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Per a report from the Los Angeles Times, Santa Barbara surf school founder Mathew Taylor has been arrested and accused of a horrific crime: killing his two children in Mexico. According to the report his children (both of whom were apparently younger than three) were found dead this week.
Baja California prosecutor Hiram Sánchez Zamora told the Times that Taylor, 40, was arrested as he attempted to cross back into California from Tijuana. Taylor had apparently driven to Rosarito, 30 minutes south of Tijuana and checked into a hotel sometime Sunday. According to surveillance video, he left the hotel at 2:54 a.m. Monday morning with his two children and returned at around 6:33 a.m. without them.
In gruesome details that no parent would ever in their right mind want to hear, the bodies of the two children were discovered at around 7:30 a.m. after Baja police received a tip via a 911 call. The children had been repeatedly stabbed in their chests with a wooden stake. They were found by a farmworker near El Descanso Ranch, which is between Tijuana and Ensenada.
Mexican authorities alerted U.S. authorities that Taylor, who owns Lovewater Surf Co. in Santa Barbara which he cofounded with wife Abby, would probably be trying to cross back into the United States. They were waiting for him on Tuesday. Taylor grew up in the Santa Barbara area and earned a bachelors degree from Point Loma in San Diego and attended graduate school at UCSB.
Editor’s Note: Taylor is identified as Mathew Taylor Coleman on his company website and Instagram page.
