Pod Insights Criminology The Coleman Family Murders About this episode In the early morning hours of May 5th, 2009, Sheri Coleman and her two sons, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin, were found dead in their home. Husband and dad, Chris Coleman, had been worried about his family due to some threatening emails and letters they had received. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the Coleman family murders. The crime scene was horrible, and someone had spray painted curse words throughout the home. This seemed to back up the threats the family had received. But as the police began gathering clues, they uncovered the true culprit and a senseless motive. You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.
0:37 Speaker 01 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 341 of the Criminology Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson.
0:43 Speaker 02 And this is Mike Morford.
0:45 Speaker 01 Morf, how you doing, buddy?
0:47 Speaker 02 Doing good. A little cold here in Florida this morning. We were talking, we started recording and you know, my idea of cold and what you're dealing with up there is probably a little bit different.
0:56 Speaker 01 Yeah, you said it was like 58 and I would love to have 58 at this point. We got buried with about eight inches of snow and we're supposed to have some more today. So we'll see, everybody's kind of digging out still.
1:10 Speaker 02 Yeah, I definitely don't miss that.
1:12 Speaker 01 No, who would? Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shout outs. We had Aisha, Kathy Abril, Sarah Horst, and Sophia Hefler. So that's a lot of great new support. We really appreciate it.
1:26 Speaker 02 Yeah, thanks so much to everybody that takes the time to support the show. It helps us out a lot. And for anyone else that would like to, you can do so by going to patreon.com/criminology.
1:36 Speaker 01 All right, buddy, let's get right into this week's case and, and we have a lot of details to unpack. In the early morning hours of May 5th, 2009, Chris Coleman of Columbia, Illinois kissed his wife Sheri goodbye and headed to the gym to get a workout in. An hour later, he called Sheri to tell her he would be on his way home soon, but Sheri didn't answer. This was unusual since she would normally be awake and getting their two sons, 11-year-old Garrett and nine-year-old Gavin, ready for the Chris decided to call a neighbor and ask him to check on things at the house. Sure, it had only been an hour since he knew that everything was fine, but Chris was on edge.
2:21 Speaker 01 He had recently received a series of threatening emails as well as letters that had been placed directly into the mailbox with no postmark. The angry messages, which we'll discuss in detail later, threatened Chris and his family. And the writer warned that they knew his schedule and when he would be gone. Chris raced home from the gym as the neighbor checked on his family. And I think more of, you know, it seems kind of strange, right? For someone who's only been gone an hour to call a neighbor and say, hey, I think something's wrong. Can you check on my wife, my kids?
3:00 Speaker 01 But this whole idea of receiving threatening emails and letters, yeah, that's a pretty scary proposition. I mean, we all get a lot of emails. Some of them are scam emails, but I don't get a lot of threatening emails. And I surely don't get people just dropping letters off to my house threatening. And if I did, I would take that very seriously.
3:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, and I think it could be a case of overreacting, but maybe better to be safe than sorry. And if the neighbor checks and his wife and kids are fine, then, you know, he could explain to the neighbor what's going on. And, you know, I'm sure there wouldn't be any big deal about it, but maybe it's a case for us to be safe rather than sorry.
3:53 Speaker 01 The neighbor, a law enforcement officer, was Detective Sergeant Justin Barlow. He called for backup in case there was an issue. Barlow walked across the street to the Coleman home. There were no sounds or any signs of movement coming from inside.
4:07 Speaker 02 He rang the doorbell, but no one answered. This is around the time that responding Officer Jason Donjohn arrived at the home and Sergeant Barlow explained the situation to him. Officer Donjohn then entered the backyard to check on things and found a window screen had been propped up against the outdoor patio furniture. The window it belonged in was wide open. He and Sergeant Barlow yelled through the open window, announcing their presence and identifying themselves as law enforcement. Still, there was no answer from inside the home.
4:38 Speaker 01 The two men climbed through the open window to do a quick visual sweep of the residence. It was silent in the home and everything on the basement level looked normal. As they got to the first floor, there was an odd smell, like something had been recently painted inside. As they reached the staircase to head up to the bedrooms, they found the source of the smell. It was spray paint. According to St. Louis Magazine, angry messages had been scrawled on the walls in bright red paint. In the kitchen, there were the words, "Fuck you bitch, punished, and I am always watching." Another message said, "I saw you leave."
5:21 Speaker 01 On the wall next to the stairs, someone had written, "You have paid," with the letter "you," not the word "y-o-u."
5:30 Speaker 02 As they were making their way to the bedrooms, Chris Coleman pulled into the driveway. They heard him open the garage door. Sergeant Barlow went to the garage, told Chris to wait outside, and then closed the garage again before going back inside. At this time, Officer Patton arrived to assist in the search. From the top of the stairs, Officer Donjohn saw a woman lying motionless on the bed in one of the rooms. It was Sherri Coleman. She wasn't wearing any clothes and was face down on top of the bedding. He tried to check for a pulse, but according to court documents, her skin was tough or thick. He didn't feel any sign of a pulse, so he tried to turn her over onto her back. It was difficult because her head, shoulder, arm, all kind of moved as though they were
6:15 Speaker 02 locked in a place when he lifted her up. Once she was on her back, Officer Donjohn noticed that her chest was discolored. It was a reddish-purple, deep bruising kind of color.
