Dad Accused of Murdering His Kids with Speargun for Having 'Serpent DNA'
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. retired NYPD Detective Tom Smith welcome. to sidebar presented by law crime I'm. Sierra gesi.
we've got a bizarre one for you today. and it all stems from a qanon conspiracy. theory if you're unfamiliar with qanon. 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 pingpong Pizzeria in Washington DC.
qanon also gives off satanic Panic Vibes. cannibalistic child molester Vibes and. lizard people they believe in who are. apparently 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 2-year-old. kylo and 10-month-old Roxy on August 7th. 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. 2 days but after that things got much. darker Matthew allegedly took the. children to a farm where he stabbed them.
both with a spear fishing 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 us Nationals on foreign soil. when the feds asked Matthew why he would. murder his own children he said qanan. 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 shape shifter but also that. she had the 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 RS 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 head.
first into the toilet and even punching. himself Matthew is 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 you're not going to want to miss.
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click the link in the description to. download upside or scan the QR code on. the screen and use our promo code LC. takeover and get an extra 25 cents back. on every gallon on your first tank of. gas 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 sier I appreciate it. okay so we're talking about qanon today. which 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 uh and you know. what I don't want the 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. qinon part of it and we'll get into that. but you know in the end he is.
responsible for what he did the qanon. part is very intriguing and wild in the. way they are set up and their messaging. so uh it's going to be interesting with. it going forward let's put the qinon. 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 agent is. two and 10 months old I mean is that.
pretty gruesome it is heartbreaking uh. you can't even imagine that and us as. detectives when 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 uh 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 with the interview of.
his wife you know what led up to this. what was the planning uh how much of the. planning did he have a a hand in with. picking the location or the hotel or. anything like that the interviews are. going to uh make a timeline that could. maybe you know straighten us out a. little bit of his uh 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 espe. esecially your own children and it seems.
like this guy may have some mental. health issues as far as what happened. and qinon 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 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 black out. 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 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. the crime against two US citizens and. that's what they are regardless of their. age they're two US citizens killed in. another country so it is going to be. federally handled and we can't really. talk about this case without mentioning. qanon this conspiracy theory movement. Group whatever it may be and we kind of. saw this rise to the Zeitgeist back in. 2016 that election cycle is 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. theories some are fun you know that you. can have a a legit discussion about UFOs. the JFK assassination all that but when. it crosses that threshold of danger and. and criminality and preying on people. just like this and that's what this did. you know they they put these conspiracy. theories out there that are preying on.
people of a 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 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 kind of shifted once they.
start researching Q andon 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 uh and you know. what algorithms are the 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. but threshold is there of of dangerous. and dangerous actions in criminality for. sure and some of the things these Q. andon followers are believing are just. truly ludicrous I mean we could talk. about pizzagate 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. yeah you know that's the sad part uh you. know that's going to be again A lot's. going to be in the investigation his his. uh social media platform his searches. what he read how much did he read did he. read one article and that set him off it. was there 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 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 they. planning of the trip the booking of the.
hotel the drive what happened all that. is going to lead into the prosecutions. 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 it's going to. lean more towards a defense and his. Insanity uh more more on their side than. the prosecution the prosecution has to. has to prove he knowingly did this and. that's it their defense is going to. counter that with the insanity plea 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 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 think this serpent thing is.
in him now who knows what's going on in. his head uh 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. is 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 helps. perpetuate his idea that this is real. the serpent DNA sure uh 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 these. crazy Notions running through his head. which can be just as dangerous as 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 the sad part of. 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 uh done by the da to make. sure she's okay and to get the story out. there because their goal is to prosecute. them uh 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 or. 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 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 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 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 monitoring 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. uh the defense has to set you know their.
their timeline in order I think that's. the the biggest thing and. interviews uh you know they're going to. go down to Mexico and interview people. at the hotel uh and 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 gonna have to go to that. Resort and 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. needs 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 podcast. wherever it may be this was sidebar. presented by la Prime and I'm Sierra. Gillespie.
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