Law&Crime Sidebar - Dad Accused of Murdering His Kids with Speargun for Having 'Serpent DNA'

Episode Date: September 1, 2024

Matthew Coleman, a Santa Barbara surf instructor with QAnon beliefs, allegedly kidnapped both of his young children and crossed the border with them into Mexico. He’s accused of killing the 2-year-old and 10-month-old with a gun used for spearfishing, because he feared they had "serpent DNA." As he faces federal charges, Coleman has reportedly started to self-harm while behind bars. Law&Crime’s Sierra Gillespie spoke with retired NYPD detective Tom Smith about the bizarre and brutal case.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/lctakeover to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.GUEST HOST:Sierra Gillespie https://x.com/sierragillespieLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A QAnon follower, accused of murdering his two young children with a spear gun because he believed they had serpent DNA, has allegedly tried to mutilate himself. repeatedly while he's being held in federal prison. We're taking a closer look at his case and what these recent self-harm injuries could mean with a retired NYPD detective Tom Smith. Welcome to Sidebar presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Sierra Gillespie. We've got a bizarre one for you today, and it all stems from a Q&ONON conspiracy theory. If you're unfamiliar with Q&ONONON, it's just that. a far-right political movement that promotes conspiracy theories like PizzaGate. During the 2016 presidential election, when followers became convinced that then candidate Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats ran a child sex ring out of Comet ping-pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C. QAnon also gives off satanic panic vibes, cannibalistic child molester vibes, and lizard people they believe in, who are apparently controlled.

controlling the world. So this movement really gained ground during the 2016 election cycle, but the story we're talking about today takes place in 2021. By all accounts, Matthew Coleman and his wife Abby lived a charmed life in Santa Barbara, California. Matthew had his own business teaching surfing lessons, and the couple shared two kids, two-year-old Kylo and 10-month-old Roxy. On August 7, 2021, Matthew and Abby were packing up for a trip when he abruptly put the two kids in his van and drove off. According to court documents, he did this without saying a single word to his wife. He took the kids across the border into Mexico, where they stayed in a resort for about two days. But after that, things got much darker. Matthew allegedly took the

children to a farm where he stabbed them both with a spearfishing gun. After that, he reportedly left the kids there to die. When Matthew crossed the border back into the United States, he was arrested and he now faces federal charges of murdering U.S. nationals on foreign soil. When the feds asked Matthew why he would murder his own children, he said QAnon had convinced him that both children had serpent DNA. That's right, serpent DNA. He said he had visions that his wife Abby could be a shapeshifter, but also that she had this same serpent DNA. And it would be passed on if nothing was done about it. And that's why Matthew said he had to kill the kids to protect the human race. After his arrest, Abby moved back to her home state

of Texas, where she now lives with her family. Matthew has been held in an undisclosed federal facility in Southern California, and that's where he apparently began to self-harm. According to reports, he's been cutting himself with a razor, diving headfirst into the toilet and even punching himself. Matthew was under constant observation, and he's even been medicated against his will since May, because a prison physician has determined he meets criteria for unspecified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychiatric disorders. It's also important to note that so far, Matthew has not been tried for these alleged crimes because prosecutors say he can't understand the charges against him. Hey, listen up, I have something you're not going to want

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So this is a wild case and honestly getting even more wild. So to understand it, we're bringing in retired NYPD detective Tom Smith. Tom, thank you so much for coming on with us today. Thanks for having me again, Sierra. I appreciate it. Okay, so we're talking about QAnon today, which is already kind of a hot button topic at times and kind of out there. But this case, to me, it seems even more extreme. What are your thoughts on it? It's very extreme. And you know what? I don't want the bad guy to get too much credit for blaming somebody else for his actions. You know, his actions are his and he has to take responsibility for the killing of his two children. I understand, you know, the QAnon part of it and we'll get into that. But,

you know, in the end, he is responsible for what he did. The Q&Non part is very intriguing. and wild in the way they are set up and their messaging. So it's going to be interesting with it going forward. Let's put the Q&N stuff aside for just a second and focus on the fact that this man allegedly killed his two children. So I cover some pretty heinous crimes. I mean, the worst of the worst here on sidebar or on lawn crime. But this went to me with a spear gun and his own two children ages two and 10 months old.

I mean, is that pretty gruesome? It is heartbreaking. You can't even imagine that. And us as detectives, when you get cases like this, you can't imagine what goes through someone's head to kill their own children, much less this age. And the steps he took to do it. You know, it wasn't a snap decision in a house and it was done, which some are, unfortunately. This was planned out and methodically done in a way of hiding it and getting away from everyone

the way he did. So talking about that, the way that he kind of executed this plan going across the border to Mexico, it was kind of a weird situation because he and his wife were packing up for a trip with their kids. And then apparently he didn't talk to her. He just packed the kids in the car and just left and crossed the border. That to me is kind of crazy. It does seem like he planned it, obviously premeditated. But usually is there some sort of communication or warning ahead of something like this?

