Post Mortem | The Detective and the Chewing Gum Sting

Anne-Marie Green (0:10)

Welcome to a new season of Post Mortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green, and I'm so excited to be back in the studio, taking you behind the scenes of every 48 Hours episode. With me is 48 Hours correspondent, Peter Van Sant. And today we're discussing our season premiere. It is moving. It's an emotional roller coaster. It is maddening at times. It is a wild story of a cold case detective who used an undercover chewing gum roost to solve not one, but two decades long murder cases. Welcome, Peter. It's really good to have you here.

Peter Van Sant (0:45)

Hey, Anne-Marie. Great to see you again.

Anne-Marie Green (0:47)

A reminder, of course, for everyone, if you haven't watched or listened to this episode, it's called The Detective and the Chewing Gum Sting. Go check it out now and then come on back for our conversation. So let's take you back to 1984 on the evening of June 1st. Forty-two-year-old Judy Weaver and her fiance, Bill Richards, they are out with friends celebrating the sale of a bar that he owned, called the Belle Ness in Everett, Washington.

As she had been drinking, Judy decided she was going to walk home alone. Bill stayed behind at the bar to continue celebrating. Back at her apartment, she was attacked by an unknown assailant. She was sexually assaulted, bound with electrical cords, and strangled. Her bedroom was then set on fire in what investigators believe was an attempt to destroy evidence. Bill Richards became the prime suspect, and Judy's daughters immediately suspected him as well.

Peter, why?

Peter Van Sant (1:45)

Well, Judy's daughters, they didn't like Bill very much.

They had described Bill Richards as verbally and physically abusive toward their mother. Now, they never witnessed Bill hitting their mom, but they saw bruises on her. And one of Judy's daughters, Kathy, told me that Bill was her only suspect in this case, and it never occurred to her that it could have been a random act by someone else. But investigators never had enough evidence to charge Bill Richards or clear him either. And he died in 1994 while still under suspicion.

Anne-Marie Green (2:21)

All right, so then fast forward to 2023 There are advances in DNA technology, and those advances prompt the Everett Police Department to submit evidence for testing. And in the hour, we meet Detective Susan Logothetti, who specializes in cold cases. So how did this case end up on her desk?

Peter Van Sant (2:39)

Logothetti, by the way, is just a rock star in this story. But so she had a colleague who was the cold case supervisor at the Everett Police Department, and he was getting ready to retire. I want to play a clip that wasn't in the show where I asked her about this.

So when you're working with this man who's about to retire, you end up asking him a question that really sent your life in a whole new direction. What was it?

Susan Logothetti (3:03)

I asked him who was taking over the cold cases when he retired, and he said nobody was.

And so I asked if I could. And I asked if I could shadow him and learn from him before he left.

Peter Van Sant (3:17)

What is it about cold cases that fascinate you?

Susan Logothetti (3:20)

I love the science. I love how fast it's growing and progressing and the things that we can do now.

I love that people who thought they could get away with it are looking over their shoulder now, wondering what they left behind.

Peter Van Sant (3:38)

According to Detective Logothetti, she learns that Bill Richards was the prime suspect in Judy's case for more than 40 years. And her colleague believed that this new DNA testing would finally confirm that Richards was the killer. Well, months later, Detective Logothetti received those DNA results, and there was a match to a name.

But it was not Bill Richards. It was Mitchell Alan Gaff, a stranger unknown to Judy and her family.

Anne-Marie Green (4:07)

So this is a stunning twist of events, and it must have been shocking for Detective Logothetti.

She then starts pouring over Mitchell Gaff's case file, and then she learns some shocking details about his past. He was a sexually violent predator. He had a criminal history. He was a registered level three sex offender. And if people don't know what that means, that is a status that means that you're most likely to reoffend.

Peter Van Sant (4:35)

Right, it's the most dangerous classification that they assume if you get back out in the public, you will assault someone again. Now, back in 1979, as far as we know, this is when it all began for Gaff. He was just 21 years old, and he attacked a woman named Jackie Brown at her home during the day.