WA - Judy Weaver, 42, Everett, murdered and house set on fire, June 2, 1984. Suspect arrested in 2024

[Seattle1]

Man arraigned in Snohomish County for 1984 death of Judith Weaver

The man suspected in the 1984 murder of 42-year-old Judith "Judy" Weaver appeared in Snohomish County Superior Court on Tuesday for his arraignment.RELATED | D

komonews.com

2/3/26

Mitchell Gaff was arrested back in May of 2024 on first-degree murder charges. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.

After nearly 40 years, Everett police found Gaff in Olympia with help from new DNA evidence, which identified him as a suspect in the Everett woman's death.

Weaver was found murdered inside her home on Rucker Avenue after the Everett fire was called there for a fire on June 2, 1984.

Just after midnight on June 2, 1984, a passerby used a pay phone to call 911 and report a fire in the one-story, five-unit brick apartment building on the corner of 35th Street and Rucker.

Smoke was pouring out of Weaver's apartment.

When firefighters rushed in, they made a gruesome discovery. The 42-year-old was tied up with a phone cord, strangled, brutalized, and dead.
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ETA: In the same year defendant murdered Weaver, he pleaded guilty to r a p i n g his two teen sisters, and was sent to Mc Neil Island, and given a conditional release in 2018. He was arrested in 2024 for Weaver's murder after DNA connected him to her case.

Gaff was just charged with another cold case murder on Friday -- the 1980 death of Susan Vesey, also of Everett, WA.

 

[Seattle1]

5/1/2024

https://www.everettwa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/38174/05012024_Cold-case-arrest-final

 

[Seattle1]

Everett police arrest suspect in 1984 cold case

Everett police announced on Wednesday that they made an arrest in a cold-case homicide from 1984.

www.fox13seattle.com

5/2/24

Judy Weaver's family provided the following statement May 6:

"We want to thank the Everett Police Department, Detective Susan Logoghetti, Prosecutor Craig Matheson, and the Forensic Scientists who have worked so diligently over the years to compile the DNA evidence that ultimately led to an arrest. Throughout the years our family has never given up hope. We are very happy there will finally be justice for our mom, Judy. We request our privacy at this time as we navigate the beginnings of this difficult situation."

 

[Seattle1]

3/13/26

DNA was not yet a forensic tool in the early 1980s. Weaver’s and Vesey’s cases went cold.

Law enforcement began looking back into Weaver’s slaying in 2020, and forensic testing discovered a mixed sample of male DNA from one of the cords that bound Weaver’s wrists, which matched Gaff’s sample in CODIS, the national law enforcement database of DNA profiles for convicted offenders, according to the charges.

Detectives used a ruse to secure chewing gum from Gaff, providing them with a secondary DNA match.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/man-charged-in-second-snohomish-county-cold-case-murder-from-1980s/