There Are Two Big Issues Here..
By: Tommy “Tj” Sotomayor

And I will discuss them each in two separate shows later today and tomorrow!

A former Virginia state trooper allegedly kidnapped a California teenage girl he had been catfishing online — after murdering her family, according to police.

Authorities say Austin Lee Edwards, 28, drove more than 2,500 miles across the country to Riverside to meet the teen Friday.

Edwards then allegedly killed the girl’s grandparents and mom, set fire to their home, and took off with the victim.

Deputies from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department tracked down Edwards and fatally shot him later that day during a shootout, according to law enforcement.

The juvenile victim who was found with Edwards was unharmed and taken into protective custody by the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

Edwards, from North Chesterfield, Virginia, met the girl online and obtained her personal information by passing himself off as someone else, in a practice commonly known as “catfishing,” the Riverside Police Department said in a press release.

It is unclear how long the two were communicating.

The shocking incident began unfolding just after 11 a.m. Friday when police in Riverside got a call for a welfare check concerning a young woman who “appeared distressed” when getting into a red Kia Soul in the 11200 block of Price Court.

While officers were responding, dispatchers were then alerted to smoke and a possible fire a few houses away from where police were called for the welfare check.

The Riverside Fire Department discovered three adults lying in the front entryway and took them outside, where first responders “determined they were victims of an apparent homicide,” police said.

Investigators later determined that the young woman described in the initial welfare call had lived at the house where the three people were found dead, police said.

The bodies found in the scorched Riverside home were identified as the abducted teen’s grandparents and mother — Mark Winek, 69, his wife, Sharie Winek, 65, and their 38-year-old daughter Brooke Winek.

Police have not revealed their causes of death as of Monday but they believe Edwards traveled across the country, parked his car in a neighbor’s driveway, walked to the teen’s home and killed her family before leaving with the girl.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but it appeared to have been “intentionally ignited,” police said. It is unclear if the grandparents and mother were killed before the fire was allegedly set.

Riverside authorities distributed a description of Edwards’ car to law enforcement agencies and several hours later police located the car with Edwards and the teenager in Kelso in San Bernardino County.

Edwards fired gunshots and was killed by deputies who returned fire, police said.

Edwards was hired by the Virginia State Police and entered the police academy on July 6, 2021. He graduated as a trooper on Jan. 21, 2022, and was assigned to Henrico County within the agency’s Richmond Division until his resignation on Oct. 28.

Edwards also worked for the Washington County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia, authorities in California said.

Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez called the case “yet another horrific reminder of the predators existing online who prey on our children.”175What do you think? Post a comment.

During a vigil held Saturday, friends and neighbors described the Wineks as a caring and loving family who were deeply involved in their community.

“You can’t ask for a better friend than Mark,” Ron Smith, Mark Winek’s friend of 30 years, told the Mercury News. “There’s going to be a hole in my heart that’s going to be hard to fill.”

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Hands were tied behind their backs and one had tape over her mouth.’ Virginia State Trooper who murdered California family bound and gagged his three victims before setting their house on fire and kidnapping teen girl, neighbor reveals

• Austin Lee Edwards, 28, was shot dead by California deputies after he drove across the country to meet a teenage girl he catfished online
• He is also believed to have set fire to the girl’s home in Riverside, California, and killed her mother and grandparents before fleeing with the teen on Friday
• Neighbor Sergio Gutierrez told DailyMail.com he saw that the three bodies carried out of the house by first responders had been bound and gagged
• ‘Their hands were tied behind their backs. One lady had tape over her mouth. It was frightening,’ he said
• The unidentified girl is now safe and was taken into protective custody 
• Authorities are continuing to investigate the deaths of her grandparents, Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, as well as her mother, Brooke Winek, 38

Austin Lee Edwards, 28, a former Virginia State trooper was shot and killed by California deputies after he drove across the country to kidnap a teenage girl he was catfishing and murdered her family

The Riverside, California, family murdered on Friday were bound and gagged by their predator cop murderer, a neighbor revealed.

Grandparents Mark, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, and their daughter Brooke, 38, were killed, their house set on fire and their 15-year-old granddaughter kidnapped by a Virginia ex-cop who ‘catfished’ her on the internet. He was shot dead after a police pursuit.

Neighbor Sergio Gutierrez told DailyMail.com he later saw that the three bodies carried out of the house by emergency responders had been bound and gagged.

