Austin Lee Edwards: 'Catfishing' cop killed himself using service pistol during shootout with SWAT team

Officials have discovered that the Virginia trooper who catfished a 15-year-old southern California girl, abducted her, and killed her three family members, killed himself by using his own service pistol. After traveling across the country to the girl's Riverside home, Austin Lee Edwards murdered and killed her family before allegedly setting the house on fire. He then committed suicide during the shootout with the SWAT squad. After tricking the girl into believing he was a 17-year-old kid by using a phoney identity, Edwards drove 2,500 miles to the girl's home. Authorities are trying to determine how he was able to locate the girl. He killed Brooke Winek, 38, her mother Mark Winek, 69, and his wife Sharie Winek, 65, upon arriving at the girl's house. He then set the house on fire and fled with Brooke Winek's 15-year-old daughter. At first, it was claimed that Edwards had been killed by what seemed to be police fire during the shootout with them. However, Edwards was killed by a bullet that came from a weapon in his division. According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, "detectives found the gun used was Edwards' department-issued semi-automatic service handgun." Fortunately, the 15-year-old girl escaped the shootout unscathed, and she is now receiving trauma therapy. [caption id="attachment_70864" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] 69-year-old Mark Winek, his wife 65-year-old Sharie Winek, and their daughter 38-year-old Brooke Winek were killed Nov 25 by a Virginia sheriff's deputy that had catfished Brooke's teenage daughter Riverside Police Department[/caption] While police reported that Edwards had committed suicide, a video appeared to show at least two of his coworkers from the Virginia residence of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, where he was employed. Deputies were seen hauling a sheriff's truck and garbage bag from the man's recently acquired home, where he had blacked up the windows. The Southern California authorities looking into the matter claimed they were unaware of the actions conducted by the deputies from Washington County. The Smyth County Sheriff's Department said, "We are not aware of any action taken at his house previous to the November 26 search warrant." The employee said, "We are not aware of any new searches." A lawyer who spoke with the Times called the situation "odd" and questioned why cops from Edwards' home county of Washington County would enter another county to conduct a search. "This is strange right off the bat because Washington County doesn't have jurisdiction to do anything in Smyth County," said Yancey Ellis, a partner in Carmichael, Ellis & Brock, a criminal defense firm in Virginia. "If you want to do something in another county you should go to local law enforcement," she told the LA Times. "This smells pretty bad," said one criminal lawyer based in Washington, DC. "There are only a handful of potential causes for something to occur, and none of them are desirable or authorized." It's unclear if the deputies who went to the home of the murdered Edward had a search warrant. Another alarming event exposed Edwards' detention for psychiatric examination in 2016 after he threatened to harm both himself and his father due to problems with his then-girlfriend. Edwards served at the sheriff's office in Washington County, Virginia, this fall after being approved into the Virginia State Police despite the incident earlier this year.