WASHINGTON — Austin Lee Edwards, the cop who “catfished” a 15-year-old Riverside, California, girl and killed her grandparents and mother before taking his own life, used his own father as one of three character references on his application for a job as a sheriff’s deputy.
Edwards signed on with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in rural Virginia weeks after resigning from a nine-month stint with the Virginia State Police. He killed the family in Riverside nine days after beginning work in Washington County.
Edwards used his father, a close friend and his Virginia State Police field training officer as references when applying to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, according to his employment application, which The Times obtained through a public records request.
