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When 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer left her Snohomish County, Washington home on Monday, September 23, 2002, it was tragically the last time her family ever saw her alive.
Rachel was a gorgeous young woman who was described as a funny, giving, prankster. According to her dad, Bill Burkheimer, his daughter had such a large social circle that he basically served as her answering machine. She was a thoughtful girl who randomly sent cards to those she loved, just so they knew she was thinking about them. She was exceptionally outgoing & made friends with ease, living & going to high school on the 22,000 acre Tulalip Indian Reservation north of Everett, Washington.
Rachel was born on January 16, 1984 to parents Bill Burkheimer & Denise Webber, who later divorced. She was the second of two daughters with an older sister named Meghan.
As a young child, her parents feared that she might be deaf since she didn’t begin talking until she was nearly 2 ½ -years-old. However, once she did find her voice, the words never stopped. She was constantly entertaining her family with an array of funny voices that kept them cracking up. If someone got upset with her about something, it was never for too long since she would very quickly charm her way back into their good graces.
At under five feet tall, Rachel may have been small, but she was most definitely mighty. She was a feisty firecracker who always stood up for herself if someone was giving her a hard time. She had bright blue eyes, blond hair & no one could help but notice her beautiful, beaming smile. She rarely left home without her four-inch heels on her feet & a makeup collection that was the size of a toolbox. After high school, Rachel hoped to become a medical technician.
As much as she loved makeup & fashion, Rachel was also an incredible athlete who was part of her high school’s volleyball, track & soccer teams. Her track coaches were so impressed by her speed that they often made her start sprints ten feet behind her teammates.
In August 2001, when Rachel was 17-years-old, she faced a terrible tragedy after losing one of her best friends, Cory Haynes, in a terrible rollover accident. She kept his memory alive, posting photos to the dashboard of her Subaru as well as over the walls of her bedroom. Their relationship had not been romantic, instead, they had a brother-sister type of friendship & before his death, they had been fixtures in each other’s lives.
Sadly, Rachel went on to face the loss of six additional friends over the following year to wrecks, a drowning, a suicide & an accidental shooting. However, at the root of her pain, her family believed it was Cory’s death that truly changed her.
Rachel’s older sister Megan noticed that the light in her sister’s eyes seemed to dim after his death. She gradually fell into a depression so her parents took her to see a therapist, hoping she could find a way through her grief. She left Marysville-Pilchuck High School to transfer to an alternative school, but it wasn’t long before she dropped out. She had been working at Jimmy’s Pizza & Pasta, but she left that too. Her direction in life seemed lost, but she continued earning some money babysitting.
The girl who was always laughing or writing a to-do list to highlight her goals for the week on a dry erase board above her bed was suddenly swallowed by darkness & drifting away from her family. Unfortunately, to numb the pain, Rachel began turning to cocaine & methamphetamine.
As he watched these concerning changes in his daughter, Bill was wracked with worry & tried to talk to Rachel whenever he could, encouraging her to go back to school or get a job. He knew that she had so much potential & it destroyed him to see her in such a low place in life.
As her life continued to unravel, she began surrounding herself with an unsavory group of characters. One man, John “Diggy” Anderson had been in & out of jail for robbery & drug convictions. According to local police, he belonged to a newly established gang who called themselves the Northwest Mafia. They were known to sell & use the drugs they stole & had little ambition in life other than getting high, sitting around & playing video games.
After meeting in the spring of 2001, several of her friends warned her to stay away from Anderson, but since she was 17, she had her own car & was very strong-willed, Rachel was going to choose to do what she wanted. Her sister felt that oftentimes a girl was drawn to the bad boy once in her life & Anderson was hers.
It wasn’t until Bill came across a $640 bill from their phone company when he discovered his daughter’s relationship with Anderson. According to the bill, the majority of the phone calls had come from the Correctional Facility in Shelton, Washington.
Not only were the phone calls extensive, but Rachel had also been receiving a slew of letters from him that made it clear he was an extremely jealous, controlling person who was obsessed with her. In one letter he wrote, You are my world, you are my everything, you make my heart beat, you make me function & you also make me think. I don’t think that I could or would ever want to live without your love.
