Fred Howard COFFEY, Jr.
Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. is currently serving a life term in NC for the 1979 murder of a 10 year NC girl. He may have been involved in the Lyon Sisters abduction, and possibly in the 24 July 1975 abduction/murder of 15 year-old Kathy Lynn Beatty, also of Montgomery County, Maryland.
Fred Howard Coffey, Jr. was born 03/20/45 in either Virginia or North Carolina. By his and his family's account, he was subjected to severe sexual abuse as a child by his father. An eighth-grade dropout, he attended some college courses later in life.
Coffey enlisted in the Navy at age 17 on May 19, 1962. He served aboard the USS Caloosahatchee AO98 (a fleet oiler), based in Norfolk, VA from 1963 to about 1966. He served his second tour of duty in VietNam, and San Diego, California. He served his third enlistment back in Norfolk, VA. Coffey served a total of 12 years in the US Navy and was honorably discharged as a First Class Petty Officer (E-6) on 12 Sept 1974. Some accounts state that Coffey was an Intelligence or Operations Specialist, while others state that he was trained in a Medical field.
Coffey had intended to re-enlist for a fourth term of service, but had civilian criminal charges pending in Virginia Beach, VA for the abduction and rape of a 13 year-old girl, who was the daughter of another Navy man. Coffey was denied re-enlistment by the Navy, and he was subsequently convicted of charges stemming from his rape of the girl.
It is quite possible and likely that Coffey had Navy contacts in the Washington/MD/VA area which helped him land a job with Vitro Laboratories.
Employment records from Vitro Laboratories (a Defense Contractor specializing in Navy weapon systems) in Silver Spring MD place him in the area between April and July 1975.
After leaving his job with Vitro Corp. on or after July 25, 1975, Coffey surfaced in Norfolk Virginia, in October of that year, when he was charged twice with contributing to the delinquency of a minor (a 15 year-old girl) Then it appears he eventually ended up in North Carolina sometime towards the end of '75.
Coffey joined the North Carolina National Guard sometime in 1975 (no exact date was given) as a Field Artillery Operations Specialist, serving 3 years until 1978, with a honorable discharge.
Based on what is known about the Amanda Ray and Neely Smith cases, Coffey was living in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC area between 1979-1981.
He was back in his hometown of Bristol, Virginia by 1986, where he is suspected in the homicide of an 8 year old boy, Travis Shane King.
He is considered a suspect in several other murders/abductions, including the murder of a 12 year-old girl in Charlotte, NC. He reportedly confessed to a psychologist as having molested approximately 100 children, and that information was admitted into evidence at his trial. He was fond of using gimmicks such as a fishing pole, metal detector, and possibly disguises to lure children.
By late 1986, he had been brought back to North Carolina, where he pleaded guilty to 9 counts of indecent liberties with a 12 and 13 year old brother and sister, and another girl (he was sentenced to 50 years in prison). These crimes were committed sometime prior to 1986.
Coffey's criminal record includes:
- Convicted on two counts of child molestation in Virginia Beach, 1974. Not known whether or not the Navy knew about this, but he was allowed to get out with an Honorable Discharge at the end of his third enlistment - perhaps before the civilian courts had concluded the case.
- Convicted in 1986 and sentenced to 50-years for nine counts of molesting three children in Caldwell County, N.C.
- Coffey was considered a prime suspect in the August, 1986 death of an 8-year-old boy, Travis Shane King, in Bristol, Virginia. King was seen in the company of Coffey near Eastridge shortly before he disappeared, according to Bristol Virginia police detectives. Body found on shores of Boone Lake. He had been strangled.
- Coffey was married between 1978-1982. A friend of Coffey's wife testified that she called police in 1979, two months before Amanda Ray's death, after her 3-year-old described Coffey masturbating in front of her. Information indicates that Coffey was married three times.
- In 1987 was convicted of 1st degree murder for the 1979 Abduction/murder of a 10 year-old girl, Amanda Ray. Amanda was strangled and found near water, in a rural area. Coffey owned a dog (its hairs, found in his van and on Amanda Ray, helped convict him in the Ray killing). Two juries sentenced him to death, but through legal maneuverings, a third jury sentenced him to life in prison with all sentences to run concurrently. Eligible for parole since 1995.
- In 1987, he was investigated by MCP as a possible suspect in the 1975 sexual assault and slaying of 15-year-old Kathy Lynn Beatty of Aspen Hill, which occurred less than a mile from where Coffey once worked. Kathy was found badly beaten and left for dead in a Silver Spring ditch. She lived for two weeks before succumbing to her injuries on 5 August 1975. Coffey quit his job and left town on or about 25 July 1975, when newspaper accounts indicated that Kathy had survived her attack. Coffey later wrote to his employers at Vitro to explain that his wife and daughter had been injured in a Kentucky car accident and that he wished to have his last paycheck (to 31 July) mailed to him. Police had hoped to link Coffey to a set of keys found near the beaten body of Kathy Beatty.
- In 1987, he was considered one of the strongest suspects in the double abduction of the Lyon sisters in Wheaton, MD in March, 1975. Coffey was in the Maryland area around the time of the Lyons' disappearance. Coffey applied for a job at Vitro Corp. in Aspen Hill (then Vitro Laboratories in Silver Spring) as a computer data system employee and was interviewed on 1 April 1975. Records indicate that he worked for them from April 24, 1975, to July 31, 1975. MCP tried to pinpoint when Coffey first came to a Gaithersburg motel where he was known to have stayed. They also tried to get old motor vehicle records to verify reports that he had bought a car in Montgomery about the time of the Lyon girls' disappearance. Montgomery County Police looked at Coffey as a possible suspect in both the Lyon and Beatty cases in 1987, but could not conclusively place him at either scene.
- Police in NC are currently trying to connect Coffey to a 1981 murder of a 5 year-old girl, Neely Smith, from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Coffey lived in the same apartment complex as the girl. Neely's remains found near water, in a rural area. She had been raped and strangled.
- A 17 October 2004 Charlotte Observer story about the 1981 Neely Smith murder stated: "Amanda Ray's mother told her not to go fishing with the gray-haired stranger". This suggests that Coffey, 34 in 1979, was either prematurely gray, or he was altering his hair color. Eyewitnesses in the 1975 Lyon disappearances described a middle-aged suspect with salt and pepper hair. It would not be unreasonable to assume that his hair could have been salt and pepper gray in '75, and that he may have looked much older to the child witnesses.
Coffey currently resides in Pender Prison, NC. He comes up for Parole every year in July.
A current photo of Coffey can be seen on the North Carolina Prison System's On-Line Inmate Locator Service.
Link:
http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/app...imesin=1http://