The Murder of Rachel Burkheimer

Who was Rachel?

Rachel Rose Burkheimer was born on January 16th, 1984 to father, Bill Burkheimer and mother, Denise Webber. Rachel was the second of two daughters, with an older sister named Meghan. The Burkheimer family lived on the Tulalip Reservation in Snohomish County, not far from Everett, Washington. 

As a child, Denise and Bill were concerned that Rachel could’ve had problems with her hearing because she was non-verbal. However, when she finally began talking at age three, it seemed as though she was making up for lost time. She could often be heard doing silly voices or impressions of others. Her imagination was always running wild and she loved to make up fun stories for her troll dolls and play pretend.

Rachel was a talented athlete who, even at age six, could shoot a basketball better than the boys. In high school, she was on the volleyball, track, and soccer teams. When running track, her coaches were so impressed by her speed that they made her start sprints 10 feet behind her teammates. 

Even though Rachel loved sports and being outdoors, she was a girly-girl too. She loved fashion and trying on clothes. Friends said that her makeup kit was huge, and that she always made sure she looked her best. 

Despite her big voice and personality, Rachel was small, standing at just 4 foot, 11 inches. She made up for her small stature by wearing four-inch heels whenever she could. Her father described her as theatrical and creative. He said, “I think that’s how she lived her life. I don’t want to say it was a fantasy, but it was kind of like…she was a character in a bigger cast of some ongoing saga”.

Unsurprisingly, Rachel had no problems making friends. Bill said, “She had so many social groups and such a big social network, I couldn’t keep up. I was just her answering machine.”

Rachel was loving and incredibly generous. She never forgot important dates, especially birthdays of friends and family. She always made it a priority to remember to get birthday cards for people, even if they were just casual acquaintances. 

In 2001, when Rachel was just 17 years old, she suffered a tremendous loss. Her very best friend, Cory Haynes, was killed in a car accident. Rachel was devastated. She put pictures of him everywhere, even covering her Subaru dashboard with photos. In her bedroom, she hung his obituary on the wall. 

Cory’s death didn’t just break Rachel’s heart, it changed her. The two were like brother and sister, and Cory seemed to know her better than anyone else did, so when he died, it seemed like a part of Rachel did too. Bill saw the toll it took on his daughter. He said, “I can’t even describe the devastation of that event. It was just a real struggle for her, and that’s putting it mildly.”

After Cory’s death, Rachel began suffering from severe depression. Normally a great student and someone who enjoyed her extracurricular activities, Rachel left Marysville-Pilchuk High School and began attending an alternative high school. It wasn’t long before she dropped out of school completely. She eventually quit her job at Jimmy’s Pizza and Pasta, where she was known as a bright light and phenomenal co-worker.

Those who knew Rachel well described her as someone who was usually goal-oriented and a hard worker. She even wrote weekly goals on a dry erase board in her room. Once Cory died, Rachel lost all of her motivation it seemed. And to add on to the pain she was already feeling, Rachel lost several other friends to drowning, suicide, gunshot wounds, and car accidents in a short period. Her older sister, Meghan, said that Rachel wasn’t the same person. “It was so hard, I think it killed her. Literally. She just became so heartbroken you could see it in her eyes. Her light was gone.”

The Events Leading Up to the Murder

As Rachel’s life seemed to spiral downward, her family and friends became more and more concerned. It was incredibly shocking to them when she started using illicit drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine. Her father tried to tell her multiple times that she either needed to go back to school or get a job, but unfortunately, Rachel was on a different path.

She began hanging around people that normally weren’t in her friend group in the past. This included some gang members in the nearby area that were known as shady individuals. Detective Brad Pince with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office described the gang, saying that it “was kind of in the infant stages and it had a real stupid name. They called themselves the ‘Northwest Mafia’. They would steal drugs, sell some of them, and use most of it. They had no other ambition in life. They would sit around and play video games, smoke dope, and do cocaine and meth and party.”

Some in the gang would rob other drug dealers, while others grew their own marijuana and baked cookies with pot inside to sell at a local high school.

