The murder of Judith 'Judy' Weaver
Everett, Snohomish County, Washington · 1984
Overview
Judy Weaver, a 42-year-old woman, was raped, bound, and strangled in her Everett, Washington home in June 1984, where her killer set a fire in an attempt to destroy evidence. The case stayed cold for nearly four decades until 2023, when a DNA profile developed from the ligatures on Weaver's wrists was entered into the national CODIS database and matched Mitchell Gaff, a convicted rapist whose profile was on file. Gaff pleaded guilty in 2026 and was sentenced to 50 years to life; investigators also linked him to the 1980 murder of 21-year-old Susan Vesey.
How it was solved
When detective work in the 1980s failed to identify Weaver's killer, biological evidence from the scene was preserved. After Everett police revived the case using modern DNA methods, the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory developed a profile from material on the ligatures used to bind Weaver and entered it into CODIS, the FBI's national database of convicted-offender DNA. In November 2023 the search returned a cold hit to Mitchell Gaff, whose DNA was already in CODIS because of his conviction for the 1984 rape of two teenage sisters, an attack he committed in Everett roughly three months after Weaver was killed. To obtain a confirmatory sample without alerting him, detectives posed as representatives of a chewing-gum company and offered Gaff free samples to taste-test; the gum he chewed and discarded yielded DNA consistent with the crime-scene evidence. Gaff was arrested in May 2024, and later DNA testing also tied him to the 1980 killing of Susan Vesey.
Sources
- Mitchell Gaff sentenced in two cold case murders
“On June 2, 1984, Weaver was found murdered in her home on Rucker Ave after the Everett Fire Department responded to a report of fire there.”
- Life in prison for man guilty of Everett cold case murders
“The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab matched DNA from the ligature on Weaver's wrists to Gaff via CODIS.”
- How discarded chewing gum helped convict a serial rapist of two cold case murders
“A DNA profile was plugged into the Combined DNA Index System, a national database of convicted offender profiles, in November 2023 and found Gaff as a match.”
- DNA from chewing gum nails longtime sexual predator after decades-long reign of terror
“On August 28, 1984, Gaff tied two girls, ages 14 and 16, with electrical cord, cut their clothing, beat them, and repeatedly raped both before one escaped and sought help.”
- Mitchell Gaff sentenced to 50 years for two Snohomish County cold case murders
“Gaff was previously convicted and sentenced in 1985 and served 21 years in prison for breaking into a home and raping two teenage sisters.”
- 2 Washington cold case murders solved with chewing gum DNA
“A convicted rapist and diagnosed sexual sadist was identified through a DNA hit in CODIS as the suspect in the 1980 murder of a 21-year-old mother and the 1984 murder of a 42-year-old woman.”
- Gaff sentenced for Everett cold case murders
“Gaff's DNA was in the system from a 1984 conviction for the rape of two teen sisters, and a detective testing Weaver's DNA sample received a match to Gaff in November 2023.”