He's 'the bump in the night': Man sentenced in sadistic cold-case murders

A diagnosed sexual sadist and convicted rapist recently connected to the cold-case murders of two women in Washington state in the 1980s was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison on Wednesday, May 13.

Mitchell Gaff, who was caught after four decades because of DNA taken from chewing gum during an undercover police operation, showed little emotion during the court hearing packed with sobbing survivors and victim family members who got to confront him for the first time. Gaff, 68, pleaded guilty last month to murdering 21-year-old Susan Vesey in 1980 and 42-year-old Judy Weaver in 1984.

Both women were mothers of two who were brutally raped and murdered during prolonged attacks in their homes, police say. Vesey's children − just 3 and 20 months old at the time − were home at the time.

"I was in the same room when the defendant killed my mother ... I was found swaddled on her bed. This is the beginning of my life," Vesey's son, Joshua Vesey, said in a statement read during the sentencing hearing. "What the defendant took from me and my sister was not just a life − it was a mother's unconditional love, the kind of love that shapes who you become before you can understand it."

Before Gaff was sentenced, Craig Matheson emphasized to the judge "the predatory randomness" of Gaff's crimes.

"He is in fact the bump in the night that should make people aware that there is mortal danger at hand," Matheson said. "It could have been anyone that caught his attention who left their door open or their window open, who could have been a victim of Mitch Gaff."

Gaff also addressed the court, saying he is “without excuse or defense” and apologizing to his victims and their loved ones.

"Nothing I can say or do can make up for what I’ve done," he said.

Here's what you need to know about the case.

Murders of 2 mothers went unsolved for decades

On July 12, 1980, 21-year-old Susan Vesey was attacked while she was at home alone in Everett with her 3-month-old baby son and 20-month-old daughter.

Her husband came home to find that she had been tied up with electrical cord, raped and strangled. Their children were physically unharmed.

"We were children, we were home. The defendant killed our mother anyway," Joshua Vesey said in his statement. "He hunted women, he planned it and he executed them."

Deborah Newton, Susan Vesey's daughter, said that her mother's murder "changed the trajectory of generations" of her family.

"I can't tell you how many times I wished I had her here for advice, to help me through the trials of life or even just to share in my joys," she said. "Every single big event in my life − the kids' birth, meeting my spouse and the kids getting married, and my kids having kids of their own − all of these were highlights of my life that I desperately wished I could have shared with her."

Vesey's murder went cold, and four years later, another woman was murdered in a similar way just 4 miles away from Vesey's home, though police didn't connect the cases at the time.

On June 1, 1984, firefighters responded to a fire at 42-year-old Judy Weaver's apartment and found her dead inside. She had been hogtied with an extension cord, raped, and strangled before the killer started a fire, court records say.

Like many of Vesey's loved ones, much of Weaver's immediate family didn't live to see her killer arrested. Weaver's parents, two sisters and one brother all died never knowing what happened to her, according to her only surviving sibling, Leon Gregory, who sobbed in court as he recalled how he used to look out for his baby sister.

Weaver's youngest daughter, Cathy Myers, was 20 when her mom was murdered and said she was a "vibrant, funny, pretty woman" who was proud of owning her own restaurant. Her loss caused decades of pain for everyone who loved her.

"Meanwhile Mr. Gaff carried on with his life," Myers said, "never caring about the tragedy and hurt he caused an entire family."

She added: "My wish is that he never gets to just carry on with his life ever again."

Gaff admitted to raping and murdering Weaver and Vesey and described the crimes in detail during a court hearing in April. At his sentencing on Wednesday, Gaff only appeared to cry when he heard his prison sentence, which will most likely mean that he will die behind bars.

How police connected Mitchell Gaff to the murders

Detectives zeroed in on Gaff in recent years when DNA collected from a wrist ligature used in Weaver's murder got a hit in the national DNA database, known as CODIS. But they wanted more.

So two undercover detectives with the Everett Police Department knocked on Gaff's door in 2024 and introduced themselves as researchers with the gum industry, according to court records.

