In the quiet mountain community of Coal Creek Canyon, a grim discovery shattered the peace on April 15, 2017. Wallace Lance White, a 54-year-old Caucasian male, was found deceased in his home on Divide View Drive. He was not alone; the bodies of his wife, 56-year-old Kelly Sloat-White, and his 39-year-old brother, Emory 'Lee' Fraker, were also discovered. The Boulder County Sheriff's Office was called to the residence for a welfare check after a friend reported not hearing from them for several days. Upon entering the home, deputies found all three victims showed signs of trauma, and investigators quickly ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide. The nature of the scene led authorities to believe the residence had been specifically targeted.
The initial investigation into the triple homicide uncovered drug paraphernalia inside the home, which prompted a hazardous materials team to be called in to ensure the safety of the investigators. Despite this discovery, the exact motive for the killings remained elusive. For weeks, the case cast a shadow over the small community as law enforcement worked to identify a suspect. Neighbors recalled that the Whites grew medical marijuana, and Wallace had recently sold his garage door company. The sheriff's office assured the public that they believed it was a targeted attack, but with a killer at large, a sense of unease lingered.
A significant breakthrough came about a month after the murders. On May 16, 2017, investigators arrested 24-year-old Garrett Coughlin in connection with the triple homicide. The arrest was the result of a painstaking investigation that linked Coughlin to the crime through ballistics evidence. Further investigation revealed that Coughlin had come into an unusual amount of cash and marijuana in the days following the deaths of White, his wife, and his brother. Coughlin was subsequently charged with three counts of first-degree murder after deliberation, three counts of first-degree murder during the commission of a robbery, and aggravated robbery. In 2019, a jury convicted him, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The story, however, did not end there. In a surprising turn of events, revelations of misconduct at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation came to light years later. An internal affairs report released in 2024 detailed allegations of DNA evidence manipulation by a former CBI forensics analyst. This misconduct was found to have impacted hundreds of cases, including Garrett Coughlin's. As a direct result of these findings, his 2019 conviction was overturned. Faced with the compromised evidence, the prosecution offered Coughlin a plea deal for lesser charges. He accepted the deal, which resulted in a 42-year prison sentence with the possibility of parole, adding a complex and unsettling final chapter to the tragic deaths of Wallace Lance White and his family.
