SERIALously - 318: The Most Twisted Family You’ll Ever Hear Of | The Coleman Case

Starting point is 00:00:00 May 5th is a day that's going to stick with the men and women of this police department, their entire careers. A husband and father left the house to go to the gym. When he returned, his family was dead. This was a promising family, a great family. Manson-style spray paintings on the wall. I will kill your wife and children in their sleep. To the left of the staircase was the master bedroom. We found Sherry Coleman to the right.

Starting point is 00:00:28 It was a bedroom of Garrett and Gabby. all three deceased. Be able to help us to try to figure this out. We already know what happened. We need to know why it happened. A monster. I mean, monster comes to mind. Somebody with no soul.

Starting point is 00:00:45 Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialist Lee. Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new episode of seriallessly with me, Annie Elise, your true crime bestie, here to break down another wild and crazy case. Now, if you've been around here for honestly really any length of time, you know I don't hold back when it comes to calling out criminals, to calling out murderers, to calling out murderers, to calling out just like generally awful human beings. If you ruin lives, especially if you take a life, you are like fair game. You deserve to be exposed, period, the end, exclamation mark, all of it. And today's case, it is no different. But what really got me during this case as I was researching it wasn't just the killer. It was also all of the people within the case itself. People who

Starting point is 00:01:55 defended the killer, enabled the killer, even encouraged the disgusting. behavior. It's almost like this murderer had their own little fan club cheering them on from the sidelines. Truly, it's like so diabolical and disgusting. This story is absolutely infuriating. It is cruel. It's disgusting, like I said, and honestly, it's going to have you asking yourself, what the hell is wrong with these people? So we are going to jump right in. Okay, so picture this. It's 2009, and 31-year-old Sherry Coleman is living in St. Louis with her husband and her two boys. Sherry's got this dark, long hair, these bright, expressive eyes, and she's got a little bit of a fire inside of her. She's like this total go-getter, the kind of woman who could literally

Starting point is 00:02:42 juggle a million different things, yet still show up, perky, and with a smile. Basically, the complete opposite of me. But Sherry had two sons, an 11-year-old named Garrett and a nine-year-old named Gavin. Now, Garrett was this very sporty, outgoing kid who had blonde hair and these ears that kind of just like stuck out a little bit, super cute. And he was very big into football, also very involved in his church youth group. And Gavin was right behind him, almost like a little shadow of sorts. If Garrett did it, Gavin was doing it too.

Starting point is 00:03:14 Same football team, same church group, same everything. They lived in this nice little suburban home with Sherry's husband, Chris, who, by the way, on paper seemed like this all-American dad. Chris was 32 years old. He was ex-military. He was polite, respectful, and he was raised by not one, but two pastors. He was so, like, clean cut and just, like, on the straight and arrow that he didn't even curse. Everything looked picture perfect. But what was going on inside of that house? Well, that's where things start to unravel and fast. Now, like I said, Chris was a great guy, ex-military. didn't curse, just raised right. But there was something that was always a little off. He was

Starting point is 00:04:00 sensitive, very sensitive. For example, one time he saw somebody butcher a rabbit while out on a hunting trip, and he was absolutely wrecked by this, completely distraught, which look, I mean, fair. Not everybody is into like watching a rabbit get slaughtered and butchered, especially, you know, a little fluffy, innocent rabbit. I get it. But when this happened, to Chris's parents, his reaction, was a complete red flag, almost like major disappointment vibes from them. Because they figured, you know, if he's going to go hunting, if he's going to go out on this trip, then he should have known what comes with the territory. So instead of comforting him when he was so upset by this rabbit butcher situation, their solution was basically saying, toughen up. Now look, I know that it's

Starting point is 00:04:46 really easy to probably jump to like, okay, Annie, well, maybe the real problem is his parents. Maybe that's the issue here. What kind of parent wouldn't comfort their child when they are so devastated by an animal dying? Which, look, fair question. And maybe they were just super old school. Maybe they were all about bottling things up and thinking emotions are weak and toughening up for all situations. But it also wasn't just them. Chris's teachers and friends in high school, they also all saw this sensitivity as well. He wasn't just shy or awkward, but he was seriously insecure. It was. like deep-rooted insecure, kind of like having these, I'm not man-enough type of feelings. And instead of learning to deal with his feelings, Chris decided that his feelings were the enemy. Being sad, it was weak, getting angry, nope, not an option. Everything had to be shoved down and just locked away. He treated feeling anything like it was a personal failure. So when a Marine Corps recruiter came sniffing around during senior year of high school,

Starting point is 00:05:50 Chris was kind of like, yes, this is it. This is my chance. This is how I'm going to become the man that I'm supposed to be. Because what is more hardcore, more emotionless, more tough guy energy than becoming a Marine? So, he enlisted. So once Chris joined the Marines, things actually started to click for him. For the first time, he felt like he belonged somewhere. And right around that same time, he also fell in love. It was 1997, and Chris was now 22 years old, and that is when he met 21-year-old Sherry White. Now, Sherry was also in the Air Force, and they were both at this, like, canine training center in San Antonio when they met. And Sherry was the complete opposite of Chris.

Starting point is 00:06:31 She was this free-spirited, very playful, very kind of like wild soul, just a stark contrast to who Chris was. In fact, she joined the military not for the structure or for the toughness of it all, but strictly for the adventure. She wanted to travel. She wanted to see the world. She wanted to do something big and do it on her own terms. But then came Chris, this quiet, very intense, very emotionally locked up guy, but Sherry loved it. She thought that he was sweet. Maybe, yeah, a little awkward, but in a cute way. So they hit it off and they started dating fast. But as for Chris, he was still Chris. He was still closed off, super private, totally uncomfortable with affection.

Starting point is 00:07:15 Even holding hands in public felt like it was too much for Chris. So he didn't know how to show love because he had really been raised to think that showing emotion was basically a weakness. So he kept everything in, just like he always had. Sherry, on the other hand, was the exact opposite, as I said. She loved love. She loved hugs, handholding, telling people how much they meant to her. That's just who she was. She never would hold back. And honestly, that might have been what drew Chris to her in the first place, because she brought this, like, energy, this warmth, this life into his very, I don't know, sterile, buttoned-up type of world? It was totally like this opposites attract kind of energy. Now, even though he wasn't big on affection, three months into their relationship, boom,

Starting point is 00:08:02 Sherry was pregnant. And for her, that changed everything. She wanted to be a good mom, which also meant stability, routine, not bouncing around with the Air Force. So she made a huge decision. She decided to leave. And that is when things started to get weird, because Chris then takes her home to meet his family and he introduces her, but he introduces her as a friend, not his girlfriend, not the mother of his unborn child, just a friend. And honestly, look, I don't know what Chris was thinking introducing Sherry as just a friend. Like, did he really think that he was going to keep this whole pregnant girlfriend thing a secret? I don't know, maybe he already knew that his parents weren't going to be fans of her or not approve, which, spoiler alert, they absolutely were not

Starting point is 00:08:49 fans of her, they did not approve. But either way, him trying to keep this secret, it definitely didn't work and it didn't matter, because his parents figured it out immediately. Sherry was visibly pregnant. And not long after that very awkward introduction to his parents, the two of them got married. But now, even as Chris's wife, Sherry still could not win with his family. And Chris's mom, Connie, was especially harsh with Sherry. She once described Sherry as, quote, just a little blonde thing, nothing much to look at. Which, like, geez, like harsh, right? God. She once even straight up told Chris that Sherry wasn't smart, that she wasn't interesting, and that he could do way better. And she also decided that Sherry must have trapped him, pressured him into this, you know, sinful