‘I looked with binoculars from the back window of my house,’ the 68-year-old resident of the Riverside cul-de-sac said. ‘They carried them out. Their hands were tied behind their backs. One lady had tape over her mouth. It was frightening.’ADVERTISEMENT

Washington County, Virginia, trooper Austin Lee Edwards, 28, is believed to have killed the three adults, bundled the teenage girl into his red car and sped off on a highway heading east, where he was spotted by police, apprehended and killed in a shootout.

Gutierrez said a few weeks earlier he had spotted a red Kia Soul parked on the street near the home, and believes the predator may have been surveilling his victims before pouncing.

‘It was a couple of weeks or a month ago I saw the red car,’ he said. ‘It looked suspicious, I think it might have been him.’

The young teen Edwards kidnapped managed to escape his car when he was driven off the road by police, and has since been taken into protective custody by Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the deaths of Mark Winek, 69, and Sharie Winek, 65, as well as the girl’s mother, Brooke Winek, 38. Neighbor Sergio Gutierrez told DailyMail.com he saw that the three bodies carried out of the house by first responders had been bound and

The Winek home in Riverside, California, is seen with fire damage after the Virginia cop set it on fire. Their neighbor said, ‘Their hands were tied behind their backs. One lady had tape over her mouth. It was frightening’

Antonio Castro, a next door neighbor, said the teen also had a sister of a similar age, and that the Wineks were a loving and kind family. 

Social media for the kidnapped and bereaved teen shows she was a keen dancer and member of her high school’s color guard.

Washington County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on Monday decrying Edwards as ‘evil and wicked’ and offering their condolences to the surviving family.

The office said Edwards completed police academy training in January this year and had been working as a Virginia state trooper. They hired him as a patrolman on November 16.

‘It is shocking and sad to the entire law enforcement community that such an evil and wicked person could infiltrate law enforcement while concealing his true identity as a computer predator and murderer. 

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the Winek family, their friends, officers, and all of those affected by this heinous crime,’ Washington County Sheriff Blake Andis said in a statement.

A GoFundMe for the family has raised over $31,000 by Monday, dedicated to supporting the two surviving teenage girls.

‘Mark Winek was a loving Father, Grandfather, Uncle, Brother, and Coach at Arlington High School. Sharie Winek was a sweet and caring Mother, Grandmother, Sister, and Aunt who cherished spending time with her family,’ the page said.

‘Brooke Winek was a beloved single mother with the biggest heart and found her most immense joy in following her daughter in the Color Guard at Arlington High School.

‘Mark Winek [with his granddaughters] was a loving Father, Grandfather, Uncle, Brother, and Coach at Arlington High School. Sharie Winek was a sweet and caring Mother, Grandmother, Sister, and Aunt who cherished spending time with her family,’ the page said

Photos, flowers and prayer candles have been left in front of the home in Riverside, California 

Authorities are continuing to investigate the deaths of her grandparents and mother. It is unclear whether they were killed before the fire broke out

A GoFundMe for the family has raised over $31,000 by Monday, dedicated to supporting the two Surviving teenage girls

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but appeared to have been ‘intentionally ignited,’ police said

A close friend and next door neighbor of the Winek family, Bonnie Davis, told DailyMail.com she was in her back yard cutting up Thanksgiving turkey when she saw smoke coming from her neighbors’ house.

‘I was taking my turkey and ham apart out in the back. Then I saw the smoke. I called 911. I was frantic.

‘I saw the flames coming out the front and out the windows.’

Davis said she didn’t hear a gunshot, suggesting the killer may not have used a gun.

‘I was outside, I would have heard something,’ she said.

The 59-year-old said the Wineks became ‘like family’ when she moved to the quiet Riverside cul-de-sac from the East Coast 22 years ago.

‘They were my extended family. When we moved in here they welcomed us with open arms,’ she said.

‘Every neighborhood needs a Winek family. They were the all-American, loving, caring, supporting family.

‘Just recently Brooke had a pair of Crocs on, I was admiring them. Sharie said ‘Brooke, go order her some’. That’s the type of people they were, they were so loving.’

Davis said that after her husband died suddenly, Mark started mowing her lawn for her to help out – and eight years later was still doing it.

She also had fierce words for the late cop accused of the murder and kidnap.

