A California man, who authorities say claimed to be a devout QAnon follower, was indicted Wednesday on charges of killing his two children with a spearfishing gun in Mexico.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, a surfing instructor from Santa Barbara, California, is accused of taking his 2-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl last month from the home he shares with his wife and traveling to Mexico to kill them, according to a criminal complaint.
He admitted to the killings when questioned by authorities and said he had to because he believed his children were “monsters” and that his wife “possessed serpent DNA and had passed it onto his children,” a 10-page criminal complaint filed by federal authorities details. Coleman said he knew his actions were wrong but believed “he was saving the world from monsters,” the complaint adds.
Coleman was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Diego Wednesday in the killings. He faces two counts of foreign first-degree murder of U.S. nationals, charges that are eligible for the death penalty under law, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of California.
“There are no words to describe the profound grief that envelops an entire community when a child is murdered,” acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement. “The Department of Justice is determined to achieve justice for these victims and their loved ones.”
Coleman and his wife, Abby, founded a surfing instruction company in Santa Barbara. A website for the school includes photos of the children at the beach and playing on a skateboard. It also details Coleman’s love of spearfishing and sailing and his 25 years of surfing experience.
The detailed criminal complaint outlines Coleman’s wife calling authorities on Aug.7, worrying about her husband and children because he had left without giving any notice. The complaint adds Coleman wasn’t answering his phone and didn’t have car seats for their children.
She helped authorities track Coleman’s location using the Find My iPhone app, discovering he’d been in Rosarito, Mexico. The app helped authorities stop Coleman on Aug. 9 when he reentered the U.S., where they found blood in the van he was driving and discovering the children were no longer with him, the complaint states.
Authorities detained and questioned Coleman and he admitted to killing his children with the spearfishing gun and dumping their bodies in a ditch, the complaint and indictment said. Mexican police found the children’s bodies, both of which had large wounds in their chests.
Coleman said he dumped his clothes and the spearfishing gun after he disposed of their bodies, the federal complaint said.
He later told authorities he was “enlightened” by QAnon and the Illuminati, the complaint states.
___
(c) 2021 USA Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