6:26 Speaker 01 Officer Don John moved on to Garrett's room. The 11 year old was also lying in his bed, dead. The skin on his face had turned blue and his neck had the same thick and bruised appearance that Sherry's did. And in the third bedroom, nine year old Gavin was also dead. The words fuck you had been sprayed painted on his bedding. The officers made their way to the front porch where Chris Coleman was waiting. Sergeant Barlow gave him a friendly touch on the shoulder as he delivered the news. News that his family was gone. Soon, more members of law enforcement arrived, including the police chaplain,
7:08 Speaker 01 Reverend Jonathan Peters, who escorted Chris to awaiting ambulance. Once inside, Reverend Peterson noticed some red marks on Chris Coleman's right arm. As soon as he noticed, Chris started bumping his arm against the gurney and kind of punching it. He finally calmed down and was taken to the station for an interview. So more of no doubt, we're jumping right out of the gate here with what is a very horrific scene inside this home. We have three people dead, a wife and mother, and then two young kids, an 11 year old and a nine year old boy.
7:51 Speaker 01 This is really sad, nasty gruesome stuff here.
7:57 Speaker 02 I think it was immediately clear too, that it wasn't natural causes. This wasn't some kind of carbon monoxide accident or something like that because you got the spray painted curse words all over the place. So I think officers knew right from the beginning, this was a homicide investigation.
8:14 Speaker 01 And then you have Chris Coleman, right? Who comes home and they have to break the news to him that his family is dead. I mean, and that's the stuff of nightmares.
8:25 Speaker 02 Immediately feeling that the resources of this department would be overwhelmed or inadequate, Chief Joe Edwards called for backup from the major case squad of Greater St. Louis. 25 officers began to work the case. Investigators believe that Sherry was killed first. One of her hairs was found on Gavin's elbow. It was likely transferred from the ligature that was used to kill each of the family members. Investigators pieced together the timeline of events as provided by Chris Coleman, and immediately noticed that the timeline was off. At 5:43 a.m., as he left for the gym, Chris called Sherri. He says he was just calling to wake her up. This makes no sense. If she was alive when he left, he could have just woken her up before heading out the door.
9:09 Speaker 02 Waking her up with a phone call was not something he regularly did, as evidenced by cellphone records. He texted her multiple times during his supposed workout session. Finally, at 6:42 a.m., he called his neighbor, Justin Barlow, and set things in motion.
9:24 Speaker 01 Officer Don John had seen dead bodies before. He routinely responded to traffic accidents, and unfortunately, some of them had resulted in fatalities. In court documents, he recalled that on the occasions that he had previously attended to a dead body, trying to find a pulse, the skin was usually soft, not thick or rigid, when he moved them, and they never had that locking thing that he experienced when he moved Sherri Coleman's body. Due to the state of the bodies clearly exhibiting rigor mortis, their time of death was placed sometime in the 3 o'clock hour. Dr.
10:04 Speaker 01 Michael Bodden, who consulted on the case, believes the three died no later than 3 a.m. This time clashed wildly with Chris Coleman's timeline of events. And I don't know about you, Morph, but anytime I hear the name Dr. Michael Bodden, it takes me back to when I was younger, you know, watching that autopsy show that they had on HBO. I mean, that was a foray into true crime back at a period in time when, you know, we didn't have all of the true crime stuff that we have today.
10:43 Speaker 01 That was really some groundbreaking type of stuff, and I opening, and I was enthralled.
10:51 Speaker 02 And Dr. Bodden's very experienced and very well-known in his profession, so when he's saying that he doesn't think that they lived past 3 a.m., that's a pretty big red flag. At the station detectives interviewed Chris. He said he was feeling very cold, so they gave him a blanket. Detective Barlow told CBS News that Chris Coleman said, as long as I can cover my arms, I'm freezing. Looking back on this, investigators felt that this was odd behavior. Detective Barlow said, the only part of his body that he covers up are the, you know, suspected marks on his arm. I remember in the interview room, it being very warm in there. Multiple investigators on the case noted that Chris never asked what happened to his
11:36 Speaker 02 family. His story is that he left home when everything was normal, came back an hour later to learn that his entire family was dead, and he had no questions. There was, according to Sergeant Barlow, a lack of reaction and a lack of curiosity of what's going on.
11:52 Speaker 01 So we know, right, that the police are gonna have to look at Chris. He's the husband, he's the dad, he's going to be looked at. But then you have Chris Coleman doing some things that are really piquing the interest of investigators. He's got these marks on his arms that he's trying to cover up. And then you have him not really asking questions about his family. And I think anyone listening can try to put themselves in this situation. Number one, you'd be grief stricken, but I think there would be so many questions running
12:34 Speaker 01 through your mind that you'd almost, I think most people would be pestering the police with questions. What happened? Who do you think did this? How did it happen? And he just has basically no reaction. Why is that? Is it because he already knows what happens, so he doesn't need to ask the questions?
12:57 Speaker 01 I'm sure that is what investigators began to believe.
13:01 Speaker 02 We talk about it a lot of episodes that you can't really judge somebody's reactions by how your emotion, how they are when they talk with police. Some people handle grief well. Some people don't show much emotion at all and they're stoic. And a lot of times they're suspected of being involved and it turns out they aren't. But because of the way they reacted, you know, they're suspected. But in this case, for him not to even ask questions or be curious about what happened. I think that really set off alarm bell for police.
13:36 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's a red flag for sure. Autopsies would reveal that each of the victims had been strangled with a ligature. All toxicology panels were negative. When detectives asked Chris during his questioning, what he would say, if they told him Sherri was not alive when he left the house that morning, he replied, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I think she was. He continued to insist that everything was normal that morning. He said, she was laying right beside him. At one point, when detectives stepped out of the room, Chris quickly looked through the notes they had left behind. He was acting more like a guilty suspect than a grieving husband and father.
