A Virginia police officer accused of killing a pair and their grownup daughter within the household’s Riverside house final week posed as a 17-year-old boy on-line and drove throughout the nation to satisfy the couple’s teenage granddaughter after she stopped exchanging messages with him following his request for nude pictures, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez mentioned Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Additionally Wednesday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division introduced that Austin Lee Edwards, 28, killed himself when confronted by its deputies within the Mojave Desert following the slayings. Coroner’s officers mentioned Edwards died from a gunshot.
Gonzalez mentioned at a information convention that detectives are nonetheless attempting to find out the intentions of Edwards, who graduated from the Virginia State Police Academy in 2021 and who on the time of the killings was coaching to develop into a patrol deputy for the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace in that state.
Police don’t know but how lengthy Edwards was speaking with the lady, though Gonzalez mentioned he believes it was longer than a number of days, and every part that was mentioned. They usually don’t know precisely how he was capable of glean details about her household, together with the place they lived.
However Edwards ultimately realized sufficient to journey to the house of Mark and Sharie Winek on Nov. 25, the place police say he killed the couple and the lady’s mom, Brooke Winek, earlier than taking the lady away in his automobile. The house was set afire.
Detectives have interviewed the 15-year-old lady, who's within the custody of Riverside County Baby Protecting Providers, and nonetheless have extra questions for her. Police hope a search of digital units belonging to the lady and Edwards will yield some solutions.
“That is nonetheless ongoing,” Gonzalez mentioned. “That is going to be a prolonged investigation.”
Gonzalez described Edwards’ actions as “catfishing”: an individual luring somebody into a web based relationship by pretending to be somebody he isn’t to be able to obtain sexual gratification both on-line or in particular person.
Mychelle Blandin, Brooke Winek’s sister, made an emotional plea on the information convention for folks to assist stop comparable tragedies.
“Please know your youngster’s on-line exercise. Ask questions on what they’re doing and whom they're speaking to. Anyone can say they’re another person. And you may be on this state of affairs, which I don’t need for the world. When you find yourself speaking to your youngsters in regards to the hazard of their on-line actions, please use us as a reference. Inform our story to assist your parenting. Not out of concern, however out of an instance of one thing that did occur,” Blandin mentioned.
Different particulars in regards to the case additionally emerged Wednesday, together with:
• Police consider the three victims weren't killed by gunfire, although police wouldn't say the exact method by which they died pending the Riverside County Coroner’s Workplace autopsies, which had been anticipated to be performed Wednesday. Gonzalez described the crime scene as “grotesque.”
• Police have served search warrants on the Winek and Edwards properties, recovering a pc and different digital units on the Edwards house. Police, as soon as they study on which on-line platforms the messages had been exchanged, will ask these platforms for information. Police on Wednesday wouldn't launch the sworn statements written by investigators to acquire the search warrants as a result of they'd not all been served.
• Riverside police dispatchers, after they obtained the license plate variety of Edwards’ automobile, did a information verify and realized that Edwards was a legislation enforcement officer who had lately filed a police report on vandalism to his automobile, Gonzalez mentioned. The report included his cellphone quantity, and police used information from cellphone towers to seek out him within the huge, distant Mojave Desert.
A San Bernardino County sheriff’s helicopter crew used that info, and an outline of Edwards’ automobile, to meet up with him within the city of Kelso at round 1:15 p.m., about three hours after the killings. Patrol deputies arrived and a pursuit befell, throughout which he fired upon the deputies, hanging a SWAT car, the Sheriff’s Division mentioned. Edwards then crashed, and the lady obtained out of the automobile. She was not bodily harmed.
Edwards then exited and pointed his gun on the helicopter, the Sheriff’s Division mentioned, prompting deputies to fireplace on him. The Coroner’s Workplace on Tuesday dominated that Edwards died by suicide. Beforehand, the Sheriff’s Division had mentioned solely that Edwards died after deputies fired upon him. Data on whether or not Edwards fired his legislation enforcement-issued gun was “not obtainable” Wednesday, San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Mara Rodriguez mentioned.
Blandin mentioned a neighbor who knew her mother and father for years referred to as police after they noticed the lady in misery and getting into that unfamiliar automobile.
“That decision from that neighbor saved my niece’s life,” Blandin mentioned, her voice trembling. “That neighbor is a hero in our eyes.”
Riverside police mentioned they don't but know whether or not Edwards used a police pc to alternate messages with the teenager or whether or not there are different victims. In addition they mentioned they nonetheless don’t know whether or not the lady went willingly or was kidnapped. They don’t consider she was complicit within the killings or the hearth, the reason for which stays beneath investigation.
Particulars about how Edwards was capable of move psychological and lie-detector assessments to develop into a police officer in Virginia had been scarce Wednesday.
“A sociopath can defeat a polygraph,” Gonzalez mentioned.