The owner and founder of a Santa Barbara surf shop was arrested in Mexico on Tuesday on suspicion of stabbing to death his two young children.
Forty-year-old Matthew Taylor Coleman remains in federal custody after he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while crossing the border from California into Tijuana, at the San Ysidro checkpoint, Baja's Attorney General said.
Earlier that day a farmworker found the bodies of Coleman's two-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter at a brush near the entrance of the Rancho El Descanso community, near Rosarito in Baja California, authorities said.
Wounds indicated that the boy was stabbed 17 times while the girl was stabbed 11 times. Officials also found a blood-stained wooden stake at the scene, believed to be the murder weapon.
Coleman was last seen with his children at a hotel in Rosario on Saturday. Security footage showed him leaving with them early Monday morning, only for him to return alone later that day. He left the hotel for good after that.
The FBI, in conjunction with the police, is leading an investigation into the incident.
"The FBI is working with police in Santa Barbara following a report they received about three missing persons; one adult male and his two children who are believed to have crossed the southern border into Mexico,” the FBI said in a statement on Tuesday.
"A joint investigation is underway among the Santa Barbara Police Department, the FBI in Los Angeles and San Diego, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican authorities. Currently, the adult male is in federal custody and the investigation is continuing."
Coleman was born and raised in Santa Barbara before attending Point Loma University and later completing a master's in higher education and UC Santa Barbara in 2009. After a stint as a high-school teacher, he founded the Lovewater Surf School which he and his wife, Abby, ran.
"Today, as experienced educators and mentors, Matt and Abby enjoy finding ways to better lives through surfing, experiential education and community-based project," the school’s website read.
The school has not publicly commented on the situation.
Coleman could face charges of aggravated murder in Mexico.
Correction: The story has been updated to correct the ages of Coleman's children.
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