A Virginia sheriff’s deputy catfished a California teen, drove across the state, killed 3 of her spouse and children users, established fire to her house, and tried out to kidnap her

• Austin Lee Edwards, a Virginia sheriff’s deputy, killed 3 folks in California in a catfishing scheme.

• Edwards catfished a Riverside teen, drove cross-state to her home, then killed her family members.

• He tried out to kidnap the lady and burn up her household down, but was killed in a shootout with law enforcement.

A Virginia sheriff’s deputy was identified by officers Sunday evening as the perpetrator of a California triple murder that concluded a tragic catfishing scheme he concocted as portion of an clear try to kidnap a teenager.

On the morning of Friday, Nov. 25, law enforcement in Riverside, California, acquired a connect with for a welfare check just after a younger girl in distress was spotted getting ushered into a automobile by a guy, the Riverside Law enforcement Department mentioned in a assertion.

Hearth section officers responded to the scene 1st, as added calls were being acquired at the exact same time regarding a fire at a household nearby. In the burning house, hearth section officials uncovered the bodies of a few clear murder victims, afterwards recognized as 69-year-previous Mark Winek, his wife, 65-calendar year-previous Sharie Winek, and their daughter, 38-year-previous Brooke Winek.

Just after an investigation, the teenage daughter of Brooke Winek was found later that day getting driven all over Riverside County by 28-yr-old Austin Lee Edwards of North Chesterfield, Virginia, who fired at police and was killed in a shootout in the unincorporated place of Kelso.

“It is considered Edwards experienced made an on the web relationship with the teenager and obtained her private info,” Riverside Police Department stated in a statement, indicating he had catfished the teen. “He traveled from Virginia to Riverside the place he parked his vehicle in a neighbor’s driveway and walked to the teen’s house.  At some point, he murdered the teen’s grandfather, grandmother, and mother prior to strolling back again to his auto with the teen and leaving.

Riverside Police Division did not right away answer to Insider’s ask for for remark.

Tale carries on

Edwards’ property of North Chesterfield is a lot more than 2,500 miles from Riverside. It is unclear when he very first traveled to the state of California or how he communicated with the teenage Winek. A previous trooper of the Virginia Point out Law enforcement, Edwards was hired as a deputy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Section much less than two months back, assigned to its patrol division.

“It is stunning and unhappy to the complete regulation enforcement local community that these an evil and wicked man or woman could infiltrate law enforcement while concealing his accurate identification as a computer predator and murderer,” Washington County Sheriff Blake Andis mentioned in a statement. “Our ideas and prayers are with the Winek family members, their good friends, officers, and all of these affected by this heinous crime.”

The Washington County Sheriff’s Section did not quickly react to Insider’s ask for for comment.

Though the scope of sexual misconduct by law enforcement officers is unidentified thanks to a absence of reporting and a systemic effort to deal with up these types of crimes, an investigation by the Connected Push found about 1,000 officers across 6 several years has shed their licenses for committing intercourse crimes that involved rape and possessing kid pornography — a selection the AP says is surely an undercount.

The small Winek was “unharmed” according to officials, and a GoFundMe has been recognized to give resources for her and her sister, also a teen, immediately after the deaths of their mother and grandparents.

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