Starting point is 00:09:36 relationship just to lock down a marriage and cash in, which, by the way, made no sense and was a wild accusation because Sherry actually made more money than Chris at the time. And his dad, Ron, it was the same vibe. He told Chris that Sherry was not the kind of woman that he had hoped that he would end up with. Basically, they painted her as this manipulative outsider who just draft. their very sweet, very obedient son into this like heathen world of premarital sex, which, okay, first of all, she didn't get pregnant by herself, right? Hello, it takes two to tango. She's not going to just like magically get pregnant on her own. Second, Chris was not some innocent

Starting point is 00:10:18 bystander here. Not at all. They were both in that relationship together. And the irony in all of this is that Sherry was incredibly involved in their church. She volunteered regularly. She ran charity fundraisers, she donated her own money to causes that she cared about, she was a good person. But none of that seemed to matter to his parents, Connie, and Ron. They were way more focused on the fact that Sherry had this big, bright, vibrant, adventurous personality, and that she was now bringing Chris out of his quiet, once-reserved little shell. He loved her energy. But his parents, not so much. So after their son Garrett was born, Chris ended up leaving the Marines. Now, officially, it was so that he could get a better paying job and support his family. However, his dad hinted at a very different reason. He said that maybe Chris had lost faith in the military altogether because of the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal that was happening at the time. That was all over the news. Again, kind of a nod back to this very buttoned up, very, you know, non-premarital sex, very tightly wound life. Which maybe that's the case.

Starting point is 00:11:30 but also kind of feels like a stretch, so I don't know. But anyway, after leaving the Marines, Chris landed a pretty cushy new job. He was now a bodyguard for a televangelist named Joyce Meyer. And this wasn't just some random job that he happened to stumble into. Joyce was actually friends with his parents, Connie, and Ron. So when they told her that their son needed work, she ended up hooking him up with a job on her personal security team. Now, if you don't know who Joyce Meyer is, let me just explain a little bit of the backstory. She wasn't just any preacher. She was the televangelist at the time. I mean, she was raking in millions of dollars. She was flying private. She was preaching around the world. She was just like living this very large life.

Starting point is 00:12:15 She also had a hit TV show called Enjoying Everyday Life. And by 2002, she was signing $10 million book deals. I mean, a lot of money. However, all of that success, it came with a lot of controversy. Even inside the church world, people were kind of giving her this side eye for her lavish lifestyle. Kind of like, okay, well, how does a servant of God end up with a two million dollar mansion? Also, a corporate jet, a Mercedes, even a marble-topped antique toilet, which I didn't even know that that freaking existed, but, you know, why not, right? If you've got the money, why not buy a marble-topped toilet? So you can imagine how all of this rubbed people the wrong way, right? Protesters started showing up to her events. People were calling her a fraud,

Starting point is 00:13:01 a thief. I mean, you name it. That's why she actually ended up needing that private security team in the first place. And Joyce didn't skimp out when it came to paying this security team. Chris was pulling in a low six-figure salary. Not too bad. And at first, he was very into it. The travel, the money, everything, it all just felt very exciting. But after a while, he started to see the cracks. quote with his neighbors that his job was mostly, quote, looking intimidating, and that Joyce was never really in any real danger. But then other times, he would complain that he was breaking his back just to protect this rich woman that he didn't even respect. And his wife, Sherry, was not thrilled with this setup either. Chris was gone all the time because he was traveling with Joyce. Meanwhile,

Starting point is 00:13:49 Sherry was stuck at home wrangling the kids. And when she got pregnant with their second son, Gavin, she begged him to be around more. But he wouldn't. Bills had to be paid. He had to work. He had to make money for the family. And here's where things started to take a bit of a turn. Because even if Chris didn't think that Joyce was really at risk,

Starting point is 00:14:08 someone out there seemed to. She started getting threats, anonymous emails, warning her that she had to stop preaching or else. And then, things got personal. Joyce received an email from a sender who called themselves, destroy, destroy Chris at gmail.com. That was the actual email address. Destroy, destroy Chris at gmail.com.

Starting point is 00:14:30 And the subject line said, Chris's family, dash, they are dead. This email threatened to kill Chris's wife and his kids unless Joyce stopped preaching. And it even mentioned specific dates and locations for their upcoming schedule. But there was something about this email and about this whole thing that just felt off, you know. I mean, for starters, the message was weirdly addressed to Chris and Joyce, as if they were like a duo, a pair, which pick a lane. Who are you trying to threaten here? Pick one or the other. And it told Chris that he needed to forward the email to Joyce, even though it had gone directly to her email address.

Starting point is 00:15:10 And also, let's be honest here, if this person hated Joyce, why would they threaten Chris's family? Wouldn't you go after somebody personally or somebody that Joyce was actually close to? maybe like her own husband, why would you go after her bodyguard? It just wasn't making sense. Something about it just did not add up. But even still, that wouldn't be the last time that Joyce, or Chris, heard from this so-called anonymous threatener. The person behind these emails claimed that they had met Chris at one of Joyce's events. Supposedly, as the story goes, they tried to approach Joyce, and then Chris stepped in and stopped them. But when the investigators asked Chris about it, he was kind of like, uh, I don't even remember that. And then when they looked into the

Starting point is 00:15:52 event footage, it didn't show anything even close to that happening. So was this all fabricated? Which, on paper, this definitely was not sounding like it was a credible threat, not at all. But for Chris, he took it seriously. His family was threatened. He also told everyone that he was going to install security cameras all around his house to protect his wife Sherry and the boys. He even reached out to his neighbor, who was a police officer named Justin, asking him for advice. He hoped that things would die down, but unfortunately, that was not the last email. Destroy DestroyDestroychris at gmail.com kept sending more emails, and they just got darker and darker. The threats now became graphic, they became violent, and they started expanding.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Now, this sender wasn't just targeting Chris's family, but they also mentioned. wanting to hurt two other people. Someone named Danny and someone named David, which who the hell were Danny and David? Still unclear. But the sender seemed to think that those names would mean something to Chris, or maybe to Joyce, or maybe to both of them. Then came the morning of May 5, 2009. Chris woke up early. He wanted to hit the gym before work, nothing unusual. He kissed his wife Sherry goodbye and left the house at 545 a.m. And while he was at the gym working out, he sent his wife Sherry a text message saying, hey, wake up and check on the boys. But he got no reply, which, hey, it was still pretty early, so maybe she was sleeping in.

Starting point is 00:17:24 I get it. Except the morning dragged on, and still nothing. No text, no calls, just total silence from Sherry. So Chris started getting very nervous. He tried her again, but nothing. So eventually he called that same neighbor, that police officer Justin, the one that he had told all. all about the threats to, right? And he said, look, something feels off. I'm trying to get a hold of Sherry, but she's not responding. She's not answering. He even mentioned to Justin how he always would text Sherry in the morning to wake her up and that she always would respond back. So this definitely was not like her. It was alarming. So Justin agreed that he would swing by the house and check in on the family. And right away, he noticed something very strange. One of their windows was wide open and

Starting point is 00:18:12 the screen had been completely removed, not broken, just removed, and the screen was just kind of sitting there, leaning. It was almost like somebody had very carefully taken it out of the frame. And what Justin found when he went inside was absolutely horrifying. All right, so all my girlies, you guys already know that bras have never really been my thing. I feel like I used to always dread wearing them, so I'd wear like a bando instead. I just felt like regular bras were like uncomfortable. They dug in. And honestly, I would just avoid them whenever I could.

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Starting point is 00:19:56 serialously with Annie Elise in the drop down. But seriously, if you haven't tried it yet, you really need to. It took me years to get on the skims game. And I am so glad that I finally did. It is so comfortable. So again, go to skims.com slash a.E. Use our podcast in the drop-down and check it out. Now, like I said before, Justin was a police officer. So he was literally trained to look for signs of a break-in, which is exactly what he thought of when he saw that this screen had been removed, right? So he immediately called for backup.

