QAnon-Believing Man Allegedly Killed Kids Over False ‘Serpent DNA’ Theory

A California man who told authorities he was “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories” was charged Wednesday with taking his two children to Mexico and killing them.

Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, allegedly killed his 2-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter on Monday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a press release that the investigation began on Saturday, at which point Coleman’s wife had alerted authorities in Santa Barbara that her husband had left with the children in a van. The wife did not know where they had gone.

The following day, a missing persons report was filed, with Coleman’s wife tracking his phone to Rosarito as of Sunday afternoon. Additional tracking allowed the FBI to send officials in the San Diego area to make contact with Coleman, who on Monday entered the U.S. in the aforementioned van without the two children. Later, the FBI made contact with Rosarito law enforcement officials and were informed that the bodies of two children matching the description of Coleman’s had been recovered. Coleman was then taken into custody.

A separate report from the Associated Press adds that Coleman is alleged to have shot the children in the chest with a spearfishing gun, adding that an FBI agent said in a nine-page affidavit that Coleman has already confessed to the killings. Additionally, Coleman is said to have told authorities that he had become convinced his wife “possessed serpent DNA,” which he believed had been passed on to the children.