A Piece of Chewed Gum Finally Exposed a Serial Killer After 40 Long Years.
In 1979, Mitchell A. Gaff was convicted of a brutal assault and 2 “extremely violent rapes” in Everett, Washington. He also admitted to multiple uncharged rapes — a proven predator already known to law enforcement, still walking free.
On July 12, 1980, Susan Vesey, 21 and a mother of 2 young children, was found raped, beaten, and strangled inside her Everett apartment — discovered by her husband returning from a night shift, the morning after her birthday.
On June 2, 1984, Judy Weaver, 42, was sexually assaulted, beaten, and suffocated with drawstrings and telephone cords. Gaff then deliberately set her entire Everett apartment on fire to destroy every trace of evidence left behind.
Both cases went cold for decades. In 2020, investigators reopened Weaver’s case, and by 2023, crime scene DNA was matched to Gaff — already flagged in a criminal database for a 1984 knife-point rape of 2 teenage sisters.
On January 17, 2024, undercover detectives posed as gum company researchers and offered Gaff free chewing gum. His chewed sample’s DNA matched evidence from vaginal swabs, ligatures, and clothing recovered from both murder scenes.
Mitchell Gaff, 68, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of first-degree murder. His 1979 assault survivor, Jackie O’Brien, 76, expressed mixed feelings, saying she wanted a full trial. Sentencing is now scheduled for May 13.
