Photo via CBS 8 San Diego/YouTube, @matthewtaylorcoleman/Instagram
August 11, 2021, 1:54 pm
A California resident and owner of a local surf school was arrested on charges of murdering his two young children after conspiracy theories such as those around “QAnon” and the Illuminati convinced him that they were going to grow into monsters. Matthew Taylor Coleman allegedly stabbed his three-year-old son and his 10-month-old daughter repeatedly with a fishing speak and possibly a wooden stake at the family ranch in Baja California, Mexico, and was detained near the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The unsealed criminal complaint states that Coleman confessed to the murders to investigators and cited conspiracy theories such as QAnon in his decision to commit such a horrific act.
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The children were found after a potential parental kidnapping was reported to police back in Santa Barbara by Coleman’s wife after he disappeared with the kids and wouldn’t answer any texts.
“M. COLEMAN stated that he believed his children were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” the complaint reads.
After confessing to the murders and where he stashed the bodies and murder weapon, Coleman “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 onto his children. M. COLEMAN said that he was saving the world from monsters.”
“M. COLEMAN stated that he knew it was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world.”
Though Coleman’s wife, Abby, was concerned about her children after they left without explanation or a car seat for the baby, she told investigators that she didn’t believe he would hurt them.
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Reporters have been unable to locate any QAnon or explicitly conspiracy-theory content on Coleman’s social media accounts, but he often made references to his Christian faith, including in reference to his kids, and repeatedly described visions he allegedly had.
“Another picture that came to me was of God reaching down into a river bed and picking up a small stone (rock), examining it intently,” he wrote after the birth of his daughter. “Just as David had done before slaying Goliath, God examined the stone and was confident that it was just the perfect one for the battle. Although it was small, smooth and somewhat harmless looking, he knew that it would become great when placed into the palm of a skilled hand. My declaration over Roxy Rain is that she has been hand-picked by God to slay the giants in the land.”
It remains unclear exactly how Coleman took such a deeply dark path when his posts, weird as some of them were, seemed to be so positive about his children and the future. Conspiracy theories and the communities around them, particularly online, have been known to suck people in at an alarming speed, with people across the U.S. talking about how they feel they’ve lost loved ones to QAnon and other lies.
While experts and those close to QAnon believers have been trumpeting warnings about how dangerous it already is and could become, this kind of unthinkable tragedy has left people stunned and scared that it could happen again.
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*First Published: August 11, 2021, 1:54 pm
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