Following a law enforcement chase, the Virginia state trooper accused of “catfishing” a 15-year-old girl and then killing three members of her family shot himself with his own service pistol.
Austin Lee Edwards, who posed as a 17-year-old boy online in order to seek nude images from the teen, murdered himself in late November after a gunfight with San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies.
In an email to the Los Angeles Times on Friday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said, “Detectives found the weapons used was Edwards’ department-issued semi-automatic service handgun.”
Austin Lee Edwards pretended to be a 17-year-old kid online in order to request naked photos from a 15-year-old girl.
The teenager’s grandparents, Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, were discovered dead inside the house.
38-year-old Brooke Winek, the 15-year-old girl’s mother, was among those killed.
Edwards traveled across the country from Virginia to the teen’s Riverside home. Authorities claim that after killing the kid’s mother and grandparents, he set fire to her home and fled with the girl, finally dying himself.
After it was revealed that Edward had been held in 2016 for a psychiatric evaluation for threatening to kill his father and himself, Virginia State Police confirmed this week that his hiring was the result of “human error.”
»Austin Lee Edwards, a ‘catfishing’ cop, killed himself with his own gun«