Starting point is 00:20:35 And then when the other officers arrived, they all were. went inside the home to investigate to see what was going on. Was anybody inside? What's happening here? And upon entry, that's when they all saw these very disturbing messages that had been spray painted on the walls. Spray painted in apple red, almost as though maybe it was supposed to look like blood. One said, fuck you. I am always watching. Then on the wall right next to that one, in the exact same shade of red paint, it said, I saw you leave. Then on a wall in the hallway, it said, fuck you bitch punished. On another wall on the stairway leading up to the second floor, it said, you have paid. So all of these very disturbing and cryptic messages just painted all over the walls in this house. Understandably, what the police were seeing inside this house was deeply disturbing. And even stranger, Sherry and the kids were nowhere to be seen at that point, which just didn't. not make sense. Because if someone had broken in and spray painted these weird-ass messages

Starting point is 00:21:42 all over the house, you would expect Sherry to be like scrubbing it off, trying to shield her boys, trying to hide it. I mean, it's doing something. But the house, it was still. It was silent. So then the police went upstairs, and that's when they found out why it was so quiet. Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett were all dead inside their beds. Each one of them had been covered up with a blanket, almost like someone had tried to tuck them in after killing them. 11-year-old Garrett had a spray-painted circle on his bed sheet. Nine-year-old Gavin's bed? Well, his had this very graphic message across it, which police have never released exactly

Starting point is 00:22:22 what it said, only the fact that it was very disturbing. Now, Sherry wasn't covered. She was found face-down, naked, in the bed that she shared with Chris. She had been assaulted and also strangled. There was DNA underneath her nails, which indicated that she had fought back, but, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save her life. And here's the thing. Strangling someone is not fast. We've discussed that before. It's not like pulling a trigger on a gun and then just being done and walking away. It's something that takes time. It's personal. You have to be right there up close, up close and center watching while the life leaves somebody's body. And that kind of murder, it typically points to rage, to hatred. You don't strangle somebody that you feel, I don't know, neutral about. Now we know that Chris left for the gym at 545. a.m. That was caught on security camera footage. Police arrived just before 6.45 a.m. So whoever did this had under an hour to murder three people and then spray paint all of these threats on the walls and on the

Starting point is 00:23:27 bed sheets. That was a lot of activity for under 60 minutes. So it just didn't track. And here's where it really starts unraveling. Because experts believe that Sherry and the boys had actually been dead for a few hours before the police arrived, that they had been killed somewhere between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. So before Chris went to the gym, and that would mean that they were murdered while Chris was still at home. Then when the police told Chris what they discovered, what had happened, Chris barely reacted. No screaming, no sobbing, no shock, nothing like what you'd expect from somebody who just lost their entire family, and they also noticed scratch marks on his arms. Fresh ones. The kind that you might get if someone was clawing at you while being strangled. And when they asked Chris about these

Starting point is 00:24:19 scratch marks, Chris just kind of shrugged and said, I don't know, I don't know how they got there. Then he immediately changed the subject, which, hello, totally normal, right? Not. So police pulled the home's security footage just to be sure. And sure enough, no one came in or went out after Chris left. that morning. No masked intruder, no creepy stalker, nothing. Which really begged the question, if someone really wanted to send a message to Joyce Meyer by hurting Chris, why wait until Chris wasn't home? Why kill everyone but Chris? So by the time they sat Chris down for questioning that day, the detectives were already skeptical. And for five hours, they tried to get to the truth. I'll tell you what, for the beginning, what's to start off from when you got up this morning?

Starting point is 00:25:07 until the time you pulled up at the house. Just kind of walk me through that first. And then we'll go through and kind of explain, you know, talk about some different things as far as the emails you've been getting. Okay? Well, I said my alarm clock for 5.30 and I used my phone from an alarm clock.

Starting point is 00:25:23 And I got up at 5.30. I went in the bathroom. Got these clothes here, I got on, on. And went to the bathroom, basically. You got truck and left. And drove off. drove off and I got to, I don't know where I was at, but called the Sherry to wake her up, get her going. And she didn't answer, of course.

Starting point is 00:25:50 And so I went on to the gym, to Gold's gym, and over by Ronnie's closet in Southcutty. And I started working out, I text her, text her at some point. I might even call her again. I don't remember. I could probably look at my phone if you want me to. Do you guys have done? Do you guys have a home phone number too or just so? Oh, she's okay.

Starting point is 00:26:14 So I text her and then she still didn't respond and probably now it hadn't have been well after six o'clock sometimes when I text her or called her. I'm sure it's still on her phone the time it was. Okay. And she didn't respond and it's not like her because the kids should have been up and stuff are getting up and going by then, I believe. And so I called her again, called her again on the way back or when I was getting ready to leave. And she didn't respond again and started getting a little concern because it's not like her not to answer the phone. Sometimes she won't answer if she's in the

Starting point is 00:26:53 shower, but she just calls me back right away. And so she didn't do that at all. And so that's what I called you. Now, part of the way through questioning, Chris insisted on handing his, phone over to the police. They didn't pressure him to do anything. They didn't pressure him to do this. He was the one who wanted to do it, just to cooperate, to show that he had nothing to hide. And he said that he thought that it would prove that he was innocent. So what time did you text her back? The second time, I can tell you. 6.23. So at 6.23 a.m. is when you first texted this morning. It's the same thing. That's not right.

Starting point is 00:27:29 Did you try to call before that? I'm sorry. Yeah. I can pull up to call up to if you won't. Okay. That just. does text, I'm sorry. All right, so you're just looking to text. And how are those out just as you have to? Okay. So the first one is from you, it says, hey, baby, you were at?

Starting point is 00:27:42 623, sorry. Oh, 623. And then she doesn't respond to you, correct? Yeah, it would be on there. So right, okay, okay. And so the second one from you says, I know he was tired last night, 623 says, I have about five minutes left on cardio,

Starting point is 00:27:59 then I'll be fired. And she never responded to any other. Because they could tell them, yeah, you can tell them the phone. Okay. And then at 727, it says, hello, you up? I'm sorry, 627. 627. And then at the same time, 627, another one goes out, says time to get the kids up.

Starting point is 00:28:25 Spoiler alert, Chris is not a smart man, like, at all. This guy worked as a bodyguard, but apparently he learned, everything he knew about crime from like reruns of CSI or law and order. Because it never even occurred to him that once he handed over the phone that the police might actually check his phone and do just that and look into his phone to see if he was lying. He told the investigators that he always texted Sherry early in the morning to wake her up, right, to check in on her. Cute story, right, if it were true. Except that had literally never happened once in the past. Not once. The day that Sherry was murdered was the

Starting point is 00:29:03 first and only time that he ever sent that kind of text message. Which, what a wild coincidence, right? And the cherry on top of all of that is he handed his phone over voluntarily, kind of like, here you go, please enjoy this evidence that completely unravels my alibi, completely catches me in a lie, but I'm going to hand it to you because maybe the motion of me handing it to you will be enough for you not to even look into my phone. Like, what a complete idiot, right? And it didn't stop there. The phone was like a full-on gold mine of information, photos, messages, videos, all of it. And it painted a very, very clear picture. Things between Chris and Sherry, they had been bad for a long time, pretty much from the moment that they got married. Sherry, once a carefree, very adventurous

Starting point is 00:29:54 soul, had shifted into full-on mom mode. She wanted a stable home, something grounded for the kids, all while Chris was missing the thrill-seeking version of her. And instead of adjusting, he started resenting her for growing up, for becoming a responsible mother. He started venting to all of his friends and neighbors about what he called a shotgun wedding, saying that he wished he hadn't rushed into it. And whenever Sherry tried to be affectionate with Chris, he just shut her down. She even confided in her friends that sex with Chris felt cold, transactional, like they were roommates who barely even tolerated one another.

