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She was 15. He advised her he was 17, only a few months shy of 18. They met on Instagram throughout the summer time of 2022.
The lady, who lived together with her mom, youthful sister and grandparents in Riverside, stored their “relationship” a secret from her household. They might ship messages by way of Instagram and speak over Discord, an instantaneous messaging platform that permits voice calls.
He showered her with items, sending her jewellery, groceries, cash and present playing cards. He paid for her UberEats and DoorDash deliveries and helped her purchase birthday items for her associates, telling her he had a superb job that might pay for it.
However then he bought clingy — pushy, even. He was pressuring her to ship nude images, which made her uncomfortable. Proper after Halloween, she broke up with him.
She blocked him on Instagram, however he nonetheless discovered a method to ship her a suicide letter.
In actuality, the “boy” she had been speaking to was a 28-year-old sheriff’s deputy from Virginia named Austin Lee Edwards. And on Black Friday, a couple of weeks after the teenager broke up with him, he drove to her house in Riverside and killed her mom, Brooke Winek, 38, and her grandparents, Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65. He set hearth to their home earlier than kidnapping the teenager at gunpoint. After getting right into a shootout with police, Edwards shot himself together with his service weapon and died, in accordance with police. The teenager was bodily unhurt.
New, grisly particulars in regards to the incident at the moment are coming to mild by way of a federal lawsuit that the now-16-year-old and her foster mom filed Friday in opposition to Edwards’ property; the Washington County Sheriff’s Workplace in Virginia, which employed him on the time of the killings; Washington County Sheriff Blake Andis; and Det. William Smarr, the investigator who reviewed Edwards’ employment software on the company.
The lawsuit alleges violation of her 4th Modification rights, false imprisonment, negligent hiring, assault and battery, amongst different costs. Scott Perry, the teenager’s legal professional, stated the damages quantity to at the very least $50 million.
The submitting is the second go well with by a member of the Winek household in opposition to the Sheriff’s workplace — Mychelle Blandin, Mark and Sharie Winek’s surviving daughter, filed a lawsuit final 12 months, alleging negligent hiring practices and in search of greater than $100 million in damages. The lawsuits hinge partly on reporting by The Occasions that detailed how police employed Edwards regardless of his troubling psychological well being historical past.
In February 2016, Edwards was detained by Abingdon police in Virginia after he minimize himself and threatened to kill himself and his father, who advised police the incident was spurred by Edwards’ issues together with his girlfriend, The Occasions reported. The incident prompted two custody orders, Edwards’ keep at a psychiatric facility and a court docket’s revocation of his gun rights, which had been by no means restored.
Mychelle Blandin appears at images of her mother, dad and sister, who had been victims of a triple murder in Riverside that authorities say started with a “catfishing” case involving Blandin’s niece.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Perry is arguing that Edwards ought to by no means have been employed and that the sheriff’s workplace did not interview most of Edwards’ references or conduct a correct background verify. If that they had, they might have found the psychological well being orders, the lawsuit claims.
“The Washington County’s Sheriff’s workplace gave Austin Lee Edwards a gun, a badge and cloaked him with the authority of the legislation,” Perry stated in a press release. “He used this stuff to realize entry to the Winek house and commit these atrocities. We are going to show that an ample investigation of Edwards’ background would have prevented this tragedy.”
{The teenager} and her foster guardian declined interviews for this story. The Washington County Sheriff’s workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark.
In keeping with The Occasions’ overview of Edwards’ personnel file, which incorporates his employment software, Smarr selected to not interview Edwards’ father, who was listed as a reference, due to their “shut familial relationship,” the detective wrote. Smarr spoke with Edwards’ earlier employer at Lowe’s, however he couldn’t pay money for two of Edwards’ private references or his two neighbors.
Smarr additionally sought background info from the Virginia State Police, the place Edwards had been employed for 9 months earlier than resigning and making use of to Washington County. However Smarr was rebuffed by a sergeant there, who stated he wasn’t snug answering whether or not Edwards had gotten in any bother, been reprimanded or been subjected to an inside investigation.
Along with Smarr, the lieutenant and captain of the Washington County Sheriff’s legal investigation division signed off on Edwards’ employment software, as did its personnel director and chief deputy, in accordance with the file.
“Edwards has no legal historical past or civil points, previous and present employers converse positively of him, in addition to his references,” Smarr wrote. “It’s my perception that Edwards is hirable.”
The latest lawsuit additionally solutions some lingering questions in regards to the crime, together with how Edwards met {the teenager}, why he determined to kill her household, and the place he deliberate to take the teenager after kidnapping her. Right here is an account of what transpired throughout that fateful Thanksgiving vacation weekend, taken from the lawsuit and former reporting by The Occasions.