Yeah. And that's going to go with the interview. of his wife. You know, what led up to this? What was the planning? How much of the planning did he have a hand in with picking the location or the hotel or anything like that? The interviews are going to make a timeline that could maybe, you know, straighten this out a little bit of his frame of thinking. So if we're moving on to the mental health side of things, obviously this is something we're always going to talk about in terms of murder, especially your own children. And it seems like this guy may have some mental health issues as far as what happened and QAnon,

which we'll get to in a second. But as far as the mental health side of things, how does that all play in? Yeah, I mean, that's going to play in as far as his defense. That's where it's going to play in. As far as the action itself, like I said in the beginning, he's responsible for it. He had a clear thought of packing up, getting in the car, a coherent thought driving to where he needed to go. So that's not a blackout. He knew where he was going and what was going to happen at that location. And then he did it. He killed his two kids, then had enough sense to get in the car and drive back home.

So, you know, the mental health part of it is going to be more in the courtroom in the defense part. And as far as the charges against him, they're federal. I mean, he crossed over into the border into Mexico, came back and was arrested right away. So that, to me already almost seems a bit more severe, too. he's facing federal charges, and he could then face the death penalty if he's convicted. Absolutely. It's an international crime. You know, he left the United States, went to Mexico, committed to crime against two U.S. citizens, and that's what they are. And regardless of their age, their two U.S. citizens killed in another country. So it is going to be federally handled.

We can't really talk about this case without mentioning Q&ON, this conspiracy theory, movement group, whatever it may be. And we kind of saw this rise to the zeitgeist back in 2020. that election cycle. Is this something that people are still talking about or being affected by? You know what? It's crazy. Listen, everyone can get into a normal conversation of conspiracy theory. Some are fun, you know, that you can have a legit discussion about UFOs, the JFK assassination, all that. But when it crosses that threshold of danger and criminality and praying on people just like this, and that's what this did, you know, they put these. conspiracy theories out there that are preying on people of a mental health capacity that they

can't understand it and they take it to a really dangerous level and it should stop but it doesn't it just keeps going and more articles come out and more videos come out and it's becoming really dangerous to me it almost seems kind of like a rabbit hole situation I mean we get in these on YouTube you're watching true crime you go from one case to the other but to me it seems like maybe their algorithms have kind of shifted. Once they start researching Q&N, then they get more and more articles, like you said, YouTube videos that are coming up and kind of reaffirming that it's an accurate thing. This is true. What do you think about that? Yeah. And you know what? Algorithms are the dangerous part of it, but there's a good part and a bad part. You know,

like on our show, we will check our algorithms of our audience and gear things towards them. And they do the same exact thing on a bad level. You know, and you get people like this individual, that buy into this craziness and just get wrapped up in it. And like I said, conversations about conspiracies, you know, can be okay. But threshold is there of dangerous and dangerous actions in criminality for sure. And some of the things these Q&N followers are believing are just truly ludicrous. I mean, we can talk about Pizza Gate in 2016. I mean, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates and their child sex rings.

In this case, this man allegedly believed that his children had serpent DNA, so he had to kill them to then save the human race. This is just wild to me, but do you think he really believed it? Well, yeah, you know, that's the sad part. You know, that's going to be, again, a lot's going to be in the investigation. His social media platform, his searches, what he read, how much did he read? Did he read one article and that set him off. Was there a series going on for a very long time that got into his head that he truly believed this?

And you know what? When you have a mental deficiency like this guy, I think truly has, this just ramps it up even more. You know, so it gets wrapped around his head even more of a dangerous nature. And I think it makes things even more complicated in terms of the future of the case because this happened back in 2021. and prosecutors are saying that our defendant here doesn't understand the charges against him. He is obviously then mentally incompetent to stand trial because he doesn't know what he's being

charged with or comprehend it. So what do you think about that? Does that really slow down the timeline if this was to go to trial? I don't think so because that does happen quite often when you're dealing with a insanity plea that I think they are truly going to go with. That's going to be their defense. He doesn't understand what's going on. But then it's up to the prosecution to lay out that timeline I was talking about before with searches and how many the planning of the trip, the booking of the hotel, the drive, what happened. All that is going to lead into the prosecution's part of he may not know exactly what the charges are, but he knew exactly what he was doing. Talking about the mental health

