Detective Susan Logothetti lives her professional life deep in the past, investigating cold cases at the Everett Police Department, north of Seattle.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I love that people who thought they could get away with it 40 years ago are looking over their shoulder now, wondering what they left behind.
One case in particular from 1984 came to consume her: the killing of Judy Weaver, 42, a divorced mother and a manager of a bar and cafe.
Det. Susan Logothetti: It was called the Bel-Nes Cafe. … one of the roughest bars on Hewitt Avenue, if not the roughest.
The murder of Judy Weaver
Judy Weaver was beloved by her rowdy regulars for her generous shots of hard liquor and for being a little rough around the edges herself.
Det. Susan Logothetti: She could stand up to anybody.
The former local beauty queen could turn ugly when it came to dealing with intoxicated patrons, says her daughter, Cathy Myers.
Cathy Myers: … she'd just throw them out.
Peter Van Sant: What, grab them by the collar and you're out of here?
Cathy Myers: … by the back of the neck, back of the pants.
Peter Van Sant (looking at family photos): This is the beauty queen? …
Cathy Myers: This is our mom when she was the Salmon Derby Queen …
Colleen Kayser: … uh, she was a good mom.
Judy's other daughter, Colleen Kayser.
Colleen Kayser: She worked hard to make sure us girls had what … we needed.
For years, it was just the three of them — Colleen, Cathy, and their mom. But all that changed when Judy started dating the owner of the bar, Bill Richards.
Cathy Myers (pointing at photo): This is Bill Richards, my mom's boyfriend.
They eventually got engaged. Judy's daughters didn't like him very much.
Colleen Kayser: He didn't treat my mom very well. … Well, he was mean to her. He'd yell at her. He hit her a few times.
Peter Van Sant: Did you witness that?
Colleen Kayser: I never witnessed it, but I've seen the bruises.
Wanting a fresh start, on the evening of June 1, 1984, Bill and Judy popped some champagne.
Det. Susan Logothetti: They were celebrating the sale of the Bel-Nes. … they were there with friends, and they were partying. … Judy, she got pretty tipsy that night.
Too tipsy to drive and too tired to wait for a cab, Judy decided to walk home leaving Bill at the bar. Their apartment was about a half mile away. At some point, along the darkened streets, Judy was spotted and followed.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … this is where Judy Weaver would have walked to, to come home. That last door you see down here …
Det. Susan Logothetti: Judy likely left the back door unlocked when she came home.
Peter Van Sant: She goes inside. What do you believe happens next?
Det. Susan Logothetti: He … comes, finds the door unlocked and enters and attacks Judy.
About an hour later, says Logothetti, a neighbor saw smoke billowing out of Judy Weaver's apartment.
Peter Van Sant: When firefighters enter that apartment, what did they find? …
Det. Susan Logothetti: The bedroom door was closed. When they opened it, it was filled with black smoke.
Inside the smoldering bedroom was Judy Weaver, tied up and motionless.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … she was obviously deceased.
Peter Van Sant: Why do you suppose the suspect set this fire?
Det. Susan Logothetti: To cover up the evidence and destroy the scene.
Logothetti spent hours examining the physical evidence: the silent witnesses to murder.
Det. Susan Logothetti: This was a pillowcase found next to Judy Weaver's body, and it's believed that it was covering her head. There's blood on it …
Det. Susan Logothetti: … her clothes had been cut with a knife …
Det. Susan Logothetti: It just looks like he did one straight shot …
Peter Van Sant: … cutting all along this line you can see.
Det. Susan Logothetti: In one straightened line.
Peter Van Sant: And then up here.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Because she didn't have cuts on her body, I feel like he took his time doing this …
Peter Van Sant: Drawing out the terror, right.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And what did that suggest about the assailant, someone who somehow took pleasure in inflicting this kind of pain and ultimately, death?
Det. Susan Logothetti: He's a monster. And I didn't believe that he hadn't done it before.
Judy Weaver was bound, sexually assaulted, and strangled.
Cathy Myers: I was told that her hands were tied and at that moment was when I, you know, took a second for that to sink in what that meant … and I instantly thought of Bill. And out loud I said, "Oh, my God, he killed her this time."
Other men were questioned, but it was Judy Weaver's fiancé, Bill Richards, who emerged as the prime suspect.
