All Blog Posts from Crimesider

LINCOLN, Ill. - Indictments released Wednesday claim two brothers, Christopher and Jason Harris, armed with a tire iron broke into a family's home in Beason, Ill. to rob them and assault a teenage girl before beating five people to death.

The most surprising part of the story is that the victims were known quite well to Christopher Harris. They were his ex-wife's family. And the ex-wife, Nicole Gee, is standing by her former lover. She has said she doesn't believe he could have killed her family.

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LINCOLN, Ill. - The ex-wife of Christopher Harris, the man accused of killing five of her family members in Beason, Ill., has taken to her MySpace.com page in his defense.

"Now not only has my children lost 5 very close family members but there daddy is being set up and taken away this is too much," Gee wrote in her error-laden message. Harris is scheduled to appear in court today, and relatives say they will be in the courtroom to offer their support.

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CHICAGO RIDGE, Ill. - Blood spattered the garage of a home day care that was also the base of an alleged dog fighting ring, authorities said Wednesday, describing battered and malnourished dogs and the devices used to train them found not far from where children played.

Three men were charged Wednesday, including the day care operator's husband, and authorities were seeking two others. Authorities had initially said four people had been arrested.

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BEASON, Ill. - Five family members are dead, a toddler is in the hospital, and a killer is on the loose in Beason, Illinois.

Residents of the tiny farming community are waiting anxiously as authorities search for suspects in the slayings of five members of a local family.

Logan County authorities say they're following up leads but they haven't made any arrests in what the sheriff calls a "brutal homicide."

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COLUMBIA, Ill. - He's charged with murdering his family, but he was a model employee. That was the assessment from the far-reaching Joyce Meyer Ministries of its security guard Chris Coleman, the southwestern Illinois man accused of strangling his wife and two sons.

Employment records say Coleman was "hard working, diligent and very trustworthy."

However, Coleman also took a personality test for the ministry where he described his weaknesses as being withdrawn, moody, tactless, and unaffectionate.

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COLUMBIA, Ill. - The day of the funeral for his wife and two young sons — who allegedly died by his own hands — Chris Coleman also found time to text his girlfriend in Florida, messaging that he missed her and he loved her.

According to search warrants released this week, Coleman, the southwestern Illinois man who is charged with strangling his family to death as they slept, sent text messages to girlfriend Tara Lintz, who once worked at a strip club in the Sunshine State.

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Video Courtesy of ABC Station WLS-TV

COOK COUNTY, ILL. (CBS) The body count may rise at a Chicago cemetery, where police have already found hundreds of desecrated graves, according to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's comments during a Friday press conference.

"We're expecting a lot more families today, especially coming up this weekend. We're pleading with them for patience, because we had about 3,000 people here yesterday," Dart said.

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WATERLOO, Ill. - A new judge will preside over the case of Chris Coleman, the southwestern Illinois man charged with killing his wife and two sons.

St. Clair County Chief Judge John Baricevic assigned the case to himself on Monday. Monroe County Circuit Judge Dennis Doyle used to have the case, but he stepped down at the request of attorneys for Christopher Coleman.

31-year-old Sheri Coleman and her children, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin, were found strangled to death in their Columbia home on May 5, 2009. Coleman's husband, Chris, is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of his wife and children. Authorities have said that all three victims were strangled with some type of wire, rope or cord.

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WATERLOO, Ill. A coroner's inquest will be held after all in the southwestern Illinois slayings of a Columbia mother and her two sons.

31-year-old Sheri Coleman and her children, 11-year-old Garett and 9-year-old Gavin, were found strangled to death in their Columbia home on May 5, 2009. Coleman's husband, Chris, is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of his wife and children. Authorities have said that all three victims were strangled with some type of wire, rope or cord.

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CHESTER, Ill. - Money donated to pay for the funerals of a slain mother and her two sons might be going to the man accused of killing them.

That's according to a lawyer representing the family of Sheri Coleman, who was found strangled in her Columbia home on May 5 along with her sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9.

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