When Bill confronted Rachel about this, she claimed that she was able to see the good in Anderson & believed in her heart that he wasn’t who other people thought he was. However, those close to her were able to see that the relationship was very toxic & abusive. He would often sniff her hair to assess if she’d been out with other men, he was often threatening her & Rachel’s sister Meghan recalled seeing bruises pop up on her body.
For those who knew Anderson, they felt that although he could be charming, he had a tendency to shift moods on a dime, going from happy & jovial to violent.
As many abusers do, he tried to rationalize why he acted the way he did toward Rachel, writing, The only reason I do these things is because I don’t want to lose you. I am obsessed with your love & you in general. I just don’t know what to do sometimes when we get in arguments. I want us to be perfect.
However, as time went on, Rachel seemed to be emerging from the dark depths of depression that swallowed her after Cory’s death. She started to see what others saw, that her relationship with Anderson was a toxic rollercoaster. Shortly before her death, she opened up to Meghan & they talked through the wee hours of the morning. Rachel told her sister that she was fearful for her safety because of the threats Anderson often made.
It seemed she finally reached a breaking point & wanted to improve her relationships with the positive people in her life who loved her & wanted best for her. Her dad was thrilled to see that she seemed ready to take control of her life once again. Rachel started spending time with her mom, going to church with her & reconnecting with her friends that she’d fallen away from.
On a particularly gorgeous Sunday morning, Bill found Rachel sitting on the porch & noticed a light in her eyes that had been missing for months. She discussed going back to school, getting her high school diploma & then going on to become a medical technician. He remembers his daughter looking up at him, telling him about an incredible friend she’d met named Maurice, who was encouraging her to go back to Lynwood High School.
Although 18-year-old Maurice Rivas was also a member of the Northwest Mafia, he told Rachel that he wanted to find a way out. He hoped that they could each finish their senior year, go to prom & start fresh. They began forming a bond over their shared desire to leave the gang, but tragically, John Anderson caught wind of this & never let that day happen.
He was extremely upset that Rachel was trying to end their relationship & became increasingly more angry as she ignored his phone calls & letters. In one letter, he begged for her to come back to him, writing, I love you 33 times on a piece of paper before sending it to her.
Feeling rejected & angry that his control over Rachel was slipping away, he grew desperate & encouraged other gang members to turn on her. He lied, telling the group that she had been passing along their secrets to her friends.
Feeling terrified, Rachel went to her sister for guidance. Meghan encouraged her sister to be extremely careful, knowing that she was in a potentially dangerous situation. But at the same time, Meghan wondered if Anderson was simply a young wannabe who was only talking to make himself seem bigger than he actually was.
On Monday, September 23, 2002, Rachel made plans to hang out with Maurice Rivas & Matthew Durham at Nathan Lovelace’s house. What she hadn’t realized was that several gang members who were led by Anderson, planned to abduct her. Since they worried that she had been spilling their gang secrets, they went along with his plan.
Anderson & three others, Yusuf Jihad, Jeff Barth & John Whitaker planned to back one of their cars into Nathan Lovelace’s garage, wait for Rachel to arrive & abduct her. However, when Lovelace’s dad came home unexpectedly, that plan was ruined. This was when Anderson threatened his fellow gang member, Matthew Durham, telling him that he better lure Rachel to Yusuf Jihad’s home, or he would put him in a coffin.
When they headed over to Jihad’s duplex at about 4 pm, it’s likely that Rachel thought nothing of it since she was with her two friends that she trusted.
When Anderson arrived & saw the group circled around, smoking weed & having a great time, he yelled at them for goofing around & hit two of them in the face.
Feeling unsettled by his angry outburst, Rachel stood to leave, but Anderson grabbed her by the hair, struck her in the face & threw her to the floor. Others began joining in, kicking her in the head repeatedly while someone in the room ordered the stereo to be turned up in order to drown out her screams.