side of things, since May, he's been medicated against his will because of this apparent mental illness or whatever he's kind of going through. He didn't want to accept the medication, but he's in prison. They're giving it to him. All of this information, is this something that could later come in at trial that would be referenced by either side? Well, it's going to lean more towards a defense than his insanity, more on their side than the prosecution. The prosecution has to prove he knowingly did this. And that's it. Their defense is going to counter that with the insanity plate. And that's the give and take in a trial, as you know. One of the reasons we're talking about this case today, obviously years later, it's still

really shocking, but he's back in the news because a parent self-harm. A lot of different things that we're hearing reports of that he was kind of drowning himself in toilet bowl water or that he was cutting himself, physically harming himself. What do you make of that just from the jump? Is this something that inmates occasionally do? Yeah. I mean, if he has, listen, if the defense is he's truly insane and has a mental incapacity. These are going to happen. You know, he's going to take actions on himself because now he may think this serpent thing is in him now.

Who knows what's going on in his head? But you could also throw in there a guilt trip. You know, he may realize what he did and it's just an action to commit suicide. How is it that the federal agents there or rather officers who are guarding him or whatever it may be, are they really going to pay extra close attention to him? Now that we've seen that he is willing to physically harm himself, are they then going to keep him on their radar to make sure he doesn't do anything way too drastic? Well, they have to because his well-being is their responsibility. No matter what he is, no matter what he's in jail for, the inmate has to be

safe, you know, and that's their responsibility. So they will keep him in a secluded area with nothing in a cell and probably a some sort of security camera on him, which is probably in other cells as well to make sure nothing happens to him. You spoke about earlier how he's kind of cutting himself and potentially maybe he thinks that this serpent DNA is in him too, which I could kind of connect the dots there and see that that's potentially happening. I'm wondering if his time in prison that he spent talking to other people, potentially like-minded people has helped perpetuate his idea that this is real, the serpent DNA.

Sure, that could happen. Depending on where he is, if he's in a general population area, or if he's secluded, then it's just these crazy notions running through his head, which can be just as dangerous as talking to somebody. And you know, the other person that I really think about in this case is his wife, Abby, who saw her children being driven away and then had to hear this just awful news. She's since left California where they lived and moved to Texas to be with her family. But I'm wondering if she's going to have to kind of drudge this all up again, if and when this does go to trial to be a witness for the prosecution.

She's the witness, you know, in the prosecution, unfortunately, and she's going to have to relive this. And that's a sad part of cases like this when the defendant does fight it and go to trial. His loved ones, the ones who survive, survivors of something have to relive this and tell their. story of what happened. And it's not going to be easy. It's going to be extremely hard. There's going to be a lot of prep work done by the DA to make sure she's okay and to get the story out there because their goal is to prosecute him. The defense has their own goal, but the prosecution has to get him to go to jail for a really, really long time, if not the death penalty. And the underlying thing under all of this, we keep going back to is the

conspiracy theories. And you're right. I love talking about JFK. UFOs, but this is a bit more serious what we're talking about with QAnon. How is it that we are able to still have this obviously false narrative being perpetuated throughout online or people are really believing this? This is kind of a large movement. How is it that someone hasn't intervened and said, hey, we don't have serpent DNA and Bill Gates doesn't have some kids in the sewer? Yes. You know, it's up to platforms. Platforms have to not have this out there. You know, it's the responsibility of the platforms who are letting it go out there and letting it, you know, go through this craziness that, like you

mentioned, some of these theories are just out of control. And this is one, look what it did. Look what it leads to. You know, when you have people that aren't all there that are relying on stories like this to kind of guide their life, this is dangerous. And it's got to be monitored to a point. I'm not into monitor. I'm all into the First Amendment. I got that. But when it leads to something as sinister and crazy and dangerous as this, something has to be done. As far as the case right now, moving forward, what do you expect to see? The defense has to say, you know, their timeline in order. I think that's the biggest thing. And interviews, you know, they're going to go down to Mexico and interview people

at the hotel, what was going on there? What did they see? How did they act? Because he was there, I think, for a couple of days before he actually killed them. So they're going to have to go to that resort and talk to people down there, pull security videos, see what they were acting like. There's a lot that's going to go on into this. And it all leads to, you have to, as a detective, as a prosecutor, get the mental thing out of your head and just build a case to prosecute him. this is truly one of the most severe and crazy cases that we've covered so tom thank you for breaking it down with us today absolutely my pleasure thank you for having me as always that's all for sidebar today and hey make sure that you subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts spotify

apple podcasts wherever it may be this was sidebar presented by law and crime and i'm sear gillespie You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.