Virginia State Trooper Austin Edwards posed as 17-yr-old boy to catfish California girl, 15 before killing her family
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA: A 28-year-old Virginia State Trooper who killed a 15-year-old girl's mother and grandparents and set their house on fire is said to have posed as a 17-year-old boy online to groom and sexually extort the girl, according to the police reports. The trooper named Austin Lee Edwards was killed during a pursuit in a shootout with San Bernardino sheriff's deputies on Friday, November 25. The victim's family members and police said at a news conference on Wednesday, November 30, that the 15-year-old Riverside girl was rescued and is in counseling for trauma.
Edwards, a resident of North Chesterfield, Virginia, met the girl online and catfished her to obtain her personal information, police said. The predator gagged and bound the girl's grandparents, Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, as well as the girl's mother, Brooke Winek, 38. "Nobody could imagine this crime happening to my family, to our family, especially being one day after Thanksgiving," said Michelle Blandin, Mark and Sharie's daughter, and Brooke's sister, according to Daily Mail. "He took an oath to protect, yet he failed to do so. Instead, he preyed on the most vulnerable."
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Police claimed that the girl was not involved with the murders. The teenager whose name has not been disclosed also has a sister who was not present at the home during the incident. According to Riverside Police, Edwards posed as a teenager to engage in an online romantic relationship with the 15-year-old. Investigators are trying to find out how long they corresponded and how they met online.
Edwards also asked for sexual photos from the girl at some point and she stopped communicating with him. Detectives also have not been able to find out why the state trooper killed the girl's family or if he killed them in retaliation. It is also unclear whether this was the girl's first in-person encounter with Edwards or if she knew that he was coming to California, officials said.
Heartbroken Blandin alarmed parents to be aware of their children's online activity. 'Parents, parents, know your child’s online activity, ask questions about what they’re doing and whom they are talking to. Anybody can say they’re someone else and you could be in this situation,' Blandin said. She said that a neighbor saw a suspicious car on the street and immediately informed the police on the day of the ordeal. Blandin added that the neighbor's call may save 'saved' her niece's life.
"For my two young nieces who are now left motherless, we hope that this community can wrap their arms around them and lift them up. They have the most difficult journey ahead as they are minors and they don’t understand everything that has happened," Blandin later added. Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said that it will be difficult for them to conduct the interviews and get answers related to the case with the girl due to her age and trauma.
"We don't believe at this point she had anything to do with the murders," he said. Gonzales also lashed out at fellow officers that commit horrendous acts. "It’s disturbing - it’s disgusting," he said. "Anybody in the law enforcement community, we hate that person more than anybody, because it’s a reflection on us." The girl has been taken into protective custody by the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.
Police began to receive calls about a fire just a few houses away while officers were responding to the scene. Neighbor Sergio Gutierrez previously told the outlet that he witnessed the three bodies carried out of the house by emergency responders had been bound and gagged. "I looked with binoculars from the back window of my house," the 68-year-old resident of the Riverside cul-de-sac said. "They carried them out. Their hands were tied behind their backs. One lady had tape over her mouth. It was frightening."
Gutierrez said that he spotted a red Kia Soul parked on the street near the home a few weeks earlier and assumes the killer may have been surveilling his victims before pouncing. "It was a couple of weeks or a month ago I saw the red car," he said. "It looked suspicious, I think it might have been him." A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $59,000 as of Wednesday and is dedicated to supporting the two surviving teenage girls.