Starting point is 00:30:33 Sherry believed that their kids needed more of their dad, and she reminded him that both of them had sacrificed, both of them had left their jobs, and they had both done this to raise a family. But Chris, he didn't see it that way. He thought that she had it easy. She was staying home, just hanging out with the kids, all while he worked and busted his ass.

Starting point is 00:30:52 He even accused her of wasting his money, even though she also had a job and actually stuck to their budget, which also I just will say this too. Being a stay-at-home mom, job or no job outside of that is a job in and of itself. It is so hard. It is so insane. I give, you know, so much credit to anybody listening who is a stay-at-home mother because it is, in my opinion, way more difficult than working a true 9-5. Truly, I mean that. I don't think that I could ever be built for that life. So props to you. But in Chris's eyes, he didn't see it this way. And he saw that every dollar he made was his. Not theirs, not hers, his. And he believed that no one, not his wife, not even his kids, deserved to touch his money. And people around him, including televangelist Joyce Meyer herself, they knew how rocky his marriage was. Chris made no secret about wanting out. He talked openly about divorce, but he said that he was worried that it might cost him his job.

Starting point is 00:31:52 And just like his parents, he started blaming Sherry for everything that was wrong in his life. He even said that while he, yes, loved his kids, they got in the way of what he should be doing with his life. Now, read into that how you want. I have no idea what the fuck that means, but whatever. Like, that's what he believed. Sherry, meanwhile, still believed that they could fix things, that they could make their marriage work, that they could make their family, just this nuclear whole family. She thought that all they needed was more time together. And, of course, less interference from Chris's parents, who, by the way, after years and years, never stopped criticism.

Starting point is 00:32:27 her. Joyce eventually even stepped in, and she suggested counseling with a pastor that she knew. And for a moment, it seemed like maybe they were making progress. The counselor even said that Chris did seem committed to working things out. But behind the scenes, that could not have been further from the truth. Sherry was working hard to save her marriage. But Chris, he had already moved on to someone else, someone who bore a striking resemblance to Sherry. And it was none other than Sherry's former best friend, Tara Lince. Tara and Sherry had known each other since high school. They actually had a lot in common.

Starting point is 00:33:04 They were both adventurous, both down for anything. But while Sherry settled down to raise a family, Tara went in the opposite direction, continued to kind of go down that adventurous path. She started working at a gentleman's club as a cocktail waitress, just continuing to be this independent, fun, exciting person, just kind of always living for the thrill of it. Chris, she really reminded him of everything that he used to love about Sherry, the Sherry before

Starting point is 00:33:30 she became a mother. So their affair started in November of 2008, coincidentally, when Tara had showed up to one of Joyce Myers events, one of the events that was taking place in Florida, which, by the way, was an event that Sherry had encouraged Tara to attend, hoping that maybe the sermons would inspire Tara to find a more grounded path, to leave the gentleman's club and to perhaps, you know, pursue more of a, whatever, life on the street and narrow, I guess you could say. Which, yeah, this obviously backfired because instead it introduced her to a life with Sherry's husband. Instead of finding Jesus, Tara found Chris. And this wasn't just a fling. Chris became obsessed. He kept these very detailed notes in his phone, dates, milestones, future plans,

Starting point is 00:34:18 gift ideas, even potential baby names. Which I got to say is really rich when he already was saying that he loved his kids, but that they got in the way of his life. And now he's thinking of possibly having more kids. Like, probably not my guy. You probably shouldn't. But whatever, just my two cents. But it's given delusional, okay? He also started telling people that Sherry and his kids were keeping him from his real destiny. And that destiny was Tara. So the two of them started going on trips together. Arizona, Hawaii, they were even planning a cruise the following year. But here's the twist. Tara wasn't nearly as into Chris as he was into her. She was still seeing other guys. She even went on a cruise in December of 2008 the same year their affair started with somebody else.

Starting point is 00:35:06 She was also very flirty with Sherry's brother and with Chris's own brother, which I guess that takes a whole new meaning into keeping it in the family. But like, she was still out there dating. She saw this as casual at most. Now, it's unclear if Chris knew about all of that, but in any event, he was spiraling. He started talking openly, too, about how he just was not attracted to Sherry anymore. And he also was such a prick

Starting point is 00:35:30 that he would take these very unflattering photos of her while she was sleeping and would start writing these nasty comments about her body. Just a complete asshole. Meanwhile, he and Tara were doing the opposite. They were making videos together, sexual videos together. naked videos together. They were talking about marriage. They were talking about how much they loved

Starting point is 00:35:50 each other, even though Tara was still dating other people. In a true, like, cringe, ick, disgusting moment, Chris even filmed himself in one of these home movies where he was literally jerking off in the shower while he was saying how much he loved Tara more than he ever loved Sherry, which, I mean, like, not to give you a disgusting graphic visual, but can you just imagine that for a moment like a video this guy's taking of himself holding his phone like if you're watching the video version of this you i'm not showing you the video but i'm reenacting holding his phone just like jerking off in the shower being like i love you so much more than i ever loved her like it's so pathetic it's so freaking disturbing it it just makes me laugh it's so embarrassing but whatever he apparently

Starting point is 00:36:37 like was into this which to each their own okay i'm not trying to shame him but if this guy ever sent me that kind of video while comparing me to his wife and doing that and just like so cringy, I'd be blocking his number immediately. It's so embarrassing. It was gross. It was manipulative and desperado, if I'm just being honest. And to make matters even worse, Chris's own parents, his pastor parents, they knew about this affair. And they were weirdly supportive of it. These same people who had once slut-shamed Sherry for getting pregnant before marriage were now suddenly fine with Chris cheating on his wife with a stripper or a cocktail waitress, I should say, at a strip club. Just the hypocrisy of it all is wild. Sherry, meanwhile, was still fighting

Starting point is 00:37:22 for the marriage. She went to counseling, she tried to reconnect, she tried everything and anything to keep her family together. But Chris was just stringing her along. Every time they left a counseling session, he would go right back into belittling her. All the while, he was texting Tara behind her back. And Sherry could feel that something was off. Eventually, she found enough clues, too, to confirm it. She knew Chris was cheating. However, she didn't know who the other woman was. But she did show a friend of hers a photo of Tara kind of asking, like,

Starting point is 00:37:56 do you think that this could be the one? She was just so uncertain. Sherry also confided in friends that Chris had assaulted her twice. She started dropping these terrifying hints, too, saying things like, if anything ever happens to me or the kids, it was Chris. How many times have we heard something like that before? And here's the part that really stings.

Starting point is 00:38:17 It all escalated so fast. Chris met up with Tara in late November, and by Christmas Day, he told Sherry that he wanted a divorce. He said that she and the kids were holding him back from what he called, quote, God's plan. He told his friends he had already emotionally checked out long before Tara came into the picture, too, just that he was over, Sherry, over the kids,

Starting point is 00:38:40 over this suburban dad life. He wanted freedom, he wanted money, and he wanted no one to answer to. So basically, his dream was to be a deadbeat dad and go on vacation and get a tan. I don't know. But Sherry was not going to roll over and take this lightly. She had given up everything, her military career, her independence, all to build a life with Chris. So she told him that she was not going to make this easy. But then, fast forward a few months, and it was May 2009. And Sherry and the boys were gone. And now remember, the police, they had Chris's phone right there in their hands, and they now knew everything. And they were not done with him yet. Okay, so tell me if this sounds familiar. You're working out, you're eating clean, you're,

Starting point is 00:39:31 you know, doing everything right, but you're still feeling bloated, dealing with cravings or kind of like dragging with low energy. That was me almost every day. But then I tried kettle and fire bone broth as a friend had recommended it to me. And it has totally like up to my energy and just like how I feel. It's packed with protein, collagen, and it helps my gut health. It supports digestion. And it actually gives me like steady energy. And the best part is it's so easy.

