Mitchell Gaff, 68, Admits to Killing Two Women Decades Apart in Washington State

A Cold Case Breakthrough Decades in the Making

In January 2024, detectives investigating two unsolved murders from the 1980s offered a man a piece of chewing gum. Mitchell Gaff, now 68 years old and living in Everett, Washington, chewed it - and in doing so, handed investigators the DNA that would connect him to killings that had gone unsolved for more than four decades, according to CNN.

Gaff was charged in connection with the deaths of Susan Vesey, killed in July 1980, and Judy Weaver, killed in June 1984, both in Washington State. He pleaded guilty to both killings after the DNA evidence placed him at the scene. In May 2026, he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

How the DNA Evidence Emerged

The gum ruse came after a November 2023 breakthrough in the investigation. Investigators submitted evidence from both cold cases to a forensic technique called STRmix, which enabled a more refined analysis of degraded DNA samples recovered from the original crime scenes. That analysis produced a profile that was run through CODIS, the national DNA database, and returned a match to Gaff.

With a confirmed CODIS hit, detectives needed a fresh DNA sample from Gaff to lock in the identification. They approached him under a pretext in January 2024 and offered him a piece of gum. The discarded gum yielded a clean sample that matched the profile recovered from both crime scenes.

The Victims and the Decades of Waiting

Susan Vesey was killed in July 1980. Judy Weaver was killed in June 1984. Both deaths remained unsolved for over 40 years, leaving families without answers through decades of investigative dead ends. The cases were reopened as forensic technology advanced, eventually enabling the STRmix analysis that produced the CODIS match.

Gaff had a prior rape conviction, though that record had not previously connected him to these specific cases. Investigators have not publicly detailed how the two homicide cases were linked to each other before the DNA work began.

Sentencing and the Role of New Forensics

Gaff was sentenced in May 2026 - roughly 42 years after Judy Weaver’s death and 46 years after Susan Vesey’s. The 50-years-to-life sentence means Gaff, at 68, will almost certainly die in prison. His guilty plea, combined with the DNA evidence, provided the evidentiary foundation for the sentencing.

The case illustrates how forensic tools unavailable at the time of the original crimes - including STRmix analysis and expanded CODIS databases - are enabling investigators to close cases that once appeared permanently unsolvable.

References: Mitchell Gaff sentenced for 1980s cold case murders solved by chewing gum DNA | Cops used chewing gum to make murder cases stick against sexual sadist | Man sentenced in 1980s cold case murders solved by chewing gum DNA