CATFISH KILLER
Ex-cop kidnaps teen, murders her family
A former Virginia state trooper allegedly kidnapped a California teenage girl he had been catfishing online — after murdering her family, according to police.
Authorities say Austin Lee Edwards, 28, drove more than 2,500 miles across the country to Riverside to meet the teen Friday.
Edwards then allegedly killed the girl’s grandparents and mom, set fire to their home and took off with the victim.
Deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department tracked down Edwards later that day and killed him during a shootout, according to law enforcement.
The juvenile victim, who was found with Edwards, was unharmed and taken into protective custody by the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.
Edwards, from North Chesterfield, Va., met the girl online and obtained her personal information by passing himself off as someone else, in a practice commonly known as “catfishing,” Riverside police said in a press release.
Calls of ‘distress’
It is unclear how long the two had been communicating.
The shocking incident began unfolding just after 11 a.m. Friday when Riverside police a call for a welfare check concerning a young woman who “appeared distressed” when getting into a red Kia Soul.
While officers were responding, dispatchers were then alerted to smoke and a possible fire a few houses away.
The Riverside Fire Department discovered three adults lying in the front entryway and took them outside, where first responders “determined they were victims of an apparent homicide,” police said.
Investigators later determined that the young woman described in the initial welfare call had lived at the house where the three people were found dead, police said.
The bodies found in the scorched Riverside home were identified as the abducted teen’s grandparents and mother — Mark Winek, 69, his wife, Sharie Winek, 65, and their 38year-old daughter, Brooke Winek.
Police had not revealed their causes of death as of Monday, but they believe Edwards traveled across the country, parked his car in a neighbor’s driveway, walked to the teen’s home and killed her family before leaving with the girl.
The cause of the fire was under investigation, but it appeared to have been “intentionally ignited,” police said.
Riverside authorities distributed a description of Edwards’ car to law-enforcement agencies, and several hours later police located the car with Edwards and the teenager in Kelso. Edwards fired gunshots and was killed by deputies who returned fire, police said.
Edwards was hired by the Virginia State Police and entered the police academy on July 6, 2021. He graduated as a trooper on Jan. 21, 2022, and resigned on Oct. 28.