14:19 Speaker 01 Investigators knew they needed to look closely at Chris Coleman and his background. They worked to learn everything they could about their victims and Chris.
14:29 Speaker 02 Sherri Coleman had been a military police officer in the air force and Chris was once a marine. They met in May 1997 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. At the time, they were both training to be K nine officers. After dating for about three months, they got married. According to Chris's parents, they only got married because they discovered that Sherri was pregnant with their oldest son Garrett. Eventually, Chris started working as security for Joyce Meyer Ministries. Joyce Meyer is a well-known tele evangelist who had built a large following and sizable wealth and took her security seriously. And she hired Chris Coleman for $100,000 a year to be her head of security.
15:12 Speaker 01 The Coleman's neighbor Vanessa Rigorix told CBS News Garrett loved to play football and Gavin loved baseball. Everybody would want their children like these two boys. She described the boys as polite and always helpful, explaining that they had a heart of gold. Sherry was described as a loving mother and a loyal friend. The relationship between Chris and Sherry seemed to be great, and their family seemed so perfect to those on the outside. The one friend called Chris and Sherry Ken and Barbie. But as police dug further, they would find out that there were signs that not everything was as it seemed within the Coleman family.
15:57 Speaker 02 Chris's family held a funeral on May 9th in Chester, Illinois at Grace Church where his father was a pastor. The funeral for Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin felt like something was missing. Sherry's friend Megan Turnbull told CBS, "No friends, no family, no coaches. Nobody spoke about these three awesome people that were dead." Sherry's family had to go to court to get an official order to delay the burials so they could have a funeral in Chicago for Sherry and the boys. The disjointed nature of the families was just one clue that something was off. But the more police dug, the more they uncovered a trail that led right to Chris, and it turned out to be a long trail.
16:38 Speaker 01 From what police found, Chris had obviously started plotting long before his family was actually murdered. It's not clear when his strategy changed from simply a divorce to the murder of his entire family, but Chris put in plenty of work leading up to the crime. Though Chris wanted a divorce, he also thought that one would negatively impact his job. He thought that if Joyce Meyer found out, he could be fired. This is why he tried so hard over so many months to get Sherry to be the one to leave him, as will lay out shortly. If he could drive her away, then he wouldn't be the one ruining things. Eventually, he knew he would never get
17:22 Speaker 01 his way. According to St. Louis Magazine, Sherry had told her friends, "I'm not giving up on my marriage. I love Chris way too much." She likely said the same kind of thing to Chris's face, cementing his decision and her fate.
17:39 Speaker 02 In November 2008, six months before the murders, Chris began to receive those threatening emails. The angry emails, which were initially focused on his employer, Joyce Meyer, came from the email [email protected] . According to CBS News, the first one read, "Tell Joyce to stop preaching the bullshit. If I can't get to Joyce, then I will get to someone close to her." Chris went to the police with the emails and patrols in the Coleman neighborhood and security for Joyce Meyer were increased in response.
18:11 Speaker 01 And obviously, both the police and Joyce Meyer took these threatening emails seriously. You know, this increase in security patrols in the neighborhood, it was in direct response to these threatening emails.
18:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think we hear a lot of times that sometimes these things aren't taken seriously. And when you look back on at the case, you're like, how come they didn't take these threats seriously? But here it seems like both Joyce Meyer's security and the Coleman's neighborhood police did take these things seriously and took extra precautions.
18:51 Speaker 01 On November 8th, 2008, the week after the first threatening email, Chris modified the deed to the home. He shared with Sheri and the children. The couple owned the home together, but now only Chris had his name on the deed. While Sheri would have had to sign the paperwork for this to happen, around the same time, she signed legitimate paperwork to refinance their mortgage. Chris could have slipped in an extra signature page or even somehow copied or forged it and his wife signed without knowing what she was doing. Two months later, in January 2009, a letter was directly placed into the Coleman mailbox. There was no postmark.
19:35 Speaker 01 Whoever was writing those threatening emails knew where the Coleman's lived and had been brazen enough to walk right up to the home. According to CBS News, this letter read, "Fuck you." Deny your God publicly, or else. No more opportunities. Time is running out for you and your family. The word opportunities was spelled incorrectly, with a U where the second O should have been. Another threatening letter came on April 27. It warned, "Stop today, or else. I know your schedule. You can't hide from me forever. I'm always watching. I know when you leave in the morning,
20:18 Speaker 01 and I know when you stay home."
20:21 Speaker 02 Due to the increasing threats, and the fact that the writer was clearly not afraid to visit the Coleman home, Sergeant Barlow, who lived across the street, set up a camera in his home that faced the Coleman's mailbox. This would help capture any person who wanted to place anything in their mailbox, and covered much of the front yard, too. And it couldn't be tampered with or avoided since it was inside another residence. On the morning of the murders, the camera pointed at the Coleman house captured nothing suspicious. According to CBS News, "There were no strangers walking up and down the street, and no strange vehicles driving past. Nobody came or went from the Coleman house, besides Chris Coleman."
21:00 Speaker 01 You know, there's probably a goal weight in your head, and getting there on your own is the hard part. Weight loss by Hers offers access to a range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medications, including the Wegovy pill and the Wegovy pen, plus support along the way. With Wegovy, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight. People lost an average of 14% body weight in 64 weeks in a clinical trial of Wegovy, alongside diet and exercise. To get started with Wegovy, just go to forhers.com and complete an online consultation with a licensed provider, who will determine if a prescription is appropriate. And Hers doesn't stop there. Nutrition and lifestyle guidance are part of the plan, along with access to 24/7 messaging with your care team.
