California surf school owner arrested on suspicion of killing his children in Mexico

ROSARITO, BAJA CALIFORNIA (TCD) -- A 40-year-old Santa Barbara man was arrested this week at the California-Mexico border after he allegedly stabbed his two young children to death in a hotel room near Tijuana.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Baja California prosecutor Hiram Sánchez Zamora announced Matthew Taylor’s arrest in a press conference Tuesday. Taylor’s full name is reportedly Matthew Taylor Coleman, and he owns the Lovewater Surf Company in Santa Barbara with his wife Abby.

The Santa Barbara Police Department announced earlier in the week that they took a missing persons report August 8 from a woman saying her husband and two kids had been missing for 24 hours. The statement said she was "concerned for the wellbeing of her husband and their two children."

Santa Barbara Police reportedly gathered evidence showing the husband and children had traveled to Mexico.

The Union-Tribune reports Sánchez said in the press conference that Coleman, his 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter allegedly checked into the City Express Hotel about half an hour south of Tijuana. On Monday, Coleman allegedly left the hotel at around 3 a.m. with his children in the car. He reportedly returned to City Express at 6:33 a.m. but his children were not with him, according to the Union-Tribune.

Police in Baja California reportedly received a call at 7:27 a.m. from a farm worker who found the bodies of two children in diapers who had been stabbed, the Union-Tribune reports.

Sánchez reportedly said the girl was stabbed 12 times around her thorax, and the boy 17 times. The Associated Press reports a wooden stake with blood on it was found nearby.

According to a Lovewater Surf Company’s Instagram post, the daughter’s name was Roxy and the son’s was Kaleo.

Coleman was stopped at the border near the San Ysidro Point of Entry and arrested, the Union-Tribune reports.

An FBI spokesperson told the Union-Tribune in a statement, "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."

Associated Press reports Coleman could face charges in Mexico of aggravated murder.

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