Starting point is 00:39:59 It's literally two minutes in the microwave and I'm good to go. So for me, it's kind of like the easiest upgrade that I've made to my wellness routine. You know, morning I can sip a little instead of grabbing a protein. bar. I'm getting 19 grams of protein in the bone broth just to start the day. Anytime I feel like I'm kind of in an afternoon slump or I'm not super hungry for like a full meal, I'll just heat up like a mug of it and it keeps me full until dinner. At night, it's, you know, warm and cozy and good. I mean, but it's actually so good for you. And right now for a limited time, you can get a free carton of kettle and fire bone broth by going to kettle and fire.com slash AE. Just buy any three

Starting point is 00:40:36 cartons in store, and they'll pay you back for one. And it works on any flavor at any retailer. And you can now find Kettle and Fire in over 22,000 stores nationwide, including Costco, Walmart, Target, Publix, Whole Foods, Kroger, even Sprouts. So that's K-E-T-T-L-E-N-Fire.com slash A-E. So let's get back into Chris. interrogation because things started to get very interesting. Were you able to see anything when you were in the kitchen area? Yes, right.

Starting point is 00:41:14 And would you describe what you're talking? I saw it was right, right. What would the source have been of the substance? I don't know. You just think it's pain? Did you think it was... All right. Could you see what it said or what it's...

Starting point is 00:41:32 I mean, does... I didn't read it. All right. We've got it just... It was just such a horror I didn't know. Do you have any paint at your house? I think so. Don't. I don't think so.

Starting point is 00:41:46 Okay. Any spray paint? I do, it's old. We kind of talked about the divorce a little bit. This last December? Yeah. And I went to Joyce with it. Told her about it.

Starting point is 00:42:00 Or Danny, I can't remember which one. And they knew about it. They suggested that we. me with somebody and see if we could work out whatever it was. Really, all it was was just communication, not communicating very well. At one point, Chris casually mentioned seeing a car backing out of a driveway when he left the house, almost like he was trying to paint this little vague, you know, maybe that's who did it, maybe that's who is responsible, kind of leaving a breadcrumb behind.

Starting point is 00:42:27 But what's interesting is he couldn't even commit to that story. It was just kind of like thrown out there, almost like this half-baked distraction. And as you're hearing him talk, ask yourself, does this seem like a man whose entire family was just brutally murdered? Because nothing about his demeanor, to me at least, screamed grief. If anything, it screamed guilty. Any, uh, anything as far as that sticks out in your mind from this morning when you left, did you know what's anything? No, no. The only thing I told somebody was, the only thing I can read.

Starting point is 00:43:04 remember is having to slow down for a car back in the driveway that's it from that what's driver were they back in out I don't know yes the same thing it's like three or four out I don't know left inside it's only thing I remember you notice anything about the car there's just the darker colors I think I'm sorry I shouldn't have it was anything that anything that sticks out were you able to tell you what kind of car it was I mean did you recognize it the neighborhood at all and no, I was just backing on the driver, but I didn't even. At one point during the interrogation, Chris asked for a blanket or sweatshirt, saying that he was cold.

Starting point is 00:43:42 And this struck the officers as very odd, because the room was hot. It was stuffy. Which, to be fair, people do run differently. Some of us blast AC all year round. Others throw a hoodie on when it's 80 degrees out. So whatever, I get it. It's not the biggest red flag in the grand scheme of things. But still, I mean, given everything else, it did add.

Starting point is 00:44:02 add to some of the weird vibes that were already going down. And the detectives also noticed that Chris sort of held up this blanket in a way that covered the scratches on his arms, almost like he was hoping that if the police weren't looking at them and seeing them, that they might forget that they existed entirely. Or maybe it was a subconscious thing where he was feeling guilty and felt like he needed to cover up or hide himself because of shame. I don't really know.

Starting point is 00:44:26 And I don't even know if that could be true. Because the truth of the matter is, Chris was shameless. At one point, the officer stepped out of the room for a minute, and what does he do? He leans over, and he starts reading through their notes, going through their notepad, everything that they had, like trying to see what they were writing, what they had sussed out on him. It was almost like he couldn't resist looking and finding out what they thought of him, whether or not they were buying his story. Then finally, the detectives came back in, and that's when this exchange happened. When you left the house this morning, was your wife alive? Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:45:07 Okay, that's right. It's okay. What would you say if I told you that I don't think she was? I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I think she was. I mean, she was. Okay.

Starting point is 00:45:22 I mean, what are you even supposed to do with that? I think she was alive? Like, you think? So someone just broke in, strangled she. left her dead in your bed while you were sleeping next to her and you didn't notice? I mean, come on, this guy is just a walking red flag. And I will say this too. I get it. Interrogations, they are stressful. People will stumble over their words. But this wasn't just a one-time slip-up. All throughout the interview, Chris's body language was screaming guilty. There was that blanket moment

Starting point is 00:45:56 where he, you know, felt cold and conveniently covered up the scratch marks on his arm. He kept fidgeting, kept rubbing his hands, his knees, almost like he was trying to, like, physically distract himself and calm himself down. And there was also this other part of it. He did get emotional at times. And I will say, in some of those moments, it actually felt real. If I just been there this morning, I'd leave. You know, Chris, we're going to get past it. Okay, we're going to work this out and get through it. Right. But what we need, the best thing you can do for us is help us. You are. You're doing a good job, man.

Starting point is 00:46:38 But the best thing we can do is work together and try to figure all this out, okay? So at one point, he asked if he could use the bathroom, almost like he just wanted to get a break from everything. But when Chris came back, the police did not let up. She was laying right beside me. And I'm not doubting that. I'm not doubting that. I'm not doubting that you were there. I'm not doubting that you care, but I am, I am doubting that she was alive when you left this point. Physically, what we have are different ways to tell how long a person's been deceased. That was done and what do you think that showed?

Starting point is 00:47:13 I don't know. I guess the time frame when I was gone. I mean, no, you guys wrong. Chris, we need to get this resolved. Okay, that you can't argue with physical evidence. Right, right. I'm not trying to argue with it. All right. What I'm telling you is, there is no other explanation. There's no other reason that the information we have would support what you're telling us. That it can't. It can't. You've told us a story and we've gone over it numerous times. You know what? We walk out to Justin, maybe, maybe we miss this. Let's go in and talk to him about this and just make sure that we're not missing something. Let's give him every opportunity to tell us exactly what happened. and maybe we're missing something. So that's why we go out and we come back in. And we go out and we come back in.

Starting point is 00:48:04 I did have to use the rest of them. That was legitimate. But we go out and we come back in. And we felt very comfortable that we had given you every opportunity to tell us something that was going to contradict the information that we had. All right. We've got this information. You're saying it.

Starting point is 00:48:21 And we're giving you an opportunity to give us something contrary to what you told us before. So that, okay, yeah. All right, that would make sense. That hasn't happened. And then it got worse. The detectives told Chris straight up. They knew that Sherry was already dead when he left the house that morning. But instead of backing down, Chris just kept doubling down, saying, no, she was alive, or I think she was alive, you know, trying to just like jump and jumble his words around.