21:45 Speaker 01 So, support is always in reach. Ready to reach your goals? Visit forhers.com/criminology to access personalized, affordable care for weight loss, hair, menopause, and more. Individual results may vary, and stopping treatment may result in weight regain. Weight loss by Hers is not available in all 50 states. Wegovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wegovy clinical study information, and restrictions, visit forhers.com.
22:17 Speaker 01 When Chris was asked by police who may have been terrorizing his family or wanted them dead, he couldn't think of anyone who could be sending the threats or who could have killed his family. With no clear suspects, authorities focused on those who could be targeting Joyce Meyer. Though the letters were addressed to Chris and threatened his family, a lot of the wording was focused on Joyce. Here are just a few more excerpts from the various threatening emails, according to Fox 2 now. Tell Chris I will kill them. Tell Joyce to give my money back and talk to me and this will all stop. Until then, everyone will die, starting with Chris's wife
23:00 Speaker 01 and kids. And tell Joyce to stop preaching the bullshit, or Chris's family will die. If I can't get to Joyce, then I will get to someone close to her. And if I can't get to him, then I will kill his wife and kids. There were even a few specific threats. One read, during the Houston conference, I will kill them all as they sleep. And if I don't hit there, then I will kill them during the book tour or the trip to India. And I do think more if we kind of have to dissect some of the wording in these letters, yeah, there's a lot in there about, you know, the
23:40 Speaker 01 person being upset with Joyce Meyer. But to me, it seems a lot of it really focuses on Chris, but even more so, his wife and kids. I mean, that comes up multiple times. If I can't get to Chris, if I can't get to Joyce, I will kill Chris's wife and kids. It's very specific. And it just happens to be the three people that wind up dead.
24:10 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think the, the police, although they have their suspicions of Chris early on, they have to consider these letters as a possible clue and not just ignore them because they could be part of, of what happened here. Because of these letters, detectives tracked down people across the country who had issues with Joyce Meyer and interviewed them, searching for a suspect who had no alibi from May 4th and 5th. But looking into the angry letters and emails, investigators were able to determine that the Gmail account, Destroy Chris, was created at 8:19 PM on November 14th, 2008. They were also able to see that the IP address used by the computer creating that Gmail
24:53 Speaker 02 account was the same IP address assigned to Chris Coleman's laptop.
24:57 Speaker 01 Chris had an explanation for this too, or at least a reason that it didn't mean he was the one sending the emails. According to Fox 2 Now, he told police, "I had two laptops and I traveled with one and I left the other one either at home or at the office. They were never both on me at the same time. And the one that was connected to the threats was the one that I would leave either at home or at work." But if it wasn't him who sent those emails or made that account, whoever it was knew the username and password for his personal account with the name C. Coleman, they would have still needed to log in to create the Gmail email account.
25:42 Speaker 01 And police didn't believe for a second that anyone except Chris Coleman had gotten into his laptop. Multiple documents on Chris's laptop also spelled opportunities with an extra U, just like the anonymous threatening writer. Some of the resentful things in those letters seemed to be how Chris truly felt about Joyce and her ministry. According to St. Louis Magazine, Chris once remarked, "I can't believe these people make 50 grand a year and write her a check for $10,000."
26:19 Speaker 02 Police believe that for months, Chris had threatened himself and his family. The murders were linked to these threatening letters and emails. Therefore, the most obvious suspect was Chris. But why would he kill his wife and children? Prosecutors believe he wanted to get rid of them so he could be with Tara, a woman he was having an affair with. It was Chris who initially brought up Tara to investigators. He claimed she was a friend of Sherri's and that they had just been talking a lot. He denied he was having an affair with anyone, though he knew that Sherri wouldn't like how much they had been talking.
26:51 Speaker 01 And more if we know, you know, what a lot of motives come down to, right? Greed, love, jealousy, envy, I mean, you can name a bunch of different things. But, you know, when we're talking about a married man, so many cases seem to revolve around that person wanting to get out of the marriage, but not willing to do it in, I guess, what a lot of people would think of as the normal, traditional way, because they want everything. They don't want to give up anything. We just see that time and time again.
27:35 Speaker 01 People don't want to go through a divorce because they don't want to give up assets. They don't want to lose custody of their children. And it just seems like so many crimes result from that fact.
27:50 Speaker 02 And as much as we know that to be true, it's always mind boggling to me how many people think that the better option is to commit to murder to, to solve your problem and get out of a situation. I, I don't understand the thinking of it, and I guess I probably never will.
28:10 Speaker 01 No, you and I have been doing this for so many years and we still can't understand. I don't, I don't think it's meant to be understood because to most people, that is not an option. That number one, they would even think about, let alone actually carry out.
28:32 Speaker 02 Especially when you're talking, you know, killing anyone, let alone your own wife and children, you know, to do that not once, not twice, but three times. If that's what happened, then that's. I can't even imagine that.
28:48 Speaker 01 Detectives in St. Petersburg, Florida contacted Tara and she gave them tons of information. Tara Lance was a friend of Sherri Coleman's. They had gone to Largo High School together when they both lived in Florida. Tara willingly handed over her laptop and BlackBerry that had evidence of her relationship with Chris. Detective Shannon Halsted told CBS, "We went from the station to go make contact with her, thinking it was going to be a quick 20-minute interview and it ended up being very different." She was able to relay this information to the detectives in St. Louis while they were still interrogating Chris.