Cathy Myers: My only suspect was Bill …
But there was not enough evidence to charge him or to clear him. Bill Richards died in 1994 still a suspected murderer.
Det. Susan Logothetti: He was the prime suspect for 40 years …
In January 2023, this coldest of cold cases got another look. Logothetti says her boss back then believed recent advances in DNA technology might finally identify Judy Weaver's killer.
Det. Susan Logothetti: He … told me that it was likely Bill Richards, but he sent in evidence just to confirm it.
Months later, the DNA results landed on Logothetti's desk revealing a match and a name. To her surprise, that name was not Bill Richards.
DNA points to new suspect with a violent past
Detective Logothetti hoped a four-decade-long mystery was about to be solved. In the Judy Weaver cold case there was a DNA hit.
Peter Van Sant: And with that hit comes a name.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: What name appeared?
Det. Susan Logothetti: Mitchell Allen Gaff.
A name she had never heard.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I immediately did a routine name check and the first thing I see is Mitchell Allen Gaff is a Level 3 registered sex offender and a sexually violent predator.
Peter Van Sant: What does a Level 3 offender mean?
Det. Susan Logothetti: They are the most likely to reoffend.
Detective Logothetti pored over Mitchell Gaff's case file. He was a free man after decades of incarceration for ultraviolent sexual assaults. His first known target: Jackie Brown.
Det. Susan Logothetti: She was a young police officer … beautiful woman, mowing her lawn and … caught Gaff's eye.
Peter Van Sant: He was just out walking in her neighborhood, right?
Det. Susan Logothetti: … he was.
It was the day before Thanksgiving 1979.
Peter Van Sant: You were in this very spot. Where are we right now?
Jackie Brown: We're in the backyard of my house …
Jackie Brown: I had just finished mowing the backyard …
Peter Van Sant: You're in your garage putting the lawnmower away. What happens?
Jackie Brown (standing inside her garage): I heard someone yell, "Get down on your knees and don't turn around."
Jackie Brown: Of course I turned around.
Peter Van Sant: And is he standing right about where I am?
Jackie Brown: He's standing right about here.
A young man, she says, was pointing a gun just inches from her head.
Jackie Brown: He took the gun and slammed it across the side of my head. …
Jackie Brown: He kept hitting me. …
Jackie Brown: … he kept kneeing me …
Jackie Brown: And I thought, "He's going to rape me." And … I just kept talking. I said —
Talking, pleading and plotting. Jackie tried and failed to coax him out of the garage and into her bedroom.
Jackie Brown: Because I slept with a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson under my pillow. … and I knew … I'd blow his brains out. And I would have. …
Jackie Brown: And then he said, "put your hands behind your back."
In that whirlwind of fear, a childhood memory came rushing back, says Jackie. A lesson from her father: if attacked, fight like hell.
Jackie Brown: And he would say, "Well, fight, fight. Kick me. What are you doing to do? … fight dirty if you have to."
When the assailant put down the gun to handcuff Jackie, she turned her father's advice into action.
Jackie Brown: And I just threw my weight into him … caught him off guard and he fell against the wall. …
Jackie Brown: And he said, "I'm gonna kill you, you f****** bitch."
Jackie Brown: … all of a sudden he pulled out a hunting knife … And he slashed me …
Peter Van Sant: Where'd he slash you?
Jackie Brown: Across my left palm.
Jackie Brown: … and again, I shoved him, and I just ran out of the garage.
Jackie Brown: … and I sprint down the alley …
Peter Van Sant: … are you thinking he's right behind you?
Jackie Brown: Absolutely, yes. … I was screaming for help.
Jackie Brown: So, I'm flying down the middle of the road …
A neighbor heard the commotion and called police. It wasn't long before Everett P.D. officers detained a man down by the railroad tracks, not far away. They needed Jackie to identify him.
Jackie Brown: … when we pulled up, I looked and … we were this far away. And I said, "That's not him." … he wasn't wearing anything that I described.
Peter Van Sant: So, you're thinking they got the wrong guy.
Jackie Brown: They got the wrong guy. Yep.
She started to leave, but something inside Jackie caused her to turn around.
Jackie Brown: And I – I said, "Say something to me." And I said it again really loud and he turned and he said, 'What the f*** do you want me to say?" And as soon as he said that I knew it was him.
Peter Van Sant: Wow.
Jackie Brown: I lunged for him.
Peter Van Sant: You lunged for him?
