A man with a record of violent sex offences has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for two murders committed in the early 1980s, after detectives obtained his DNA by posing as promoters of a new chewing gum, CBS News' 48 Hours reports.
Mitchell Gaff, now in his 60s and known as Sam Price, pleaded guilty to killing Judy Weaver, a bar manager found bound and strangled in her fire-damaged flat in Everett, Washington, in 1984, and Susan Vesey, 21, who died in 1980. In January 2024 Everett police cold case detective Susan Logothetti visited his home as gum testers and kept the pieces he spat out. Laboratory tests matched his DNA to evidence from both killings.
Gaff had been freed in 2018 after decades in prison and civil confinement. Ms Vesey's husband, Ken, who lived under suspicion for years, died in July 2025.
Source: CBS News