29:31 Speaker 02 According to CBS, the detectives interrogating Chris told him to his face, "The St. Petersburg homicide unit is talking to Tara right now, and she showed us the pictures you sent her of you two, and we know you two have been having an affair." Detective Barlow, who was heading up the questioning, continued to explain to Chris what they had discovered. He said, "I know you guys went to Hawaii together. We pulled the enterprise leasing cards receipt where you guys went to different trips together." So what excuse did Chris have for lying about the affair? He explained, "Well, I didn't think it was an affair. An affair is when you're like living with them and you plan to get married and everything."
30:11 Speaker 01 And it's always interesting, you know, to hear what people say to detectives, right? In an interrogation or questioning. This is one of the dumber things that I've heard. So we're going to Hawaii, we're taking all these trips. I'm assuming there's sex involved. But he says, "I didn't think that was an affair. An affair is when you're like living with them and you plan to get married and everything." That makes no sense whatsoever, but that's what we often see, right? You know, when you're cornered in the way that Chris Coleman is,
30:56 Speaker 01 things are starting to unravel. A lot of people in that situation say some very strange things because they're fighting. They're just trying to get out from under this avalanche that is heading their way.
31:10 Speaker 02 And I think it's. Probably more common than a lot of people realize that whether it's a suspect or a witness, whatever the case may be, a lot of times when people are talking to police, they may mislead them or lie to them, not because they're involved in the particular crime, but oftentimes because they're having an affair and they don't want that to come out and ruin their marriage and for their family to find out. A lot of times that can lead the investigation down the wrong path. But then you have to wonder, is the person lying because they don't want their affair exposed? Or are they lying because there's a more sinister reason for it?
31:49 Speaker 01 Despite Chris Coleman's attempts to explain away the affair as something more innocent, Detective Halsted found that Tara had on her calendar, a scheduled wedding to Chris Coleman, and scheduled vacations together. In Tara's mind, and based on her calendar entries, they were scheduled to marry in January of 2010. If Chris wanted to enjoy any of his engagement, he would need his family gone. Chris had hid everything from investigators. He didn't mention that he and Sherry were in financial trouble, saying that Sherry only worked because she wanted to. He also didn't mention that he had canceled the upcoming Disney vacation
32:35 Speaker 01 he claimed to be looking forward to, and he definitely left out the fact that he and Tara had booked a cruise to the Virgin Islands. Tara and Chris also had credit card accounts that they held together. By any definition of the word, Tara knew they were having an affair. Detective Halsted told CBS News, "I think she honest to God believed that he was going to leave his wife and two children."
33:02 Speaker 02 Chris had been lying through his teeth about nearly everything, but it wasn't just his shifty behavior or being a bad husband that made him suspicious to police. Major Jeff Connor told CBS, "It wasn't like we were wanting to believe that Chris is the one who did this. It's just that the evidence kept pointing to him." Barlow added, "Obviously, in any case, you want to get the person responsible for it, but you want to get the right person." Police found that Chris had physical injuries on the morning of the murders. Chief Edwards told CBS, "Sherry was involved in an altercation before she was murdered. Those two boys weren't. She had a black eye and multiple hairs had been ripped from her head. She fought back against her killer hard."
33:44 Speaker 02 Remember, Reverend Peterson noticed some red marks on Chris Coleman's right arm on the morning of the murders.
33:50 Speaker 01 Chris did have an explanation for the red marks and scratches on his arm, but his story kept changing. At first, he claimed that he'd been up on his roof the day before the murders, removing a satellite dish when he got scratched. He would later claim that the marks must have come from the gurney. He was punching in the ambulance, though those on the scene, including the Reverend, recall seeing the scratches before he went into the ambulance. Another thing that stood out to investigators was that the window that was open when they got to the house had no signs of forced entry. The window had a special mechanism that would
34:30 Speaker 01 break if the window was tampered with, so it appeared to have been left unlocked. This was somewhat odd. Why would a family in fear of an unknown threatening person who had been as close as their mailbox without anyone seeing them just leave their home unsecured? It seemed much more likely that Chris staged this point of entry, knowing that if he did anything in the front yard, his neighbor's camera would have captured it. There was more damning evidence. There was a charge on Chris Coleman's credit card for the exact same brand and shade of spray paint found at the murder scene, Rustoleum Apple Red.
35:15 Speaker 01 He purchased it on February 9th at Handyman True Value.
35:20 Speaker 02 Cell phone data proved that Chris took an abnormal route home from the gym. It was a longer route, one that actually skipped his exit on the highway, almost as if he wanted to make sure he didn't show up too early. Perhaps he didn't want to be there when the bodies were found, so witnesses couldn't see his reaction. Chris lied to investigators when they asked if he in his way for having any marital issues, telling them that things have been going awesome. He admitted that they had been to marriage counseling, but said that it was very helpful.
35:51 Speaker 01 But Sherri's friends disagreed about the marriage being healthy. One of those friends, Kathy LaPlante, told CBS, she believed that Chris would put on a face in front of the marriage counselor, but when he got back home, he'd yell at Sherri, and it would just be hell to pay. Vanessa Rigorix, a neighbor, remembered Chris complaining about issues in the marriage, including Sherri's spending. Sherri's friend Christine Sancada told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, they hadn't been sleeping together. According to CBS, Sherri told Kathy LaPlante that Chris was often cruel to her,
36:33 Speaker 01 telling her he didn't want to be with her anymore, and going so far as to tell her, "I never loved you." And I wonder more if just how much of these things that Chris was saying to Sherri was his attempt to drive her away, to get her to leave the marriage, so that, you know, he wouldn't look like the bad guy, he wouldn't put his job in jeopardy.
37:00 Speaker 02 And I think that's why it's important for all these friends of Sherri's that came forward with these tidbits of information, what she had told them and what they knew to be true versus what Chris was trying to say that was true.