Jackie Brown: I lunged for him.
Her attacker – then 21-year-old Mitchell Gaff – was arrested. Police later found his duffle bag, which contained the clothes he had worn during the attack. Gaff was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. But, as a first-time offender, he was sentenced to one year of work release and five years of probation.
Peter Van Sant: What was that like for you to know he was out on the street?
Jackie Brown: Awful, awful. He got to carry on with his life, and it changed mine forever.
Combing through the case file, Logothetti began connecting the dots. She realized that Mitchell Gaff was still on probation for the Jackie Brown assault when Judy Weaver was murdered in June 1984. By the end of August, Gaff struck again.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … this house right here, is the house where the teenage sisters, Angela and Myra, were attacked and assaulted by Mitchell Gaff in August of 1984.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Angela was 14. Myra was 16.
It was close to midnight. They were both asleep: Angela on the living room couch … Myra down the hall in her bedroom …
Det. Susan Logothetti: … the front door was unlocked …
Mitchell Gaff slowly, silently, crept into the house, says Logothetti, collecting cords for ligatures and a knife from the kitchen.
Det. Susan Logothetti: After he found the items he wanted, in — within the home, he went to Angela first.
Angela: … he grabbed me by my hair and pushed my head back and had a knife to my throat and said if you scream, I'm going to slit your throat.
In a 1996 interview on "60 Minutes Australia," Angela and Myra, then 27 and 29, relived the most terrifying two-and-a-half hours of their lives.
Myra: … some cloth was shoved all the way down my throat, and a gag was put on, and a pillowcase thrown over my head.
And then, Mitchell Gaff tied up the teenage sisters.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … and he proceeds to rape each of them …
Peter Van Sant: Was it headed toward a killing then of two young girls?
Det. Susan Logothetti: One hundred percent. … He grabs a blow dryer and uses the cord to strangle Angela.
Myra: … but he's choking her, right? He's killing her and it's my belief that he's going to kill her. And my reaction was to protect her, of course.
Myra took her free leg and started kicking him and screaming.
Myra: … he lost control and came over and just beat me to a pulp. …
Angela: He went over to start hitting her, and I just all the sudden got up. Got up and just took off out the door.
Peter Van Sant: She comes out of that front door. She's sprinting. Where does she go? …
Det. Susan Logothetti: She comes right over here to this house, her neighbor's house over here.
That gave Angela time to run for help …
Angela: I was naked. … and I ran acr — down my yard all the way through, across the street to the next-door neighbor …
Det. Susan Logothetti: She couldn't understand why she couldn't scream. And she realized that this blow-dryer cord was still wrapped tightly, knotted around her neck. So, she took the blow dryer …
Angela: … and started hitting their door with the blow dryer that was around my neck.
Peter Van Sant: And what does Angela shout?
Det. Susan Logothetti: "He's killing Myra. He's killing Myra."
Horrified neighbors called police.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … and turned just in time to see Gaff run out the front door … fully naked … and run off into the darkness.
Myra and Angela had saved each other.
Mitchell Gaff was arrested about a week later in September 1984. Married with a pregnant wife, Gaff was convicted of aggravated rape and served 10 years in prison. Considered too dangerous to release, he was sent to McNeil Island in Washington for therapeutic treatment, and, possibly, indefinite civil detention.
Tom Junod: The only way that these guys could get out was to convince people that they were no longer a threat.
Tom Junod has authored dozens of acclaimed articles and written his first book, a memoir. In 1995, he profiled Mitchell Gaff for GQ Magazine. Junod spent several days with the man prosecutors have called, "The Boogeyman," and was struck by his mellow demeanor.
Peter Van Sant: Did you ever see on his face, in his eyes, a flash of danger?
Tom Junod: I saw a flash of vacancy. … when you look into the eyes of a shark, they don't look like they hate you. They look like they don't care about you. … And that was Mitchell Gaff.
Gaff was released in 2018, having spent 23 years in civil confinement and in therapy.
Det. Susan Logothetti: There were some professionals there … who did think that they had cured him.
Since then, Logothetti says, Gaff became a Buddhist, married a man and changed his name to Sam Wise Price.
Logothetti said Gaff, now in his 60s, appears to be living a peaceful life. But knowing his violent past, Logothetti shifted her focus back 40 years to the Judy Weaver murder and that DNA breakthrough linking Gaff to her killing. But Logothetti said she now needed a fresh sample to lock him up for good. Logothetti had a plan, that centered on a stick of chewing gum.
