# DNA from gum solves two cold case murders > Detective Susan Logothetti used a chewing gum sting to catch Mitchell Gaff, linking him to killings 40 years old. - Title: DNA from gum solves two cold case murders · CBS News - Summary: Detective Susan Logothetti used a chewing gum sting to catch Mitchell Gaff, linking him to killings 40 years old. Mitchell Gaff pleaded guilty to murdering… - Keywords: mitchell gaff, judy weaver, susan vesey, detective susan logothetti, everett police department, cold case murder, dna evidence, washington state, sexual assault, sentencing, news, DNA - Source: CBS News — https://cbsnews.com/news/judy-weaver-susan-vesey-washington-cold-case-murders-mitchell-gaff-chewing-gum-dna-48-hours - Author: Peter Van Sant - Published: 2026-10-18T02:57:00+00:00 - Read time: 4 min - Topics: mitchell gaff, judy weaver, susan vesey, detective susan logothetti, everett police department, cold case murder, dna evidence, washington state, sexual assault, sentencing, news ## Detective pursues a forty-year mystery Detective Susan Logothetti at the Everett Police Department, north of Seattle, investigates cold cases. One case consumed her: the nineteen eighty-four killing of Judy Weaver, forty-two, a divorced mother and bar manager. ## Judy Weaver's life and death Judy Weaver managed the Bel-Nes Cafe, one of the roughest bars on Hewitt Avenue. Beloved by regulars for generous shots and toughness, she was a former Salmon Derby Queen and devoted mother to daughters Cathy… ## The night of the murder On June first, nineteen eighty-four, Judy and her fiancé Bill Richards celebrated the sale of the Bel-Nes with champagne.Judy got tipsy and walked home alone about half a mile away, leaving Bill at the bar. ## The crime scene About an hour after Judy arrived home, a neighbor saw smoke billowing from her apartment.Firefighters found her tied up in the bedroom, deceased.Her clothes had been methodically cut with a knife in straight lines. ## Evidence of torture and murder Judy Weaver was bound, sexually assaulted, and strangled. A pillowcase found next to her body had blood on it. Detective Logothetti believed the killer took his time cutting her clothes, drawing out the terror. ## Prime suspect for forty years Bill Richards, Judy's fiancé, emerged as the prime suspect. Other men were questioned, but there was not enough evidence to charge or clear him. Bill Richards died in nineteen ninety-four still a suspected murderer. ## DNA breakthrough in twenty twenty-three In January twenty twenty-three, recent advances in DNA technology gave the cold case another look. Months later, DNA results revealed a match to a name Detective Logothetti had never heard: Mitchell Allen Gaff. ## Gaff's violent criminal history Mitchell Gaff was a Level three registered sex offender and sexually violent predator, the most likely to reoffend.He had served decades in prison for ultraviolent sexual assaults. ## Jackie Brown's escape The day before Thanksgiving nineteen seventy-nine, Gaff attacked Jackie Brown in her garage with a gun.She fought back using her father's advice to fight dirty, escaped, and ran for help. > Fight, fight. Kick me. What are you doing to do? Fight dirty if you have to. ## Attack on teenage sisters In August nineteen eighty-four, while still on probation for the Brown assault, Gaff attacked teenage sisters Angela, fourteen, and Myra, sixteen, in their home. ## Sisters save each other Angela escaped naked, still wearing the blow dryer cord around her neck, and ran to a neighbor's house screaming he was killing Myra.Myra kicked Gaff and screamed, causing him to lose control.Both sisters survived. ## Gaff's release after twenty-three years Gaff was convicted of aggravated rape and served ten years in prison.Considered too dangerous to release, he was sent to McNeil Island in Washington for therapeutic treatment and civil detention. ## The chewing gum sting Detective Logothetti needed fresh DNA to lock Gaff up for the Weaver murder. On January seventeenth, twenty twenty-four, three detectives in Zolt Energy T-shirts knocked on Gaff's door offering to sample new energy gum flavors… ## Gaff chews the bait Gaff chewed four pieces of gum, comparing flavors like a wine taster.After each tasting, he spit the gum into a container held by one of the detectives. > It was like he was at a wine tasting. He was talking about the notes of this and hints of that. ## DNA confirms Gaff killed Weaver The DNA results came back in record time.Gaff's DNA matched vaginal swabs, her shirt, and the ligatures found at the Judy Weaver crime scene.Police arrested him at his favorite breakfast spot, The Lucky Lunchbox. ## Second victim identified In January twenty twenty-five, Detective Logothetti received a voicemail from Ken Vesey about his wife Susan Vesey, murdered on July twelfth, nineteen eighty. > My wife was murdered on July twelve of nineteen eighty. You guys have stumbled through, done absolutely nothing about it. ## Gaff linked to Susan Vesey murder Detective Logothetti sent evidence from the nineteen eighty Susan Vesey crime scene to be compared with Mitchell Gaff's DNA from the gum ruse. ## Gaff pleads guilty to both murders Mitchell Gaff was charged with the murders of Judy Weaver and Susan Vesey.Scheduled to stand trial in September twenty twenty-six, he pleaded guilty five months before trial, seeing the strength of the case against him. ## Sentencing and victim impact At sentencing, victims and families described decades of trauma.Jackie Brown said her nightmare from nineteen seventy-nine felt like yesterday. > My nightmare occurred forty-seven years ago, but it seems like yesterday. ## Gaff sentenced to fifty years Judge Edirin Okoloko sentenced Mitchell Gaff to fifty years in prison, a certainty he will die behind bars.Detective Logothetti handcuffed him herself, feeling it important a woman put the handcuffs on the predator of women. > It was important for me to handcuff him myself. He was a predator of women. I just felt like for his victims, a woman should be the one putting the handcuffs on him. ## Key takeaway Mitchell Gaff pleaded guilty to murdering Judy Weaver in nineteen eighty-four and Susan Vesey in nineteen eighty, after DNA from chewing gum linked him to both crimes. He was sentenced to fifty years in prison.