One particular member of the gang, John “Diggy” Anderson, was particularly nasty. He had several arrests on his record, including robbery and drug convictions. It’s unclear exactly how Rachel and Anderson met, but the two started dating, despite multiple people telling her that getting involved with him was a bad idea. Rachel’s dad found out that the two were dating when he received a phone bill for $640. Most of the calls were from a correctional facility in Shelton, Washington, where Anderson was housed at the time. 

Anderson was also sending Rachel letters that showed how incredibly jealous he was. He wrote about how much he loved her and that she was the best thing in his life. He also wrote, “You are my world, you are my everything, you make my heart beat, you make me function and you also make me think. I don’t think that I could or would ever want to live without your love.”

The relationship was clearly toxic, and some people even said they’d see bruises on Rachel that they suspected were from Anderson. One of Anderson’s friends later said that when the two were together, Anderson would smell Rachel’s clothing and hair to see if she smelled like other men.

In a later letter, he explained why he acted the way he did, writing, “The only reason I do these things is because I don’t want to lose you. I am obsessed with your love and you in general. I just don’t know what to do sometimes when we get in arguments. I want us to be perfect.”

Rachel’s father didn’t approve of her dating Anderson, and he confronted her about it several times. Unfortunately, Rachel insisted that Anderson wasn’t as bad as everyone said and that there were actually a lot of good things about him. Rachel’s sister later said, “She was intrigued by him in some way. I think he just kept pursuing her, and every girl dates a bad boy once in her life and he was hers.”

Despite Rachel having changed so much in the past year, there was still some of the old Rachel left. She had finally started to see that her lifestyle had gotten dangerous. Most importantly, it seemed that Rachel had finally begun to see what John Anderson really was. She told her sister that things had gotten really out of control with him. Meghan said, “She sat on the end of my bed and she was talking until 2AM about her fears, about her concerns about John Anderson, and the different threats he had been giving her.”

Meghan felt her sister had finally had enough of being with Anderson and was ready to get her old life back. It seemed like she wanted to get back to who she used to be. Her father told True Crime Daily, “One morning, a beautiful Sunday morning, she’s sitting on our porch and she had this radiance again that I have not seen in a few months. And she looked up and said, ‘I have met an incredible friend, Maurice’.”

The friend that Rachel was referring to was 18-year-old Maurice Rivas. Rivas was also a member of the Northwest Mafia but, according to Rachel, also wanted to get out of that lifestyle. She had started going to church again with her both and was even sleeping with a Bible to help with the nightmares she was having. Her sister later found a list that looked like one of Rachel’s old to-do lists, but this one listed “re-establishing connections with positive friends”.

One of Rachel’s friends and teammates from her high school, Ali, said that Rachel had reached out to her and they’d reconnected. Ali said, “The last couple of weeks before she died, we were talking almost every day. She kept saying ‘I love you’ and it’s time for us to hang out again.”

Rachel told her father that Maurice had been encouraging her to re-enroll in high school, and that the two would finish their senior year together. She planned to get her high school degree and work towards becoming a medical technician. 

Unfortunately, Anderson had become extremely upset with Rachel wanting to end their relationship and break away from him. He was becoming increasingly more angry with her ignoring his phone calls and letters. He begged her for another chance, writing “I love you” 33 times on a page before sending it to her. 

It seemed like Anderson was angry that he could no longer control Rachel. He began spreading rumors to other gang members that Rachel was telling “gang secrets” to rival drug dealers. This, of course, frightened Rachel. She told her sister that she wasn’t sure what to do. Meghan just assumed that Anderson was trying to scare Rachel into getting back together with him. She advised Rachel to be careful and to stay away from him.

The Murder

On Monday, September 23rd, 2002, Rachel made plans to hang with a few friends, including Maurice, at Nathan Lovelace’s house. Unbeknownst to her, a plan had been created by several of the gang members, led by Anderson, to abduct Rachel. The rest of the group was concerned that Rachel was setting them up and passing on secrets to other gangs, so they went along with Anderson’s plan. Anderson, Yusuf Jihad, Jeff Barth, and John Whitaker planned to back one of their vehicles into Lovelace’s garage, wait for Rachel to arrive, then abduct her. Their plan was ruined, though, when Lovelace’s father came home. Anderson threatened another gang member, Matthew Durham, to make sure that Rachel went to Jihad’s home.

