Spokane South Hill rapist Kevin Coe moves to Auburn

Kevin Coe, a convicted rapist who is a suspect in over 30 Spokane rapes in the late 1970s, is now living in Auburn.

Coe, otherwise known as the “South Hill Rapist,” was released Oct. 2 from McNeil Island. According to the Washington state sex offender registry, he is living in Auburn. According to the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), they initially believed he was moving to the Laurelwood neighborhood of Federal Way.

Coe is a level three sex offender and is living in the 2900 block of 15th Street SE in Auburn. Coe is 78 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds. He was convicted on Feb. 12, 1985, of first-degree rape.

Coe had been in the custody of DSHS since 2008, when he was released from prison and civilly committed to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island for dangerous sex offenders. Now, after 17 years, Coe has been released to a home in Auburn.

“The Spokane County Superior Court has granted Kevin Coe unconditional release, and we are legally bound to comply with the court’s order,” according to an Oct. 2 statement from DSHS.

According to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), from 1978 to 1981, Coe is accused of committing as many as 37 assaults in the South Hill neighborhood of Spokane that terrified the city. According to the DPLA, in 1981, Coe was arrested in connection to several of the rapes, and was ultimately convicted of four counts of rape. He was given the nickname of the “South Hill rapist.”

In 1984, the Washington Supreme Court later overturned the convictions because police hypnotized some of the victims in hopes they would remember more details. However, according to the DPLA, Coe was later convicted of one count of rape, which resulted in a 25-year prison sentence.

After serving his prison sentence, in 2008, a civil jury declared Coe to be a sexually violent predator, and he was sent to a DSHS Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island for sex offenders.