The female detectives were wearing short shorts and tight T-shirts in hopes that it would get Gaff to participate, according to Jackie O'Brien, Gaff's first first known victim who told USA TODAY that she heard the whole story from one of the detectives.

When the detectives asked Gaff to participate in a gum-tasting survey, he agreed, sampling several flavors before discarding them in small cups with lids, court records say. They then sent the gum to a lab to extract Gaff's DNA and see whether he matched any crimes in CODIS.

He did.

DNA from the gum came back as consistent with vaginal swabs and a neck ligature taken from Weaver's body, court records say. He was arrested in May 2024 and has been jailed pending trial ever since.

In January 2025, Everett police cold case Detective Susan Logothetti returned an angry call from Vesey's husband demanding to know why, in light of Gaff's arrest for Weaver's murder, they hadn't solved his wife's case. As her husband described Vesey's murder, Logothetti immediately recognized "startling similarities" between the case and that of Weaver's killing, according to court records.

Logothetti submitted multiple items from Vesey's crime scene to the Washington State Patrol's forensic lab for updated analysis. In April 2025, DNA from a white cord used to bind Vesey matched Gaff, court records say. In March of this year, another piece of white cord from the crime scene matched Gaff, court records say.

Gaff was charged with Vesey's murder on March 13.

Mitchell Gaff's other crimes

Long before Gaff was charged with Weaver's and Vesey's murders, he was a convicted rapist and a diagnosed sexual sadist.

His first known crime was a brutal attack on then-29-year-old Jackie O'Brien the day before Thanksgiving in 1979. She was putting her lawn mower away in a tool shed at her home in Everett when a then-21-year-old Gaff confronted her with what looked like a handgun (it was an air gun) and told her to shut up and get on her knees.

Once O'Brien was on her knees with her back to Gaff, she recently told USA TODAY that he began beating her in the head with the gun, punched her in the head, and knocked her head on the cement floor and wall. She recalled the same story during a lengthy statement in court, shaking with emotion as Gaff sat shaking his head and appearing angry.

At some point during his attack on her, O'Brien said that Gaff put the gun down to tie up her wrists. That's when she made her move.

"I threw my body against him and caught him off guard, and he kind of stumbled against the wall," recalled the now-76-year-old. "I stood up, and I was trapped, and he said, 'You're going to die now, you [expletive].' And I knew I was dead."

Gaff then pulled out a hunting knife and slashed O'Brien across a hand that she had held up in defense. "Then I shoved him and I went out one way into the garage and alley screaming, thinking he was chasing me."

Gaff fled and changed clothes but was arrested soon after. A jury later found him guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and burglary. The judge in the case sentenced him to 30 days of jail with work release − meaning he got to leave daily − and then five years of probation, a slap on the wrist that still haunts O'Brien.

"I wish I had been able to kill him," O'Brien said in court on Wednesday.

Gaff was still on probation for attacking O'Brien when he crept up to a home in Everett where a mother and her teenage daughters were sleeping on Aug. 28, 1984.

Once inside, Gaff attacked the 14- and 16-year-old girls, and for the next two and a half hours, put them through living hell as their mother slept in the basement. He hogtied them with an electrical cord, cut off their clothes with a knife, raped them repeatedly, beat them, choked them, and shocked one of them with an electrical cord, court records say. The younger girl was able to escape and get help as Gaff began choking her sister with the electrical cord.

Gaff fled and the girls survived. Gaff pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and burglary in the case, and a judge sentenced him to 11.5 years in prison.

In subsequent court hearings, Gaff admitted that he tried to attack up to 30 women and girls a day in the early 1980s and confessed to raping at least eight of them, according to court records and archived news reports.

Paul Stern, who prosecuted Gaff in the 1980s, said in court in 2000: "I've not met anybody in 19 years who is more dangerous to the community than Mitchell Gaff."

Read more about Mitchell Gaff and what motivated him to prey on and attack women

Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter who covers cold case investigations, the death penalty and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat