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One year after his death, Gary Coleman's estate is still tied up in a legal dispute.

One thing is sure, though: The body of the former child actor — who died on May 28, 2010, in a Provo hospital after a fall in his Santaquin home — has been cremated.

"I have the ashes in a secure place," said Robert Jeffs, the court-appointed special administrator of Coleman's estate, who declined to say exactly where the actor's ashes are.

Jeffs said he fielded a few media inquiries earlier this month, after a claim from Coleman's former manager, Vic Perillo, that the actor's body hadn't been buried or cremated.

Perillo's claim was reported May 9 by the online news outlet WENN, and repeated — sometimes embellished — by gossip websites and newspapers around the world. Canada's National Post, for example, reported that Coleman's body "is still on ice in a Utah morgue."

What will eventually happen to Coleman's ashes is one of the issues being argued in 4th District Court proceedings in Provo.

The main dispute is between the "Diff'rent Strokes" actor's ex-wife, Shannon Price, and a former manager, Anna Gray.

Coleman wrote a will in 2005 that left the bulk of his estate to Gray. But Price claims that she is entitled to Coleman's estate because Coleman made a handwritten amendment to his will naming Price as beneficiary. That amendment is still in dispute, as is the question of whether Price — who divorced Coleman in August 2008 but continued to live with him — should be considered Coleman's common-law spouse.

The last court action in the case took place April 18, when Gray's attorney, Rose Blakelock, withdrew. Court records show that Gray hasn't, as yet, hired a new lawyer. Gray couldn't be reached for comment.

"There really isn't a lot to fight for," said Shielia Erickson, Price's agent and friend. Coleman received a pension from the Screen Actors Guild, Erickson said, "and Shannon already gets that. All Anna would be getting are a lot of medical bills." Coleman battled kidney disease for much of his life.

Another indication of the size of Coleman's estate: In December, the bank foreclosed on the Santaquin house that Coleman bought in 2005, Jeffs said.

Judge James R. Taylor has scheduled a status conference on Coleman's estate for July 15.

"It appears the case is just languishing to some extent," Jeffs said.

Price, now 25, has been keeping out of the public eye on the anniversary of Coleman's death, Erickson said. "She's kind of having a hard week," Erickson said.

Erickson said Price's main concern is the proper treatment of Coleman's remains. In a Tribune interview last July, Price said she wanted to scatter Coleman's ashes at Promontory Summit, overlooking the spot where the transcontinental railroad was completed, as the actor was a train enthusiast. But Erickson said Price also has something else in mind.

"She loves Gary," Erickson said. " She wants to put some on a necklace and have him with her all the time."

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