A California surf instructor and QAnon follower accused of killing his two children with a spearfishing gun because he thought they had “serpent DNA” gave a mind-boggling interview to the feds after his arrest, explaining that he believed he was Neo from The Matrix, an FBI search warrant reveals.
In an interview with FBI agents last summer, Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, “discussed time travel, teleportation, [his kids] telling him about babies being placed in fireworks, food, and walls,” the filing states, adding that Coleman also “mentioned during the interview that ‘Q’ was actually talking to him,” referring to the eponymous online conspiracy theorist who claims a cabal of cannibalistic Democrats is leading a global child sex abuse ring.
Coleman, who ran Santa Barbara’s Lovewater Surf Co., was arrested Aug. 9, 2021 as he re-entered the United States from Mexico, the day after the remains of his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter, Kaleo and Roxy, were found at a ranch in Baja California. A local surfer who knew Coleman said at the time that he was stunned by the news, telling The Daily Beast that Coleman “seemed like he had it together, seemed all there mentally… It’s a total mindbender.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The warrant, which was filed Feb. 17 and first obtained by Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, lays out a raft of alarming new details that have not been previously reported.
On Aug. 7, 2021, Coleman’s wife, Abby, called police to report him and their children missing. He had left home with them in the couple’s Mercedes Sprinter van, and was not returning Abby’s texts, she told cops. Officers had Abby use the “Find My iPhone” app to discern his location, which came up as Rosarito, Mexico, the warrant explains.
“Hi babe, miss you too,” said one of the texts Coleman sent to Abby after she reported him missing but before he stopped responding. “Things have been rough but starting to get some clarity as well. Still confused on a lot of things though and processing through them. So many crazy thoughts going through my head right now, hard to explain. Yeah, funny your [sic] getting some clarity through my grandmas [sic] old bibles. Wasn't there 2? Anyways, was actually still thinking of burning them in case theres [sic] a chip in them or something. Going to keep processing through everything and hope to get some answers. Hope all this craziness ends soon. Love you.”
Two days later, Coleman was taken into custody by federal agents at the San Ysidro, California Port of Entry. In a subsequent interview with the FBI, Coleman confessed to stabbing Kaleo and Roxy to death with the speargun, saying he ditched their bloody clothes in a trash bin near Tijuana, according to the warrant.
Coleman explained to agents that he had started noticing “strange coincidences” five or six days earlier, discussing “QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories as well as Strong’s numbers (an index of every word in the Bible),” the warrant goes on. “He said visions and signs revealed that his wife, A.C., possessed serpent DNA (M. Coleman mentioned that he was not sure if his wife was a shape shifter) and had passed it onto his children and that all things were pointing to the idea that his children have corrupted DNA that will spread if something is not done about it. M. Coleman explained that he was either crazy or the only person that is left on Earth that is a true man, and that while he was in Mexico—before killing his children—M. Coleman laid in bed seeing all the pieces being decoded like ‘The Matrix,’ and he was Neo. M. Coleman also discussed time travel, teleportation, [Roxy] and [Kaleo] telling him about babies being placed in fireworks, food, and walls.”
Coleman claimed that Q was communicating with him directly, telling agents that he “eventually…saw the big picture that he had to kill his children to prevent them from becoming an alien species that would release carnage over the Earth.” Coleman “said he knew what he did was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world,” the warrant states.
During the interview, Coleman demonstrated a series of hand signals he said proved someone was part of the conspiracy and showed their allegiance, according to the warrant. He said he had scrolled through Instagram and took screenshots of various people making the hand signs, and although he said he no longer used Facebook, he had done a search of a friend’s account and saw a picture of him making one of the gestures over his eye. Coleman told agents that he “knew that the ‘whole thing was a setup’ and ‘they’ were using people” to get him.
When agents spoke to Abby Coleman, she explained that the two of them had been “researching QAnon” and that Coleman had become “significantly more paranoid that people around him were involved in a conspiracy.” She said Coleman “started doing a lot of research on leaders running ‘the church’ and found that they may have been part of the conspiracy,” and that he had connected “the people running ‘the church’ to people in their community and to some of their best friends,” indicating that Abby, along with their friends, were “all in on this thing together.”
A friend of Coleman’s, identified in the warrant as “A.M.,” also spoke to the FBI, and confirmed that Coleman had started seeing “signs” all around him. There were suspicious Instagram postings by “musicians, teachers, and friends,” A.M. said Coleman told him, and the people making hand signals in the photos Coleman spotted were “evil disguised as good.” Coleman showed A.M. a picture from Instagram in which A.M.’s friends were making peace signs, insisting that A.M. was a “loyalist,” and “could not see that he was being controlled.”
A.M. also told agents about a call he’d received from Abby a few hours after Coleman took off for Mexico, asking him to come over to their house. When he arrived, Abby showed A.M. a picture of him with his friends when he was about 13, “making hand gestures.”
“Based, at least in part, on these hand gestures, A.M. said that [Abby] accused him of ‘being in on it’ and eventually [Abby] chased A.M. out of the Coleman Residence,” the warrant says.
The incident came roughly a year after A.M. sent Coleman a Facebook link to a screenshot of ex-President Donald Trump being interviewed, with a caption reading: “Team Trump Online,” “Aliens?,” and “Triggered Presidential Edition Text Trump to 88022,” according to the warrant. A few months later, A.M. sent Coleman a video on Facebook titled, “Our Favorite Election Tampering Witness Still Refuses to be Bullied by Rep. Steve Johnson.”
The search warrant requests permission from a judge for FBI agents to analyze Coleman’s private Facebook activity, in hopes of gleaning additional clues.
Coleman, who remains detained without bail, is due back in court on May 19.
