True Crime with Kimbyr - A Family Torn Apart: The Chilling Story of the Coleman Murders : Part 3

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

On May 5, 2009, the unthinkable happened. Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett were found murdered in their home. Chris Coleman, the man who once vowed to protect his family, quickly became the prime suspect. But why would a devoted husband and father commit such an act? In this gripping episode of True Crime with Kimbyr, we examine the disturbing motive behind the crime, the damning evidence, and the shocking revelations that came to light during the investigation. Was justice truly served? Watch now to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And now for the part where they ask him about his marriage. They always have to do this. Were there any problems in Chris and Sherry's marriage they want to know? He says no, that there were times when communication was hard between him and Sherry, but they had a great relationship. They also asked what Sherry thought about his job with Joyce. And that's when Chris kind of broke down again. He said that Sherry, of course, preferred that he would have a nine to five job

so that he could spend more time with the family. and he wished he would have been there for his family. They asked about whether he had Joyce's cell phone number and he was like, I don't usually give it to people and the detectors were like, I think it's okay to make an exception. Joyce is going to understand because they really wanted to talk to her. And then they asked him, what did you do the night before your family was murdered? Chris said that there was nothing exceptional or unusual about the night.

He'd run a couple of errands. He picked up the kids from school. He played catch with the kids from school. He played catch with Garrett and waited on Sherry to get home. She got off work at four. And then she actually made dinner, pasta and chicken. And she cut up some kind of pizza and mixed it all together, he said. After dinner, they went and got snow cones.

And Chris played catch with Gavin and Garrett. Then the boys went to bed and Chris and Sherry watched Batman returns on TV. He added that Sherry fell asleep in his arms on the couch. Then they got undressed, brushed their teeth, and went to. to bed. But of course Chris went down and made sure that all the doors and the windows were locked first. They asked him what Sherry wore to bed and he said nothing. He slept and she slept without clothes. Sherry was found without clothing. So that's why they asked. Knowing these interviews, the detectives will go over the same questions a few times. They ask it different

ways. They probe a little more. They kind of ease into certain things and again, they want to to know about Chris and Sherry's relationship. He said, you know, they had gone through some rough patches. They had been together for, I think, close to 12 years now. So he admits that even as recently as December of that last year, they had talked about divorce. But they went to Joyce Meyer, and they were able to get someone to do counseling with them, and they'd been going to counseling together.

And Chris said that things were going really great. But of course, they have to ask about everything, even their sex life. whether Chris had an affair and he said no but he did admit something that they weren't expecting him to say he said that he's been talking to one of sherry's friends Tara and that they had been friends since childhood Sherry knew that they were all friends and that he helped her when she came to the conference in Tampa so that she could get situated with everything and they remained in touch so here is what the investigators asked him 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, or Danny, I can't remember which one. And they knew about it, they suggested that we meet with somebody and see if we could work out whatever it was. Really all it was was just communication, not communicate very well. So... Did you meet with somebody? Yeah, Mike Shepherd, the guy that's here, down the stairs in the lobby. He's, and we've been meet with him pretty regularly and things have been going pretty awesome. How often do you meet with him? He travels overseas a lot too and so as often his main has a schedule, I'd say average maybe once a week. Had you seen anyone else outside of your wife

in an Atlantic way? No, Tara in Florida and I've talked to her a ton lately. And what's with that? Is this a friend? Somebody to talk to you heard that they asked if there has ever been anything inappropriate between him and Tara and he hesitates a little bit and then admits, well, maybe a few inappropriate text messages, but other than that, no.

Detective Bevin's asked, well, could that friendship have ever progressed into anything else? And he's like, no, I wouldn't do that to my kids. And I thought that was very interesting the way he put that. It doesn't mean because you had an affair that you did something to your family. But it just made me think. Okay, so now they have a name of a person that they can get additional information from.

So they step out to give this information to one of the other investigators to go track down Tara Lins in St. Petersburg. But they really don't want to have these conversations over the phone. She's already nervous when she gets a call from them. She even says, do I need an attorney or something? And they're like, why? Did you do something wrong? She's like, no, I just found out that my good friend and her kids are dead.

Chris's dad had called her to let her know. So the investigators decide to contact a St. Petersburg Police Department and get a homicide detective to go out there and interview Tara in person, to ask her what she knows about the family, what she knows about Chris, whether the marriage was on good terms, and of course, all about Sherry because she would know her so well, being a childhood friend. It wasn't long before the investigators are given information

that St. Petersburg homicide investigators are at Tara's condo speaking with her. And she's giving them a lot of information, including the fact that Chris was having an affair. And it's with her. I know some of you knew it, but yes, it's true. I wish it wasn't. Tara actually says that Chris Coleman is her boyfriend. So I have some of that interview. Here's where Tara explains how long this cheating has been going on and that the marriage was not perfect like everyone thought it was. How long have you been in a relationship with Chris? Since late November, early December. Where are all the guys spent together?

Phoenix and Hawaii, Maui. What would you tell his wife when he was gone? He would just tell him that he was working. So Sherry wasn't unaware of the affair that you and him were having? No. I know she suspected, but... Wow. So of course, they confront Chris with this new information. This is not looking good for Chris.

Then while they're still in the interview room, the investigators get another text. And this one is about some new information regarding some evidence. some evidence, so of course they step out for a minute. Investigators were told that something stood out to the first responders on the scene. The bodies were already stiff. They were already cold and gray, and that raised a red flag,

meaning that it seemed like they had been dead much longer than a mere hour that Chris had been gone from the home. What's more telling is that when medical technicians came in at 7 a.m. not too long after Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett were found. They observed, Gavin's lips, were blue and his eyelids had a purplish tinge to them. He was laying face down and one of his arms was outstretched. When they went to move it, it was stiff. Same when they went to examine Garrett.

And these exact same observations were made with Sherry. It was apparent that Rigger Mortis had set in. If they had just been killed, the bodies would have been warm and their limbs would have been easy to be moved and manipulated, but that wasn't the case. And this was a very critical piece of information, so they called in an expert. They were told around 11 a.m. an investigator with the coroner's office was at the crime scene. Her specialty was core body temperature. They began with Sherry, and this is a process that's conducted by putting a thermometer into the liver. They also do this procedure on Garrett, but they waited on Gavin because there was evidence that needed to be collected next to his body. Core body temperature helps determine how long someone has been dead.

They are checking for Algermortis. This is different from Rigormortis. Algrimortis. Algar Mortis means cold death. And what it refers to is the temperature shift after someone dies, because we all start with a core temperature of about 98.6 degrees. But when someone dies, their body temperature starts to drop and match the temperature of the room or their surroundings. This can take anywhere from 18 to 20 hours. So what they're doing is they're trying to determine when Sherry and the boys died. Apparently, there was a question as to the time of death, and they were leaning toward it being well before the time Chris left for the gym, which would mean Sherry and the boys were dead before he left. Well, the husband is always one of the first

suspects that police look at. And they think now would be a good time to go a little harder on Chris just to see what information they can get. They come back in and there's no holding back. Let me play that part for you. When you left the house this morning, was your wife alive? Oh yeah. Okay, that's right. What would you say if I told you that I don't think she was? I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I think she was.

