A California surfing school owner was arrested and charged with killing his two children in Mexico with a spear gun because he believed they would become monsters.
In a statement, the U.S. attorney’s office said Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, of Santa Barbara, faces a federal charge of foreign murder of American citizens.
According to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent, Coleman admitted to taking his 2-year-old son and his 10-month-old daughter to Rosarito, Mexico, where he shot them in the chest with a “spearfishing gun.”
Court documents show that Coleman said, “he believed his children were going to grow into monsters, so he had to kill them.”
On Monday, a farmworker discovered the children’s bodies on a ranch near Rosarito, Baja California.
After checking into a Rosarito hotel on Saturday, Coleman and the children were seen leaving before dawn on Monday, according to Mexican officials. It was later that morning that he returned alone to the hotel before he finally left for good.
Coleman’s iPhone had been located in Rosarito on Sunday, and on Monday, it had been located in a region of Mexico near San Ysidro.
While being questioned by an FBI agent at the border checkpoint, “he explained that he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife, A.C., possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children,” the affidavit states.
NBS Los Angeles reports that Coleman is accused of dumping his children’s bodies in a ditch near Rosarito.
Coleman’s wife told Santa Barbara police on Saturday that her husband abruptly left with the family’s van while they were preparing for a camping trip. She claimed she had no idea where they were headed and that he had ignored her texts.
According to the court document, Coleman’s wife stated that she did not believe the children were in danger, that she had never had any problems with Coleman, and that “they did not have any sort of argument” before he left.
Coleman allegedly told FBI officials that he’d placed his daughter in a box for the trip to Mexico, according to CBS L.A.
According to CBS Los Angeles, the family’s neighbors in Santa Barbara said they’re shocked and that Coleman appeared to be a good father and husband.
