If Something Happens to me, Chris Did it: The Coleman Family Murders

Taking another life without cause is cold-hearted and callous. When the lives you take are your wife and children, it's even more devastatingly shocking. When men murder their families, the motivating factor oftentimes is money or a mistress. For reasons unknown to me, they feel killing their family is a better alternative than divorce. The Chris Watts family murders case, for example, happened after he began an affair with another woman.

While the public hears plenty about the Watts case, there is another Chris who killed his family, although the case isn't as widely known. Chris Coleman is his name, and he killed his wife and two kids after starting an affair with another woman. Two years after the senseless murders, Sheri, Gavin, and Garrett got justice when Chris was sentenced to three life sentences.

Chris Coleman was the All-American man, the last person you would ever expect to commit adultery or that he could become violent, a man capable of murder. He had served in the Armed Forces, was a hard-working Christian man, and an all-around good person well-liked by his peers and co-workers. When he met Sheri Weis, the two quickly fell in love, married, and started their family.

Gavin came along first, followed by Garrett two years later. By 2009, Chris worked as the personal security guard for Joyce Meyers of Joyce Meyers Ministries, earning well over $100,000 annual salary. Sadly, his job kept him on the road and away from his family.

Despite the challenges, the Coleman family lived a content, comfortable life. Until it wasn’t.

Sheri Felt Something Was Off

In November 2008, Sheri’s womanly intuitions kicked in and she felt her husband was having an affair. Women seem to know these things. We catch even the slightest change in a person’s communication and behavior toward us, especially our partners. So, Sheri immediately noticed a change in Chris's behavior. Their arguments grew and Chris never seemed interested in her or the kids or the same activities he did just months prior. Sheri told a friend “If anything happens to me, Chris did it.”

At about the same time, Chris, along with Joyce Meyers adn her son, received a strange email from an unknown person. In the email, the writer cursed and threatened the trio.

In January 2009, a letter arrived in Chris’ mailbox, this one threatening his family. Chris spoke to his neighbor, Sgt. Dep. Justin Barlow of the Columbia Police Department about the letter. Barlow agreed to monitor the neighborhood for anything unusual. He also installed a security camera pointed directly at the Coleman home.

Neither the security camera nor the extra patrol in the neighborhood landed any evidence pointing them to the person(s) responsible for the letter and email.

In April, Chris reported receiving another threatening letter inside his mailbox. Officers again patrolled the area, finding nothing suspicious related to the Coleman residence.

Coleman Family Murdered

On May 5, 2009, Chris left the family’s home to go to the gym. He called Sheri and left a message while he was gone. He texted her at the gym and again on his way home. Sheri did not return his call or text messages. Afraid something sinister happened to his wife, Chris called the police requesting a welfare check on her.

Det. Sgt. Barlow and another officer from the Columbia Police Department discovered a basement window opened at the home. Barlow and the second officer entered through the opened window. They noticed the words “I am always watching,” “U have paid,” and “punished” sprawled across the wall in red spray paint.

As the two officers continued searching the home, they discovered the bodies of Sheri, Gavin, and Garret Coleman lying in their beds. Each person had been strangled with a cord, the ligature marks etched into their necks.

Chris’s defense team maintained that someone hacked Coleman’s computer, apparently sneaking into the home before the May 5 murders. Coleman did not testify in his own defense.

Chris Coleman Convicted of Murder

The two-day trial ended on May 5, 2011, the two-year anniversary of the Coleman murders with guilty verdicts on all three counts of murder.

In an April 2018 interview with ‘Crime Watch Daily,’ Chris Coleman maintained his innocence and said he was set up.

“Actually, what never came out in court is I had two laptops and I traveled with one and I left the other one either at home or at the office,” he said during a phone interview. “They were never both on me at the same time and the one that was connected to the threats was the one that I would leave either at home or at work.”