I mean, she was. Okay. She was laying right beside me. Right. And I'm not doubting that. I'm not doubting that you were there and 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? 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. I'm not trying to argue with it. I don't know. 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 and say, Justin, 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. I did have to use the restroom that was legitimate, but we go out and we come back in. and we felt very comfortable that we would give you every opportunity to tell us something that was gonna contradict the information that we had.

All right, we've got this information, you're saying it, and we're giving you opportunity to give us something contrary to what you've told us before so that okay, yeah, all right, that would make sense. That hasn't happened. Just tell you that happened. Listen, man, she wasn't alive when you're left. She was alive. She was. She was lying right aside me.

Listen to me. We can go back and forth with this all day long, but the physical evidence doesn't lie. She was not alive when you left this morning. The children weren't alive when we left this morning. Yes, they were. No, come on, Chris. We gotta get over this. Now there's reasons, there's reasons, and that's what we're, that's the point we're at. I want to hear the reasons. Now is when we need to find out what happened, man. It's so important.

You're at a great point to be able to help us. to be able to help us to try to figure this out. We already haven't, we already know what happened. Now, I just have to stop there, because I want you to recognize the tactics that these investigators are using. Some people don't always agree, but they're really pressing him, and they're acting as if they already know everything.

But at this point, they only have assumptions from the evidence. They haven't proved anything yet. But they're showing him what they have and positioning it in a way that can get them what they want, which is a confession, because that means their job would be done. But Chris, is pushing back. He's sobbing. He's saying that's not what happened. And the investigators are

saying, you know what, Chris? Just help us out. Help us solve this. Don't you want to solve it? That's a tactic. It's supposed to make him feel like he's working with them as a team, that they're not against him. And they continue. We need to know why it happened. All right. I 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. We need to clear this up. Now, we need to clear it up. Now, did something happen? What happened? What happened? What was going on in your life, Chris? Because I can't buy what you're saying. The physical evidence does not lie, Chris. It does not. She was not alive when you left, period. The physical evidence does not lie, man. What do you

tell you the truth? The truth. The truth. How did, how did, how did we get to this point? That's what I need to 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 a long time. I'm looking into your eyes and I can tell you you're not being truthful, Chris. 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 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, and 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? You can't turn the clock back. The only thing we can do is go forward from this point and 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 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. Now you hear Detective Bevin's telling Chris, maybe there's not a good explanation because they're kind of giving him that out. They're sympathizing with him saying, you know, what we've heard this many times before,

maybe there's a reason that something happened. What was it? And they're almost not really giving Chris a chance to answer. They're bombarding him with statement after statement and pressing him again and again. And Chris is still standing his ground, telling them he didn't do anything. He doesn't know what happened. They were alive when he left. But they don't stop.

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. If we know she wasn't alive when you left this morning, there's got to be an explanation. Now is the time to tell us. Now is the time to get this out of the door. 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.

You, you, were you involved in her death? No. Okay. Was 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.

Wow. And they asked him if he had anything to do with the murder, whether he arranged for them to be killed, whether he knew anyone that had done it. And he's like, I don't know. I have nothing to do with it. Absolutely not. He doesn't know who did it. Well, they can't hold him on anything because, like I said,

They really don't have any proof of anything yet. They just have evidence. And there is still so much to be done. So Chris is released and now I want to go back to that interview with Tara. She had explained that they got together when Sherry insisted that she attend Joyce's conference in Tampa so that she could discover her faith.

But instead, Tara discovered Chris. He went out there a couple days before the conference began on November 6th and when he got into town, he got in contact with Tara. They went out to dinner, they had some drinks together, And they did this the next night as well, and soon after that, they were sleeping together. It happened pretty fast. The vibrant spark in Sherry, which initially attracted Chris when they first met,

had the same effect when he crossed past with Terra at Joyce's event all of those years later. The pair already knew each other through Sherry, but their connection this time was far more than Platonic. Just like what happened with Sherry, the relationship escalated quickly. By the time the event was over, which was just a few days, Chris and Tara were having a full-blown affair. And it was at a time when Sherry and Chris were actually going through that rough patch that he mentioned. That was true. They had been going through arguments over money and Sherry's excessive spending in Chris's perspective. And Sherry was talking to all of her friends about it.

She would share it with anyone who would listen. She would tell them that she thought Chris was being distant, and this was before he got together with Tara. But it was a tense situation between him and Sherry. And Chris told people, She was very controlling, that she never seemed happy, no matter how hard he worked. Chris even told Tara, according to her, that he wasn't affectionate with Sherry anymore. Here is what Tara told investigators. You know, he always would take pictures when he was going to sleep 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 helped. Wow. That's really, really sad. Remember, Sherry and Chris, they really didn't get to know each other very well before Sherry got pregnant. It happened very quickly. So they got thrown into a more serious relationship before they really got the chance to know one another, like Mario had said from the beginning. They didn't take that time to really solidify themselves as a couple. But they did stay together for over a decade. And they were both trying until Tara entered Chris's life. And of course, Tara wasn't going to let him go because she had

always been envious of Sherry since they were in high school. She wanted. She wanted. what Sherry and Chris had. Tara didn't have anything like that. Chris made good money. He could take her on lavish trips, spoil her, and that's exactly what he did. During the interview, Tara's boss calls and wants to know why she's not at work

or she calls them to tell them she's not coming in. You have to listen to this. I was so shocked by what this woman was saying. Here we go. 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. I thought I was coming into work today. Is she serious right now? She's like, I'm in the middle of not cooking or washing my hair. No, no, no. I'm in the middle of a high-profile murder investigation. I got to go.

I've got homicide detectives here. Really? And Tara didn't hold back. She told investigators everything. Plus, they did get access to her phone and every message she exchanged between her and Chris. Even though Chris sat there telling Sherry she was spending too much money, as soon as he and Tara got together, all he did was spend excessive amounts of money on this woman. He was under her spell.

And I probably know what you're thinking. If you watch a lot of true crime, this is giving me Chris Watts and Nicole Kessinger vibes. And there's more that's probably going to remind you of that relationship like the picture. that investigators saw that were exchanged between Tara and Chris. Oh, anytime they weren't together, they would just be sending them back. And for Tara in this pink bikini reminded me so much of Nicole Cousinger and the pictures that she sent to Chris Watts. Not only that, just like in the Chris Watts situation,

Chris Coleman seemed obsessed with Tara. And you will hear all about why, as the investigators dug deeper and deeper into their affair. I mean, after that first encounter, it was like text message after text message. They would exchange all of these really inappropriate photos. And I mean inappropriate because Chris is married, but just very sexy photos back and forth. And they would talk about life together. All the while, Chris is playing nicely with his wife, sort of.

I'll get into that in a moment. But remember, not too long after Chris got back from this trip to Tampa when he had this affair with his wife's best friend from childhood, that's when he received the very first threatening email. That was on November 14th. So was this just a coincidence? Or did Chris orchestrate this? I know it's easy to think Chris did this right away,

but it had only been a few days after he met up with Tara and started this affair. It seems a little far-fetched that this man would put together this entire scheme to kill his whole family in just a few days after this affair started. So investigators are not convinced, but they want to know more about what was going on because they realize that he's been unfaithful.