{The teenager} celebrated Thanksgiving 2022 together with her mom, her youthful sister and her mom’s boyfriend at Golden Corral. Afterward, they went to the Moreno Valley condo the place her mom’s boyfriend lived and stayed there in a single day.
The subsequent day, Brooke Winek and her daughters went to Starbucks, planning to go Black Friday procuring with Brooke’s boyfriend. After they bought again to the condo, Brooke bought a name from her mom, Sharie, who advised her to take the decision off speakerphone as a result of they wanted to talk about one thing critical.
Undated handout picture of 28-year-old Austin Lee Edwards of North Chesterfield, Va.
(Riverside Police Dept.)
The Occasions reported final 12 months that Edwards gained entry to Sharie and Mark Winek’s house on Worth Courtroom by pretending he was a detective conducting an investigation involving {the teenager}. After entering into the Wineks’ house, Edwards advised Sharie to name Brooke and inform her that she and {the teenager} wanted to come back to the home so he may ask them some questions.
With the intention to maintain the “investigation” from her daughters, Brooke advised them there was one thing incorrect with their telephones and that they wanted to return to their house on Worth Courtroom to get them fastened. Brooke then dropped off her youthful daughter with Brooke’s sister, Blandin, earlier than heading over to Worth Courtroom.
The teenager recalled that, as soon as they bought to the home, Brooke put her keys in her purse and advised her to attend within the automobile whereas she went inside. The teenager observed that she didn’t see her mom’s canine within the window, which was uncommon as a result of the canine at all times perched there every time individuals visited the house.
After ready for some time, the teenager determined to enter the home. As she opened the display door, Edwards grabbed her by the hair and pulled her inside.
Within the second, she thought the person grabbing her was the phone repairman. She didn’t understand it was the person who had catfished her.
Then she noticed the our bodies of her grandmother close to the entryway, her grandfather subsequent to the steps and her mom mendacity on the hardwood flooring. She noticed the baggage over their heads, taped to their necks. Their legs and arms had been certain with duct tape.
The teenager began to scream.
Edwards was carrying a gold police badge on his belt within the form of a star. As she yelled, he pointed a handgun, which additionally had a star engraved on it, at her.
“Cease screaming,” he stated.
She acknowledged his voice. It was the “boy” she had met on-line, whom she had been speaking to for months.
“Are you going to harm me?” she requested.
“I’ll in case you maintain screaming,” he replied.
Edwards grabbed the teenager and pulled her by way of the home, dousing every thing with gasoline from a canister he introduced with him and lighting the rooms on hearth. He additionally opened the home windows and doorways so the flames would unfold. Then he took the lady exterior and compelled her into the backseat of his crimson Kia Soul.
Household picture of slain victims Brooke Winek, 38, and her mother and father Sharie Winek, 65, and Mark Winek, 69.
(Winek Household Images / Los Angeles Occasions)
In the meantime, the Wineks’ next-door neighbor noticed the home on hearth and referred to as 911. One other neighbor, whose driveway Edwards had parked in, additionally referred to as the police. She phoned the authorities once more when she noticed Edwards power the teenager into his automobile.
After dashing away, Edwards advised the teenager to fake that she was his daughter if anybody requested. He stated he was going to take her again to Virginia. When the lady requested why he killed her household, he stated that if he didn’t, they might “report it” and he wouldn’t have sufficient time to flee.
Edwards additionally stated he was a police officer and that companies “must do higher backgrounds” as a result of he “lied” throughout the hiring course of. As he continued to drive towards his eventual vacation spot of Saltville, Va., the place he had lately bought a house and blacked out the home windows, he stored his hand on his gun. Within the automobile with them was additionally the massive, bloody knife he used to stab Brooke.
They made two pitstops throughout the drive to make use of the restroom, however Edwards by no means let go of the teenager’s hand. In addition they made a cease so Edwards may clear the blood off himself. He advised the lady that they wouldn’t cease for meals till they left California and that they might drive to Virginia by way of Las Vegas, New Mexico and Texas. She must keep within the backseat, he stated, till they bought her a change of garments.
The Riverside Police Division recognized Edwards by way of interviews with neighbors, who supplied descriptions of his automobile and video footage from safety cameras. Police decided that he was within the Mojave Desert and alerted San Bernardino County authorities, who chased after his Kia Soul.
In the course of the pursuit, Edwards fired his gun by way of the again window of the automobile, inflicting the Kia to fill with smoke. The gasoline canister, which Edwards had positioned within the backseat with the teenager, splashed her with gasoline.
Edwards’ Kia drifted off the highway and bought caught on some rocks beneath a bridge, enabling the police automobiles to catch up.
As legislation enforcement closed in, Edwards advised the teenager to get out of the automobile.
With nowhere else left to go, he turned his service weapon on himself and pulled the set off.
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