She Had to Watch Her Grave Be Dug Artwork

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She Had to Watch Her Grave Be Dug

July 24, 2023 • Jazmin Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 35

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On September 23, 2002, 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer, was forced to watch her own grave being dug by her ex-boyfriend and his gang in foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Rachel Burkheimer resided, worked, and attended high school in the Tulalip Reservation, spanning over 22,000 acres in Snohomish County, near Everett, Washington.

Rachel's social circles and wide-reaching connections were beyond her parents ability to keep track of. During Rachel's early years, her parents harbored concerns about her hearing, as she remained nonverbal until nearly reaching the age of three. Once she found her voice however, it seemed as though a floodgate had opened. With a vivid imagination, she excelled at mimicking others and possessed a library of amusing voices that brought endless joy and entertainment to her family.

Despite her petite stature of just 4 feet 11 inches, Rachel possessed a tremendous sense of might and independence. She had a penchant for wearing four-inch heels wherever she went, and her makeup kit was the size of a toolbox. With her infectious smile and striking bright blue eyes, she effortlessly caught the attention of those around her.

In August 2001, Rachel experienced a devastating loss when one of her best friends Cory Haynes was tragically killed in a rollover car accident. His sudden passing deeply affected her, leading her to find solace in preserving his memory. She took the death extremely hard and, in her grief, attached his pictures all over her Subaru dashboard and room. She hung his obituary on her bedroom wall.

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On September 23, 2002, 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer, was forced to watch her own grave being dug by her ex-boyfriend and his gang in foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

Rachel Burkheimer resided, worked, and attended high school in the Tulalip Reservation, spanning over 22,000 acres in Snohomish County, near Everett, Washington.

Rachel was further struck by a series of tragedies following Cory's death, intensifying her depression and sense of loss. Over the course of the following year, she experienced the loss of six more friends through accidents, drowning, suicide, and accidental shootings. In spite of this, Rachel's family firmly believes that it was Cory's death that truly devastated her. Despite not sharing a romantic relationship, her family stated they were soulmates. Cory and Rachel had been inseparable for years. Rachel confided in her family that he understood her better than anyone else in the world.

Rachel's emotional state started to severely sprial downhill, prompting her parents to seek help from a therapist in the hopes of alleviating her suffering. She made the decision to leave Marysville-Pilchuck High School and enrolled in an alternative school, but her time there was short-lived. She briefly continued working at Jimmy's Pizza and Pasta but soon departed from that job as well. Rachel had lost her sense of direction and purpose. This all led her towards the use of drugs. Rachel's father became increasingly concerned about her aimlessness and confronted her on multiple occasions, ultimately urging her to either secure employment or return to school. She was losing direction in life and no one knew how to help her.

In the Spring 2001 as Rachel's life began to unravel, she found herself gravitating towards a grimey circle of individuals. Among them was John "Diggy" Anderson, Several warned her away from Anderson, who had a long arrest record and convictions on robbery and drug charges, among others. Detectives of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office described the gang as being in its early stages with a rather foolish name, the "Northwest Mafia." Their activities primarily revolved around drug theft, with some drugs being sold while the majority was consumed by the group. They lacked any other aspirations in life and spent their time engaged in activities such as playing video games, using drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine, and indulging in partying. She was intrigued by him in some way, he just kept pursuing her, and every girl dates a bad boy once in her life. And he was hers.

Bill Burkheimer, Rachel's father, discovered her association with Anderson when he received an unexpected bill of $640 from the phone company. The bill revealed that a significant number of calls originated from the Correctional Facility located in Shelton, Washington. John Anderson was obsessed with Rachel and his infactuation escalated to the point where he began sending her obsessive letters, revealing his dangerously jealous nature. Concerned about Rachel's well-being, her father confronted her, but she insisted that there was goodness in John and that he was not what others believed him to be. Both friends and family of Rachel viewed her relationship with John Anderson as toxic and abusive. His jealousy consumed him to such an extent that he would sniff Rachel's hair and clothing, searching for signs of her interaction with other men. He frequently made threats towards her, and Rachel's sister Meghan recalled witnessing bruises on her. They dated for several months, but John chased her long afterward. But her family said Rachel was finally beginning to see the ligh. Meghan recounted a conversation. “She sat on the end of my bed and she was talking until 2:00 a.m. about her fears, about her concerns about John Anderson, and the different threats he had been giving her,” said Meghan. Meghan said Rachel had finally had enough and was forging new relationships with her family and reclaiming her life.