Susan Logothetti: I really thought it was a long shot.
The chewing gum sting
It was bold, ingenious and risky.
Peter Van Sant: … the detective usually goes in with a SWAT team. You're now armed with bubble gum. Is that right?
Det. Susan Logothetti: We had gum. Yeah.
Detective Susan Logothetti believed Mitchell Gaff had gotten away with murdering Judy Weaver for almost 40 years. She was going to change that. But first she had to prove it.
Det. Susan Logothetti: This is … items that we used in the gum ruse.
And proving it meant coming up with a plan to collect fresh DNA from her prime suspect — a plan that involved going undercover to fool Gaff into sampling some chewing gum.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … we were gonna represent a healthy energy gum line that we were launching at Safeway. And it was called —
Peter Van Sant: What was the name of this company?
Det. Susan Logothetti: — Energy Gum.
They knew from surveillance that Gaff rarely left the home. So, they decided to go to him.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I tried to doll up a little bit that day … hoping that would help our chances.
On the morning of Jan. 17, 2024, three detectives, clad in their Zolt Energy T-shirts, knocked on Mitchell Gaff's front door.
Det. Susan Logothetti: And he kinda opens the door a crack … and we start giving our gum excitement spiel.
Det. Susan Logothetti (holding sticks of gum): This is what the gum looked like.
They gave him four unmarked pieces to compare two flavors, watermelon and tropical fruit.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Gaff went with it. He chewed that gum. … it was like he was at a wine tasting … He was talking about the notes of this and hints of that.
Peter Van Sant: … you're sort of a gum sommelier …
Det. Susan Logothetti: Oh, yeah. … I'm writing notes. "Oh, oh." … he got into it.
After each tasting, he would spit the gum into a container held by one of the other detectives.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … I could see the saliva coming out of his mouth, on the gum, in the container.
Peter Van Sant: Exactly what you needed to do a DNA test.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Yes.
After about 30 minutes, they said their goodbyes. Logothetti immediately sent the chewed gum to the crime lab and the results came back in record time.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Everything was confirmed as far as the DNA. There was vaginal swabs … her shirt, the ligatures. …
Peter Van Sant: They all matched to Mitchell Gaff.
Det. Susan Logothetti: They all matched.
Police showed up at The Lucky Lunchbox, Gaff's favorite breakfast spot looking for Sam — Mitchell Gaff's new name.
OFFICER (bodycam): There's some detectives that would like to talk to you down at the police station ...
MITCHELL GAFF: That's interesting.
OFFICER: Yes.
MITCHELL GAFF: Know what it's about?
Det. Susan Logothetti: … he was completely off guard.
OFFICER (bodycam): Uh, before we let you in, we just gotta pat you down for weapons …
OFFICER: I'll hold your sandwich …
MITCHELL GAFF: Do I need, uh, like ID or anything, or?
OFFICER: Eh, no. We know who you are.
When they arrive at the local sheriff's office, Gaff is led up the stairs to the interview room.
Detective Logothetti, whom Gaff didn't seem to recognize as the Zolt gum tester, finally has him where she wants him. She gently broaches the subject at hand.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: Hi. I'm Susie Logothetti …
DET. LOGOTHETTI: … well, you must, you know, wonder why we're here.
MITCHELL GAFF: Oh, yeah. 'Cause right now, yeah, my anxiety and my adrenaline are off the chart. I'm like, what the hell.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: OK. …
MITCHELL GAFF: I'm scared what this is about because holy crap. I've been out – out for a while. I've done nothing and –
Detectives Logothetti and Karen Kowalchyk back off the subject until Gaff can't take the suspense any longer.
MITCHELL GAFF: Why are we here?
DET. LOGOTHETTI: What — um.
MITCHELL GAFF: Why are we here?
Peter Van Sant: You didn't answer that?
Det. Susan Logothetti: No.
Peter Van Sant: OK. You want to hold off?
Det. Susan Logothetti: I did hold off.
Instead, she steers the conversation to the crimes he was convicted of.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I wanted him to talk about how he picked women that he raped.
MITCHELL GAFF (police interview): … I hate to put it in kind of terms, but you ever see the way a cat gets excited by quick movement or something and — and it — and it — it triggers something? It's kind of like that. Something triggered, you know?
