Warning: This article contains graphic details which may disturb.
A US man says he killed his two young children with a speargun after being "enlightened" by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories, according to police.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, has been arrested for allegedly shooting his two young children with a speargun and dumping their bodies in bushland.
Last Saturday Coleman took his two-year-old and 10-month-old children from the family home in Santa Barbara, California without telling his wife Abby Coleman where they were going.
He took the children to Mexico, and after a day of no contact, Abby reported her husband and children missing.
Police say Coleman checked into a hotel with his children on that day and CCTV shows him leaving the hotel at 2:54am on Sunday with them.
Hours later at 6:30am, Coleman returned to the hotel alone.
On Monday morning, a local farmer found the bodies of the two young children on a rural property - both with large puncture wounds in their chests.
While trying to cross the border back into the US Coleman was arrested and questioned by the FBI.
During an interview with an FBI agent, police allege Coleman admitted he killed his children.
"He explained he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions his wife possessed serpent DNA and passed it on to his children," an affidavit quotes.
"Coleman stated he believed his children were going to grow into monsters, so he had to kill them."
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that claims the world is owned and run by a secret sect of satanic sex traffickers and pedophiles made up of US Democrat politicians and the Hollywood elite. They're known as the "deep state" and they control all government and mainstream media.
Although QAnon theories have been around since 2017, when a mysterious figure known as Q began to post cryptic conspiracy theories on message boards like 4chan, It began to gain traction during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.
The conspiracy has since gotten so out of control that the FBI considers QAnon a potential domestic terror threat.
These concerns were validated when it emerged at least 34 QAnon adherents participated in the Capitol siege that disrupted the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory and left five people dead. The Guardian reports there have been three homicides and a slew of other violent incidents linked to QAnon since 2018.
