Federal officials are charging a Santa Barbara man with murder after his two young children were found dead in Rosarito, Mexico.
According to the criminal complaint against Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, he admitted to authorities that he took his two-year-old son and ten-month-old daughter to Mexico and killed them with a spear-fishing gun.
Authorities say the investigation started when Coleman's wife called the Santa Barbara Police Department on Saturday to report that her husband had taken the kids and she didn't know where they had gone.
According to the court document, she initially said that she did not believe her children were in any danger. She reportedly said that she did not have any problems with her husband and they did not have an argument prior to him leaving; however, she was unable to make contact with him on the phone.
Using the Find My iPhone app, authorities were able to locate Coleman in Rosarito, according to the complaint, and later track him to the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Authorities say that when it was determined that Coleman had re-entered the U.S. without the children on Monday, FBI agents contacted law enforcement officials in Rosarito and were told that Mexican authorities had recovered the bodies of two children matching the description of Coleman's children in a ditch at a ranch. He was then taken into custody at the border.
According to the criminal complaint, Coleman told investigators that "he was enlightened by 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." He said he believed his children were going to grow into monsters, so he had to kill them.
Coleman was reportedly asked whether he knew what he'd done was wrong. According to the affidavit, he stated he knew it was wrong, but it "was the only course of action that would save the world."
"We are talking about someone who was educated and had degrees. It was clear to him of the consequences he could face for the actions he was taking," Hiram Sanchez, Baja California's Attorney General, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Coleman was scheduled to appear in United States District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon.
Coleman owned and operated Lovewater Surf School in Santa Barbara with his wife.