At this point, someone picked Rachel up, took her out to the garage, bound her with rope & gagged her with a sock & duct tape so she was no longer able to cry out for help. While she was out there, the crew inside mulled over ideas as to what to with her, including holding her for ransom or gang-raping her. While they played video games, ate pizza, did lines of cocaine & smoked pot, Rachel remained in the garage, no doubt terrified about her fate.
When Trissa Conner, the owner of the house & Jihad’s girlfriend, came home from her nursing classes at Everett Community College at about 9 pm, she was horrified when she entered her garage, finding the young, blond woman lying bound & gagged on the floor.
When she went into the kitchen to get a knife to cut her bindings, Anderson grabbed her, pushing her to the floor. After Trissa was ordered to leave the garage, she could hear the horrific sounds of Rachel being beaten. Although she threatened to call the police, she never did. Rachel’s hope for survival was sadly dwindling.
She was then stuffed into a large black duffle bag, placed into the back of Matthew Durham’s red Jeep & driven 30 minutes into the mountains by John Anderson, Maurice Rivas, who she had grown to trust, as well as Matthew Durham & John Whitaker.
The group drove around aimlessly, unsure of what to do with Rachel. According to the police, although they considered renting a hotel room & allowing Rachel to live, they ended up choosing a far more devastating option.
Once they arrived in Mill Creek, Anderson, Durham & Whitaker left Maurice to watch over Rachel while they went to retrieve shovels. Rachel, who remained zipped inside the duffle bag, pleaded for her life. Maurice unzipped the bag wide enough so she could speak to him. She told him that he was the only one who could help her & if he didn’t, she was going to die. She was terrified that they were going to drown her, she also told him that she was freezing cold.
Sadly, Maurice told her that he didn’t think they would take it that far & rather than helping his friend, he zipped the bag closed. With the trio now back to pick up Maurice & Rachel, they drove until about midnight when they reached an isolated area near Reiter Foothills State Forest in the city of Gold Bar, a popular area for four-wheelers.
After they heard Rachel making noise from within the duffle bag, John Anderson used his shovel to strike the side of the bag with as much force as he could muster. According to Maurice’s later testimony, he swung the shovel as one would swing a golf club.
While Rachel lay there in the darkness of the woods, they dug her grave. Maurice was sitting inside the car, drinking soda & smoking when Anderson demanded that he come out to help. He also instructed another to remove Rachel from the duffle bag & strip her of her clothing & jewelry. She begged them to allow her to keep the beloved ring Cory had given her before his death, but Anderson told her no. Someone else took the tape off her mouth to avoid leaving any fingerprints.
When Rachel briefly knelt down to pray, Anderson told her that she would soon be up there with Cory. After he ordered her to climb into the hole they had dug & to lay face down, without a shred of empathy, he repeatedly shot her. After she was dead, he ordered the other three men to help bury her.
As they drove back toward Everett, Anderson threatened that if any of them talked about what had just happened, loose ends would be cut off. Once back, some of them moved Rachel’s car to her ex-boyfriend’s house while Maurice & Durham later burned a pillowcase that was filled with her clothing & jewelry.
When Rachel’s family hadn’t heard from her over the next few days, they were immediately concerned & filed a missing persons report. In October, the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department received a tip that ended up breaking the case open. The mother of Jeffery Barth, one of the Northwest Mafia’s members, contacted the police & encouraged them to focus on the Jeep that was registered to gang member, 17-year-old Matthew Durham.
Soon after Durham was apprehended & taken into custody, he cracked under pressure & provided information that guided investigators to Rachel’s gravesite. They found her body ten days after her murder within the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
Durham went on to tell them exactly what had gone down on the Monday night that led to Rachel’s brutal attack & murder. He went on to say that after Anderson told him to drive out to the desolate area, he remained in the Jeep. He heard Anderson tell someone to get on your knees before he saw a flash of light & heard gunshots.
With his confession, investigators arrested & charged eight people with Rachel’s murder & the crimes that led to her death.