37:14 Speaker 01 But the one thing that keeps going through my mind is... This must have been a very difficult time for Sherri. You know, she had made the statement to one of her friends. I'm not giving up on this marriage because I love Chris. But here you have Chris doing everything in his power to drive her away. You being mean to her, cruel to her on purpose, just trying to push her out of his life.
37:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, with his plan not working, you know, it shows that he could have resorted to violence as a, as a way to get what he ultimately wanted. Not many people had fond things to say about Chris, saying that Chris talked negatively about his marriage, which he called a shotgun marriage, according to St. Louis Magazine, and complained about having to work. He hated working so many hours, as he said, protecting some millionaire lady I don't even like while my old lady gets to sit at home in this nice big house. According to Fox Two Now, on December 27, 2008, Sherri texted a friend about what was going on, asking for their prayers. "Chris wants a divorce," she wrote, adding that a couple of days ago, he told her that she and the kids were in the way of his job.
38:29 Speaker 02 Also in December 2008, Sherri showed her friend Jessica Wade a photo of Tara Lynn's and told her that Chris was having an affair. Even his own words hint that Sherri was on to Chris and Tara. Chris said during questioning by detectives, "That Sherri told me one time when I went to Florida to stay away from her." Friends also recalled that Sherri started carrying a gun with her in her purse because she was afraid. She also felt that she was being stalked online. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, Sherri also mentioned a crazy lady saying to her friend Stephanie Jones, "She's obsessed with Chris and my Facebook page." Stephanie Jones knew that Sherri was fearful.
39:10 Speaker 02 Stephanie told the St. Louis Dispatch, "She asked me to spend the night quite a bit. She didn't want to be home alone."
39:18 Speaker 01 In January 2009, Chris and Sheri had sex, which by this point was a pretty rare thing for them, but it wasn't loving. During their intimate encounter, Chris told Sheri not to be fooled by the sex. It didn't mean he loved her. He also told her to be quiet and turn over, so he didn't have to look at her. According to St. Louis Magazine, Sheri admitted to friends she confided in, "He's not very affectionate to me, so I'll take whatever I can get." But things only got worse. According to the St. Louis Dispatch, on February 9, 2009, Sheri told Kathy LaPlante that "if anything happened to her,
40:03 Speaker 01 Chris did it." The weekend before the murders, Kathy tried to ask Sheri why she changed her name on Facebook, back to her maiden name, and changed her relationship status. According to Kathy in an interview with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Chris butted in and said, "We will not talk about that tonight." And more of it just seems like with every, you know, bit of information that comes out, mostly from Sheri's friends, Chris is painted more and more as really a despicable individual, you know, especially a despicable husband. There's no doubt in my mind
40:47 Speaker 01 that, you know, at this point in time, he was treating Sheri just terribly.
40:53 Speaker 02 And you can see the controlling aspect there too, to where when a friend wants to talk to Sheri about what's going on and why she's changing her stuff on Facebook, he butts in and won't even let her talk about that.
41:10 Speaker 02 As more information was revealed to the public following the murders, friends of Sherri's were devastated. Kathy LaPlante told CBS News, "I felt like every day I was just getting stabbed in the heart by these little pieces of information." And Megan Turnbull said she couldn't wait for Chris to be arrested. Those who lived in the area were heavily affected by the crime. Kathy LaPlante said to CBS, "I've talked to some of the moms and the children in the community wonder if their dad could do the same thing." It's clear that the community did not have Chris's back, and most of them thought he had killed his wife and kids. They wondered why an arrest was taking so long.
41:47 Speaker 01 And that makes total sense to me. You think about a community learning all of these pieces of information. I think Kathy said it well. She said like every day it felt like she was being stabbed in the heart by all these little pieces of information. And we've talked about a lot of them. None of them make Chris look good. In fact, they make him look like a terrible human being and probably pretty easy for most people in the community to make the connection that this guy had something to do with the murders.
42:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, there certainly wasn't much coming out in his favor, making him look like Husband of the Year, Father of the Year, things that people were rallying around having his back here. It seemed just quite the opposite.
42:43 Speaker 01 Finally, on May 19th, 2009, 14 days after the murders, Chris Coleman was taken into custody in charge with the murders of his wife and sons. His father, Ron, when speaking to CBS, called his arrest the worst scenario. He added, "We lost Garrett and Gavin and Sherri, and now Chris is gone."
43:07 Speaker 01 A week before his arrest, Chris resigned from Joyce Meyer Ministries. This was a move made solely to save face. He would have been fired for breaking policy if he didn't quit first, but as an employee of almost a decade, his resignation was accepted.
43:25 Speaker 02 We don't know why Chris sprung into action and took his family's lives on the fifth, and he still says he didn't do it. So there are no confessions to help us make sense of things, but there are indications that he was planning to do it on the fourth, or possibly overnight into the fifth. On May 4th, Chris called Joyce Meyer herself and asked for the day off. He said he wasn't feeling well. Joyce would later explain that she could never remember another time that he had to take off work, though she was clear that she wasn't saying it never happened at all.
43:57 Speaker 01 Chris told Tara that he was going to give Sheri divorce papers on May 4th, when that didn't happen because he hadn't even seen an attorney like he had been claiming. He said there was a typo in her name in the paperwork, so he had to wait for the correct version before he could serve her the divorce papers. Whatever plan he had set in motion for May 4th seems to have fallen through. Maybe he got cold feet. We have no idea. The afternoon before the murders, the camera in Barlow's home captured Chris in the front yard, playing catch with Gavin and Garrett.
