WATERLOO -- A Monroe County Coroner's inquest determined that the Coleman family members each died of ligature strangulation.

Julie Gummersheimer told a coroner's jury that all three victims had no drugs in their bodies when murdered.

She testified today before a coroner's jury about details of the deaths of Sheri Coleman and her two sons.

The inquest is open to the public and began at 10 a.m. in a Monroe County courtroom.

One law enforcement witness is scheduled to testify, according to the Monroe County coroner.

Police say Sheri, 31, Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, were strangled in their beds at home in Columbia, Ill. The bodies were found May 5. Christopher Coleman, the husband and father, claimed they had been alive when he left for a morning workout less than an hour and a half before.

Police say a forensic pathologist consulted on the case and said the bodies were dead before Chris Coleman left the home.

The affixture of a time of death is tricky among medical experts. Some say it's possible to discern a range between the time a person died, while others disagree.

Chris Coleman is charged with three counts of first degree murder. He is currently jailed in Monroe County awaiting trial, which is expected some time next year.

The inquest has no bearing on the criminal case. It's a common but not mandatory hearing in which a jury classifies the manner of death as natural, accident, homicide, suicide or undetermined.

Art Margulis, a defense attorney representing Chris Coleman, was at the inquest today.

He said his client is "doing fine."

Margulis said he is considering a motion to move the trial away from Monroe County. But, he said, the media attention in the case is national, meaning people all over Illinois have heard about the case.

"I'm not sure where we can go," Margulis said.