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A Virginia state trooper who drove across the country to kidnap a California teenager he met online, killing her grandparents and mother, had previously groomed an underage girl online, it has reported.
Austin Lee Edwards, 28, murdered Mark Winek, 69; his wife, Sharie Winek, 65; and his 38-year-old daughter, Brooke Winek, on November 25. He set his Riverside home on fire and drove off with Brooke’s 15-year-old daughter.
Edwards had made the 2,500-mile journey to the girl’s home after he misled her under a false identity, claiming he was a 17-year-old boy.
Edwards was chased by the police and later shot himself; the teenager, who has not been named, was uninjured.
It was revealed on Sunday that Edwards had previously groomed an underage girl online nearly a decade ago, encouraging her to send him explicit photos when she was 13 and he was 20.
Austin Lee Edwards, 28, took his own life with his service weapon during a shootout with police in Southern California. He has now reported that he previously stalked and groomed a 13-year-old girl, when she was 20.
Authorities continue to investigate the deaths of Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, as well as the girl’s mother, Brooke Winek, 38.
Authorities say Edwards traveled more than 2,000 miles from her home in Virginia to meet the unidentified teen at her home in Riverside, California.
The anonymous woman said los angeles times that she shared nude photos of herself as a child with Edwards, having met online on the platform Omegle, which matches random users to communicate.
Over the next two years they chatted on Skype, and Edwards suggested that he go see her, telling her that he found a round-trip ticket to his anonymous state for $263.
The woman showed The LA Times more than 4,000 messages, and Edwards appeared deeply disturbed.
He used racial slurs, mistakenly thinking she was black, and when the young woman said she couldn’t Skype because her mother was present, he replied: ‘Kill her.’
He would self-harm and tell her that she was his only reason for living.
In February 2016, he was involuntarily sectioned for psychiatric evaluation after self-harm.
She blocked him in September of that year, but he repeatedly tried to contact her again, until 2020.
The woman said she was amazed that he was accepted as a state trooper despite his long history of mental instability.
“This guy stalked me and groomed me when I was a kid,” she said.
“I felt so bad seeing his face because I hadn’t seen him in years. I read the whole story and it made me feel disgusting.
She added: ‘It’s crazy that he was able to become a cop with me knowing his mental health issues.
“I don’t understand how he got through it all because he was so important to me that I was in so much trouble just talking to him in that period of time.”
Brooke has been described as a loving single mother with two teenage daughters.
Mark Winek (pictured) was a long-time girls’ softball coach at Arlington High School.
Records show that Austin Lee Edwards bought this house in Saltville, Virginia, 11 days before he murdered three people in Southern California.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office deputies were seen removing a sheriff’s truck and a black trash bag from his home before an official search was conducted.
The house is described as a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home in the city of Saltville, with a population of less than 2,000.
She told The LA Times she wasn’t “at all surprised” that it was Edwards who killed the Riverside family because she “knew how terrifying it was,” adding that he threatened violence if she didn’t send nude photos.
“That’s when I realized I wasn’t mentally stable,” he said.
She said she found the revelation that he told Brooke Winek’s daughter he was 17 years old completely credible.
“Austin was very good at manipulating people,” the woman said.
‘I’m sure the people who met him in person had no idea how old he was. [the Riverside teenager] actually it was.
It was revealed last month that Edwards’ co-workers in Virginia removed items from his home before an official search was carried out.
Edwards’ colleagues allegedly removed a sheriff’s van and a black trash bag from the man’s home in Abingdon, Virginia, on the same day the California slayings occurred.
Last month, DailyMail.com reported that Edwards was detained in 2016 for psychiatric evaluation after threatening to kill himself and his father.
Edwards had gotten into a violent altercation while apparently having a nervous breakdown over problems he was having with his then-girlfriend.
A police report described how Edwards’ father, Christopher Edwards, called police to the family’s home, where they found him struggling to hold his son down 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 accepted into the Virginia State Police earlier this year and also served with the sheriff’s office in Washington County, Virginia, this fall.
Family and friends continue to mourn the Winek family members who were killed by Edwards on November 25 in Riverside.
Antonio Castro, a next-door neighbor who spoke to DailyMail.com reporters, described the Wineks as a loving and kind family.
A GoFundMe for the family has raised more than $88,000 as of December 11, dedicated to supporting the two surviving teens.
‘Mark Winek was a loving father, grandfather, uncle, brother, and coach at Arlington High School. Sharie Winek was a sweet and loving mother, grandmother, sister and aunt who enjoyed spending time with her family,” the page said.
“Brooke Winek was a loving single mother with the biggest heart and found her greatest joy in following her daughter in the Flag Guard at Arlington High School.”
Photos, flowers and prayer candles have been left in front of the house in Riverside, California.
Authorities continue to investigate the death of his grandparents and mother. It is not clear if they died before the fire broke out.
A GoFundMe for the family has raised over $-88,000, dedicated to supporting the two surviving teens.
Riverside police were first called to the 11200 block of Price Court just before 11 a.m. on November 25 to check on the welfare of a girl who appeared distressed as she got into a red Kia Soul with an unknown man, who it was later discovered to be 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.
This is the Riverside, California home where Edwards allegedly killed three members of the Winek family before setting the house on fire.
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, they say, Edwards fired at them.
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.