He says he never attacked anyone he knew. It was easier that way.
MITCHELL GAFF (police interview): … people were not people, they were objects. It's just a — if I had to admit humanity. If I had to admit a personhood. Would have been harder to do.
He starts talking about the night he sexually abused the teen sisters. Even though one of the sisters says he stalked her after spotting her at a local flower shop, Gaff denies it.
MITCHELL GAFF (police interview): … I didn't have anyone picked out. … I never met them. I never saw them. I did not know …
Logothetti doesn't challenge his account, though she knows from her conversations with the sisters that he is lying.
Det. Susan Logothetti: Mitchell Gaff … while he was raping Myra and Angela told her, "I came here for you, but I couldn't pass up the little treasure that was on the couch," meaning her sister.
He does admit, however, that he would have killed them if Angela hadn't made that escape.
MITCHELL GAFF: I think I had, yeah. I think I had decided that I needed to kill them ...
The detective then circles back to Judy Weaver.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: There is … an incident in — that happened in Everett where, uh, there was a CODIS hit to your DNA. And that's kinda what brought us here today. …
DET. LOGOTHETTI: I mean, do you have any idea what it could have been linked to?
MITCHELL GAFF: No. I committed several rapes, so I don't know.
Mitchell Gaff could see where this conversation was going.
MITCHELL GAFF: I don't know how hard I should try to convict myself.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: What do you mean by that?
MITCHELL GAFF: Well, I obviously do not want to go back to prison for something that happened 40 f****** years ago … I'm just f****** heartbroken.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I gave him a copy of … the warrant.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: … give you a copy of that. …
MITCHELL GAFF: This says "murder."
DET. LOGOTHETTI: Yeah.
Det. Susan Logothetti: And then he went into denial mode. He was like, "what? …Wait a minute, this says murder. I didn't kill anyone."
MITCHELL GAFF: Nobody died. I mean, she was fine.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: … the thing is, is she wasn't fine. Um, I think you know that deep down.
DET. LOGOTHETTI (shows a photo of Judy Weaver): … there she is.
MITCHELL GAFF: … no idea. I don't know who that is.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: OK. …
DET. LOGOTHETTI: I mean, there's gonna be DNA all over her body.
MITCHELL GAFF: OK. … I don't remember this, but OK. I really don't. Um.
The detectives take DNA swabs.
MITCHELL GAFF: This is really bad. This isn't a rape, this is f****** murder. So, think I should probably have some legal advice.
DET. LOGOTHETTI: … at this point, you're going to be placed under arrest for the murder of Judith Weaver.
The elusive killer undone by a piece of chewing gum.
Detective links Mitchell Gaff to second cold case murder
In January 2025, Detective Susan Logothetti was in the thick of the Judy Weaver murder investigation and preparing for trial. The last thing she expected was this voicemail:
KEN VESEY (voicemail): My name is Ken Vesey. … My wife was murdered … on July 12 of 1980. You guys have stumbled through, done absolutely nothing about it.
Logothetti had never heard the name Ken Vesey before. But that didn't stop her.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I called him immediately … I let him know that … I was unfamiliar with the case. And I — I was hoping you could tell me more.
And so, he did. Ken described in horrifying detail finding his 21-year-old wife Susan Vesey hogtied on the floor of her bedroom, sexually violated and strangled.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I said to him, I need to go get your wife's file, and I'm gonna call you back. … I spent every night reading the file. During that time, I talked to Ken Vesey a lot.
Ken Vesey had lived under a shadow of doubt for more than 40 years as a suspect in his wife's murder. But Logothetti saw the sinister signature of another man in those pages — Mitchell Gaff. It was all there: the strangulation, the electrical cords —
SUSAN LOGOTHETTI (showing evidence): This would have been part of the neck ligature as well …
PETER VAN SANT (holding ligature): So, this went .. around her neck?
SUSAN LOGOTHETTI: It did.
— the clothes cut off.
SUSAN LOGOTHETTI: So, these are Susan's jeans that she was wearing the day of …
Det. Susan Logothetti: I called the forensic scientist … and I asked, can I send some evidence up in this 1980 case to be compared with Mitchell Gaff's DNA that we got in the gum ruse?
The answer was yes. Three months later, the report was in her inbox. Mitchell Gaff's DNA was all over the Susan Vesey crime scene.
One of the first calls Logothetti made was to Ken Vesey.
