LOS ANGELES – A Santa Barbara man was charged today with taking his two young children to Rosarito, Mexico and killing them.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, allegedly killed the 2-year-old boy and 10-month-old girl on Monday. A federal criminal complaint filed today charges Coleman with foreign murder of United States nationals.
An affidavit in support of the criminal complaint outlines the investigation that started on Saturday when Coleman’s wife contacted the Santa Barbara Police to report that her husband had left the couple’s home in a Sprinter van and she did not know where they had gone.
The next day, Coleman’s wife filed a missing persons report. Using a computer application, Coleman’s wife was able to determine that Coleman’s phone had been in Rosarito on Sunday afternoon, the affidavit states.
The same phone-locating service was used on Monday and showed that Coleman’s phone was near the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the affidavit. The FBI dispatched colleagues in San Diego to contact Coleman, who entered the United States in the Sprinter van without the children. When the children were not found, FBI agents contacted law enforcement officials in Rosarito and learned that Mexican authorities that morning had recovered the bodies of two children matching the description of Coleman’s children.
The criminal complaint says Coleman told detectives he believed the children were “going to grow into monsters” and he was “saving the world from monsters.”
Coleman “explained that he was enlightened by the QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife – possessed serpent DNA and had passed it onto his children,” the complaint says.
He also “stated that he knew it was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world,” the complaint continues.
