Auburn Mayor: City was not notified ‘South Hill rapist’ would move to city

The city of Auburn was not informed that South Hill rapist Kevin Coe would move to the city and learned of his arrival through local news coverage, Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus said in a statement Wednesday.

“I am angry that Mr. Coe was released into our community,” Backus said in a prepared statement. “Auburn was not part of this decision, and we should not be asked to shoulder the consequences of choices made without consultation. Decisions of this significance must be based on safety, communication, and logic – not on convenience, reaction or circumstance.”

Backus is the latest official to raise concern over Coe living in their city after his release from state confinement. Now 77 years old, Coe was released last week – more than four decades after his conviction in Spokane – because he is in poor health and no longer deemed a threat to society.

Shortly after his release from McNeil Island, state officials said Coe planned to move into a family home in Federal Way, a decision that sparked concern from neighbors who learned of his impending arrival from reporters.

Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell said in a statement to media last week that the city did not have any say on Coe’s plan, and that they acknowledged “community concerns regarding his potential placement” in the home.

While several news crews waited for hours at the Federal Way home on Thursday, he did not arrive, and reporters who knocked on the door of the home were turned away.

When Coe officially registered as a level three sex offender on Tuesday, though, his address was listed as a residential street in Auburn that includes several family homes, a plan that seems to have equally caught residents and officials by surprise.

Residents of the neighborhood, who did not wish to speak on the record, said they were unaware of his new address and that they had not received a notification that a sex offender had moved into the area. One neighbor cited previous news reports that he would reside in Federal Way.

“Now that we are aware of Mr. Coe’s presence, the Auburn Police Department has verified his location and will immediately begin the process of notifying the community as allowed under law,” Backus said.

Backus said officers would conduct frequent checks to ensure Coe “remains compliant with all registration requirements” and are in close communication with the Muckleshoot Tribe, which operates a large casino and hotel less than a mile from Coe’s listed address, on “further remedies.”

In her statement, Backus said it was “disappointing” that the process of determining where Coe will live “appears to be unfolding in the media rather than through professional collaboration between local, county, and state jurisdictions.”

“Moving people from one city to another in response to public pressure is not a sound public safety strategy,” Backus said. “It’s reactive, and it erodes community confidence. Auburn cannot, and should not, be treated as a community of last resort when other placements are met with opposition. That’s not how responsible governance works.”

Coe will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.