And they've seen this before. It doesn't always lead to murder. but it raises a red flag and they have to look into this deeper. After that first meeting at Joyce's ministry event, Tara explained that Chris flew her out to meet him at almost every location he was working. From Hawaii to Texas, the pair were rarely apart except when Chris was at home with Sherry and the boys.

However, Chris was far from the only man in Tara's life. She had a long-term boyfriend on the side. And, get this, she was engaging in flirtatious, and explicit text messages with Sherry's brother, Mario, and Chris's brother, Heath. And they were both interested in pursuing a relationship with Tara. I don't know whether Chris knew about these messages, who knows, but I would assume he did not. While Sherry was holding on to hope that they could rekindle their romance and save their marriage, Chris had already moved on.

During sessions with the counselor, Chris would say that he was devoted to being a good husband. and that there was a second chance left for them. But the minute he left, he would degrade Sherry and tell her it was never going to work out. We know this because investigators now have a warrant for Sherry's cell phone as well. And they're matching up the dates to see what Sherry was texting Chris and her friends.

Chris kept in constant contact with Tara and finally on Christmas Day 2008, Chris told Sherry that he wanted a divorce. He offered one final insult when he told Sherry that Garrett and Gavin were getting in the way of his job and that he never wanted them in the first place. Sherry was heartbroken. She told her friends that Chris said this and they were all offering prayers and advice to her. They thought she and Chris had the perfect relationship, so this came as a huge surprise.

But now they had names of the friends who they needed to speak to. People like Vanessa and Kathy, friends who were very close to Sherry, there were so many texts. two friends from Destiny Church. Remember that, asking to please pray for her and Chris. Remember all of those prayer requests I told you about? Well, it turns out, it was for their marriage to be repaired, not just because of the threats, because Sherry was desperate.

She had texted a pastor at Destiny Church and told him everything, that Chris had said that the kids were standing in the way of his career, and then he wanted to divorce, and the pastor was shocked. He didn't even know what to say, he was stunned. He couldn't believe a couple that looked so perfect the outside could be dealing with something like this. But she told him that she was not going to give up

on her marriage. She just wanted people to pray for them. But Sherry also thought that Chris was hiding something from her, that she wasn't getting the entire picture of why he wanted to leave. Because she figured if Chris gets a divorce, Joyce is going to fire him. That's part of the job. It's essential to be a, quote, good Christian. And divorce is not something that Joyce tolerated. Remember how I told you that Sherry was texting everyone, letting them know what was going on? She was essentially airing their dirty laundry. She was asking for prayers. But what she really was doing was confiding in them.

She would tell them each a little piece of the puzzle. But she never told anyone the whole story. And now officers are trying to piece this together. Before Christmas, Chris actually met up with Tara. Remember when he had to take Joyce to that cruise? Well, of course. This was another opportunity to meet up with Terra since he was in Florida. This is when they literally exchanged promise rings.

I am not kidding. He was doting on this woman, took her to a concert, stayed in a nice hotel with her, even got a joint credit card, and another one so that he could charge all of the gifts that he was buying, and Sherry wouldn't be able to find out. I'm just sitting here thinking, forget about Chris for a moment. How can you do this to your best friend? Someone that you've practically known your whole life, and you can just betray them? like that? And she sat there and still talk to Sherry. Sherry even called Tara when all this was going

on. And she was so concerned about Chris and the threats and that he might be cheating and wanting a divorce. And Tara sat there and consoled her all the while she was the one having an affair with her husband. It's unforgivable. And remember, when he got back, that's when Christmas came along and when he told Sherry he wanted to divorce. Well, she literally said, Chris, I'll never divorce you. I'm not going to leave. What are you going to do? Kill me? We know this because she told her friend that. So is that what happened? Had he killed her? Or was he merely guilty of breaking her heart and cheating? Then by January 2nd, right after this, they get another letter. And this one was in the mailbox. Found by Chris, of course. Sherry was so scared. And remember her friend Jessica

that came to stay with her? Well, she didn't just show her how to use a firearm. She showed her Tara. That's right. She opened up Facebook and she showed her a picture of Tara and said, you want to know who my husband is cheating with? This is her. So Sherry knew or she thought she did. Maybe she had seen something.

I mean, at this point, Chris was no longer even having sex with Sherry, except for a couple of times when Sherry told her friends that he practically forced himself upon her. Just like Chris Watts, Chris Coleman decided to go to sleep in the basement and was no longer sharing a bed. with Sherry anymore. He would even send pictures to Tara of him not in bed with Sherry because Tara was jealous. Tara was jealous. But then every so often he would come and strip Sherry down, basically get on top of her and tell her, just lay there until I'm done and don't get the wrong idea. I'm just horny. And that makes me so mad. Of course, Sherry isn't here to tell them any of this.

The investigators are gathering all of this information from everybody's cell phones, from friends, and what Sherry had said to them. But I'm pretty sure that she's being honest. I don't think Sherry was going around making these things up. One of the reasons that Sherry didn't want Chris to go to the Super Bowl, remember that, was because the game was in Florida. And she knew he would probably go hang out with Tara. And to be honest, I couldn't find information about who he went with, but let's be real.

I'm pretty sure he brought her. Sherry felt like that was exactly what was happening, so she wanted to prevent it as much as she could. And that's when she got desperate enough to do this next thing. Recall when she finally reached out to Joyce Meyer? Well, it wasn't just because she wanted Chris to stay home from work. I mean, sure, she believed Joyce was responsible for the reason why Chris was acting so distant all those months. But really, she wanted to kind of cut to the chase and tell Joyce that Chris was going to divorce her. That way, she would get Chris in some hot water and maybe,

be, he would change his mind. Chris was not happy about this at all. His boss pulled him aside, Joyce Meyer, and actually asked Chris what was going on. That's when Chris agreed to get some couples counseling. That was a recommendation from Joyce. She set him up with someone from their ministry to meet with him and Sherry. Now, how does that work? Because don't you think that someone from the ministry is going to report back? And that's why Chris played nice. Makes sense, doesn't it? These aren't real counselors either? They don't have degrees in counseling. They're biblical teachers. They're people from the church. So I'm not sure there's any kind of confidentiality agreement. I'm pretty sure they could go back and tell Joyce what was going on.