In December 2001, John wrote rachel from jail claiming she was the best thing in his life. He asked her to give them another chance and discussed marriage. He scrawled "I Love You" 33 times across the page."You are my world, you are my everything, you make my heart beat, you make me function and you also make me think," he wrote. "I don't think that I could or would ever want to live without your love." He gave her instructions on how to get him out of jail, where to get a gun if she needed protection. He grew increasingly frustrated and angry when she didn't respond. He admitted his jealousy created problems in the relationship. "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," he wrote.

"One morning, a beautiful Sunday morning, she’s sitting on our porch and she has this radiance again that I have not seen in a few months," Bill said "And she looked up and said, 'I have met an incredible friend, Maurice.'"

Maurice Rivas, was an 18-year-old who was also involved with the Northwest Mafia, confided in Rachel about his desire to break free from the group. Together, they formed a strong bond fueled by their shared determination to escape their circumstances. Unfortunately, John Anderson wouldn't allow that day to pass without turmoil, leading Maurice to make the most crucial decision of his life. In an attempt to turn other gang members against Rachel, Anderson falsely claimed that she was revealing "gang secrets" to her friends. This revelation instilled deep fear in Rachel, prompting her to seek guidance from her sister, Meghan.

"I warned her, 'You need to be careful and watchful. Stay away from him'" Meghan recalled. Meghan thought John was all talk and didn't fully grasp the gravity of the threats at that time.

As Rachel was ending the relationship with John she was trying to reestablish direction in her life. Now 18, she seemed to be pulling out of the depression that had caused her to abandon her goals. She started going to church with her mother. She slept with a Bible to fend off nightmares she was having. Her sister later found a to-do list that included items such as reestablishing connections with "positive friends." She was getting ready to back to school to get her high school degree and become a medical technician.

On a September evening in 2002, Rachael invited two friends Kevin Jihad and John Whitaker to a party at a local motel. The pair did not stay long as when they were hanging out they noticed two other individuals come in to the party that were from a rival gang and thought Rachel was setting them up. After leaving the party they decided it was time to show her a lesson.

On the evening of Sept 23, 2002 a party unfolded at Nathan Loveless is home in Everett, WA. Rachel, accompanied by seven members of the Northwest Mafia. She felt safe though Maurice was with her and she knew that nothing would happen to her with them. She wanted to attend the party to reconnect with friends, but also to prove that she had not deceived them at the party earlier in the month. They were all sitting around the couch, laughter filling the room as the group engaged in light-hearted conversations, and smoking marijuana. The atmosphere took a sudden turn when John unexpectedly showed up at the party. When he bursted into the party, his anger grew more intense by the sight of everyone enjoying themselves. Fueled by his rage, he starts an altercation with a few people casting a chilling silence over the room.

Tensions escalated rapidly, and Rachel, recognizing the imminent danger, she tried to get up and leave but she would never make it to the door. She has unwittingly fallen into a calculated trap set by John Anderson and his crew. And the horror has only just begun. John grabs her by the hair, hits her in the face, knocks her down on the floor, several others joined in, launching a savage assault on Rachel. The room descends into chaos as they continue to kick her defenseless body, strongly into her head. One member of the group ordered the stereo to be cranked up to drown out Rachel's cries for help. Disoriented and in excruciating pain, she was forcibly carried away to the garage, where her they bound her with a gag and tape. While Rachel was helpless in the garage, the gang talked about gang-raping her and to figure out what to do next. When They couldn't make up their mind on what they wanted to do they all walked back into the house ate pizza, played video games, and smoked. Rachel laid in confusion, trying to understand the ultimate betrayal of her friends. She trusted these friends and now she was helpless, praying for someone to help her.

Upon returning home from nursing classes Ms. Conner, the girlfriend of one of the gang members and the owner of the house, was horrified when she entered the garage, to find a blond-haired woman bound and gagged on the garage floor. Reacting swiftly, Conner hurried back to the kitchen, intending to retrieve a knife in order to free Rachel from her restraints. But John intervened and stopped Conner from saving Rachel. John yelled at Conner telling her to leave, and as she went, the sounds of a brutal assault reached her ears. She started screaming at everybody she was going to call the cops and to get Rachel out of her garage. She would never call the police, but the unsure gangsters stuffed Rachel's tiny 4-foot-11-inch frame in a duffel bag and into the back of a Jeep. Unsure of what they were going to do now they talked about getting a hotel room and letting her heal up and letting her go, but that would not become the final plan for that fateful evening.