That evening, Rachel went with Maurice to Jihad’s home. There were several other members of the Northwest Mafia present at the home, and Rachel wanted to show them that they could trust her. She also felt safe being with Maurice.

When Anderson arrived at the house, he saw everyone sitting around the living room, smoking weed and having a great time. It angered Anderson to see Rachel enjoying herself and the rest of the group accepting her. He even smacked a couple of the others who were sitting around. His aggression escalated and he and a few other gang members pulled guns out. Rachel tried to get up and leave the home, but Anderson grabbed her by her hair, hit her in the face, and threw her down onto the floor.

Others joined in and started kicking Rachel in the face and head. Someone instructed that the stereo be turned up to drown out Rachel’s screams. Someone picked up Rachel and took her out to the garage. The group of men followed, then tied Rachel up and put duct tape over her mouth. They discussed what to do next, including whether they should sexually assault her or maybe demand a ransom for her. Unsure of what to do, the group went back inside the home to eat pizza, play video games, and smoke more pot, while Rachel laid, bound and gagged in the garage. 

Later that evening, Trissa Conner, Jihad’s live-in girlfriend, returned home to the duplex they shared. She was shocked to find a young woman sitting in her garage, with her arms tied behind her back. Conner later told a jury that she started yelling at Anderson, in disbelief that he left this woman tied up in her garage. The woman told Conner that her name was Rachel. Conner said that she grabbed a knife from the kitchen to cut the rope from around Rachel’s arms. As she cut the ties, someone grabbed her from behind. Conner said that Anderson “flung” her out of the garage before she could free Rachel.

Conner told the jury that after she was assaulted by Anderson, she heard her boyfriend, Jihad, telling everyone they needed to leave the home. Shortly after, she saw some of the men carrying a large black duffel bag from the garage and put it inside the back of Durham’s Jeep. Rachel was inside of the bag.

Durham, Whitaker, and Maurice drove around in the Jeep, with Rachel still in the duffel bag, waiting for Anderson to tell them what to do next. The group leaves Maurice and Rachel at a trail in Mill Creek so they can go pick up Anderson.

Rachel was now alone with the man who she considered to be one of the people who was helping her get back on the right path. Rachel begged Maurice to let her go. She promised him that she’d give them whatever they wanted, however much money they wanted. Rachel even said that if they did kill her, to promise not to drown her. Maurice told her that he thought everything would work out before zipping his “friend” back up in the duffel bag.

Anderson arrived at the trail and the group picked up Maurice and Rachel, now with shovels and a pick in the back of the Jeep. Anderson instructed Durham to continue driving until they arrived at a deserted spot near Reiter Pit in the city of Gold Bar. 

Anderson and Whitaker began looking for soft spots in the dirt, then started digging. Maurice, who was drinking a coda and smoking a cigarette by the car, was ordered to come help them dig, while Durham stayed in the vehicle.

Finally, the men let Rachel out of the duffel bag and untie her. Anderson told Whitaker to take Rachel’s clothing and jewelry. Rachel pleaded with them to let her keep one of the rings she was wearing that was particularly special to her, but Anderson said no. She knelt down briefly before Anderson forced her into the hole that they’d dug. With zero empathy and no regard for the absolute devastation he was going to cause, Anderson shot and killed Rachel. He instructed the other men to help him bury her.

As the group drove home, Anderson threatened them, saying that “loose ends will be cut off” if anyone talked. Some of the men moved Rachel’s car to her ex-boyfriend’s house. Maurice and Durham later burned a pillowcase that was filled with Rachel’s clothes and jewelry.

Rachel is Missing

After a few days without any contact from Rachel, her family became concerned and filed a missing persons report. With everything that had been going on in her life, they had cause to panic. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department began following all leads that came in, hoping they would be able to locate Rachel quickly. 

In October, they received a tip that would break the case. One of the Northwest Mafia’s member’s, Jeffrey Barth’s mother called in to police. Her tip led them to focus them on a red Jeep that was registered to gang member Matthew Durham. Durham was apprehended and taken in for questioning. It didn’t take Snohomish Sheriff Sergeant Scot Fenter long to break Durham. He gave them information that brought them to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. They found 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer buried in a shallow grave.