Starting point is 00:48:52 But the cops, they were not buying it for a second. Listen, man, she wasn't alive when you left. She was alive. She was laying right aside me. We can go back and forth with this all day long, but the physical evidence doesn't mind. She was not alive when you left this morning. The children were alive when you left this morning. Yes, they were.

Starting point is 00:49:15 No, come on, Chris. We got to get over this. Now there's reasons. There's reasons. And that's the point we're at. I want to hear the reasons. Now is when we need to find out why. to find out what happened man it's so important you're at a great point to be able to help us to try

Starting point is 00:49:30 to figure this out we already haven't we already know what happened we need to know why it happened all right to tell you listen no you do you do know what to tell us come on chris she was she was not alive when you left the children were not alive when you left you know that's true and i know that's true no we need to clear this up now we need to clear it up now did something happened What happened? Nothing happened. What was going on in your life, Chris? Because I can't buy what you're saying.

Starting point is 00:49:59 The physical evidence does not lie, Chris. It does not. She was not alive when you left, period. Physical evidence does not lie, man. What do you want me to tell you? The truth. The truth. How did we get to this point?

Starting point is 00:50:14 That's what I need to know. I need to know how and why we got to the point we're at right now. We both know you're not telling me the truth. We both know that. I've done this alone. time I'm looking into your eyes and I can tell you you're not being truthful Chris we need we need an answer our answers as bad as this sounds as bad as this looks or you may think it looks we understand and I've talked to many people who

Starting point is 00:50:36 have given me reasons and it's like you know what okay all right I can understand how somebody might have been feeling that at that time and maybe they acted on it they shouldn't have and they regret it there's no way to turn clocks back you can't turn the clocks back you understand that don't you can't turn the clock back. The only thing we can do is go forward from this point and you need to know what and why it happened. Come on, Chris, help me out with this. I'm telling you, I've already told you. I've told everybody. I told the guy in the ambulance. I told you. I told him. The more we go back like this, the more it makes me think that there may be even isn't a good explanation for it. I mean, I mean, we need to know what happened. We can't keep going on this. It didn't, you know, she was alive when I left. We know that's not true. And there's nothing we can do about changing that. We know she wasn't alive when when you left this morning.

Starting point is 00:51:26 There's got to be an explanation. Now is the time to tell us. Now is the time to get this out of me. I don't know what else to tell you. Yes, you do. No. You have to tell me the truth, Chris. I'm telling you the truth.

Starting point is 00:51:39 You, you, were you involved in her death? No. Okay. With someone you know involved in her death? I don't know. Did you know, did you talk to anybody about arranging her death? No, absolutely not. Okay.

Starting point is 00:51:54 Chris also, flat out, denied having an affair, even though he had literally already handed over his phone to the police, which was packed with photos, text messages, even those gross sexual videos of him and Tara. But he tried to play this good Christian dad card, claiming that he was too focused on counseling, too committed to fixing his marriage, that he would ever do anything like that,

Starting point is 00:52:16 which, hello, I roll, sure Jan. But then when the police brought Tara in for her own interview, her version of events were very different. She immediately said that she had nothing to do with any of it. And then, without even hesitating, she just threw Chris straight under the bus. She started spilling all about things that he had said and done. And somehow, she managed to make him look even more guilty than he already did. How long have you been in a relationship with Chris?

Starting point is 00:52:48 Since late November, early December. Where all you guys met together? Phoenix and Hawaii, Maui. What would you tell his wife when he was gone? He would have just tell that he was working. So Sherry wasn't not aware of the affair that you and him were having? No. I know she suspected, but, you know, he always would take pictures when he was going to sleep

Starting point is 00:53:06 to prove that, you know, he wasn't sleeping with her or anything. See, no, to us he tried to paint that it was a rosy perfect marriage. No. They never kissed, never hugged. Shortly after all this happened, after I come home and discovered all this. He texted me. What was the message from there? From then?

Starting point is 00:53:21 Call you when I can. I'm all right. Now, this next part isn't technically related to the murder investigation, but it was just, I think, too ridiculous to not include. Because in the middle of her interrogation, Tara gets a phone call from her job. And the way that she handles it, I'm not even going to try to explain it.

Starting point is 00:53:43 I just want you to hear for yourself. It's Tara. Hey, no, I'm in the middle of a really... high-profile murder investigation. I've got a murder investigation. I'm right in the middle of it. I have four detectives here sitting at my house. They have no problem giving you proof or anything like that.

Starting point is 00:54:04 I thought I was coming into work today. Tara told the police that Chris had planned to serve Sherry with divorce papers in early May 2009. Then, once that was out of the way, he wanted to take Tara on a cruise through the Caribbean in June and then marry her in January of 2010. Very specific, right? Almost like it was all fully planned out. And this wasn't just pillow talk. They had even looked at engagement rings. They had set up wedding registries. Like I said, they were even tossing around baby names, which he had in his phone. They also exchanged promise rings, which, what are we really doing here? You're grown adults. Why are you exchanging promise rings? It just didn't really make sense. One of you is married. You're already sleeping together. Why do you need a promise ring? What promise are you making? It makes no sense. And here's where it gets even darker. After all of that talk about divorce in early May, Chris didn't file. Supposedly, he had messed up the paperwork, which, okay, it's like, okay, if you messed up the paperwork, then fix it and file again. You were obviously so dead set on this, right? And that's how legal documents work. You mess up maybe on accident and you fix it and you file. So instead of his marriage ending because of divorce, his marriage ended on maybe. 5th when Sherry and the boys were found murdered. Now here's one more thing that I have to mention about this affair too before we move on because it is absolutely infuriating. The very day that Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett were killed, Chris's dad, Ron, was text messaging with Tara, the mistress.

Starting point is 00:55:40 Which, yes, you heard that right. His son's wife and his grandchildren had just been brutally murdered, yet this man was texting his son's mistress offering her support. How messed up is that? It's like you need to recalibrate everything in life if that is the decision that you're making. And we already know that Chris's parents didn't like Sherry, but this? I mean, this was a whole new level. I get that sometimes people just don't vibe with one another, but Sherry was the mother of their grandkids. She was family.

Starting point is 00:56:12 And after she was killed, murdered, Ron and Connie were still full. Totally team Tara. No grief, no decency. Just reaching out to the other woman like she was the one who had lost something in all of this. And Sherry never did anything to hurt them. Yet still, they just trashed her memory. They erased her. They erased her kids. It was cold. It was cruel. And honestly, it was psychotic, if we're just going to call it like it is. And let's not pretend that Tara was any better. Because remember, before she started hooking up with Chris, she was supposedly Sherry's best friend. They had known each other since high school. But during her interrogation, her tone, her attitude, the way that she talked about Sherry, it was clear. She did not care that her so-called friend was dead. So at this point, neither Chris nor Tara was doing a great job pretending to be innocent. It was all unraveling. Now you also might be thinking, okay, well, wait a second, what about that stalker? What about that weird Gmail account that was sending all those threatening messages saying that they were going to hurt Chris, hurt the family,

Starting point is 00:57:20 all of these things. Why weren't the police looking into that at all? Well, they did. Okay, so let's be honest. We are in the circle of trust. Are you guilty of procrastinating? You know, putting off something that could literally save you a ton of money. I definitely was, still kind of M with some things. And the thing that I always procrastinated on was my phone. bill. That is until I finally did make the official switch and check out Mint Mobile. And right now, Mint has their best deal of the year, 50% off unlimited premium wireless for new customers. And here's the thing. Like, why keep overpaying these big wireless plans when you can get Mint for just $15 a month? And all Mint plans come with high speed data, unlimited talk and techs,

