SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s been almost 45 years to the day since Julie Harmia was attacked and sexually assaulted by Kevin Coe. Despite police suspecting Coe was behind dozens of other rapes, a charge for Julie’s attack is the only one that remained, and the one that sent him away.
“I’m not doing this for me,” Julie said. “I represent the (other victims and) women that this happened to. I represent the ones who didn’t get their day in court.”
“This is my last interview…I’m done,” she said.
Julie had to testify in three different trials. Two criminal, and the third in
“I almost collapsed walking out of the courtroom,” she said.
The terror of the October 1980 evening that started it all continues to haunt her. She fondly recalls the carefree time in her life in the years prior.
“I was in my mid 20’s…I was invincible,” she said while looking through photos.
Julie remembers a hunger to explore and travel.
“I backpacked through Europe…lived in Hawaii,” she said. “This one was when I was done modeling.”Julie said she wasn’t looking for love during this time.
“I was a very independent, self-sufficient person,” she said.
But in this life chapter of roaming, she found it. She got married and found herself on the hunt for a home in the Inland Northwest.
“While we were looking for houses, the southside of Spokane was supposed to be one of the best places to live,” she said. “My husband mentioned to the realtor, it’s supposed to be safe. She said, ‘well normally it is, but lately we’ve had the South Hill rapist.’ It goes in one ear and out the other.”
October 23, 1980. “Yeah, it was daylight…just starting to get dark,” she said.Julie boarded a bus to head home.”I was a salesclerk at Zales,” she said.The couple was still adjusting to their new space.”Hadn’t even unpacked,” she said. “I overshot the street. It was my first day on the bus.”Mere minutes into her trek, she saw him.”22nd and Rebecca…that’s where we were at,” she said. “I see this guy jogging. I actually walked past him. That’s how I saw his face…totally oblivious to the danger I was in.”There was no time for it to ever register.”All the sudden a hand goes around my face and drags me into the field,” Julie said. “I was pretty bruised up…not only did he stick his hand down my throat…he was wearing gloves with stitching…I couldn’t talk for a couple of days.”
Julie also remembered he spoke to her.
“He said some crude things,” she said.
By the time the attack and sexual assault had ended, night had fallen. Cars now turned on their lights. After her rapist took off, Julie limped to a neighbor’s home for help. The couple immediately began helping and called 911.”They gave me a wash cloth …because I was bleeding, he pounded me, ripped up my mouth with his gloves. My face was swollen.”The police response was swift. She recalled what she could.”I was the first who had seen his face, remembered it,” she said.It would take months, and more rapes, for police to find a name to go with that face. Kevin Coe. “When they caught him, they had him in a line-up,” Julie said.She vividly remembers all the victims on the other side.”It was lined up, chair, chair, chair of women he had assaulted,” she said. “We were all different ages .. there were three groups of us, like this.”
Julie says she pointed to Coe quickly.
“Yeah…but they nailed me because I said I was 98 percent sure,” she said of her identification.
It was a detail she said Coe’s defense pounced on.
“Three,” she said of the time of times she had to take the stand. “There were three trials.”Spanning decades, beginning in the 80’s. Charges, and then convictions, for other sexual attacks committed by Coe were later tossed due to inadmissible evidence. The charge for Julie’s assault is the only one that remained.”My case is the only one that stood after all these years,” she said.And it was the one that put him away. Coe got the maximum sentence and was sent to prison. When his time was up, Julie got a call.”I’ll tell you I was petrified when I found out his sentence was going to be done,” she said.That’s what prompted trial three. “The trauma of it…it’s burned in my mind,” Julie told KHQ in an interview back in 2006.
She sat down with us as she prepared to take the stand for proceedings that would commit Coe to McNeill island for sexually violent predators.”The fact the state felt this was important enough to take this step to further keep this man out of the public was very gratifying,” she said in 2006.
It worked and McNeil Island has been home for Coe for years, but now release for good is possible. Julie’s feelings then mirror the ones now.”I kept the monster in the cage.”But after 45 years of carrying the burden, she’s giving it to someone else.”It’s going to be on the state. If they release him, they are the ones liable,” she said. “This is my last interview. I’m done. I’ve done what I could to keep people safe.”All to honor those who weren’t safe.”I just hope everything I’ve done, that it’s enough. That I have brought peace to all these women. It’s a tremendous burden on your shoulders. God gave me broad shoulders.”And the strength to push through the pain.Julie split with her first husband, but remarried. They’ve been together for years and have built a beautiful life packed with love.”This is our whole little family,” she said showing photos.They are her world, keeping her going. With her deep faith and sense of purpose helping too.”I think that’s why God had it happen to me,” she said. “I think he knew I could survive it.”
Coe has a
