A 28-year-old law enforcement officer who had catfished a teen girl traveled across the country to her home and killed her family before leading local police on a pursuit and being fatally shot himself.
Austin Edwards, who had worked as a state trooper and for a sheriff’s office in Virginia, met the teenage girl online, lying about who he was and developing a relationship with her, the Riverside, California, police department said. He then traveled from Virginia to California on Friday and, authorities believe, set fire to the family home and killed her grandfather, grandmother, and mother. He and the teen then got into his car, and he fled.
A neighbor told KABC that she called the police when she saw Edwards and the girl, without pants or shoes on, get in his car. Police told KABC that the teen had tried to say something, but according to the neighbor, the girl could not get the words out.
“She did seem and appear a little distressed, so it was concerning enough to these people to call,” Ryan Railsback, public information officer for the Riverside Police Department, told KABC.
Police officers were dispatched to the home, but when they got there, firefighters had already arrived to respond to heavy fire on the first floor. When firefighters went inside, they found Mark Winek, 69, Sharie Winek, 65, and Brooke Winek, 38, on the floor and pronounced them dead after pulling them outside.
Their cause of death remains under investigation, but authorities said they believe the fire was intentionally set, and the Wineks are considered homicide victims.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/paigeskinner/police-officer-catfish-murder