This was the time when Chris told Sherry he would do anything to save their marriage. And then he was off to Tampa. When Sherry sent him that nude picture of herself, remember that? Kind of like, look what you're missing at home. It didn't go as planned because Tara was there. She saw the picture and grabbed Chris's phone and texted Sherry back. She took her. She took her to her. typed, honey, you really got to stop this. I'm not in love with you anymore. I can't even imagine receiving a text like that. I don't know what I would do. Actually, do know what I would do. I would say, so long, loser, because how dare your husband speak to you like that? How dare anyone speak to you like that? That's another thing. Chris actually had to get a Blackberry. The one that he said he didn't

have any numbers programmed in yet when investigators were asking him for Sherry's mom's contact information. Well, he got that Blackberry because he wanted to stop using his work phone to contact Tara. And he loved his new Blackberry because it was like his own private little world where no one could see anything he was doing. He tried to erase a lot of things too, but they were able to get them back. There was another thing that prompted him to do this. There was a woman that was friends with Sherry and also worked for Joyce Meyer. She was in charge of all the work cell phone bills. And she noticed that Chris's bill had gone up significantly. And when she looked at the number, it was coming from Florida,

and she wondered who in the world could he be in contact with. So she let Daniel Meyer know, and he called the number, and a woman answered, and he hung up. He was like, what in the world? When he confronted Chris about this, he lied. He said, oh, yeah, that's just the wife of one of my friends, that's mutual friends with Sherry, and they're going through a rough patch in their marriage, and we're going through a rough patch in ours.

So I'm just talking to the husband about our lives. This man lies like a rug, I'm telling you. When they dug through this BlackBerry, they found even more disturbing photos. There were all kinds of just really obscene things in there. I mean, even videos of Chris pleasuring himself in the tub. There was a video that he actually sent to Tara. It said, I just finished texting you and I've still got a hard on. Want to see it?

Oh boy. And then he proceeds to focus the camera right on Mr. Willie, And he's like, I just want to see where this would go. I love you, see you soon. The thing that was confusing is during this whole time that he was talking to Tara and having this affair, he was still a really great dad. He was still doing so much for his boys

and he even was going to counseling and seemingly trying to work things out with Sherry. So was he really going to get that divorce? During the next two weeks of this investigation, they have a forensic investigator who's an expert in all things electronic and they're going through everything. Chris's work laptop, his home laptop, all of the surveillance camera equipment that was in the basement, well, they couldn't find any recordings because it looked like the system was broken.

And they assumed, okay, that makes sense. The killer must have gone down here and broken everything and stolen the tapes. Once inside Chris's laptop, though, they found even more questionable things. When he got home from the conference in Tampa, he literally created a document on his computer called All About Tara. I kid you not. It was like a shrine to this woman, a virtual shrine. It had everything like her eye color, her hair color, like he was going to forget. I thought when her birthday was her dog's name, Gizmo, the dog's birthday, everything about her, her clothing size, bras, panties, jeans, everything. And you know, I have to admit, I did something similar

when I met John. Things like what was his favorite Starbucks drink so that I would know when I go to order but I mean, this man was obsessed. He had everything in there from what kind of perfume she liked, her favorite foods, flowers, everything, because he would be buying her gifts when they weren't together. So we had to have this list set up about everything she loved so he could get it right. Meanwhile, his poor wife is trying to reconcile the relationship, understand their differences. He's got this beautiful woman at home with two wonderful sons, and it still wasn't enough for him. And there were also some journal entries that he kept. of what him and Tara were talking about, what they did together.

And he said, on November 5th, 2008, that was the day that Tara changed my life. He also noted significant dates in their relationship like the first time they had sex. Chris's computer even included monthly references to Tara's period and the date of their anniversary. Their anniversary. They even picked out a name for their future child. It would be a daughter named Zoe Lynn Coleman. Are you kidding me right now? I wish I was joking. And it wasn't long before they were making plans together, talking about where they would live,

what their future was going to be like, even that Chris was going to reverse his vasectomy so that they could have children. It was just crazy talk, like teenagers that are head over heels for each other that aren't even making sense. It didn't make Chris look very good, but it also didn't prove he killed his family. However, from the beginning, the chief and Detective Barlow actually felt that Chris was their prime suspect hours before. they were pressing him in this interview. It was when they were standing in Chris's yard assessing this entire situation. It was an instinct.

Chris wasn't smarter than them, even though he thought he was. They began putting together all the suspicious things in regard to Chris, and here they are. I'm just going to do kind of like a list. First, Barlow noted that Chris said he was crossing that J.B. Bridge at 6.43 when he was phoning him frantically asking him to go check on his family, but Chris didn't get back until 6.56 confirmed by this video right here, the video that was from Barlow's own house.

It caught Chris's car pulling into the driveway, and that just seemed way too long for someone that was that worried about their family. It's like he delayed it on purpose, maybe giving them some time to find what he left behind. Well, it turns out GPS phone records showed that Chris took the long way to get home, not the usual route. Then there was this. When the chaplain was praying, with Chris in the ambulance, he noticed scratch marks on the inside portion of Chris's right forearm and he also saw a big red spot that looked like it was going to be forming a bruise. Captain Jerry Paul was right outside of that ambulance and he heard the chaplain asking Chris, what happened to your arm? Surprisingly, Chris doesn't say word. He just like kind of looks at his

arms and then he did the whole head on the hands, you know, like in his lap, elbows on the thighs kind of thing and then out of nowhere. That is when he went irate. He started banging on the gurney, gurney, almost like he was trying to make it look like, that's how he got the scratch. Because later, Chris and his dad are sitting in the lobby at the police department. Ron saw the scratch. Just like the chaplain, he asked him, what happened? Chris said, I don't know. I think I might have hit it against the gurney when I was punching it.

Well, he was an earshot of the captain at the time when he said this, and the captain knew that wasn't true. At least two people, the captain and the chaplain saw the scratches prior to that. And get this, when Chris got into that interrogation, room. He all of a sudden told investigators that he was cold. So they gave him a towel. You can see it in the video. You do what I mean? This white towel across his lap. Well, they thought it was really odd that as soon as he got this towel, he placed it so it would cover up his right forearm. He didn't use it to cover his legs or his body, just his arm. I was like, wow, am I really seeing this? It's true. Not only that, since I'm on the top of of the interview or the interrogation, at one point the investigators left

and they put their notepad on the table. When they left, Chris literally starts flipping through it. And then he's like breaking down, crying, covering his eyes again, rocking back and forth, and looking at the scratches on his arm, and then he would just pick up his phone and text. Later, investigators found out he was texting Tara, saying that he was thinking of her and that the wake was at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

In the same text that he's thinking of her, he's talking about his dead, family's wake. Speaking of texting Tara, he was actually texting her when he was sitting on the curb with his dad. He was basically letting her know, I'm all right, and I'll call you when I can. Tara was the first person that Chris called after his family was murdered. They found that in his call log. When he was still at the crime scene, he kept picking up his Blackberry and looking at it mid-cry. And right as the Reverend was telling him in no uncertain terms, that his family had been murdered. And Barler thought that was very weird. He

also that it was weird, that this man did not rush through them to go see his family. When they wouldn't let him inside, he did not try to get past them at all. He never asked how they died. He just wasn't responding the way people typically do in these circumstances. Another thing that didn't add up from the call logs is that Chris doesn't usually have the habit of calling his wife in the morning to get her up. That was unusual. They went back and looked.

She took care of the kids on her own all the time. She wouldn't be relying on. Chris to make sure she was up and getting the boys ready. Another thing Barlow noticed, and he was so good. He was so good. He's such a great detective. It seemed like Chris's tears were forced because they would stop midway down his face, like he didn't have enough tears to cry. When something this horrific happens, you're usually unable to stop crying.

