This is the reason parents warn their teenagers not to get involved with strangers online.
Catfishing refers to luring someone into a relationship online by putting forth a false identity.
A 15-year-old California girl was catfished online and it ended very badly.
The online conversation turned deadly after a Virginia sheriff’s deputy drove thousands of miles to California in his car and murdered three family members of the 15-year-old teenage girl, set their house on fire, and then kidnapped the girl.
Austin Lee Edwards, 28, who pretended to be a 17-year-old online, was an ex-trooper with the Virginia State Police, and was working for the Washington County Sheriff’s office when he committed the evil murders and then nabbed the teen on Friday, November 25, 2022.
The Riverside Police Department received a 911 call in the morning after the teenager was seen involuntarily getting into a car with a stranger.
When the police came to the scene of the abduction, they received another 911 about a fire at a nearby home. Firefighters rushed to the house fire and found three bodies. Police determined they had been the victims of a homicide. They were identified as Mark Winek, 69, his wife Sharie Winek, 65, and their daughter, Brooke Winek, 38.
Police were able to track down Edwards’ car hours later while he was driving around San Bernardino County with the girl. When the police approached Edwards, he started shooting, and the deputies returned fire. Edwards died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
The kidnapped girl was not injured, and she was placed in the protective custody of a social services agency.
The Riverside Police Department released a statement saying that it appears the kidnapper/killer and the teenager had met online and developed a friendship. Edwards had “catfished” the teenager into the relationship under a false identity and had traveled 2,500 miles from Virginia to California to meet her. When he entered the teen’s house, it is unknown what happened that caused him to kill the girl’s family and abduct her, or if that was his plan all along.
The police have not yet released what happened in the house and what caused the fire, but it appears it was set deliberately. The police do not believe that the girl was complicit in the crimes or had been aware of any plan for the violence.
