Celebrity Couples

Gary Coleman’s Ex-Wife Took a Polygraph About His Death and the Results Have People Asking Questions

Shannon Price has long been suspected of playing a role in his fatal fall.

HOLLYWOOD – JULY 06: Actor Gary Coleman arrives at Video Games Live at the Hollywood Bowl on July 6, 2005 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Gary Coleman’s ex-wife Shannon Price has been under suspicion since his death in 2010. She has long maintained that she had nothing to do with his passing, but a failed polygraph may prove otherwise.

The Hollywood Reporter recently grilled Price about her alleged role in his fatal fall via a polygraph test administered by former FBI agent and veteran polygraph examiner George Olivo as part of A&E’s Lie Detector: Truth or Deception. She did not pass with flying colors.

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Their relationship was alleged to be abusive, on Price’s end. The questions asked about the alleged abuse and what led to his eventual death.

“Did you ever strike Gary during your relationship?” the FBI expert asked. Price responded no, but the results were inconclusive. “Did you intentionally decide to withhold help to Gary when he fell?” Price answered no, but the results were inconclusive. “Did you physically cause Gary’s fall? Did you physically cause Gary to fall that day?” Price answered no to that also, but she failed that question and answer.

But Price insists she’s innocent. “I’m here talking to you right now because I didn’t do a damn thing to him,” Price told host Tony Harris when she was set to begin the test. “I didn’t hurt him, I didn’t push him. I didn’t do any of that.” The actor’s death was ruled accidental.

As for what happened that day, Price says she has an idea. “He never fell down the stairs — any stairs, none,” she claimed. “So this narrative about me pushing him down the stairs is just BS. I found him in the kitchen. When the police came and the EMTs came, he was still in the kitchen. What I think happened was we had a kitchen island, and I think he had hit and fell,” she added, per PEOPLE.

Despite her and the Diff’rent Strokes star being legally divorced, Price says they were still “together” and living together. On the day of his fall, Coleman had undergone dialysis for his congenital kidney defect and “wasn’t feeling remotely good” when he returned home. Price claims, “I was upstairs, he was downstairs, that’s when I heard a big ol’ crash. So then I called his name, ‘Gary! Gary!’ And he didn’t respond, and that’s when I got up and flew downstairs to find him. I obviously called 911.”

Coleman was placed in a medically induced coma before being taken off life support two days later. “They were doing an investigation right in front of me,” Price claimed. “That’s when they ruled out foul play. So, folks, you don’t want to believe me? They’re doing this right in front of me. They’re making sure there is no blood splattered anywhere.”

“And then he actually walks to the ambulance with assistance, he’s not on a stretcher,” she added “They asked him clearly what happened. He said, ‘I don’t know, I think I blacked out. I think I had a seizure.’ But if I did it, he would’ve said something.”