Four of them gang members, Anderson, Rivas, Whitaker, and Durham drove 30 miles into the mountains. Rachel's fate had been sealed and the group agreed to kill her. Once they reached the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Anderson, Whitaker, and Durham left to grab shovels leaving Maurice behind to watch over Rachel. Alone in the wilderness, Rachel poured her heart out to Maurice, desperately pleading for her life. She confessed she had always been afraid of dying and begged him not to let her die. But Maurice, blinded by loyalty to John and the Northwest Mafia, dismissed her pleas. He told her that he didnt think it would go that far. Rachel, trapped within the duffel bag, made desperate noises, cries, pleas for someone to help her. Once the gang arrived back to the site, John Anderson, wielded a shovel with merciless force, striking the bag that contained Rachel. He did not want to hear her cries.

As Rachel laid in the bag not making a sound the gang dug the grave that they would lay her in. When the grave was completed John Anderson commanded Maurice to join the grim task at hand. Obliging without hesitation, Maurice emerged from the vehicle, where he was casually sipping his soda and puffing on a cigarette. Another member of the gang was instructed to free Rachel from her confining bag, stripping her of every trace of identity, robbing her of her clothes and precious jewelry. She begged them to let her keep a ring her best friend Cory Haynes had given her, but Anderson told her no. Knowing what was coming next Rachel told the group of men she wanted to walk to her own grave, a final act of defiance. Stepping down into the shallow pit, the cold soil beneath her bare feet, she faced the grim reality awaiting her.

In an act of unimaginable cruelty, Anderson ordered her to lie face down in the grave, a heart-wrenching command that shattered the last remnants of hope. As Rachel knelt in the cold earth, she sought solace in prayer, seeking divine intervention in her darkest hour. But John callously dismissed her pleas, telling her not to worry about it. She would be up with Cory soon.

As the others watched, John began shooting Rachel in the back of the head until the gun jammed but with cold determination, he cleared the jam and continued firing until his gun was empty, ending Rachel's life in a most brutal and senseless manner. Maurice stood by, a witness to the unimaginable, unable or unwilling to intervene. John, the puppet master commanded his gang to conceal the grave, erasing any trace of the crime. The Northwest Mafia members had a secret pact, and no one was to know what happened to Rachel.

Despite the gang’s efforts to keep her fate hidden, Rachel Burkheimer was listed as a missing person. The Burkheimer family rallied together, putting up posters everywhere in Snohomish and King Counties, urging people to come forward with any information about Rachel's whereabouts. The police aggressively pursued leads, and a breakthrough came when a tip was received from the mother of one of the gang members, Jeffrey Barth. This tip drastically changed the direction of the investigation and led the police to a red Jeep registered to Matthew Durham. Durham was apprehended by the police, and under the pressure from Sgt. Scot Fenter of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, he quickly cracked.

He provided crucial information that led law enforcement to the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, where a disturbing discovery awaited them. In the vicinity of Reiter Road, east of Gold Bar, they uncovered a shallow gravesite. Seventeen-year-old Matthew Durham cooperated with investigators, revealing the horrific events that unfolded in the garage at the house. He disclosed that John Anderson had ordered him to drive his vehicle to a remote location near Reiter Pit, a popular spot for off-road vehicles, and instructed him to proceed down a dirt road. Durham recounted how John guided him to a designated stopping point. He stated that John carried the duffel bag into the woods, where Durham could hear the commands "Get on your knees." The sound of gunshots and flashes followed. Upon their return to the vehicle, Durham was strictly warned never to speak about the horrifying incident, or he suffer the same fate. Based on Durham's identification, investigators apprehended the other individuals involved in the gruesome murder. After 10 days lying dead in a makeshift grave, Rachel's body is finally found. Durham agrees to lead police to the area of Rachel's murder. Search teams and cadaver dogs scour the remote region for two days. But it was the detective who would find her. "I just took a shovel, took one big scoop of dirt, we just found what was human flesh," said Fenter. With Rachel's body recovered, it's was now a relentless pursuit of justice, beginning with Matthew Durham, who discloses to police who else was with him that night at Rachel's grave. This would lead police, search warrant in hand, back to the Everett duplex where Rachel's nightmare first began. The gun was discovered in a pond, with duct-tape; jewelry, including the beloved ring Rachel begged to keep; clothing that the killers tried to burn; and the shovel used to dig her grave. One by one police round up eight suspects, many turning on each other to save their own hides. "They were really buffoons. That's the best way to describe them," said Det. Pince. "There was a lot of planning that went into this but it was very poor planning and it didn't turn out well for them." Five of the suspects would take plea deals and lesser sentences in exchange for trial testimony against John Anderson, the shooter;

John Whitaker, who helped dig Rachel's grave; and Yusef Jihad, who helped mastermind the murder plot. Painful as it was, the Burkheimers endured every horrifying detail of each criminal case, forced to come eye to eye with her killers. "Most of them were smug, and John Anderson was by far the worst. He was definitely mocking," said Rachel's sister. "He would turn around and wink at us." "It's not fulfilling, it's not satisfying, it's not victory, it's not a win, it's just the end of a process," said Rachel's father. "Every person involved in that case had an opportunity to help Rachel, and they let her down," said Det. Pince.