Det. Susan Logothetti: I said, "We got him." I said, "It is – it was Mitchell Gaff."
Prosecutor Craig Matheson, who was preparing for trial in the Judy Weaver case, immediately hit Mitchell Gaff with a second charge: the murder of Susan Vesey.
Prosecutor Craig Matheson: So it was at that point, you know, game on.
But Matheson and his co-counsel Sarah Johnson knew the Vesey case would be tough.
Prosecutor Sarah Johnson: We didn't know if there was anyone alive who had been in the crime scene who could talk about what they saw … But thankfully, Mike Perin was there and he remembered everything.
Mike Perin was a young detective at the time.
Peter Van Sant: What do you see as you enter the apartment? …
Det. Mike Perin: I saw the stuff that makes nightmares. … The person who we later identified as Susan Vesey was on her back … deceased. … sign that she'd been abused sexually and probably tortured also.
Det. Mike Perin (emotional): Whoever did that had a lot of hate … There's some things that humans aren't meant to see. … this is one of those times. It's an image that is, it's as clear now as it was 47 years ago.
Detective Perin later learned that Susan's 2-year-old daughter and 3-month-old son Josh had been found alive in the apartment; Josh on the bed next to where his mother lay dead.
Det. Mike Perin: … just to this day, I thank God that he spared both the children.
Ken Vesey was the one who called 911. At the time, Ken and Susan were getting back together after a brief split. He told detectives he had worked the graveyard shift at a gas station the night of the murder. When he returned to the apartment around 10:30 the morning of July 12, the door was locked. He climbed up the balcony and entered the apartment. He grabbed a knife to cut some of the ligatures off
Det. Mike Perin: He tried to do both mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions. That didn't work. It was way too late.
Peter Van Sant: Your instinct told you what about Ken's story … Was he credible to you?
Det. Mike Perin: He was credible. … he was as upset as any human I've ever seen.
Despite having an airtight alibi – witnesses corroborated he was at work – some detectives on the case continued to believe Ken somehow was the killer.
Paula Keeler: I knew it couldn't be Ken. He loved her. She was the love of his life, you know …
Paula Keeler and Susan Vesey were best friends since childhood.
Paula Keeler: We were soul sisters. … there was a lot of unconditional love between the two of us … she was a woman who loved life and loved people …
And who always longed to be a mother.
Paula Keeler: Susan was very loving, nurturing mother, a very caring mother, very attentive mother …
Susan Vesey turned 21 on July 11, 1980 – the day before she was discovered dead. The two friends, who at the time lived four hours apart, spoke on the phone for the last time on Susan's birthday.
Paula Keeler: We would always say, "I love you," and those were her last words to me.
Decades passed without answers — 45 years of heartbreak before Det. Logothetti made her breakthrough.
Paula Keeler: … she found him. She found him.
Mitchell Gaff pleads guilty
Jackie Brown: … it's changed my life.
Myra: I'm afraid to be alone …
Angela: He knows how much we're hurt. He did it to us.
They were different ages from different walks of life. Some lived.
Peter Van Sant: How lucky do you feel today that you are alive?
Jackie Brown: Very lucky. Very, very lucky.
Some didn't.
Paula Keeler: It's a huge loss.
But they all had one thing in common: a man named Mitchell Gaff.
Prosecutor Sarah Johnson: I would say that Mitchell Gaff is the worst criminal that I've ever come across in my line of work. … Not only the number of crimes that he's committed, but just the scope of how truly terrible all of his crimes were.
Mitchell Gaff was finally slated to stand trial for the murders of Judy Weaver and Susan Vesey in September 2026. But it would never happen. He pleaded guilty five months before it was scheduled to start.
Prosecutor Craig Matheson: I think he saw the strength of the case and — and knew what was going to happen if we ended up in front of the jury.
One month after his guilty plea, Mitchell Gaff appears in court for sentencing.
Lead prosecutor Craig Matheson makes his case for 61 years behind bars. He begins with the predatory randomness of the murders.
PROSECUTOR MATHESON (in court): Susan Vesey is dead because her front door was unlocked … Judy Weaver made the mistake of arriving home just as the defendant drove by, and she caught his attention …
Matheson spells out his motive: getting pleasure from watching them suffer and die.
PROSECUTOR MATHESON: … to satiate his sexual appetite.