And then he would conveniently put his head in his hands so that no one could see his face. Another thing that was odd was at one point Chris tells his dad that Sherry's best friend from childhood, Tara needs to be contacted as soon as possible and he gives his dad the number and says, call her now. Not Sherry's mom, not Sherry's brother, but Tara. In the interview, Chris even mentioned the upcoming trip to Disney World with the boys. This was proof that the marriage was on track. They were making plans as a family together. But what he didn't mention was that when he told Tara about this, she was irate. Because guess what? She was jealous and didn't want that to happen. So she She went and took it upon herself to call Disney and cancel the trip.

And when she got the refund, she used it to book a cruise to the Virgin Islands for her and Chris. They're both evil. Then there was that annual sleepover I told you about that the boys had little Brandon and Gavin and Garrett. Well, Brandon and Vanessa seemed like every year for the past five years, the boys would spend the night together to celebrate their birthdays. But to her surprise, Gavin and Garrett came running over to tell Brandon, they weren't allowed to spend the night that night. Chris said it was a bad night. Vanessa was so confused that she almost went over there to confront Chris about why he told the boys they weren't allowed to have a sleep over. She was going to let them spend the night at her house. But I wonder why it was a bad night.

It's like it had to be done that day. Why? Well, there's a reason. Through the text messages, they found out that Tara had been pressuring Chris to divorce Sherry and she even gave him a deadline to serve her with divorce papers, May 4th, 2000. and Chris agreed that he was in the process and told her he would. But he knew all along Sherry would never divorce him. She said it before. So despite being the one who wanted to leave, it didn't take Chris long to realize that if he divorced Sherry,

she would most likely get alimony and child support on top of the repercussions if Joyce found out that he was having an affair and that it was his fault that the marriage had not worked out. He quickly figured out that a divorce wasn't going to work for him. This was the guy who wanted to keep all of his money for himself and his new girlfriend. Because if he lost his job, things with Tara would probably not work out. He would no longer be able to provide her with all the lavish things that he was gifting her with. So Chris found a way to not only get rid of Sherry and the boys,

but to ensure he never had to pay them a cent. It was the perfect clean break he needed to start his new life with Tara. And right after, he was. He started the affair with Tara. He set this plan in motion. Investigators got into Chris's work-issued laptop and forensics showed that that Gmail account, destroy Chris, was created on Chris's work laptop

with his work login from his IP address. Here's the graphic. At 8.19 PM on November 14th, his work account created the Gmail account. And then from that Gmail account, the emails were sent like this one titled Houston Death. Remember that one? And the same IP address sent the F-U-All email.

This graphic shows how the IP address was connected to the internet on AT&T wireless. And this IP address cannot be assigned to anyone else. And while they're going over many of Chris's other emails and documents that he had written and typed, guess what? Remember those misspellings? Well, they found out that Chris commonly misspelled those same words, opportunity and publicly. I kid you not. Yet in the interview when one of the detectives asked him, And so you're saying that some madman just sat in the shadows and watched for you to leave and then entered the house.

Chris replied, that's the only thing I can assume. Well, Chris was the madman. Within days of the murder, there were numerous witness reports and stories from Sherry's friends who told an entirely different story about Chris, about the state of the marriage. Kathy claimed Sherry told her, if anything were to happen to her, Chris did it. and there was no foreign DNA found in the home. And the security cameras at both the Coleman's home and those of their neighbors showed no strangers entering the house.

There were no suspicious vehicles lurking around. Only Chris, Sherry, and the two boys. It looked like the evidence was against Chris, and it was overwhelming. There was simply no evidence to indicate that anyone else had been in that home at the time their murders happened. On top of that, Chris had a motive.

The words on the wall in that, spray paint in the blood red color. A look at Chris's credit card transaction showed he purchased something at a place called Handyman True Value. Well, they were able to get a hold of that company and get a receipt and guess what? It was for one item, just one. A can of Apple Red Rastolium spray paint and this transaction was back on February 9th. Dumb. Though Chris was adamant, that paint was purchased for him and his sons to paint. bull's eyes to practice paintball shooting. It was just at the home and it was used by someone else.

That's what Chris said. The problem is, handwriting samples, willingly given by Chris, matched the threats that were written on the walls of his home. There were a couple other things that really solidified to investigators that they had the right person. These investigators were relentless. They went scuba diving in that big lake behind the house.

They were looking everywhere. And they retraced Chris's path according to a GPS. They started searching all over Interstate 255. And when they got to the area near the base of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, they found something. And this was on the exact route that Chris would have taken to the gym. They found a noose. It was made out of like a twine cord-like material, which they ended up matching to hay bales that were in the Coleman's backguard. You can see them right in this picture. There's a twine that holds the hay together. And they found that the noose was made from the same twine. The autopsy had showed that all three, Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett had been strangled

with a cord-like ligature. And remember the surveillance cameras that Chris supposedly set up? He was bragging about them. Well, none of them were operational. And investigators ended up finding a broken face plate to a digital video recorder in the westbound lane of Interstate 255 near the base of the bridge. Maybe that's why it took him 13 minutes to get home instead of five. Detectives also became aware that Sherry's name had been taken off the house deed seven months earlier. During those two weeks that the investigation was going on and they were building a case against Chris, there was a lot happening. There was a candlelight vigil held in the community. 300 people showed up and they were all frightened for their lives. They were heartbroken for their community. Children were crying. They didn't understand how to deal with the fact that their little friends who were only third and fourth graders were dead.

And then, of course, there was Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin's funeral. It was a private funeral for only Chris and his parents to attend. And all donations and flowers and money were supposed to be sent to none other than Grace, church, ministries in Chester, Illinois? What? No. I couldn't believe this. Well, of course, that didn't sit well with Sherry's family.

They wanted to pay their condolences and see their family members again. So they asked Chris permission to please allow them to do. take the bodies to Chicago so that their family can have a funeral of their own. And at first, he says yes. But a few days later, when Mario calls to make those arrangements, Chris could be heard talking to somebody in the background. Well, that somebody was his dad. And all of a sudden, he said, no, you can't take the bodies.

Well, luckily, Sherry's family, they weren't having it. And her cousin was a lawyer. He went all the way to St. Louis and he got a restraining order that stopped Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett from being buried. Sherry's family had to get a court order to finally allow them to transport them back to Chicago so her family could say goodbye. Can you even imagine her only daughter and her only grandchildren? I'm glad she was feisty and she fought for her right. Sherry's big Italian family gathered around sharing memories.

Like the fact that Sherry was named after a Frankie Valley song, Sherry, about a guy trying to get a girl to come out and dance all night long. Sadly, Sherry's mom did have to send her daughter's body back along with her with her grandsons, where they were finally laid to rest in Chester at Evergreen Cemetery. By May 11th, Chris voluntarily came down to the police station to provide fingerprints. Investigators had said they needed to rule his out at the crime scene, and we all know that they were the only ones there. They only belonged to him and his family. Chris had said that he locked all the doors and windows that night, remember that? Yet one was open, the one in the basement.

And these investigators, they went above and beyond. They had that window tested forensically by an expert and they found nothing wrong with it structurally, meaning it was not forced open. It was just left open and the screen was pushed out. Only a few days later on May 15th after Joyce had been informed about Chris's affair, an internal investigation was done and Chris resigned. I guess he was given a choice to resign or be fired and well, he bowed out. And all this time, he was being protected by his parents. But not for long, because on May 19th, Chris was arrested at his parents' home early in the morning for the first-degree murder of Sherry, Garrett, and Gavin. He was being held without bond. And of course, his parents were in shock,

utter disbelief, as were many people who knew Chris or thought they did. But his parents really didn't think their son was capable of something like this, and they stood by his side. For example, and this really disgusted me when his dad was confronted with the fact that his son Chris was obviously having an affair with this woman, Tara. He literally tried to make an excuse for Chris, saying, quote, Tara was just meeting a need that Sherry at the time wasn't taking care of. He went on to add, quote, well, every man's got his desires and every man has to be respected. It's built into every man. If your wife doesn't respect you, you're going to find respect someplace else, end quote, respect pastors, that what we're calling it, because Tara and Chris didn't look very respectful in the home

video they took from his webcam in Hawaii, but Ron Coleman even said that at that moment Sherry had stepped back from doing her job as a wife. So you know what a woman's job is in Mr. Coleman's senior's eyes. His son probably felt the same. His dad even texted him while he was in the interview and said, you should probably get an attorney. Indeed he did. He got one before he was even arrested, which is fine. Anyone should, I guess. But Ron even said that Chris never intended to marry Tara. It It was all Tara. She was possessive over Chris. She bought the promise rings.

And that Chris was actually trying to break it off with Tara, because things were getting better. And his marriage counseling was Sherry. But I can't help but think about when that woman took his phone and texted Sherry when she sent that picture. Tara wasn't innocent in all this, far from it. During one interview with detectives, they told her they even found a compromising photo of her on Ron's computer.

It's going through your phone and computer. And obviously we've been the same with Chris's and even his dad's. And there happens to be a picture of you rather compromising on his father's computer. Okay. So that's pretty interesting. Yeah.

I don't know anything about that. I mean, there is some lack of evidence too that didn't quite make sense. There's the fact that pretty much everyone knows when you use spray paint, it blows back on you. It leaves little tiny droplets. It's almost some things. impossible not to have that happen? Well, Chris didn't have even the tiniest bit of any bright red

spray paint anywhere on his body or clothing. How? Well, a glove with red spray paint was found on the route that Chris would have taken to the gym. A gym he hardly visited at all. He only went there three times. It wasn't the one he usually worked out at. The first time was November 15th, the day after the first email threat came in. The next time was February the 3rd. And the third time was the morning of May 5th when he found his family dead. On the night that the destroy Chris email was created, Chris was texting Tara non-stop up until one period of time the night. The exact time that the Gmail account was made. There was a lot of circumstantial evidence, but it was when Dr. Michael Bodden, renowned forensic pathologist, was asked to analyze the

autopsies. He determined that Sherry Gavin and Garrett were killed sometime between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. His conservative estimate was 3 a.m., probably earlier, because of levidity and other biological processes that had already occurred. And that's when the state attorney's office felt that they had enough to convict Chris. In April 2011, two years after the murders, Chris's trial got underway. A number of witnesses were called for both the prosecution and the defense. Chris didn't testify in his own defense he wanted to, but his attorneys advised against it. But he did admit to the affair. I mean, he had to. However, he pleaded not guilty to killing his family.

Joyce Meyer was subpoenaed to testify, but she was gonna be on an international trip on the date that the trial were to have happened. So they allowed her to come in beforehand and to record the testimony. They played this pre-recorded testimony from Joyce Myers at trial, and it was very telling. Her testimony helped this state's case

by proving someone else didn't log on to Chris's computer to make those threats. Listen to what she said. Did he have a company laptop computer? Yes. Did he carry it with him? Yes. Is this something that you saw with him when you made these trips, for example?

Yes. He seemed to always have it with him? Yeah, he carried his computer. Did you ever see anybody else use that computer other than the defendant? No. Joyce also said that she was not aware that Chris was having an affair, but she did know about his marital problems with Sherry. May 6, 2009, this is the day after Sherry and her sons were murdered.

Did you speak to the police that day? Yes. When you talked to the police on that day, the day after this, and the day after this, and the day after incident, were you aware whether or not this defendant was having an affair? I wasn't in the beginning of the interview, but I wasn't informed toward the end of the interview that he had confessed to having an affair. But as you came into it that date, you didn't know that? Were you aware of whether or not he was having marital problems, though, between

him and Sherry? I did know that he and Sherry were having some marital problems. How did you know that? Well, she had called our office and talked to... I'm going to object as it calls for hearsay unless she spoke directly with this witness. Okay. Did you speak with Sherry Coleman? No. Okay. How were you aware that they were having marital problems?

She talked to my son, Daniel. And did he relate that to you? He told me so I could talk to Chris about it. And did you in fact talk to the defendant about the situation? I did. And just generally what was that conversation? He said that, you know, that they were having issues that Sherry had told Daniel that I'm going to object to anything.

Sherry Coleman told anybody. Okay. Well, my son Daniel told me. Okay. My son Daniel told her regarding the situation as well. Although what the defendant told you, you could tell us. What was your conversation with the defendant about the problem? What he told me is that he felt that Sherry was very controlling, that no matter what he did, she wasn't happy.

And that they just in general, you know, were not getting in the judge. you know, we're not getting along and that he was just really tired of it. And at that point, I asked him if, you know, they'd be willing to get some marriage counseling from a pastor that we have at our office. And right away, he said yes. They were willing to do that, which they did do. Do you know about when that was that he talked to you about that? It was in the fall 2008.

I asked him if they would get counseling with Mike, and he said yes. We immediately said yes, is that right? Yes. And he followed through with that counseling? Yes. Mr. Shepherd, what's his position? Is he employed by Joyce Meyer Ministry? He's in our employment.

Is he a pastor or? He's a pastor. He functions as like a chaplain for our ministry and does a lot of work within the department, a lot of leadership teaching, a lot of different things like that. He helps oversee our church in the inner city. Is he a licensed counselor, a marital, marriage counselor? He's a licensed pastor. licensed pastor.

Okay. Is that, well, I don't think that answers my question, though. I mean, is he a licensed consular or marriage counselor? No. Is that one of his normal parts of his job is to engage in marriage counseling or other types of counseling? Yes. You sent Mr. Coleman to counseling because you believe that could benefit him and his marriage

with Sherry Coleman. Is that correct? Yes. And in fact, it, based on your observations after they had gone to several counseling sessions, things had seemed to have gotten better between Chris and Sherry Coleman. Is that correct? Wasn't anything I observed, it was what I was told. He told me they were doing better, and the counselor, Mike Shepard, indicated that he felt they were doing better.

So was Mr. Shepard supposed to report back to you on how the counseling was progressing? Yes. And he did report back to you that things were going pretty well, is that right? And I think you testified before or earlier that, that Sherry Coleman never contacted you directly about these marital problems. Is that correct? Yes.

