A Santa Barbara man has been charged by federal authorities with murder after allegedly killing his two young children in Mexico, acting on what he told investigators were “QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories.”
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was taken into custody Monday after crossing from Tijuana into the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Coleman allegedly confessed to the killings to FBI Special Agent Nathaniel Dingle, stating that “he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jennifer Bannon.
Coleman further stated that he “was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife (Abby) possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children,” according to the affidavit.
He also told Dingle that by killing the children, Kaleo, 3, and Roxy, 1, “he was saving the world from monsters.”
According to the affidavit, Coleman confessed to killing the children using a spearfishing gun that he later discarded, and which was recovered by Mexican authorities along with other evidence.
Coleman left Santa Barbara with the children on Aug. 7 in a Mercedes Sprinter camping van, and drove to the town of Rosarito south of Tijuana, according to the FBI.
His wife reported Coleman and the children missing later that day, saying he did not tell her where he was going, and was not answering her text messages. She initially indicated she did not think the children were in danger.
Two days later, at the urging of Santa Barbara Police investigators, Coleman’s wife tracked him to Mexico using his phone. He was intercepted at the border by FBI agents as he returned to the U.S., and the children were not in the van at the time.
That same morning, the bodies of two young children were discovered by Mexican authorities at a ranch near Rosarito. Photos of the children revealed they had suffered large puncture wounds, according to the affidavit.
The victims appeared to match photos of the missing children that previously had been provided to investigators.
Coleman is being charged with the foreign murder of U.S. nationals under federal law.
He was in custody in Los Angeles and was expected to make an initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon before a federal magistrate, according to Ciaran McEvoy, a public information officer for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Coleman is the founder of the Lovewater Surf School in Santa Barbara.
The website for the Lovewater Surf School indicates that Coleman was born and raised in Santa Barbara.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Point Loma University and a master’s degree from UCSB, and founded the surf school with his wife, Abby.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.