DNA links Everett cold cases, man sentenced to life for two murders
A gum sample and modern DNA tied Mitchell Gaff to two Everett women killed decades apart, and a judge gave him 50 years to life.
A saliva sample from a gum-tasting sting helped close one of Everett’s darkest cold-case chapters, sending Mitchell Gaff to prison for life for the murders of Susan Vesey and Judith “Judy” Weaver.
A Snohomish County judge sentenced Gaff on May 13, 2026, to a minimum of 50 years and a maximum of life in prison, ending a case that had shadowed Everett for decades. Police said the sentence marked the end of a multi-year investigation and legal process that finally tied two women, once treated as unrelated victims, to the same killer.
Weaver was found murdered in her home on June 2, 1984, after the Everett Fire Department responded to a report of fire there. Vesey was found murdered in her home on July 12, 1980, the morning after her 21st birthday. For years, the cases sat apart in the city’s cold-case files, separated by four years and no obvious connection.
That changed when modern DNA evidence linked Gaff to both killings. Everett police said he was first arrested in May 2024 in connection with Weaver’s death. Investigators then built a stronger case, and in March 2026 they added the Vesey homicide after developing more evidence tying him to that older murder as well.
The breakthrough came from an undercover operation that turned a mundane product demo into the key to a double homicide. Three detectives posed as workers promoting a chewing-gum company, and Gaff unknowingly left saliva on a sample. That DNA gave investigators the match they needed in Weaver’s case, and the same evidence later connected him to Vesey’s killing.
On April 16, 2026, Gaff pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. Everett police said he also gave statements in open court that matched what detectives had already concluded from the evidence. With the plea and sentencing now complete, the department said the cases that once haunted Everett have finally reached their last legal chapter.
For the families of Susan Vesey and Judith Weaver, the long wait ended where the evidence led: from a forgotten sample, to a guilty plea, to a life sentence that finally names the same man in two of Everett’s most disturbing cold-case murders.
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