44:36 Speaker 01 Perhaps he wanted proof that he loved his children, even in these candid moments. Neighbor Vanessa Rigorick spoke to the Charleston Gazette Mail and said that she recalled telling the boys, they could spend the night for her son's birthday, which they did every year, only for Garrett to tell her, dad said tonight is not a good night. The very next morning, they were dead.
45:06 Speaker 02 Chris Coleman's trial began in April 2011. The jury was from another county due to all the pre-trial coverage the case received. The jury heard everything we've discussed and more. During Megan Turnbull's testimony, she revealed that Sherri had once told her that Chris beat her up. A video of Chris pleasuring himself in the shower in front of Tara was played for the jury, showing that no matter what he said, this was a serious affair between the two. They were sharing truly intimate moments. When she testified on the stand, Tara was wearing the promise ring Chris gave her. There was also less salacious evidence presented too. A glove with red paint on it was recovered from the side of I-255, about five minutes from the Coleman home and connected to Chris.
45:52 Speaker 02 A length of orange baling twine that had been twisted into a noose was also found. This was a match to the twine used to secure multiple bales of hay behind the Coleman home. The area that the glove and noose were found in is on the route that Chris took on his way to the gym that morning.
46:09 Speaker 01 The evidence was especially hard for the jury to look at. One juror told CBS News, "I didn't want to believe that he could do that." And another juror admitted, "I cried myself to sleep." Though no one on the jury believed that Chris was innocent, a few felt as though they needed more solid evidence. DNA, surveillance, a confession, just something more than circumstantial evidence. Ultimately, the 12 jurors did come to a consensus. On May 5, 2011, the second anniversary of the murders, Chris Coleman was found guilty of killing his wife Sherri and their two boys Garrett and Gabbit.
46:53 Speaker 01 When the verdict was announced, a crowd that had gathered outside the courthouse cheered and celebrated.
47:00 Speaker 02 Facing the death penalty, Chris waived his right to a jury sentencing, putting the decision solely in the judge's hands. Judge Wharton sentenced Chris Coleman to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Despite some jurors being willing to sentence Chris to death, other jurors were fine with the life sentence. One juror said of the life sentence, "This way, he's going to have to sit in prison for the rest of his life and think about what he did every day for the rest of his life."
47:28 Speaker 01 And I feel like a lot of people share that sentiment. Some people are just anti death penalty, but there are also people who feel like, you know, a life sentence with no possibility of parole is good because, you know, this person is going to have to live with what they did. They're going to have to think about it for the rest of their life in their little small cell. But I want to go back to the trial. And again, we didn't go into depth about all the evidence. We've talked about quite a bit of it. It was a lot of it, pretty circumstantial.
48:07 Speaker 01 And I think by and large, Morph, juries have a little bit of trouble with those types of cases, even more so today, right? With all the technology that you and I talk about, it seems as though probably some juries expect some scientific bombshell. Well, there's gotta be, you know, DNA or there has to be something that conclusively proves that this person did it. But I think a lot of trials don't have that.
48:46 Speaker 01 They are by and large made up of circumstantial evidence. A lot of times, a lot of it, but juries sometimes have trouble with those.
48:59 Speaker 02 And I think in this case, it was a, despite the lack maybe of overwhelming physical evidence, there was enough of a sense that everything fit and that Chris was responsible. And I think, you know, all the things that Sheri had told her friends that they came back to tell the jury, I think was almost like her speaking from beyond the grave, telling that the jury what life was like from her point of view.
49:31 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong. There was a mountain of evidence and it seemed to point all of it directly at Chris. I am not surprised that they found him guilty, but I'm also not surprised that they struggled with it a little bit, just based on the circumstantial nature of the evidence.
49:55 Speaker 01 Chris admitted to beginning an affair with Tara in November 2008. Eagle eyed jurors noticed that the timestamp on a photo of the two kissing indicated that they were together by October of that year. So this in their eyes proved that Chris was not to be believed. In a case full of circumstantial, though compelling evidence, one juror said to CBS News that the timestamp was something black and white in front of my face that said, if he could lie about this, he's lying about everything.
50:31 Speaker 02 Both of Chris Coleman's parents were preachers, but they seemed very understanding of his affair. It's clear from the way that they talked about Sherri even after her death, that the Coleman's had never really approved of her. Recalling the first time he met Sherri, Ron said to St. Louis Magazine that he thought Sherri was a worldly little girl, little short shorts, tattoo on her leg, not the person we thought he'd be with. According to Ron Coleman, Sherri told Chris all the time that he was moody and he wasn't affectionate enough. It seems that the Coleman's believe Sherri drove Chris away, not that Chris put a wedge between himself and his wife. Ron explained, she never did compliment him. That's why he was so attracted
51:15 Speaker 02 to this Tara. And I find it kind of awful that his parents can justify or sort of blame Sherri for what happened to her.
51:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm right with you. I get it. That's their son. I'm sure they're upset that he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison, but to kind of run down Sherri in a magazine interview, that seems pretty cold to me. And to try to justify any part of this, the affair, the murders, it just doesn't make sense. It was clear that Chris was really head over heels for Tara. Many like to blame the affair partner when Something like this happens, even going as far as accusing them of being involved in
52:11 Speaker 01 or planning the murders. And some people pointed their finger at Tara, even if not for being involved in the murders, then for being involved in sabotaging Chris's marriage. There was a note on Chris's computer that listed what looks like everything Tara ever told him about herself. It had her measurements, her height, her ring size, her favorite flower, favorite food, ice cream and comfort food, her favorite song and color, things she loves, sexual fantasies, and even usernames and passwords. Although Chris had already had a vasectomy, it looked like he and Tara were planning to have children. The note included
52:55 Speaker 01 daughter's name, Zoe Lynn Coleman. Maybe most importantly, the note also listed, "Day Tara Changed My Life, November 5, 2008." It was just nine days later that the fake letter and email threats began.
