The QAnon-obsessed father, who was brainwashed by conspiracy theories and allegedly killed his children with a marlin gun because he believed they had snake DNA, admitted he was “delusional” in a handwritten letter.
In the two-page letter, seen by PEOPLE, Matthew Taylor Coleman had written to a friend about what has been going through his mind in the 10 months since he was jailed for murdering his two children in August 2021.
“I was deceived,” Coleman wrote in the letter from an undisclosed federal prison in California. “I deceived myself. I now know that [reptile] DNA thing was a delusion in my own head. I made myself believe something that wasn’t there.’
Coleman has confessed to killing his son Kaleo, 2, and daughter Roxy, 10 months, by shooting them in the heart with a harpoon after they drove to Rosalito, Mexico from their home in Santa Barbara, California .
He has been charged with two foreign first-degree murders of US citizens and has pleaded not guilty. A court hearing scheduled for May was postponed to the end of July.
Matthew Coleman confessed to shooting his son Kaleo, 2, and daughter Roxy, 10 months, in the heart with a harpoon in August 2021 in Mexico
Matthew Coleman, who is in federal prison, appeared in court September 9 for the double murder of his two children. His next court hearing has been postponed to late July
In the letter to his friend, Coleman revealed his thoughts behind his belief that his wife Abby had reptilian DNA, which she passed on to their children – which was just one of several conspiracy theories the father consumed.
Now without access to the internet with websites spreading conspiracy theories, Coleman wrote in the letter that he “has to use my mind to figure things out”.
“I’m going through everything now,” he wrote. “There’s a lot to unpack but I need to find out what I really believe but I no longer have access to information so I have to use my mind to figure things out.”
In August 2021, Coleman and his wife were packing for a family trip when Coleman abruptly put the kids in the van and drove away from their home in Santa Barbara, California.
Coleman’s wife Abby called police out of concern but told authorities she didn’t think her children were in danger and that they would all be returning home soon.
But instead, Coleman drove the children to a ranch in Mexico and killed them with a harpoon. Their bodies were found by the side of the road and Coleman was later arrested trying to return to America in the family’s Mercedes Sprinter van.
After police apprehended Coleman at the San Ysidro port of entry on August 9, 2021 and confronted him about the fact that they had found the children’s bodies, he confessed to the murders.
Coleman told authorities he was radicalized by British conspiracy theorist David Icke and became obsessed with the notion that “lizard people” existed on Earth, court documents revealed.
Icke’s theories are so extreme that he has been banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
“He explained that he first heard about ‘Lizard People’ on Twitter and about ‘that Brit with the white hair,'” wrote FBI Special Agent Joseph P. Hamer in his search warrant.
In a two-page letter, Coleman wrote to a friend about what has been going through his mind in the 10 months since he was jailed for murdering his two children in August 2021
Coleman revealed his thoughts behind his belief his wife Abby had reptilian DNA, which she passed on to their children
In the notes he continued: “Based on my investigation of this case, I believe that ‘that Brit with the white hair’ refers to David Icke, a white-haired British conspiracy theorist who has published several books including ‘Children of the Matrix’ , which describes, among other things, ‘Nefilim’, ‘crossing’ [] between the reptilians and the blond-haired, blue-eyed, Norse peoples”, “reptilian DNA” and “royal” bloodlines[ of] the Norse Reptilian Hybrids” and their relationship to the “Illuminati”.
Icke’s conspiracy theories include that COVID-19 is not a real virus and that the pandemic was orchestrated to destabilize the world.
He has been denied entry to Australia, accused of Holocaust denial and labeled anti-Semitic for making offensive suggestions that many of the “lizard people” he claims rule the world in a secret society are Jews.
Coleman previously told investigators how he believed he and his children would enter the Matrix.
He told investigators his real name is “Neo.” M. Coleman’ and spoke about time travel, teleportation’ and testified that his children warned him ‘about babies being put in firecrackers, food and walls’.
Coleman further claimed that Q — the name of the anonymous account whose post on image-sharing site 4Chan sparked the QAnon movement in 2017 — communicated directly with him, telling agents that he “finally … saw the big picture that he had to kill his children to prevent them from becoming an extraterrestrial species that would bring carnage to earth.’
Coleman “said he knew what he had done was wrong, but it was the only course of action that would save the world,” according to court documents.
In the weeks and months leading up to the murders, Coleman was also obsessed with QAnon. After confessing to the double murder, he scolded agents, saying he’s “either crazy or the only person on earth that’s a real man”.
Border agents arrested Coleman (right) after he attempted to enter the US from Tijuana at the San Ysidro port of entry. Pictured: Coleman with his wife Abby (left) and their son Kaleo
Social media posts show how obsessed Coleman was with QAnon and religion in the months before he killed his children
When Coleman explained why he killed his two children, “he mentioned during the interview that ‘Q’ actually spoke to him before the killings,” the filing states, citing the anonymous online individual of the same name that sparked the conspiracy movement in 2017.
Coleman, who told investigators he killed the kids because they had “snake DNA,” continued, “Anyway, I was still thinking about burning them if there was any.” [sic] a chip in it or something.
After failing to return messages from his wife about her whereabouts for more than 48 hours, Coleman texted her just after 3 a.m. while he was in bed with his two children at the City Express Hotel, a Christian resort in Rosarito bizarre news text offering a glimpse into his shattered mindset reveals the document
“Hi babe, I miss you too,” read one of the texts, sent in the early hours of August 9 — the day of the murder, according to the filing.
“Things were tough, but it was also starting to get some clarity. Still confused about many things and processing through them.
“So many crazy thoughts going through my head right now, hard to explain,” he continued, adding that he “gets a little clarity from my grannies [sic] old bibles.’
“I will process everything further and hope to get some answers.”
He then offered his wife, with whom he was four, an eerie sign-off that apparently foretold the horrific acts he would commit late in the day, in the last message he would ever send her.
“Hopefully this whole madness ends soon. I love you,” Coleman wrote, according to the warrant, before murdering his children just hours later.
Coleman lived in Santa Barbara, California with his wife and two children. He departed on August 7 and checked into the City Express Hotel in Rosarito, Mexico. He was arrested two days later after attempting to return to the United States at the San Ysidro Point of Entry for murdering his two children
The document further revealed that after being arrested by officers two days later on his return to the United States, Coleman told agents that he had begun noticing “strange coincidences” five or six days before committing the murders.
According to the warrant, Coleman discussed “QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories as well as Strong’s Numbers (an index of every word in the Bible)” with investigators before telling them he had “experienced visions and signs showing that his wife was a snake- possessed DNA”. ‘
Coleman remains incarcerated in federal prison. A May 19 court date has been pushed back to late July. It is not yet clear whether he is capable of litigation.