In the end, a total of eight individuals were convicted for their roles in Rachel's kidnapping and killing. John Anderson received a life sentence, along with another offender. The remaining perpetrators are serving significant prison terms. On May 21, 2004, amidst tears streaming down John Anderson's face, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese delivered the sentence of "life in prison" without the possibility of parole.

From behind bars Maurice Rivas spoke to Crime Watch Daily by phone "It was really senseless and it didn't need to happen, and it was just a horrible, horrible thing," Rivas said. "A lot of it was fear that just kept gripping me, that I was like, man, I was just really scared in a couple of points. I know that's like cowardice, and I failed on an epic scale."

After spending years in court facing each of his daughter’s killers, Bill has kept the loss of Rachel in the forefront of his mind. Bill lived the ultimate parent’s nightmare while at each trial and attending countless appeals. Seeing the gruesome crime scene photos that are forever etched in his memory, it is a wonder how he functions. “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,” Bill told True Crime Daily.

Instead of crumbling, Bill began to raise awareness for other crime victims by working on legislation that would make it a crime to not render care to an injured person. On September 25, 2007, the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims was held at the Capitol in Olympia, Washington. On that day, Bill presented a moving and raw declaration to the crowd attending. It goes like this: "Whereas…Insidious grief and pain are a direct result of losing a loved one to murder…this day shall be a day of grief relief. All survivors get a one-day pass on pain…and no monsters can whisper in their ears. Whereas…Some ignorant people who are shallow and narrow-minded enough to believe families who have had a loved one murdered have some kind of communicable disease…will on this day finally realize that murder is not contagious. Furthermore, no doctor will think they can prescribe 'grief pills'…there is no such thing. Whereas…The criminal justice system that prosecuted the perpetrators of murder may not have produced the end result that is in line with the victim’s family’s concept of justice…therefore on this day surviving families may resentence such murders to a more appropriate sentence determined by the victims loved ones…no appeals will be considered. Whereas…Past judicial decisions to set aside scores of sentences for the crime of felony assault murder have re-victimized the families of the victims…therefore no judicial body will ever make such an unjust and painful decision again…ever. Whereas…Crime victim organizations and support groups struggle to obtain adequate funding to maintain their vital role in our communities…and whose tireless efforts by dedicated and committed people bring strength and courage to friends and families of violent crime…shall on this day receive enough funding to effectively operate forever…or until there is no more violent crime…whichever comes first. Therefore…I, Bill Burkheimer…benevolent ruler of the world…do hereby declare this day a day of peace, healing, and comfort to all those that have been impacted by the horrific crime of murder."

While life has gotten a little easier to deal with, it remains important to Bill that Rachel is remembered and that somehow her story will help other crime victims cope. “The case may go away, but Rachel never will, Her life was not tragic; her death was.”

In 2022, Matthew Durham (37) and Maurice Rivas (38), who were originally sentenced to 26 years for their role in Rachel's murder, had their terms reduced to 22½ years. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel issued the ruling one year after a state Supreme Court decision paved the way for judges to resentence convicts based on the age at which when they committed their crime. Durham and Rivas, who were 17 and 18, when they drove Rachel to the site of her murder and helped dig her grave, will now be released from prison before their 40th birthdays.

John Whitaker, who took sentimental jewelry from Rachel as she waited to die, was originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2013, he was granted a retrial. Three years later, he was convicted of 1st-degree murder again and given a second life sentence without the possibility of parole. “This last trial, which was 12 years after the last trial, it was the hardest of all of them, mentally, emotionally physically in every aspect," said Rachel's father, after the retrial. “The sad part is, when the trial is all over it’s like we have to watch her walk off into the sunset and say goodbye again.” Bill said nothing can bring closure after such a horrific loss. “Every one of the defendants’ families have lost one of their sons, the impact of this spreads out and touches a lot of people."

The other five co-defendants convicted of Rachel's murder, including John "Diggy" Anderson, continue serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.

That brings us to the end of this episode! As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin, don’t forget to stay safe! Don’t get murdered or murder people!

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