Cop who catfished girl before murdering her family was detained in 2016 for psychiatric evaluation

The Virginia state trooper who caught and kidnapped a 15-year-old California girl, then murdered her mother and grandparents, was detained in 2016 for psychiatric evaluation after threatening to kill himself and her father.

A newly obtained police report by the Los Angeles Times showed that 28-year-old Austin Lee Edwards got into a violent altercation while apparently having a nervous breakdown over problems he was having with his then-girlfriend.

The disturbing report described how Edwards’ father, Christopher Edwards, called police to the family’s home, where they found him struggling to hold on to his son on the kitchen floor.

Edwards was taken into custody and told officers that he intended to harm himself and his father at the time the handcuffs were removed, prompting authorities to commit him to a psychiatric hospital.

Despite the incident, Edwards was still accepted into the Virginia State Police earlier this year and also served with the sheriff’s office in Washington County, Virginia this fall.

Edwards killed himself when police chased him down last month after he drove across the country and carried out his massacre. He had posed as a 17-year-old boy online while communicating with the teenage victim, who survived the ordeal physically unscathed.

The police report showed that on the Sunday night of the Super Bowl in 2016, Christopher Edwards and his son watched the game and had a couple of beers each before going to bed.

Later that night, Christopher Edwards heard his son, then 21, in the bathroom making noise. When he called out to him and got no answer, the father forced his way into the bathroom to find Edwards inside with a cut hand.

The report says Christopher Edwards called an ambulance and his son went to his bedroom where he sat on his bed and repeatedly opened and closed a pocket knife. After learning that an ambulance was on the way, Edwards tried to leave the apartment and his father was forced to subdue him in the kitchen.

Paramedics arrived to find the father and son struggling on the kitchen floor.

According to the report, paramedics were alarmed by Edwards’ “resistance to medical help and attempts to escape his father’s control,” and called police.

The policemen arrived around 3:30 am where they found that the fight between father and son was continuing amid a “great presence of blood” in the apartment.

When officers told Edwards to show his hands, he “started yelling and threatening everyone.” An officer then took the taser off him, but the father begged him not to taser his son. Eventually, the police were able to handcuff Edwards.

Transported to Johnston Memorial Hospital, Edwards said he planned to kill himself and his father the moment he was released from the handcuffs.

His father had bite marks on his arms. When asked why his son had the episode, he said he didn’t know, but suggested that he might have had something to do with the problems he was having with his girlfriend.

Edwards was then transported to another hospital where he was psychologically evaluated due to his threats.

The doctors there found a ‘substantial probability that, as a result of mental illness, [Edwards] in the near future will harm himself or others due to a ‘lack of ability to protect himself from harm,’ according to the hospital report obtained by the LA Times.

As a result, he was transported to Ridgeview Pavilion, where he remained for observation and treatment. It is not clear how long she stayed.

According to the Virginia State Police, Edwards did not disclose the incident when he joined the force. The spokesperson told the LA Times that they were reviewing the process that led to the hiring of Edwards.

On November 25, police said they were called to the 11200 block of Price Court just before 11 a.m. to check on the welfare of a girl who appeared distressed as she got into a red Kia Soul with an unknown man, who was later discovered. that it was Edwards.

As officers responded to the scene, police began receiving calls about a fire a few houses away.

The Riverside Fire Department discovered three adults lying at the front entrance and took them outside, where rescue personnel “determined they were victims of an apparent homicide,” police said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but it appeared to have been ‘intentionally ignited’, police said, and authorities soon discovered that the girl described in the initial welfare check had lived in the house with her mother and grandparents.

At the time, law enforcement officials in the city, about 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, distributed a description of Edwards’ vehicle to other nearby agencies.

Within a few hours, police were able to locate Edwards’ Kia as he was driving the teen in Kelso, an unincorporated area of ​​San Bernardino County.

When the police finally caught up with him, Edwards fired at them before being fatally shot by at least one officer.

A subsequent investigation found that Edwards had driven from his home in North Chesterfield, Virginia to Riverside, where he parked his vehicle in a neighbor’s driveway and walked to the girl’s home.

While there, authorities say, he murdered the girl’s mother, grandmother and grandfather and set their home on fire before returning to his vehicle with the girl and leaving the scene.