesey. During the sentencing hearing, prosecutors pressed for a 61-year term, while defense attorneys asked for the statutory minimum of 20 years, citing his age and decades of therapeutic confinement. Following the hearing, Judge Edirin Okoloko handed down a 50-year prison sentence to him, which ensures he will likely spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
I walk down the hall … to see my mom on the floor on her knees, hands over her head, screaming, yelling, crying, sobbing uncontrollably … That moment is burned into my memory. It has never left me.
How Chewing Gum Found Mitchell Gaff Guilty Of Over 40 Years Crimes #crime #truecrimestories
Ernest Bennett, son of Susan Vesey
Survivors and family members addressed the court to detail the enduring psychological toll of the attacks. Jackie Brown, whom Gaff attacked at her home in 1979, spoke of the constant vigilance she still maintains in her own house. Josh Vesey, who was just an infant when his mother lost her life, expressed sorrow over lacking any recollections of her or of experiencing a mother’s unconditional love. After the sentence, Detective Logothetti personally placed handcuffs on him. Declaring it vital that a female officer take a predator of women into custody to guarantee he would never walk free again, she made the arrest herself.