In April 2004, about a year & a half after Rachel’s murder, 20-year-old John Anderson’s trial began. His attorney argued that there were major inconsistencies in the witness statements provided by his fellow gang members. She went on to say that they had each tailored their statements in order to convict Anderson, allowing themselves to receive lesser sentences.
Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against Anderson, fearful that the jury wouldn’t convict him. Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Michael Downes indicated that when Rachel had gotten involved with these highly dangerous people, she had gotten herself in over her head.
Meanwhile, Anderson showed zero remorse for what he had done & smugly smiled & winked at Rachel’s family members who sat in the courtroom.
In less than six hours of deliberation, the jury found John Anderson guilty of first-degree murder as well as conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole & will spend the rest of his waking days at Clallam Bay Corrections Center in Washington State.
22-year-old John Whitaker was found guilty of aggravated murder in his 2004 trial & although he was granted a retrial due to a technicality in the first trial, he was once again found guilty. After his attorney alleged bullying between jurors & requested a third trial, this appeal was denied. He was sentenced to life in prison at the Washington State Reformatory.
18-year-old Maurice Rivas pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. His sentencing was highly emotional for the Burkheimer family since Rachel had viewed him as a trusted friend. Bill took his opportunity to directly speak to him, saying, She thought of you as a friend. A good friend. The last person on Earth that could have saved Rachel that horrific night was you, Maurice.
Maurice was said to have sobbed saying, I am not without a conscience or compassion. My remorse & guilt will be with me for the rest of my life. He recalled hearing four shots from a pistol that he’d carried to a marijuana deal earlier that day. When he turned around, he saw Anderson fiddling with the gun that had jammed. After he fixed the jam, he fired several more shots.
Maurice Rivas was sentenced to serve 26 years in prison although his sentence was eventually reduced to 22 ½ years.
17-year-old Matthew Durham, who led police to Rachel’s grave, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder & like Maurice, he was also initially sentenced to 26 years in prison which was later reduced to 22 ½ years.
Nathan Lovelace, who was a friend of Maurice’s from school, had been only 16-years-old at the time, faced a trial in adult court. However, after agreeing to testify against the others, it was ultimately moved to juvenile court. He pleaded guilty to a felony count of rendering criminal assistance, knowing that the group was planning to abduct Rachel. He was sentenced to 116 days in prison that he’d already served by that time.
32-year-old Yusef “Kevin” Jihad was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping & conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Although he claimed to feel bad for Rachel’s death, describing her as a good friend, he said he wasn’t responsible for her murder. Jihad was sentenced to 37 years in prison.
22-year-old Jeffrey Barth, whose mother gave the tip to investigators, leading to the arrests, was originally charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy & kidnapping, but he eventually pleaded guilty to kidnapping & agreed to testify against the others. He had been present at Jihad’s house when Rachel had been attacked & he reportedly bragged about hitting her with his gun. He was sentenced to ten years.
20-year-old Tony Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping as he was the person who turned the stereo up that night in order to conceal Rachel’s screams for help. He also got the duct tape that was used to bind & gag her. He was sentenced to just over nine years.
It was an incredibly difficult time for Rachel’s family to grieve her horrific death while sitting through multiple trials, listening to terrible details of their daughter’s last moments. Bill went on to say that he would never forget seeing a photo of the gravesite after they removed her body. There was an imprint of her hands in the praying position, perfectly preserved, something that gave him a sense of peace.
With the trials behind them & her killers brought to justice, Rachel’s family wanted to remember who she was in life rather than how she died. They realize that despite justice, there will never be closure & they will be serving a life sentence of pain & loss in a world that does not include their beloved Rachel.
Rachel Burkheimer had been a friend to all she met, a sister, a daughter, & someone whose loss would be felt by so many, leaving a hole in the world that would remain unfilled.
References:
- Seattle pi: Burkheimer’s final moments recalled
- Scary Reality: The trail of a tragedy that led Rachel Berkheimer to her grave
- Medium: The murder of Rachel Burkheimer by John “Diggy” Anderson & the “Northwest Mafia”
- Medium: She was forced to watch her own grave being dug
- Killer Queens: The murder of Rachel Burkheimer