Durham, who was just 17 years old, cooperated further with investigators, telling them everything that he knew about that night. He explained how Anderson had him drive to the desolate area, but that he remained in the vehicle. He told detectives that he heard Anderson telling someone to “get on your knees”, before seeing flashes and hearing gunshots.

With Durham’s help, investigators had what they needed to arrest and charge eight people with Rachel’s grisly murder and crimes surrounding it.

The Trials

In April of 2004, 20-year-old John Anderson went to trial for Rachel’s murder. His defense attorney argued that there were “major inconsistencies” in the statements provided by witnesses and other gang members. Because of this, she argued, Anderson shouldn’t be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She said that the others accused were given lesser sentences after pleading guilty because they tailored their statements to help convict Anderson.

Prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against Anderson because they had concerns that the jury wouldn’t convict him. Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Michael Downes told the jury “Rachel Burkheimer was in over her head. She was hanging around with people who were breathtakingly dangerous, self-absorbed, and uncaring for anyone but themselves…”

It took the jury less than six hours to come to a decision. They found Anderson guilty of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and is serving his sentence at the Clallam Bay Corrections Center in Washington State.

John Whitaker, 22, was found guilty of aggravated murder in a 2004 trial, however was granted a retrial due to a technicality from the first trial. He was found guilty a second time. His attorney appealed for a third trial because of allegations of bullying between jurors, but the appeal was denied. He is also serving a life sentence in prison at the Washington State Reformatory

One of the most emotional trials and sentences for the Burkehimer family was that of 18-year-old Maurice Rivas. Rachel’s father spoke directly to Rivas in the court, 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.”

One of Rachel’s family friends, Shannon Woodward, also spoke to Maurice at the trial. “In a lot of ways, I’ve been angriest with you.” She said that Anderson “was the villain in this story long before he took Rachel’s life. But you were her friend.”

Maurice reportedly sobbed uncontrollably at his trial. He said, “I am not without a conscience or compassion. My remorse and guilt will be with me for the rest of my life.”

Maurice pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to serve 26 years in prison. His sentence was eventually reduced to 22 and a half years. 

17-year-old Matthew Durham, whose cooperation led to the apprehension of the others, pleaded guilty to first degree murder. He was also sentenced to serve 26 years in prison, but was reduced to 22 and a half years. 

Nathan Lovelace, who was 16 at the time, who was one of Maurice’s friends from school, faced a trial in adult court, but was ultimately moved to juvenile court after he agreed to testify against the others. Lovelace pleaded guilty to a felony count of rendering criminal assistance. He knew that the group was planning on abducting Rachel, and had initially planned to let them abduct her from his house, but then claimed that his father came home. This is when the plan moved to Jihad’s house. Lovelace was sentenced to the 116 days in prison that he’d already served.

32-year-old Yusef “Kevin” Jihad was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Jihad said that he felt bad about Rachel’s murder, but denied being responsible for her death. He said that she was his good friend. Jihad was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

22-year-old Jeffrey Barth was originally charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy, and kidnapping, but eventually pleaded guilty to kidnapping and agreed to testify against the others. Barth was present at Jihad’s house during the initial assault and reportedly bragged about hitting Rachel with his gun. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

20-year-old Tony Williams pleaded guilty to first degree kidnapping, as he was the one who turned up the stereo that night to cover up her screams. He also got duct tape to bind and gag her. He was sentenced to just over 9 years in prison.

Sitting through multiple trials and appeals took an incredible toll on Rachel’s family. Bill told True Crime Daily, “I’ll never forget, I did see a photo of the gravesite after they removed her body and, in the dirt, there was an imprint of her hands in the praying position, perfectly preserved, that gives me some peace.”

Meghan Burkheimer, though thankful that she has closure, will never recover from the pain that her sister’s murder has caused. 

“I’m always going to carry this hurt. It’s going to be here until I die because my sister was supposed to be here until I died.”

Bill said that they can now try to celebrate his daughter’s life. 

“The case may go away, but Rachel never will. Her life was not tragic; her death was.”