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Starting point is 00:58:56 taxes and fees extra Seament Mobile for details. When the police dug into those threatening emails, it did not take long to crack that case fully open. Because as it turns out, big surprise to absolutely. no one. They all came from Chris's laptop. And the investigators even gave him an out. They asked, you know, could anyone else have used it? Could they have borrowed your computer? Did they have access to it? But Chris didn't even take this out. He just said, nope, he's the only one who ever touched it, which you once again are a moron. But we love to see it. We love to see it. Now, even worse in all of this is the emails all had the same word misspelled. The word

Starting point is 00:59:45 was opportunity. And guess what? That exact same misspelling showed up in those spray-painted messages that were on the walls within the house. Also in regular emails that Chris had sent to. So unless this killer was also a horrible speller and had the exact same matching typos and didn't know how to spell the word opportunity, it was pretty clear who wrote all of these things. Chris had sent those threats to himself, trying to throw the police off, trying to make a it looked like there was some sort of dangerous stalker out there who was after Joyce Meyer but going to go through him to get to her. But there was no stalker? There was no outside threat. It was just Chris, just Chris trying to play criminal mastermind and failing pretty epically and

Starting point is 01:00:32 spectacularly. And it didn't stop there. The police tracked down the exact can of red spray paint that was used at the crime scene. And sure enough, Chris is the one who purchased it. Now in most true crime cases, you're lucky if you get one smoking gun, but Chris, Chris gave them the whole freaking firing range. He is just a moron and thought he was being so strategic, creating an alibi, creating a third-party culprit, doing all this stuff, but yet quite literally handing them the proof on a silver platter via his phone to unravel all of that. It's like, get a grip guy. So with the fake threats, the timeline lies, the affair, the text messages, the DNA, the receipts, the spray paint, I mean, everything, it didn't take long. Chris Coleman was arrested and he was charged with three counts of first-degree murder.

Starting point is 01:01:27 Thank you for coming tonight. As stated, we have some breaking news. We have made an arrest in the homicide of Sherry, Gavin, and Derek Coleman. We have a criminal record due custody. He was charged lately here. He made three counts, in question really, until the death of his wife or Mr. Terry Ball's shoulder. I just first like to say that thanks go out to these men and women, this is just a small piece of this investigation.

Starting point is 01:01:54 This breaking news, we got some information tonight that's pure going to want, and we started making a phone calls, and we had an officer's here within point of all the dedication towards this investigation. We've done all the fruit to saw us. was as a cooking news, but also as a cookie. So you've had anybody. You're so very comfortable of these charts.

Starting point is 01:02:17 He's going to make it out for you. Mr. Clement, he's not a hand for processing, and he will be then transferred to be in the town in jail later on this. Where is he coming? He's, uh, he should, he may be here right now. I'm not really for sure. He's in transit.

Starting point is 01:02:32 I'm sorry? Self, no, we went to as a parent's home and placed him with us and we better. What changed was we last meeting this? I've been talking about how we were waiting on some forensic evidence, forensic testimony, different things, and it just all started coming together. And for several days now, we've been close, and just denied there was some more evidence that came forward. We were able to solidify just a more solid case. The prosecutor felt, as we did, that at this point, there was enough times to be charged it when we described.

Starting point is 01:03:07 and it's talked for a judge late this evening and the judge after reviewing the evidence of we presented to them at three and issued this warrant for the county supports any times in charge you know you folks can't speak to the prosecutors but have they indicated what kind of punishment they would seek this is what we have talked about anything thank you sir do you think that that penalty is appropriate well um that's going to be out for the prosecutor would tie there goes some information that ten of eight and sir And, you know, for me to stand up there, he said, what's right or wrong, that would be in the problem. Did Mr. Coleman offer any resistance when he was arrested this evening?

Starting point is 01:03:47 None to my house. Where was he arrested? At his current house and just early. Is he here now? Do you know for sure? I don't know if he's good like to hang out. What exact time would be arrested would have been dying? Just around the same time to the walk of this. Are you looking for any other suspect?

Starting point is 01:04:07 in connection of this case or anyone who helps him? Well, I'll tell you, we are always looking for additional information that we need to follow up on. I would not say we are not looking at anybody else, you know, having involvement with that. I mean, our case remained open. If additional information pops out that we need to go out and investigate, so I think it's that. Then, Sherry's family filed a wrongful death suit against him as well. there's no words there's no words the only thing that i have to say at this point is what mr romanucci said regarding the suit okay me and my family our goal is to keep my daughter's memory alive

Starting point is 01:04:58 my grandchildren's memories alive and continue doing things that my daughter has been doing down the road. And if we can save one person from being abused or done what was done to my daughter, that would just make us feel wonderful. Now, I will just note this. Sherry's parents actually named Joyce Meyer in their civil suit too. However, a judge dismissed that, basically saying that there was no way that Joyce could have known what her employee, who she may not have even known that well, just gave him the job because she was doing her friends a solid. She couldn't have known what he was planning. And I think that's fair. And I couldn't find out much about what happened in the civil case against Chris.

Starting point is 01:05:46 But honestly, the criminal trial, that was the one that really mattered in the grand scheme of things, right? And before we get into the verdict, there's probably one final, big question that you have on your mind. and it was the same one that I kept asking while I was researching this case. Why would Chris kill his entire family, including his sons? We always say just get a divorce, right? But even in the cases where they don't get a divorce, usually they just kill the wife and they try to get away with it so that they can then have custody, they can move on with their life, they get the life insurance, and they can start anew with their mistress.

Starting point is 01:06:21 So why would he have killed his wife and his sons? And why not just get a divorce? I mean, divorce isn't that bad, not worse than murder bad, but with Chris, it wasn't just the divorce. He was also worried about keeping his job. Joyce Meyer, his boss, was this high-profile Christian leader, and her ministry had very strict rules. No cheating, no adultery, no, quote, moral failure was allowed. So if Chris filed for divorce and it came out that he had been having an affair during all of that, he would lose that very cushy, very sweet six-figure job as a bodyguard. And that wasn't just speculation. During the trial, Joyce took the stand and she straight up said, yeah, if I found out that he was cheating, I would have fired his ass. So what did Chris do? Well, instead of filing for divorce like a normal human being might have done, he decided that the only way to avoid getting caught was to kill Sherry. And as for the boys, he wanted a clean slate. A fresh start. No more wife.

Starting point is 01:07:23 no more kids, just a single guy living this fantasy life with Tara, with zero responsibility. So, in order to get that clean slate, he murdered them as well. Now, of course, Chris claimed his innocence the entire time. His parents, Connie and Ron, also took the stand in his defense. And huge shocker, they blamed Sherry. According to them, she was such a terrible wife that Chris had to cheat. He had no other option, which I don't think I even have anything new to say about these two at this point. except what in the actual fuck?

Starting point is 01:07:55 Like, come on, you are horrible human beings. It really, what's the expression that apple doesn't fall far from the tree? I mean, hello, look at who his parents were. Now, Chris's defense did admit that he had bought that spray paint, the one that was used for those messages on the wall. But their theory? Their theory was somebody else broke in. Somebody else murdered the family then.

Starting point is 01:08:17 They just happened to find that exact paint that Chris had lying around, and they used that paint to stage the scene. Oh, and the timing, you know, right when Chris had originally planned to file for a divorce, that was just a total coincidence, according to the defense, which, again, sure, Jan. They also tried to make a big deal about that DNA that was found underneath Sherry's fingernails because it wasn't a full match for Chris. But the medical examiner did say that there was a high probability that it came from him or a close male relative, which I'll just be honest, in my mind, that's as close as you're

Starting point is 01:08:52 to get to saying like, yeah, it was him. So the whole courtroom was a mess. I mean, you had Connie and Ron who were embarrassing themselves, Tara, who made an absolute fool of herself. And Chris, with all his lies, his fake threats, his twisted logic, he did not have a leg to stand on. So the jury found him guilty on all three counts of first-degree murder. And Chris Coleman was sentenced to life in prison. No parole, no second chance, just exactly what he deserved. Well, the, you know, I respect the judge's decision. He sat through this entire trial, the entire case for over a year and a half, like he said. And he's traveled down this road in a number of murder trials.

