California dad killed his kids over QAnon and ‘serpent DNA’ conspiracy theories, feds say

A California surfing school owner who was charged with killing his two children in Mexico is a follower of QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories who thought the children “were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” federal officials say.

Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was charged Wednesday with foreign murder of U.S. nationals in connection with the death of his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Coleman confessed to the killings, telling the FBI he used a spear fishing gun to stab them, authorities said.

He told the FBI he killed his children because he believed they “were going to grow into monsters” and that conspiracy theories led him to believe his wife had passed down her “serpent DNA” to the kids, according to a criminal complaint.

Coleman’s wife, identified only by her initials, contacted the Santa Barbara Police after her husband had taken the kids out on Saturday, but did not tell her where they were going, the complaint said. She grew concerned after he failed to respond to her messages and knowing that her husband didn’t have a car seat with him, she told police.

A missing person’s report was filed on Sunday and officers asked her to use Apple’s “Find my iPhone” feature to see if she could find Coleman. The program showed Coleman’s last known location in Rosarito, Mexico, the complaint said.

Police alerted the FBI to the investigation as it became a case of suspected parental kidnapping. Coleman was detained Monday after an inspection by Customs and Border Control of his van upon re-entry into the U.S., where agents did not see his children and found blood in the vehicle.

Coleman confessed to the killings upon being interviewed Monday, giving authorities the location to the murder weapon and discarded bloody clothing, the complaint said. He also identified two bodies recovered by Mexican authorities as his children, it said.

A judge ordered Coleman be held without bond Wednesday and scheduled his arraignment for Aug. 31.

He said he knew what he did was wrong, but “it was the only course of action that would save the world,” according to the complaint.

“Serpent DNA” is a likely a reference to the lizard people conspiracy theory, which falsely purports that reptilian aliens secretly run the world and have taken over important positions in government, banking and Hollywood.

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The complaint states that Coleman told authorities he learned about “serpent DNA” through QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories, although the lizard people conspiracy theory predates both by several decades.

The believers in each conspiracy theory have melded together over the last several years due to conspiracy theory influencers and algorithms on social media that frequently lump the theories together.

QAnon is a more recent conspiracy theory premised on the belief that a similar global cabal at the top of the U.S. government is secretly murdering and eating children, and that Donald Trump was quietly working to defeat them during his time in office.

Anthony Quinn Warner, who bombed his own RV outside of an AT&T building in Nashville on Christmas Day last year, claimed lizard people were taking over Hollywood and the U.S. government before the explosion. Warner died and three others were injured in the explosion.

Andrew Blankstein contributed.