ROSARITO, Mexico — U.S. border authorities arrested the founder of a Santa Barbara, California, surfing school on suspicion of killing his two young children in Mexico, the Baja California state attorney general announced Tuesday.
Border agents arrested 40-year-old Matthew Taylor, a U.S. citizen, as he tried to cross from Tijuana into the U.S. at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to Baja California officials.
Baja California prosecutor Hiram Sánchez Zamora said Taylor traveled to Rosarito, which is about a 30-minute drive south of Tijuana, and checked into a City Express hotel on Saturday with his 1-year-old son and his 3-year-old daughter.
Sánchez said investigators found that Taylor left the hotel on Monday morning at 2:54 a.m. with both children. A few hours later, Taylor returned to the City Express at 6:33 a.m., but without his children, according to Sánchez, who gave details at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
At 7:27 a.m., Baja California police received a 911 call about the shocking discovery of the bodies of two babies in diapers who had been repeatedly stabbed with a wooden stake. Their remains were discovered by a farmworker near the El Descanso ranch, which is located at kilometer marker 55.4 on the scenic road between Tijuana and Ensenada.
Sánchez said the girl had been stabbed approximately 12 times in the area around her thorax, and the boy had 17 stab wounds in a similar area.
Sánchez said agents with Baja California’s State Security and Investigation Guard alerted U.S. authorities that Taylor would likely be trying to make his way to the border and back to the United States. U.S. border officers stopped him as he approached the San Ysidro Port of Entry and arrested him, he added.
Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State investigators in Mexico said Taylor runs the Lovewater Surf Co., a surfing school based in Santa Barbara, where he was born. According to the surfing school’s website, Taylor earned a master’s degree in Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He completed his undergrad studies at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, where he was on the surf team.
Mexican and U.S. authorities are working together to return the bodies of the children to California.
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