Long before DNA evidence connected Mitchell Gaff to two Washington cold-case killings, he acknowledged committing six rapes during psychological evaluations conducted by the state, court records show.
Despite that history, a judge eventually ended Gaff’s civil commitment, clearing the way for him to live in the community without the safeguards required under Washington’s sexually violent predator program.
Gaff pleaded guilty in April 2026 to killing Judith “Judy” Weaver and Susan Vesey. The following month, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge sentenced him to 50 years to life in prison.
Mitchell Gaff is shown in a mugshot. (Washington State Department of Corrections)
The convictions have prompted investigators to examine whether Gaff may have harmed other people, particularly because of his record of sexual violence and his unconditional release from civil commitment in September 2018.
After his release, Gaff lived in Olympia using the name “Sam Wise Price.”
Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and author who is not involved in the case, told News Media that overlooking admissions from a known predator can create serious risks.
“Psychologically, if he had confessed but learned there would be no consequences, he would likely feel emboldened to repeat that behavior,” Ramsland said.
Victims found strangled, sexually assaulted
In June 1984, emergency responders discovered Weaver bound, sexually assaulted and strangled inside her apartment near Rucker Avenue in Everett. Investigators determined that her clothing had been cut with a knife and that a fire had been set, apparently in an effort to destroy evidence.
Judy Weaver’s body was found inside her Rucker Avenue home in Everett, Washington, after first responders were called to a fire on June 2, 1984. (Everett Police Department)
Investigators initially suspected Bill Richards, Weaver’s fiancé. According to KING 5 News, Weaver’s daughters described the couple’s relationship as volatile.
Richards continued to be treated as a suspect until his death in 1994.
In November 2023, Everett Police Detective Susan Logothetti sent evidence from Weaver’s case for advanced DNA testing. Investigators obtained a sample from Gaff through a ruse involving discarded chewing gum.
Authorities arrested Gaff in May 2024 after collecting the gum-based DNA sample.
The DNA also connected Gaff to Vesey’s killing. She was found beaten and bound inside her Everett home on June 2, 1984, the morning of her 21st birthday.
Authorities said Susan Vesey was murdered inside her Everett, Washington, home on July 12, 1980. (Everett Police Department)
Everett police said Gaff’s account of the killings corresponded with physical evidence collected during the investigations.
Court records document a history of sexual violence
A jury convicted Gaff in 1979 of first-degree burglary and second-degree assault after he tied a woman’s hands, repeatedly hit her with a pistol and slammed her head against concrete before she managed to escape, according to a Washington Court of Appeals opinion.
He was placed on probation and granted work release. While still under supervision in 1984, Gaff entered an Everett home and raped two sisters, ages 14 and 16, at knifepoint. A judge revoked his probation and imposed an exceptional 138-month prison sentence, ordering the terms to be served consecutively.
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As Gaff’s prison release approached, Washington officials sought to have him committed to a secure facility as a sexually violent predator.
Mitchell Gaff pleaded guilty to raping two women and murdering Judith Weaver and Susan Vesey in Everett, Washington, according to the Everett Police Department. (KCPQ)
During state psychological evaluations, Gaff acknowledged making obscene phone calls and committing sexual assaults, including six rapes. A jury determined that he met the legal standard for civil commitment, and the Washington Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in April 1998.
A psychologist testifying for the state diagnosed Gaff with sexual sadism and said he remained likely to commit another offense.
A defense expert offered a different assessment, concluding that Gaff could live in the community under strict controls.
Gaff moved to a halfway house before his 2018 release
By 2005, state evaluators concluded that Gaff no longer needed maximum-security confinement and approved a move to a less restrictive setting. The next year, he left Washington’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island and moved to a secure halfway house in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood.
The arrangement required Gaff to wear a GPS monitor and remain supervised whenever he left the facility. He also agreed to surrender his right to challenge his sexually violent predator classification for eight years.
Gaff remained in the civil commitment system until September 2018, when a court dismissed the state’s sexually violent predator petition and released him unconditionally, according to a 2019 report from The Olympian.
Mitchell Gaff appears in a Washington courtroom. (FOX 13 Seattle)
“It’s difficult to keep someone confined beyond the length of a criminal sentence. In some cases, the state must prove that person is an imminent threat, rather than merely someone who could pose a future risk,” Ramsland said.
Police investigate whether Gaff had more victims
Everett detectives are reviewing unsolved killings, sexual assaults and other cold cases to determine whether Gaff could be connected to them, Logothetti told News Media.
“This investigation is ongoing. I absolutely believe there are more victims,” Logothetti said when asked whether police had reexamined other cases following Gaff’s admissions during psychological evaluations.
Logothetti said Gaff told evaluators that he would frequently change elements of his stories “without giving away too much.”
“He said changing details in his admissions amused him, and his treatment team did not recognize that pattern over the years,” she said.
Detectives have compared information from Gaff’s disclosures with unsolved cases in Washington and other states. However, Logothetti said investigators had not found additional victims or crimes connected to him since his 2024 arrest or his 2026 guilty pleas.
Gaff’s attorney, Heather Wolfenbarger, declined to comment.
Anyone who has information about other possible victims connected to Gaff is asked to contact the Everett Police Department tip line at 425-257-8450.