Missing Girl’s Remains Found Near Colville

The search for a 12-year-old Colville girl, presumed to have been murdered when she disappeared a year ago, ended Monday when her skeletal remains were identified.

Julie Harris was reported missing on March 3, 1996.

The case was classified a homicide when her purse and two artificial feet were found about a month later, near where the Colville River flows into Lake Roosevelt at Kettle Falls.

The girl’s remains were discovered Saturday by children playing three miles southwest of Colville, in the vicinity of Haller Creek Road and Reidel Creek. A check of dental records confirmed the identification.

Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer said his department and the Colville Police Department are continuing to investigate, but they have no suspect.

At the time her daughter’s artificial feet were found, Harris’ mother, Sherri, complained that police were trying to “frame” her live-in boyfriend, Don Sax.

Harris said her daughter could get around without her artificial feet, and she thought the girl was alive and in Oregon where the family used to live.

Sax told The Spokesman-Review shortly after the girl’s disappearance that she quarreled with him the day before she disappeared. He said he was urging her to do her homework and be responsible when she exploded in anger.

Her mother said she had been an upbeat child most of her life and had won numerous trophies, including a gold medal, in the Special Olympics.

But Julie’s attitude soured and she was having trouble in school shortly before she disappeared, Sherri Harris said at the time.

Attempts to reach Harris and Sax for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

Kellie Freeman Mumpower, 21, of Spokane remembered Julie as “very sweet, quick to make people laugh,” but also “very stubborn” when the two of them lived in the Coos BayNorth Bend area of the Oregon coast.

Mumpower used to baby-sit Harris and her two younger brothers.

“She was about 6 or 7 when I met her, and we both used to ride a handicapped bus and go to school together,” said Mumford, who has a condition that makes it difficult for her to walk.

“I’m just really shocked.”

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