New affidavit details conspiracy paranoia of Santa Barbara surfer who confessed to killing kids in Mexico

An application for a search warrant reveals more details about the conspiratorial mindset of Matthew Taylor Coleman, a California Christian surf school owner who confessed to killing his two children in Mexico last year. The search warrant was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Coleman, 40, of Santa Barbara was reported missing by his wife in August 2021 when he allegedly took their two children, a 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter, in the family's van. The Find My iPhone feature tracked Coleman to Rosarito in Baja California, where surveillance footage released by the Baja California Attorney General's Office showed Coleman and the children checking into a hotel. According to authorities, Coleman later returned to the hotel alone.

The bodies of his two children were discovered by a farmworker in the brush near the entrance of the Rancho El Descanso community. According to the FBI, they were killed with a spearfishing gun.

When Coleman was detained at the border checkpoint in San Diego, he confessed that he killed his children because he had been "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 on to his children," the FBI wrote in a 2021 affidavit.

A search warrant application, filed on March 28, reveals even more detail about how Coleman's online radicalization and unraveling mental state combined to have tragic consequences.

"On Aug. 11, while I was transporting M. COLEMAN from Ventura County Jail to the United States Marshals Service, he explained that he first learned of 'Lizard People' on Twitter and from 'that British guy with white hair,'" FBI Special Agent Joseph P. Hamer wrote in the affidavit.

"That British guy" referred to David Icke, a once-mainstream BBC broadcaster who has become one of the 21st century's most prolific conspiracy theorists. In the early 1990s, Icke started proliferating invented tales of a secret order that runs the world; that imaginary global order is made up of shape-shifting, reptile-like aliens who masquerade as humans. According to Icke, many of the world's political, social and cultural leaders are secretly alien reptiles.

Icke's influence in New Age conspiracy circles is potent. Along with his many popular books, he found a receptive American audience on Alex Jones' Infowars, where Icke has been a frequent guest for years. Icke was finally removed from Twitter and Facebook in 2020 for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, but the FBI believes by then Coleman had already been influenced by Icke's beliefs.

"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," Hamer wrote.

Coleman also allegedly began slipping down the rabbit hole of QAnon conspiracy theories, and the affidavit claims he was obsessed with finding secret symbolism in social media photos. Although "lizard people" conspiracies and QAnon are not directly linked, both share a belief that a secret elite is controlling the world and leaving hints of their deeds in media appearances and photographs.

Coleman "started noticing 'signs' everywhere," Hamer wrote, "including postings on Instagram from musicians, teachers, and his friends." 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," the affidavit alleges. (The imagery of "The Matrix" is widespread in far-right conspiracy circles; "taking the red pill" or becoming "pilled" is frequently used as a positive term for people who have become radicalized by online rhetoric.)

The search warrant application filed by the FBI seeks access to two Instagram accounts used by Coleman. The FBI believes there may be more evidence regarding his mental state in his direct messages, which they currently cannot see.

Coleman has been charged with the foreign murder of U.S. nationals.

___

(c) 2022 SFGate, San Francisco

Visit SFGate, San Francisco at www.sfgate.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.