Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Federal authorities have charged a Santa Barbara man and self-proclaimed follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory with murder for the brutal deaths of his two young children in Mexico.
Prosecutors charged Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, of Santa Barbara on Wednesday with foreign murder of U.S. nationals for killing his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter on Monday.
According to the criminal complaint, Coleman confessed to killing his children by stabbing them in the chest with a spear fishing gun in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico.
Coleman told the FBI that he killed his children as he believed they "were going to grow into monsters."
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"Coleman said that he was saving the world from monsters," the document said.
According to the complaint, Coleman told the FBI agent he had been "enlightened" by the QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions that revealed his wife, identified in the document as A.C., possessed "serpent DNA" and had passed it onto their children.
Coleman's wife initially contacted the authorities on Saturday, stating the family was planning to go on a fishing trip but instead Coleman left in their Mercedes van with their two children, but said she did not believe he would harm them nor that they were in danger.
The next day, she again contacted the police who located Coleman in Rosarito through the use of the "Find My iPhone" smartphone application and then contacted the FBI concerning a possible kidnapping, prosecutors said.
On Monday, Coleman was located in Mexico near the San Diego San Ysidro Port of Entry where he was arrested upon his arrival.
The two children had been located earlier that morning by a Rosarito officer in a ditch, the document said.
"M. Coleman was asked whether he knew what he did was wrong," the document said. "M. Coleman stated that he knew it was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world."
Adherents to the Illuminati anti-semitic conspiracy believe a secretive group of elites controls the world's institutions, such as its banks. Meanwhile, QAnon conspiracy believers think the world is controlled by a group of pedophiles and former President Donald Trump would bring them to justice.
The QAnon conspiracy has been connected to other killings, violence and kidnappings, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