53:12 Speaker 02 In August 2011, Chris Coleman was transferred to Dodge Correctional Facility in Walpe in Wisconsin. This is where Chris Watts, another infamous family annihilator who found a religion supposedly is housed. Sherry, Garrett and Gavin were moved from Evergreen Cemetery in Chester, where the Coleman family wanted them to stay buried, and relocated to a cemetery in Sherry's hometown near Chicago in December 2012. Their headstones, paid for by Ron and Connie Coleman, stayed in Chester.
53:44 Speaker 01 The lives of Sherry, Garrett and Gavin were snuffed out by a cold-blooded monster who was supposed to love and protect them. Although Sherry clearly knew her marriage was in trouble and feared Chris, it seems as though she still loved him and was desperately trying to make their marriage work and keep their family together. Instead of trying to keep his family together, Chris selfishly decided to destroy it.
54:14 Speaker 01 And you know, for me more, when we talk about some of these family annihilators, you know, you think of Chris Watts, there have been so many of them. The word that always creeps into my mind is selfish. All of these people, just incredibly selfish. Specifically with Chris Coleman, there's no doubt. You know, he wanted to be with Tara. He wanted out of his marriage to Sheri. He tried a few different tactics. He tried to drive her away so that she would leave. But Sheri wouldn't do it.
54:59 Speaker 01 She told friends, I love Chris. I want to make this marriage work. So when that tactic didn't work, he had to switch gears. It's just the ultimate plan he came up with was so over the top that it's hard for a lot of people to believe that someone would go to those lengths just to be, you know, out of a marriage and be with someone else. Because there are other ways to do it. But these guys are so selfish, Morph, that they don't want to lose anything they have. So they don't want to take those routes.
55:40 Speaker 02 It's very hard to understand that these guys primarily, it's men that do this. It's hard to get in their heads and try and rationalize their thinking. You know, that you're going to do all these horrible things, you know, to your wife, kids, and you're going to try and get away with it. You're probably not going to get away with it. And then all that freedom you wanted, you're never going to get because you're going to prison. And it just seems like they don't think about that. Or maybe there's such a level of narcissism that they think they are powerful enough and smart enough to get away with it.
56:22 Speaker 02 And they don't even comprehend that they're probably not going to get away with it.
56:26 Speaker 01 I actually think that is a big part of it. You know, I think there are a lot of these people who just think they're smarter than what they really are. They think they're smarter than the police. Well, the police are never going to catch me. I'll come up with a plan that's so brilliant and I'll be able to have everything I want. Thankfully, most of the time, it just doesn't work out that way.
56:54 Speaker 02 Yeah, what's especially heinous in a case like this is the level of planning, the fake letters, the email threats, the attempt to drive his wife away from him. So she was the one that ended the marriage. There's just a long, ongoing pattern leading up to this outcome. And it's just, you know, to document it and see each step, it's just disturbing that he went to these lengths. It's not a case where they got into an argument one day and in a fit of rage, he killed his wife. I mean, that would be bad enough, but to have this level of planning and forethought is just especially disturbing.
57:38 Speaker 01 Well, and I think it's why these types of cases scare people to think that this guy could kill not only his wife, but his two young sons. It's just something most people struggle to wrap their minds around. And I go back to the fact that it wasn't like there wasn't other ways. I get it. Some people may not like divorce, but divorces happen all the time.
58:06 Speaker 02 And it makes me think of the last episode we just did, the case of Ryan Borgwart. He's the guy that faked his own death to get out of the marriage and away from his family. You know, I almost give him credit. It was despicable what he did, but he didn't resort to violence. I mean, still elaborate and cold hearted to do that to his family, but he didn't resort to violence. He tried to get out of the situation in a different way, but still disturbing.
58:34 Speaker 01 Yeah, I guess, you know, as we wrap this case up, that word selfish just keeps flashing in my mind. I get it. People fall out of love. They meet someone, they want to be with someone else. I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying it happens. And there are legal mechanisms by which, you know, Chris Coleman could have been with Tara. If that's what he ultimately wanted, it wouldn't have been great for Sherry and the kids, but they would have been alive. They could have moved on with their life. He was just too selfish to take, you know,
59:17 Speaker 01 one of those routes. He wanted it all. He wanted to be free of them. He wanted to be with Tara. And, you know, he wanted to keep his job. He didn't want to lose his, any of his money. That's what it ultimately comes down to, I think, for a lot of these people.
59:34 Speaker 02 Well, he's right where he deserves to be. And I hope like that one juror mentioned that he's thinking about this every day. I have a feeling he's probably not. He's thinking of himself and how to preserve himself in prison because prisoners that do what he did aren't looked upon fondly there. But hopefully he's thinking of what he did.
59:55 Speaker 01 And I hope it eats at him every single day. Because that would be, you know, a fitting part of his punishment. But that's it for our episode on the Coleman family murders. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, five star rating. Also, keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the criminology podcast really helps us out.
1:00:21 Speaker 02 If you want to find us on social media, we're on X with the handle @criminologypod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com/criminologypodcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.
1:00:37 Speaker 01 So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike
1:00:47 Speaker 02 And Morph.
1:00:48 Speaker 01 We'll talk to you next week.
1:00:50 Speaker 02 Take care, everyone.
Previous Ryan Borgwardt Next Joanne Chambers Page updated November 5, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated