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mdesena
Mar 4, 20206 min read

Coleman Family Murders

The day you choose to marry someone you are committing to a life with them forever… or so you might think. This was Sheri Coleman’s intention the day she said “I do” to her husband Chris. Many say that you never truly know someone, but when you marry a person you assume that you do, or are at least comfortable enough to give yourself to them for the rest of your life. Again, this was the case with Sheri. However, she was destined to find out just how true it is that you NEVER truly know a person. Sheri and Chris Coleman had what seemed to be a happy, loving marriage; a marriage that even produced two beautiful young boys Garett (aged 11) and Gavin (aged 9). Their lives were ordinary; a small family, living in a small town. However, their lives and the lives of those closest to them would all be turned upside down on the chilling night of May 4th, 2009.

Chris and Sheri met while serving in the military. Chris was a member of the Marines and Sheri a member of the AirForce. They immediately fell in love, and while on their first visit to Chris’ family they decided to go to the courthouse and get married without telling their families. Unknown to anyone, they decided to do this because Sheri had become pregnant with her first child Garett. Soon after, they became pregnant again with their second child Gavin and decided to settle down and start a life together in Columbia, Illinois. Chris made the decision to leave the military and instead started a job as head of security with the Joyce Myers ministry. SIDE NOTE: Joyce was one of the first televangical ministers and many were against her running a ministry/preaching at all.

In November of 2008 Chris began getting extremely threatening emails from an email called destroychris@gmail.com. The first email Chris received on Friday, November 14th contained a cryptic message reading “Tell Chris his family is dead. I know his schedule and they will die. Next time that mother f**ker will let me talk to Joyce.” This email account continued to send messages forcing anyone that would listen to let them speak to Joyce. It seemed that the sender’s intention was to contact Joyce and force her to stop preaching. However, these messages always threatened Chris’ family, never Joyce, claiming that they knew Chris’ schedule and when his family would be alone and that they would all be murdered. Things became even scarier when, in January 2009, the emails turned into written messages that were left in Chris’ home mailbox. These notes were not stamped or addressed, proving that whoever placed them there physically had to visit Chris’ house and place them there by hand. Chris had a security system installed to track who placed them there, and when the next note arrived in April Chris and Sheri watched the footage together but could not identify the man seen delivering the letters.

On May 4th, 2009 the boys wanted to spend the night at their friend’s house who lived down the street. On a normal occasion this wouldn’t have been a problem, but on this day the boys’ parents refused to let them sleep out and told them to be home by 8:30. Later this night the family all went to sleep as they would on any ordinary night. Little did they know, this would be the last time they all saw each other alive. The next morning, Chris woke and left his house around 5:45 A.M to go to the gym. A little while later he tried to call his wife Sheri to wake her up, but after multiple failed attempts he became so worried that he called a detective he knew to go to his house and do a welfare check. This detective called for backup and headed to Chris’ house. He arrived at the door at 6:51 A.M with another police officer.

The two entered the house and claimed the one thing they would never forget was the smell of an “overwhelming amount of spray paint.” They continued into the house and noticed that the walls were covered in red paint. On their way up the stairs to the second floor they noticed a note scrawled on the wall reading “You have paid.” They then found the lifeless bodies of all 3 of Chris’ family members. At this point Chris had arrived home and was heard asking what was going on and shortly after he was notified that his family was murdered; however, it is important to note that Chris did not ask what happened. He did not even attempt to enter the house to see for himself what had happened. He instead sat sobbing on the lawn over the loss of his family. Investigators arrived on the scene and Chris was brought to headquarters for a formal interview.

As detectives began digging deeper into the lives of the Coleman’s they began to notice things that stood out to them. Sheri, Garrett, and Gavin were all strangled (which is an extremely personal way to murder someone), and Sheri had two black eyes showing that she put up a fight. In Chris’ interview he asked for a blanket which surprised detectives because it was warm in the room, and the only place Chris covered were his forearms. Later it was shown that he had bruises and scratches lining his arms that were assumed to be from a struggle even though Chris claimed he had gotten them after making repairs on his roof. Also, according to the coroner the time of death of the Coleman’s was about 3 or 4 A.M, which is odd considering Chris would have been home at this time and because he claimed that his wife was alive when he left his house. Because of this, detectives started to zone in on Chris.

Chris and Sheri had many issues, but Chris claimed they were going to counseling and were attempting to work through them. Chris also mentioned that he had a “very good friend” named Tara that he would talk to about his and Sheri’s issues, but claimed they were not having an affair. Police in Florida (where Tara lived) interviewed her and it was then where detectives discovered that Chris and Tara were in fact having an affair and were even in a relationship. He would even fly her out on his travels, and claimed him and his wife were separated.

While searching through Chris’ computer, detectives also found that every one of those threatening emails he had received had in fact come from his OWN computer. Chris and Tara had exchanged promise rings just days before the threatening emails began appearing. All of these facts just proved that for months Chris was planning the annihilation of his entire family in an attempt to be with Tara because his wife was clear about her intention of making her marriage work. The case against Chris began to take hold and was only made stronger when handwriting samples from Chris matched the notes lining the walls of his home on the night of the murders and a receipt was found for the red spray paint that Chris himself had purchased.

Chris’ case went to trial and when the jurors deliberated on it they all knew in their gut that he had done it, but that the prosecution did not prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. This is why, when it was voted on at first, there was a 5 to 7 vote in favor of acquittal. However, the jurors then looked through all the evidence again and stated that they saw one picture that changed their mind. It was a picture of Chris and Tara dated from October 2008 even though Chris claimed the affair did not begin until later. This proved to them that Chris was lying and so they all voted again and found him guilty. Chris has since appealed his case, but is still imprisoned for the murders of his wife and 2 sons.



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