The police suspected Coley was the murderer because he had been Rhonda Wicht's boyfriend for two years and the couple had recently broken up, and because a neighbor also claimed to have seen him and his truck at the apartment after hearing commotion.
[11] [12] Michael Bender, a serving detective with Simi Valley Police Department, started to re-investigate Coley's case in 1989 and discovered there were problems with it.
[13][14] Simi Valley Police Chief Dave Livinstone requested a new investigation by cold case Detective Dan Swanson.
[16] In a report to the local police, three former and current police officers testified that the detective at the time of Coley's trial had “mishandled the investigation or framed Mr. Coley.” The local prosecutor felt the original detectives decided Coley was guilty too quickly and that they were victims of "tunnel vision".
[6] California governor Jerry Brown pardoned Coley on November 22, 2017,[17] because the evidence showed he was innocent of the murders.
[19] After Coley's release and the subsequent arrest of serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo, DNA testing was conducted to see if he was the real murderer.