Police seized airline boarding passes, a Home Depot receipt for spray paint and computer equipment in a search warrant served at Christopher Coleman's home in Columbia, Ill., after his wife and two sons were slain there, according to court documents opened today.

Orange twine with a loop tied on one end -- similar to twine that bound bales of straw behind the Coleman house -- was found by detectives searching along Interstate 255, the warrants say. Police have said that Sheri Coleman and her sons were strangled with a ligature.

Christopher Coleman is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, 31, and their children, Garett, 11, and Gavin 9. He told police he drove to a St. Louis County gym about 5:45 a.m. May 5; the bodies were discovered a little more than an hour later. Police looked for evidence along I-255, which would have been his route.

Police are particularly interested in paint because obscenities and other words were spray-painted on walls at the murder scene. The search warrants also said they seized a box of latex gloves from the home.

Police sources have said that Coleman, 32, was having a romance with a Florida woman who was a friend of his wife, and that he met her sometimes while travling as security chief for televangeslist Joyce Meyer. The boarding passes seized were in Coleman's name and Meyer's, according to the warrants, on file in Monroe County Circuit Court in Waterloo.

In Chris Coleman’s SUV, police say they found a greeting card from St. Petersburg, Fla. addressed to Coleman at his Columbia post office box. Also in the vehicle, police found the transaction history for a line of credit to Coleman’s house.

Police said they entered the house on May 5 shortly before 7 a.m. after Chris Coleman called the Columbia Police department to check the welfare of his family.

Police said they entered the home and found red spray paint all over the walls on the first story. Shortly after entering the home, Coleman arrived and opened the home’s garage door, but he was ordered by police to stay outside.

Columbia police found the bodies, which were turning a purple color, police said.

"It appears rigor mortis has began to set in," wrote Jason Donjon, of the Columbia Police Department.

Check Thursday's Post-Dispatch for more details on the Coleman investigation.