New details are emerging about the suspicious passing of Gary Coleman, the one time star of the 1980’s hit TV show Diff’rent Strokes.
On the two-hour premiere of A&E’s new show Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, Shannon Price, Coleman’s ex-wife, took a polygraph test.
Her answers were revealing and shed new light on what exactly happened when Coleman passed back in 2010.
Highlights
- The ex-wife of famous child actor Gary Coleman takes a polygraph test on an A&E special regarding her late husband’s passing.
- Shannon Price says she “had no choice” but to pull the plug after her husband was declared brain dead.
- Coleman, a star of the 1980’s sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, fell down the stairs of his house in 2010, resulting in a hemorrhage that left him brain dead
“I’m not perfect”: Shannon Price, Coleman’s ex-wife, sits for a polygraph test to help clear her name
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Shannon Price, now 39, said she agreed to sit for the test so she could clear her name.
“I’m not perfect, but I’m hopeful the results will show people I’ve been telling the truth all along,” she told A&E.
According to media reports at the time, Price said she heard a loud noise in the house, and discovered Coleman in a pool of blood.
She contacted 911 in a now infamous call in which she seemed to be unable to help Coleman.
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He was rushed to the hospital where he was diagnosed with an intracranial hemorrhage in his brain. He was put on life support, but two days later, Price had doctors pull the plug because she was told he was brain de*d.
For the past 15 years, friends and family have wondered if Price played a bigger role in Coleman’s demise.
When former FBI agent George Olivo hooked her up to the polygraph machine for the A&E show, he asked her some questions regarding that fateful night.
Her answers, he said, show she is hiding something.
“I’m not going to say that you passed”: The former FBI agent implied Price is not being truthful
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During the A&E show, Olivo asked Price three pointed questions.
The first was if she ever struck Coleman during their relationship. She answered “no,” and Olivo said the findings were inconclusive.
“I'm not going to say that you passed that test, because you didn't,” the FBI agent said during the show.
Price replied that she would never hurt him because of his congenital kidney defect which she said was a daily struggle for him.
Olivo’s next question was whether Price intentionally withheld proper aid from Coleman in the aftermath of his fall.
Image credits: A&E / YouTube
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She denied the allegation, and once again, the results were inconclusive.
“That, statistically, raises a little bit of an eyebrow,” Olivo said. “Here's the way I look at it, this question having to do with you doing everything that you could possibly do for Gary when he fell, when you called 911, is an issue that you've had in your mind for 14 years, and it's still not resolved in your mind.”
“I got blood on myself. I can’t deal”: Price’s suspicious 911 call led to the A&E polygraph test
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Olivo was right. The details surrounding Coleman’s fatal fall down the stairs have been much discussed in news stories and documentaries.
At the time, Price recalls that she was in bed, and Coleman had gone to the kitchen to get her a snack. She then says she heard a “big loud boom” and found him in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.
In the 911 call at the time, she seemed to be confused, or even to reject the operator’s instructions on how to help him.
When the operator asked if she could lift his head, Price replied, “No I can't, it's all bloody and I'm not trying to. He's not with it.”
Her words on that 911 call led some to believe she had more to do with his passing than she was letting on.
During the A&E show, Price then confessed: “As far as rendering aid, I could have helped him a little bit more.”
“I had no choice”: Price stands by her claims despite the test being inconclusive
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The final question Olivo asked Price was whether or not she physically caused Coleman to fall.
She insisted she did not, however the lie detector said that “deception (was) indicated” after the way she answered the question.
“You failed the exam regarding Gary's fall,” Olivo stated. “There's two things I know for sure, Shannon. One, you were not completely honest with me yesterday during this polygraph section,” Olivo told Price.
“The body never lies,” Olivo said, “and your body on that lie detector test spoke loud and clear, there's something that caused you to fail this test.”
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Price said the lie detector results do not faze her.
“I know where I'm at. I'm at peace,” she told host Tony Harris. “There is a reason I am not in prison. There is a legit reason for that. It's because they did a thorough investigation.”
When asked by Harris about whether it was the right decision to pull the plug from Coleman’s life support, Price said: “I had no choice. He had gone into cardiac arrest, and that is ultimately what took his life.”
“Wha’chu talkin’ ‘bout Willis?” Gary Coleman was an iconic child actor from the ’80s
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The show Diff’rent Strokes ran from 1978-86 with Coleman playing Arnold Jackson, the cheeky Harlem boy who was adopted along with his brother Willis, played by Jeff Bridges, into a wealthy white household.
With a tilt of his head and suspicion in his eyes, Coleman would utter his famous catchphrase, “What’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” which was adopted by precocious children across the country.
The former child star endured several health problems, including seizures which resulted in many operations and medical procedures.
Image credits: Inside Edition / YouTube
Coleman battled a lifelong kidney condition, which ultimately stunted his growth and resulted in him being 4′8" or about 1.42 meters.
A Peacock documentary that aired in 2024 detailed Coleman’s fraught relationship with his managers, accountants and estranged parents, with many of the adults in his life stealing his money.
Image credits: peacocktv
At the time of his passing, Santaquin Police told People Magazine that “there was absolutely nothing suspicious about [Coleman’s] dea*h” and that “there was “no [criminal] investigation going on.”
Coleman’s official de*th certificate lists his cause of passing as, “accident.”
Netizens debate over the use of polygraph tests and whether Shannon Price should be further investigated
