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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
National
Grace Toohey and Summer Lin

Catfishing cop pretended to be 17, ‘groomed’ California girl before killing her family, then himself

Austin Lee Edwards Riverside Police Sharie Winek Mark Winek Riverside Police Department Virginia Brooke Winek Ryan Railsback Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — The 28-year-old Virginia cop who killed three family members of a Riverside teenager had posed online as a teen to “groom” the 15-year-old girl, the Riverside Police Department said Wednesday.

Austin Lee Edwards portrayed himself as a 17-year-old while communicating online with the girl, using “grooming” methods, which can include tactics such as asking for or offering sexually explicit images, providing gifts and offering compliments, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said at a news conference.

Gonzalez said it is still under investigation how long the digital relationship between Edwards and the teen girl transpired and what platform they used to meet or communicate, but investigators believe many of those typical exploitative strategies for “sextortion” were used in this case.

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