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A Californian father who said he was enlightened by QAnon to kill his 10-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son with a speargun in Mexico was indicted on Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Diego.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, is charged with two counts of first degree foreign murder of U.S. nationals, according to the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Coleman, a surf instructor from Santa Barbara, could face the death penalty, the office said in a statement, adding that the attorney general “will decide whether to seek the death penalty at a later date.”
A criminal complaint filed last month accuses Coleman of killing his children “by shooting a speargun in their chest.”
He confessed to killing the children, according to the complaint, telling investigators that “he believed his children were going to become monsters and therefore had to kill them.”
Coleman explained that he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and that he received visions and signs “that revealed his wife was telling him” that he was saving the world from monsters, “according to the complaint.
According to the document, Coleman said he knew it was wrong to kill his children, “but it was the only action that would save the world.”
Coleman’s wife called police on August 7 to report that her husband had left with their two children. The family was supposed to go camping together, but instead Coleman put the kids in their Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and drove off. She said they had not quarreled and had no reason to believe her husband would harm her children, but she was worried because he had not taken a car seat.
The next day, she reported them missing and the police helped her locate Coleman using the “find my iPhone” app. His last known location was in Rosarito, Mexico.
On August 9, still using the app, friends of Coleman’s wife showed police he was heading for the US-Mexico border. When the authorities met him there, he did not have his children in the van.
After the children were reported missing, Mexican authorities reported finding two bodies of children matching their description in a ditch. The baby and toddler had “large puncture wounds in the chest cavity,” according to the criminal complaint.
Authorities said Coleman confessed to moving the bodies to brush 30 yards from where the children were killed.
“There are no words to describe the deep sorrow that envelops an entire community when a child is murdered,” Acting US Attorney Randy Grossman said in the statement. “The Department of Justice is determined to bring justice to these victims and their loved ones. “
Court documents do not mention an attorney for Coleman. He is expected to make his first Los Angeles court appearance on Thursday. Subsequent court appearances will take place in San Diego.
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