Coren James Shelby was born to Gloria and Reuban Shelby on December 17, 1960 in London, England. His childhood was fairly unremarkable, save for his excellent grades and performance in physical extracurriculars. He graduated in 1978 and married his high school sweetheart, Jessica Morgan. Tragedy, however, soon followed. She was killed in a robbery at the cafe she worked at. The loss was devastating, but Coren used it as fuel to persevere. He joined the police service shortly thereafter.
In 1980, Coren met an American journalist from Philadelphia. They dated for about a year, but the long-distance nature of their relationship was complicating things. Coren moved to Philadelphia to be with her, but they eventually broke it off. Rather than going directly back into police work, Coren turned his attention towards education. Only a bobby back in London, he sought to become a real detective, despite having only had two years' experience.
Coren enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and graduated five years later with a double degree in psychology and criminology. He returned to police work in 1986, and was soon looking at expanding his education. One of his superiors recommended he talk to one Professor Arland Davis, a retired FBI criminologist and one of the professors at the University. He did, and he would never regret it. In 1988, Coren got married again, this time to Angela Whidmore, an education student he met at the University in 1987. After the marriage, he had to balance his personal life with his job at the Philadelphia Police Department and his education at the University. In 1992, Dr. Coren Shelby, Ph.D. Criminology, entered Quantico on recommendation of former Supervisory Special Agent Arland Davis.
In 1999, after years of training and further education, Dr. Shelby entered the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Behavioral Sciences Unit after a series of academic publications. In the same year, Jacob Shelby, Coren and Angela Shelby's son, was born. During the pregnancy, he began to spend more time training. After the birth, he became more obsessed with his job. He was divorced in 2002, but his obsession didn't compromise his work until 2003. His supervisor offered to write him a letter of recommendation if he resigned and sought professional therapy.
Coren took an extended leave of absence from work life. He attended his parents' funeral in 2004 and applied to the New York Police Department as a detective shortly after. In November of 2006, the bomb occurred. Coren was called back to the FBI to help with the investigation. More and more, he was noticing how little sleep he was getting, and yet he continued to go at it like he was well-rested. Come February, little had changed, except that there was now a name for the monsters that destroyed so many lives: The Evolved. He took it personally and made it his mission to uphold justice, particularly with the evolved.
He considered the introduction of the Linderman Act as a grand idea, since it would help to protect the normal people. He was not one to condone intolerance, yet he became intolerant. All that would change in 2009. The evolved test kits were introduced, and he tested positive. His life as he knew it was forever changed. At first there was denial, but he was above that. He realized that he was evolved. For over a decade, he had been running on three or four hours of sleep a night, sometimes missing nights, and almost never seemed to tire. He had once outrun a young gang member in 2005, taking quite a beating in apprehending him, and had shrugged it off. But now, even his well-maintained physique did not account for how he could just keep going. He registered — Superhuman Endurance — and his perspective would forever be altered.