When it came to the threats, here's what Joyce had to say. Did you ever become aware of any threats that this defendant said he had received against himself or his family? Yes, he told me about some. The defendant personally told you that? Yes. What did he tell you?

What threats did he report? He told me that he had gotten an email threatening his family if he did not stop working for me. And then he told me that somebody started putting these threats in his mailbox, at which point I think he became more concerned about them since that meant somebody knew where he lived. He told me that they had taken the information to the police, that he also had a detective that lived across the street from him, and that they were going to make arrangements to

put a camera there on his mailbox to see if they could see who was actually doing it. When do you think that was when you became aware of the threats from him? I think it was probably sometime late March or in April. Of 2009 there, this is spring? Okay. To your knowledge, had any other employees ever been singled out in that way? No. Did you have other employees that provided security as this defendant did? One other one, yes.

And there wasn't any threats or anything to that person? No. She even asked to talk to the police on May 12th before Chris was arrested, and here's why. Okay, this was all from a conversation you had with police on May the 6th, but on May the 12th, did you again ask to talk to the police? Yes. Why did you do that? About a month prior. to the beginning of May, say during the month of April.

I just felt like he wasn't. I was just noticing that he wasn't as attentive to his duties. He was forgetting things that were just not normally him. And just in general, not quite as engaged. I noticed a personal cell phone in his car one day that was being charged up. And I asked him about that because I'd never seen him with it because he had a ministry phone. That was what he carried all the time.

He just said it was a personal cell phone. And I started asking another question. And then I just thought, you know, it's really none of my business if he has a personal cell phone. So I just, I let that go. Did he during that period of time ever call in sick for work? On May the 4th, he called and told me that he wasn't feeling good and asked if he could take the day off. May the 4th, 2009. Right.

Was that unusual for the defendant? Yes. I mean, he worked for us 11 years, so I can't swear that he never took a day off. But I didn't remember him ever calling me and saying that he didn't feel good and wanted to take off. He was just very, he was just always there. And how were you informed on May the 4th, 2009, that he wasn't coming to work that day? He called me in the morning and asked me if he could take the day off. Wow, he actually tried to call in sick the day before his family was killed.

Like probably the night of when his family was killed if it happened at 11 p.m. Joyce was even a little suspicious when Chris asked to stay behind in Florida after the conference, and here's why. Did the defendant go on a trip with you during that period of time to the state of Florida? Yes. Was there anything about that trip, again, something you observed directly of the defendant. That caused you now to be suspicious. Well, he stayed there. He said he wanted to stay down there for a few days after our trip was over, after the working

part of our trip was over, he said he was going to visit these friends, a girlfriend of Sherry's, after I found out that that was the girl that he'd been having the affair with, made me kind of suspicious then as to why he stayed there. And that was sometime during this period of time, late 2008, early 2009? Yes, I think it was in 2009. And was that unusual for him to stay after when you'd gone on that trip? Yeah, and especially he was by himself, so. Okay.

And again, in retrospect, that made you wonder. Yeah. When asked what would have happened if Joyce found out that Chris was having an affair, here's what she responded with. I have to ask you if the defendant were having an affair, if you had known that at the time, and I understand you've testified that you didn't, what effect would that have had on his employment? If he would have been having an adulterous affair,

while he was still married, then it could have definitely affected his job. Were there persons over the years that were terminated in situations like that? We had situations where they were, yes. And in fact, he was married during the period of time they'd worked for you, married to Sherry Coleman, correct? Yes. Were there other persons who had adulterous affairs while married, whose employment was terminated at Joyce Meyer Ministry?

Yes. For that reason. Yes. And there was a policy against employees getting a divorce. Joyce admitted that. But she also said that it all depends on the circumstances. So listen to her now. Now I have to ask you about the distinction here.

What if it was a divorce as opposed to an adulterous affair? Each situation is handled totally separately based on the circumstances. We have many people that work for us that have been divorced. A person is not necessarily, do they lose their job because they get a divorce? It wouldn't have been the divorce so much as the immorality. So, for instance, if a person in your employment, if their spouse filed for divorce against them, and perhaps they had little control over that,

you might leave them in your employment. That's a possibility. Okay, and on the other end of the spectrum, if a person was having an adulterous affair and then filed for divorce from their spouse to be with that person, then their employment may have been terminated. May have been, yes.

Do you think there was any situations of that in the past where someone was actually terminated under those kind of circumstances? I believe so. Okay, at some point you did learn that the defendant was having an affair, is that correct? Yes. Was that from the police, or how did you actually find that out?

Well, the police initially said that he had confessed to the affair. What effect did that have on his employment? And I don't know what happened at the end of his employment. He resigned. Okay. Did he discuss that with you? No, that was handled through our COO. Okay.

Did you fire him? I didn't know. Okay. So once that situation became common knowledge, the defendant resigned employment with Joyce Meyer? ministry. He asked to resign, yes. And you accepted his resignation. Yes. But Joyce also said that Chris was a great worker and that she didn't think anything suspicious until after the accusations and the evidence came out. But he also never tried to

leave or to ask to spend more time with his family or his wife. Mr. Coleman was an excellent employee during his 11 years at Joyce Meyer Ministry. Isn't that correct? And he started the security department from the ground up pretty much? I believe so. And you had no complaint. of him as an employee at Joyce Meyer Ministry? Nope. And the things that you testified to about your suspicions only became your suspicions after Mr. Coleman was arrested and charged with these offenses, is that correct? Yes.

Only after looking back, correct? Yes. They were not suspicious or unusual at the time of these events. No, there were things that I felt were a little bit unusual, but because he'd worked for us so long, and I had no reason to think. think otherwise I just you Mr. Coleman was working at the ministry you were aware that he had looked into other job opportunities yes and one of those opportunities included starting his own business is that right yes and at some point did he ever to your knowledge did he ever make any attempts to leave the ministry ministry's employment no not to your knowledge no did he ever

express any concerns to you about spending more time with his wife or his family or taking more time off? No. What was your general attitude, would you say, as far as Mr. Coleman being able to take time off and spend with his family? I mean, obviously he had a pretty hectic travel schedule based on what you testified to earlier. He did, but he also got sufficient comp time and he was allowed to make his own schedule.

I even encouraged him to take more time off than what he did. Suggested to him that he spent more time with Sherry during the weekdays when he was home. But it was true that he was denied that time off for Sherry and his 10th anniversary, or someone did. Are you aware of an instance in, I believe, in May of 2008, when Mr. Coleman requested time off for August of that year to spend time with his family and celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary with Sherry Coleman. he was turned down? Yes. And there was an out of overseas trip, I guess, scheduled in August? An overseas trip, which was, were very important for us and probably as far as needing

security, some of the most important ones. And so. And Mr. Coleman requested to miss that trip and have one of the other security people go instead of him, is that correct? I don't think there was another security person that could have went instead of him. He was pretty much it as far as that level of security. but we asked him if he could take the weekend before the weekend after. Okay, but he specifically requested to miss the trip at the minute, or I don't know who would somebody.