Starting point is 01:09:36 And so that's his decision, and I respect it. Would you have liked the scene, though, the death penalty given in this case? Personally, I would have. And for a couple of reasons. You know, there were a lot of faces in this trial. faces of the professionals, the law and court, the personnel, the prosecutors, even the defense team, you know, I mean, they were a professional group of individuals. Then you had faces of innocence, and that were the victims in this case, Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin Coleman. And then

Starting point is 01:10:07 there was one other face in this trial that a lot of people saw, at least that's what I saw when I looked at first with Coleman, and that was the face of evil. And throughout this trial, He's had three very competent, very professional defense attorneys representing him to make sure that he was treated fairly. I just wish that on May 5th of 2009, Sherry Garrett and Gavin Coleman would have had somebody there to represent him. Yet none of this made a difference to Ron and Connie. Even after the guilty verdict, they kept giving interviews. They were telling anyone who would listen that Chris was the real victim here. Not Sherry, not Garrett, not Gavin, but Chris.

Starting point is 01:10:48 Ron also told reporters he just couldn't believe that his son would kill his own kids, which that right there was his sticking point. He said that there was no motive, no explanation, and in his mind, that was the one detail that proved that Chris had to be innocent, because he couldn't believe that he would do it. Because for a parent to kill their own children, that takes a special kind of evil. I think we all would agree on that. And he didn't believe that Chris was capable of that evil. And here's where it goes a little off the rails.

Starting point is 01:11:18 and Connie actually started pushing this bizarre little conspiracy theory that Sherry was the one who sent those threatening emails and that she sent them from Chris's laptop. The same laptop that Chris himself admitted nobody else ever had access to. And when a reporter asked Chris's father Ron what he'd say if Chris ever did confess, he said, quote, he would be forgiven by me and we would move on. That's the way it's supposed to be. I would never turn my back. Cool. So your daughter-in-law and grandchildren are dead, brutally murdered. Your son is convicted of murdering them, but your plan is just to forgive and move on? I mean, I wish that I could move on from these shitbag parents, but even after Chris quietly, like, disappeared into prison,

Starting point is 01:12:02 Ron and Connie kept going, still doing interviews, still defending him, still acting like they were the ones who had been wronged in all of this. It is just infuriating. Ron was even a minister at Grace Church, and he apparently gave a bunch of sermons where he said the devil himself, the literal devil, had gotten Chris convicted. It was all a part of some effort to destroy the Christian church, somehow, some way. So I don't know. I'm done trying to make sense of anything that these people say. Now, as for Chris, you know how we always say it's very coincidental that people find religion when they're incarcerated? Well, Chris, he became a minister in prison, because of course, he did. He even tried to overturn his sentence claiming that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that

Starting point is 01:12:49 he was guilty. And I'm not sure which trial he sat through, but it definitely wasn't his own, because had he sat through that, he would see that there was a lot of evidence to prove that he was guilty. But just like his parents, he claimed that Sherry probably got onto his laptop and that she sent those threatening emails herself. He also said that he and his dad found video footage of some mysterious stranger dropping a threatening letter into the mailbox. But every time that he's that somebody asked to see that footage or that letter, poof, it just conveniently didn't exist. No one ever saw the footage. No one ever saw the proof. It was all just smoke and mirrors. So Chris's appeal was denied in 2020. Yet that didn't stop him or his dad Ron from insisting

Starting point is 01:13:32 that he was somehow innocent, despite the mountains of evidence. Connie ended up passing away that same summer. But Ron is still out here, still out in the streets defending his son like he's the second coming and like he could do no evil ever, which let me just be clear. Having crappy parents does not mean that you get a free pass to murder people. Certainly not. Plenty of people grow up in toxic homes and have horrible parents and they do not become killers. But watching how Ron and Connie responded to all of this, I have no problem believing that they raised Chris with this like deep rooted sense of entitlement. Like he was always right, that he always deserved that he shouldn't be held accountable for literally anything.

Starting point is 01:14:18 Because even after murdering three people, two of them, being his own children, they still coddled him. So, I mean, is it really that shocking that Chris believed that he was owed this perfect life, this sexy, exciting wife, this freedom to spend his money however the heck he wanted, no nagging, no bills, no responsibility? And then when Sherry didn't give him that, when real life didn't match his fantasy, he didn't walk away. He destroyed it. And I will just say this. If he had married Tara, I think that would have fallen apart as well because he didn't want a partner. He wanted this

Starting point is 01:14:52 prop for this life that he thought that he deserved. Now I mentioned at the beginning of this episode how everyone involved in this case is awful, right? And unfortunately, it didn't stop with Chris and his family. After Sherry's murder, her friends and family raised about 35 grand to build this beautiful memorial for Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett. And the plan was then to use any of the leftover money to support domestic violence causes. Well, the memorial, it never happened. And almost all of that money, 35 grand just vanished. And after an investigation into the missing funds was done, Sherry's own brother, Mario, was sued for allegedly stealing that money. Which, let me repeat that. Her own brother allegedly stole tens of thousands of dollars.

Starting point is 01:15:39 from his murdered sister's memorial fund. And I'm saying allegedly because there's almost no public information on how that lawsuit ended, but someone clearly pocketed the money, and it is absolutely vile and disgusting. So yeah, almost every single person in this case, everyone except Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett acted like the worst version that a human being could possibly act. I mean, what is wrong with these people? And I'm sure you've got a lot of thoughts on your own, which I want to hear them. So let me know in the Q&A section on Spotify or in the comment section over on YouTube, also in the review section on Apple.

Starting point is 01:16:16 What do you think was going on in Chris's head? And why do you think his parents were so blind and so enabling to all of this? And honestly, is there anyone in this case that doesn't suck besides Sherry and the kids? It is just awful. So I'm going to leave you with this. Just get a divorce. If you are going to cheat or you want life insurance or you want. or you want out of your marriage.

Starting point is 01:16:40 I know it sucks. I know divorce can be messy. I know that sometimes it can be expensive. But just do it. It's better than murder. It's better than leaving your children without their parent. It's better than spending the rest of your life in prison. Just get a freaking divorce.

Starting point is 01:16:56 All right, guys, that's it for today's episode. I will be back with you very soon with another deep dive of the case. Plus, headline highlights this Thursday, where I will be breaking down everything happening. week in the true crime world. As a reminder, we are back out on tour. I think we have a couple tickets left for some of the shows, but it's a brand new case like we have never explored before. It's an interactive tour. There's meet and greets. There's a lot of things that I'm not going to share here. You just have to go to see it. But I'm really excited to meet with all

Starting point is 01:17:26 of you guys in person so you can find the whole breakdown of all of the cities over on the website Annieelis.com. It also will have direct links with how to purchase tickets if you want to go, if you want to do the meet and greets, all of that stuff. So check that out. I am so excited to meet you guys. Being on tour is like one of my favorite things because I just love getting face-to-face with you and talking about all these cases and, you know, just meeting you guys in person. So check that out. All right.

Starting point is 01:17:49 Other than that, I will talk with you soon. And my sign off for today's episode, say it with me, just get a divorce. All right. Bye. Thank you.

SERIALously - 318: The Most Twisted Family You’ll Ever Hear Of | The Coleman Case

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