Gary Coleman’s ex-wife, who has been accused of involvement in his 2010 death by some of the late star’s loved ones, was surprised by her lie detector test results.
Shannon Price took a polygraph test administered by retired FBI special agent and veteran polygraph examiner George Olivo for A&E’s “Lie Detector: Truth or Deception.” The 39-year-old was questioned about the details surrounding Coleman’s fatal fall.
“When I say that she failed the exam, I’m not saying that she deliberately, with willful intent, killed him in cold blood – I’m not saying that at all,” Olivo told Fox News Digital. “I don’t know what happened in that house. All I know is that she knows why she failed, and there’s more to the story than she’s telling.”
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“It could be that maybe she was there when he fell,” Olivo shared. “Maybe they got into a heated argument, and it turned into a shoving match, and he slipped and fell… I don’t know what it is. I’m not trying to say that I know what happened. I just know that there’s more to the story. It could still be an accident, but an accident that she doesn’t want to show her involvement in.”
A statement from Price was shared with Fox News Digital, “We were extremely disappointed with the overall experience of both the polygraph testing and dealing with A&E. Many promises were made and not kept. The testing situation was unfair and very uncomfortable, and the testing was performed non-verbally–which I should have refused. From the beginning it was apparent they cared more about ratings than finding the truth.”
Below are the questions Price was asked, along with the results:
Question: Did you ever strike Gary during your relationship?
Shannon Price answered: No.
Results: Inconclusive (did not score high enough to pass, did not score low enough to fail).
Question: Did you intentionally decide to withhold help to Gary when he fell?
Shannon Price answered: No.
Results: Inconclusive (did not score high enough to pass, did not score low enough to fail).
Question: Did you physically cause Gary’s fall? Did you physically cause Gary to fall that day?
Shannon Price answered: No.
Results: Failed with deception indicated to those relevant questions.
Fox News Digital reached out to Santaquin Police for comment.
In 2010, Santaquin Police Chief Dennis Howard told People magazine that “there was absolutely nothing suspicious about [Coleman’s] death” and there was “no [criminal] investigation going on.” According to the outlet, Coleman’s death certificate also listed his manner of death as an “accident.”
Price has never been charged in connection with Coleman’s death and maintains her innocence.
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Olivo has conducted thousands of polygraph examinations for the FBI. Notably, Olivo administered a lie detector test to Casey Anthony’s parents in 2024 for the A&E and Lifetime special, “Casey Anthony’s Parents: The Lie Detector Test.”
“There’s this idea or notion that if someone tells a lie long enough, then they begin to believe it – I don’t really believe that,” Olivo explained. “I’ve tested folks that were crimes committed 20, 30 years ago, and they’ve been saying the same story.”
“When someone gets very, very confident… they don’t believe they’re going to get caught. They’re so confident now that the lie is accepted. [So], they’re just as confident as if they were telling the truth. But [Price] knows why she failed my test. I’m very confident about that.”
“I don’t purport to know what happened in that house,” Olivo stressed. “Only she knows. She’s the only one alive now who knows what happened in that house. But I maintain that she knows exactly why she failed my test.”
Coleman, the former child star who skyrocketed to fame in the sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” died at age 42 after falling inside his Utah home.
After suffering an intracranial hemorrhage, the actor was transported to the hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. His condition worsened, and he was removed from life support.
Coleman and Price were married from 2007 to 2008. They were still living together at the time of his death.
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“My impression [of Price] was that she complained a lot – she did a lot of complaining in my exam room,” Olivo explained about meeting Price for the first time.
“She complained about the chair, she complained about the lights, she complained about the size of the room. First, it was too hot, then it was too cold. I started getting that impression that maybe she wasn’t there just to get to the truth. She wanted to have her own little show. I had to reel her in a couple of times… And it wasn’t to be mean. It was just not to allow someone to sabotage an otherwise legitimate process.”
In the episode, Price was adamant that she was very nervous, which could impact her results. Olivo pointed out that he conducted a “diagnostic test” that wasn’t captured on camera to get a “truth signature.”
“When you tell the truth, it’ll look the same,” Olivo explained. “So, I like to always say that the truth looks like a river. A river doesn’t change course or direction. The current stays the same… If she’s very nervous and fidgety, that’s like a raging rapid… [But] it’s going to look the same… The general nervousness is built into the process of that diagnostic test.”
While Price was adamant that she wanted to clear her name and address hurtful rumors publicly, she repeatedly said on camera that she couldn’t sit still for a long period. That prompted Olivo to give her some “tough love” before the examination began.
“I had to reel her in a bit,” he explained. “She was going off the rails. There was a lot of complaining – a lot… She just wanted to change the whole environment there… I told her in the beginning, ‘I’m not here to judge you. I’m not here to doubt you.’ I wanted to be true to that. But the thought in my mind was, ‘Come on now, you’re being given a golden opportunity to clear your name to pass this test, and you’re complaining that the chair is too hard. You’re complaining that it’s too cold. Five minutes later, it’s too hot.’”
“There’s possibly another agenda going on,” said Olivo. “Maybe she didn’t necessarily want the truth on all those issues to come out. That’s just my thinking… I think she would’ve been pretty happy with just inconclusive all across the board. If all three had been inconclusive, I think she would’ve considered it a win. You can take that how you want to.”
Olivo also noted there’s good reason why two results from Price’s polygraph test were “inconclusive.”
“We asked one question about whether you intentionally decided to withhold help to Gary when he fell,” said Olivo. “I think that in her mind, she’s still not sure about that. In interviews, you see her say, ‘I could have done more,’ ‘I could have done this.’
“I think in her mind, she’s still undecided on that issue… In her mind, I think she’s inconclusive on that issue… The other question of whether you ever struck Gary during your relationship… She would know if she did or not…. They either had violence, striking violence in the relationship, or they didn’t. But I think she’s trying to reconcile that in her mind.”
“Quite frankly, I could have probably just turned a blind eye and called it a fail,” said Olivo. “But I wanted to be true to the process. And numerically, she was inconclusive.”
Olivo admitted he’s unsure why Price is coming forward now.
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“I know she’s been under a cloud of suspicion ever since [Coleman’s death],” said Olivo. “I’m not sure what’s going on in her life or what motivated her. It could have just been the production team that reached out to her, and she thought it was a good opportunity. But you’d have to ask her that.”
“I never asked her why,” he said. “I just assume she’s like most people at the center of these cases. They have an overwhelming desire to want to try and clear their name.”
Price claimed she found Coleman in a pool of blood after she heard a loud thud. In a recording of her 911 call, Price is heard refusing to listen to the operator’s instructions to help him, saying that she couldn’t cope with the amount of blood present.
In the episode, Price is heard saying, “I know where I’m at. I’m at peace. There is a reason I am not in prison. There is a legit reason for that. It’s because they did a thorough investigation.”