He did not request it of me. He talked to me about it, told me that it was very important to Sherry. If I recall the request was put in pretty late. Okay, but he was denied that time off, right? Not from me, but... Okay, but from the ministry, whoever. Yeah, I guess. If you say he was, and I said, he was. Well...

I mean, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't. handle those things, so I don't really know. Of the evidence presented was an actual replica of the Coleman home right here is a picture of it, with the recreation of the events and how the victims were found, where the spray paint was, etc. All of this was very important in this case, but out of all the testimony and evidence that the jury heard and saw, the most important was that of Tara Lynch herself, the mistress. And man, did she look like a celebrity walk in the red carpet when she appeared at the courthouse? She shared the depth of the affair, including how Chris would take unflattering pictures of Sherry to prove that he didn't love her.

And that's cold. She told the jury that he told her he hated Sherry. And those promise rings, they both had them. They were black rings that they would put on any time they were together. And according to her, he constantly talked about looking forward to a time when his wife and children wouldn't be a problem anymore. Tara wore that ring on the stand when she testified. It takes five to seven minutes to strangle someone. This is not a quick death.

This is hard to do. And you have to sit in front of that person watching them, taking their last breath. It's a very intimate crime. And if Chris did this, it means he had to do it three times. To his wife and one of his sons, and then the other one. And then he had to go back and spend time writing all of those nasty things on the wall.

After two days of deliberations and two years of the day, since Sherry, Gavin, and Garrett were murdered, the jury delivered their verdict. Guilty on all counts. He was spared the death penalty and sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of parole. The crowds were outside in the rain and celebrating the verdict, cheering and screaming and delight, and all of Chris's subsequent appeals have been denied. Sherry knew about terror, Whether Tara thought so or not, Sherry confided in Jessica Wade. She told her she knew Chris was having an affair. But when Sherry said I do, she meant it forever.

She was loyal, compassionate, and forgiving. She was in this until death do us part, and it's just sad that she had to die at the hands of the man that she made that promise to. To this day, Ron and Connie Coleman believe that Chris is innocent. When asked why Connie was so certain that her son wasn't the killer, she said, because I would die for him, because she knows it's not within his character. Ron even chased some leads of his own, saying that there was someone who suggested that Sherry was trying to get this woman out of another country during her missionary work, and that that woman's husband

was the killer. Ron even supposedly told his congregation that if they thought Chris was guilty, they need to leave. When they visited or called Chris, they never mentioned Sherry. They hardly talked about their own grandsons. But they were worried that Chris wasn't getting enough to eat. Even at the trial, Chris's younger brother Brad was mouthing, You're dead to Detective Barlow. At a recess, Barlow confronted him. Of course, he denied it. But Barlow said he knows what he saw.

The judge told Brad that he could be held in contempt of court, if anything like that happened again. Ron and Connie had even suggested that it was Sherry on Chris's computer making all those threats so that he would quit his job and spend more time with her. Ron even talked positively about Tara, unlike Sherry. He mentioned that Tara had been born again after everything happened and that she called to ask for Connie and Ron's forgiveness for the affair.

These parents sat through countless autopsy pictures of poor Sherry, little Gavin and Garrett. But as soon as the video of Chris's interrogation went up and the detectives were pushing Chris to tell them that he did it, Connie and Ron walked out of the courthouse. Are you kidding me? I'm serious. Connie later said that she thought the detectives were being abusive to Chris and treating him like a little lamb being led to the slaughterhouse. I have no words. I did ask myself why Ron and Connie would actually believe that all the cops, the investigators,

attorneys were lying because that's one of the things they said. But the reason that Chris is being convicted is because everyone is lying. I think it might have have something to do with believing so much so in their faith and their religion that they think, well, they're all non-believers. So they must speak with the devil's tongue. I think they truly, truly believe the things they preach, even if they're wrong, even if there's evidence to the contrary, because there is in this case. But Chris's parents taught him that he was one of the chosen ones. He was above others. He could do no wrong. And perhaps this is why it was so easy for Chris to decide to kill his family to serve his own needs.

What do you think? Not only that, Chris was on top of Joyce's world, one where she preached, if you have enough belief in God and you're a good enough Christian, you will prosper. And it breeds eliteness mindsets. Thinking that you're above others,

some ask if Chris was so good with technology and security, why do stupid things like use your own credit card to buy spray paint or not get rid of your electronics? And many say the same thing about Brian Coburger, by the way. But as I was reading a book called One Last Kiss about the Coleman family, the author suggested arrogance. The mindset of these individuals can shift into thinking that they are so above everyone else. Chris actually did interviews from prison where he tried to explain everything from him about to leave Tara and lying to her about serving his wife divorce papers, down to saying that he saw a hooded figure on his surveillance videos.

He viewed them with Sherry, but he couldn't download the phone. footage because he didn't have all the right equipment yet. This is the head of security for a $20 million company. He couldn't simply save an important video of the person that may want to kill his family. Oh, and he also went on to challenge Dr. Bodden's science, saying, no, no, no, no, no. If you take the core temperature data, it actually comes out that they were killed at 547. So two minutes after he left at 545, someone came in and killed them.

It just did not make any sense. However, a juror came forward later. after the verdict and said that the first vote was seven to five for not guilty when they were in deliberations. But nevertheless, the jury changed their mind because of the lies. They looked at the timestamps on pictures of Tara and Chris from Chris's cell phone, and Tara had testified that they did not become physical until December, which was a lie, and the photos proved that. Before we end, something to note that I thought was interesting was a wrongful death lawsuit

was filed against Joyce Meyer Ministries by Sherry's However, the lawsuit was dismissed because the judge conceded that there was no way Joyce Myers' ministry could have known that one of their employees would kill their family. I think in the event that it truly was someone else and that Joyce Myers' ministry didn't take any steps to protect Chris's family, things would have been different, but that wasn't the case. In the wake of the murders, it was Sherry's friends and family who spoke out in the memory of her and her two sons.

There were no kind words from Chris' parents. who couldn't think of a single nice thing to say about Sherry. They doubled down on their opinions of her as a terrible wife and a mother. And they repeated the negative views that they had from the very first time they had met her. But Sherry's friends and family spoke about her generosity and her kindness. They talked about her dedication to volunteering at local churches, where she would host trivia nights and fundraisers for those less fortunate than herself. Even when her marriage was at its worst, she bought gifts for Chris and told her,

others what a great husband he was. Her two boys were the absolute joy of Sherry's life. She believed that the best way to parent them was to ensure that they had a childhood full of joy and exploration. Sherry was an affectionate mom who loved to laugh and cuddle and kiss her children and instill a sense of kindness towards others in them. Sadly, Sherry's mom sent her a Mother's Day card, but it arrived after Sherry was already dead. To this day, Chris denies being responsible for the murder of his wife and children. There is nothing more for me to say. I've showed you everything I found on this case,

a case that has haunted me for so long and that I've wanted to do for a while. I'm so, so sorry, so sorry to these precious, innocent little boys and a wife that was trying to do the best for her family. It was just never enough for Chris. That's all I have for you today. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you in my next video.

Bye.