PROSECUTOR MATHESON: He had already taken from them everything that he could have wanted, yet he still decided to kill them both.
Defense Attorney Heather Wolfenbarger counters with what she claims are mitigating circumstances: his age — and his years of therapeutic treatment while incarcerated.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY HEATHER WOLFENBARGER: … and yet we now have this person who is nearly 70 years old …
DEFENSE ATTORNEY WOLFENBARGER: He is simply not the same person that he was then.
DEFENSE ATTORNEY WOLFENBARGER: … we're asking for, we're just—just to impose the statutory, mandatory minimum of 20 years.
Friends and families of Susan Vesey and Judy Weaver then address the human toll.
Judy's nephew, Ernest Bennett, describes seeing his mother – Judy's sister – collapsed in grief after hearing the news.
ERNEST BENNETT(in court): I walk down the hall … to see my mom on the floor on her knees, hands over her head, screaming, yelling, crying, sobbing uncontrollably … That moment is burned into my memory. It has never left me.
Susan Vesey's best friend, Paula Keeler, is still haunted by the details of Susan's violent death.
PAULA KEELER (in court): There are no words that can fully capture what Sue endured in her final moments … Her two young children were present. Her children were present. While they survived physically, their lives and all of our lives were permanently changed.
Susan's son, Josh Vesey – the 3-month-old baby who was in the room when his mother was killed – met us outside the home where the crime occurred and described a different kind of grief.
Josh Vesey: I'm grieving never having any memory of her, right? I never had a mother's unconditional love.
And he watched his father, Ken Vesey, live under the crushing presumption of guilt.
Josh Vesey: … the suspicions were always there … And he was always a suspect … It was probably the worst moment of his life that he had to relive every single day for 46 years.
In a cruel twist, Ken Vesey would never get the chance to face his wife's killer as a vindicated man.
Det. Susan Logothetti: … on July 12 of 2025 … the same day Susan was found, 45 years to the day, Ken Vesey died.
Lastly, Jackie Brown, Mitchell Gaff's first known victim, gives her statement.
JACKIE BROWN (in court): I no longer play music or the radio in my house. I must be able to hear every little noise. … Your Honor, my nightmare occurred 47 years ago, but it seems like yesterday. … I hope your sentence keeps him in prison until his death, Your Honor. Thank you.
Mitchell Gaff, who now goes by the name Sam Price, also addresses the court.
MITCHELL GAFF: I come to you before to take full accountability for my actions, behaviors, and crimes related to the 1980 and 1984 rapes and murders …
But he puts some of the blame on drugs and alcohol and claims he is a changed man.
MITCHELL GAFF: … during the past 40 years in my search for sobriety, sanity, and spirituality, I have spent over 30 years in Buddhist study and Zen meditation.
Paula Keeler: I don't think he's remorseful at all. I think he's just working the court system to get out of it what he could get out of it.
Author Tom Junod — who spent hours with Gaff in the 1990s reporting that story for GQ Magazine about a therapeutic program for incarcerated sex offenders — believes Gaff conned his therapists into releasing him, while he fundamentally remained the predator he always was.
Tom Junod: … one of the things that you can't forget was that he was cruel. He was a sadist, and he got off on sadism.
Judge Edirin Okoloko sentenced Mitchell Gaff to 50 years in prison — at his age, a certainty that he will die behind bars. For the first time in 47 years, Jackie Brown believes she can reclaim what she'd lost – maybe even start listening to music again.
Jackie Brown: I will forget it now. I'm determined with the sentence that Judge Okoloko put on Gaff this time …
Paula Keeler hopes Susan Vesey can now shed the tragedy that overshadowed her life.
Paula Keeler: I don't want her to be defined by how she left this world. I want her to be defined by the amazing person that she is, what she stood for in her life and what she lived for while she had the short life that she had.
As the sentencing hearing ends, Logothetti approaches the man she pursued as relentlessly as he pursued the women he attacked.
Det. Susan Logothetti: It was important for me to handcuff him myself. … He was a — a predator of women … I just felt like for his victims, a woman should be the one putting the handcuffs on him and walking him into custody where he wasn't gonna be free again.
Produced by Mead Stone and Liza Finley. Greg Fisher, Cindy Cesare and David Dow are the development producers. Michael Loftus and Gabriella Demirdjian are the field producers. Mead Stone, Atticus Brady and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
This story published first on CBS News at 10:57 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2026.
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