Gary Coleman's ex-wife fails polygraph over his death

Gary Coleman 911
Shannon Price claims she had found Gary Coleman in a pool of blood following his fall in 2010. -AP

Gary Coleman's former wife has failed a voluntary lie detector test about the circumstances surrounding his death.

The late Diff'rent Strokes actor - who died in 2010 from an intracranial haemorrhage aged 42 after falling at home - married Shannon Price in 2007 but they divorced the following year, though she continued living together and in May 2010, she claimed she had found Coleman in a pool of blood following his fall.

The actor's death was ruled accidental and Price was never charged with a crime, but she has faced questions over her involvement with Coleman's passing, and a 911 recording of her emergency call revealed her refusing to listen to the operator's instructions to help.

Speaking in upcoming series Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, People magazine reports she said: "I literally, my whole life, have had the odds working against me.

"And so I'm hoping, I'm really hoping, for a good outcome. Not everyone is perfect at taking a polygraph test, but I have a glimmer of hope that this will work out in my favour, and people will be like, okay, you know what? She's just a normal girl that had an unfortunate situation happen."

Price - who had Coleman removed from life support after two days in a medically-induced coma following his fall - admitted she was a "little nervous" to hear the results of the "stressful" polygraph test, which was administered by former FBI agent George Olivo.

The examiner explained he evaluated the results, then ran the data through a computer system before getting another analysis from a fellow retired FBI tester.

He said: "All three independent results are the same."

Price was first asked if she had ever struck Coleman during their relationship, and though she said no, the findings were inconclusive.

Olivo said: "I'm not going to say that you passed that test, because you didn't."

Price insisted: "I would never hurt him in that manner or that sense, because his life was so fragile. Daily life was a struggle for him, and I would never want to hurt him."

She then received another inconclusive result when she denied having intentionally withheld proper aid from her former spouse after his fall.

The examiner said: "That, statistically, raises a little bit of an eyebrow.

"Then again, you're the same person sitting there who's still nervous and who's still a bit distracted. But 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."

Price admitted: "As far as rendering aid, I could have helped him a little bit more.

"I will say, the operator could have helped as well a little bit by asking me more specific questions."

But Olivo said: "Forget the 911 operator, you were there. Little bit of tough love now. You're not the victim here, he's the victim."

Finally, Price "failed the exam" when asked directly if she physically caused Gary's fall, with the lie detector finding "deception indicated" when she said no.