The owner of a surf school in Santa Bárbara, northwest of Los Angeles, was arrested for allegedly stabbing to death his two children, a 1-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, in Mexico, according to local authorities. Tuesday.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, of Santa Barbara, remains in federal custody after being arrested by US Customs and Border Protection agents while crossing from Mexico at the San Ysidro Pass near San Diego.
Baja California prosecutor Hiram Sánchez Zamora explained that Mexican authorities responded to an emergency call around 7:30 a.m. on Monday (local time) and found the two children dead near the El Descanso ranch, near from the city of Rosarito, after they were discovered by a peasant.
The prosecutor noted that the girl was stabbed 12 times and the boy 17 times.
Blood stains and a wooden stake were found at the scene, which could correspond to the murder weapon.
[A policeman saves the life of a man stabbed with a bag of potato chips and duct tape]
Coleman and the children had checked into a Rosarito hotel called City Express on Saturday.
Authorities say the man left the establishment with his children around 2:45 a.m. on Monday and returned almost three hours later alone, according to images captured by security cameras.
The man definitely left the hotel around 9:30 in the morning.
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His wife, Abby Coleman, with whom he ran the Lovewater Surf Co. school, had reported to the police the disappearance of her husband and children, who had not been located for 24 hours, and said they could have traveled to Mexico.
Coleman could face aggravated murder charges in Mexico.
With information from AP and ABC