‘This son of a b***h that did this. He has no clue what he took away from this world,’ she said. This b***ard came out here and did this to them unnecessarily. There’s no reason for it, none. I just can’t make sense of it.’

On Monday afternoon she read out a statement from the Winek family to assembled reporters.

‘I just want everybody to know they were a very much-loved family in this community,’ she said.

‘The Winek family would like to thank everyone for their love, support and patience during this horrific time in their lives. Mark, Sharie and Brooke were loving people who didn’t deserve this tragedy.

‘We’re still processing the new information provided by authorities and will be speaking further at a press conference in conjunction with the Riverside Police Department this week.’

Davis, who stood outside the torched Winek home with her son Bryant, 25, declined to give details of who the two surviving teenage daughters would be living with.

Riverside Police said the kidnapped 15-year-old had been taken into protective custody by Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

The surviving family are planning to hold a press conference with Riverside Police in the coming days.

Authorities say Edwards met the girl online and obtained her personal information by deceiving her with a false identity, known as ‘catfishing,’ before he decided to meet her in person over 2,000 miles away from where he lived.

He had been working with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at the time, which has since slammed him as an ‘evil and wicked person.’  

‘We had a grandmother, grandfather and a mother of this teen murdered by this suspect who traveled from across the country for, most likely the sexual exploitation of this teenager,’ Officer Ryan Railsback told ABC 7. ‘I can’t make sense of it’: Friend of murdered Winek family speaks

Neighbor and close friend Bonnie Davis told DailyMail.com she was in her back yard cutting up Thanksgiving turkey when she saw smoke coming from her neighbors’ house

Davis stood outside the torched Winek home with her son Bryant, 25. She declined to give details of who the two surviving teenage daughters would be living with

The unidentified girl is now safe and was taken into protective custody by the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

Meanwhile, authorities are continuing to investigate the deaths of her grandparents and mother. It is unclear whether they were killed before the fire broke out. 

Police in Riverside said they were first called to the 11200 block of Price Court just before 11am on Friday to check on the welfare of a young girl who appeared distressed while getting into a red Kia Soul with an unknown man — later found to be Edwards.

While officers were responding to the scene, police began to receive calls about a fire just a few houses away.

The Riverside Fire Department discovered three adults lying in the front entryway and took them outside, where rescue personnel ‘determined they were victims of an apparent homicide,’ police said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, but appeared to have been ‘intentionally ignited,’ police said, and authorities soon discovered that the girl described in the initial welfare check had lived in the house with her mother and grandparents. 

At that point, law enforcement officials in the town — about 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles — distributed a description of Edwards’ vehicle to other agencies nearby.

Within a few hours, police were able to track down Edwards’ Kia as he drove the teenager in Kelso, an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County. 

When police finally caught up with him, they say, Edwards fired shots at them before being fatally shot himself by at least one deputy. 

An ensuing investigation found that Edwards had driven from his home in North Chesterfield, Virginia to Riverside, where he parked his vehicle in a neighbor’s driveway and walked to the girl’s home.

Authorities say Edwards traveled over 2,000 miles from  his home in Virginia to meet the unnamed teenage girl at her home in Riverside, California

Brooke has been described as a loving single mother to two teenage daughters+14View gallery

Mark Winek (pictured) was a longtime girls’ softball coach at Arlington High School+14View gallery

Madison Kay (left, who was one of Mark Winek’s softball student) paid tribute to the dead grandfather. The student recounted how Mark (right) would text her every holiday to check in, even after she graduated from high school

Friends and family members have now taken to social media to remember the Wineks, who have been described as staples of the Riverside community.

They were always neighborly and went out of their way to help others in the community, residents told ABC 7 at a vigil on Saturday night.

‘I just want everyone to know how loving they were,’ said Bonnie Davis, who has lived next door to them for two decades. ‘They don’t deserve this.’

She added that she is no longer eating or sleeping as she tries to comprehend what has happened, saying: ‘They were just that type [of] people that you would just never wake up to think that you would hear this of them.’

Mark Winek was a longtime coach at Arlington High School, whom friends and family describe as a family man who was always willing to help others out.

‘My Uncle Mark was an avid Notre Dame, Packer and Angel fan,’ Errick Winek wrote in a tribute to his family members. ‘He never faulted me, despite wearing Dodger blue in the spring and attending the university of a hated rival.

‘He gave the best hugs that always made me feel like everything was right.’

Madison Kay, a former softball player at Arlington High School, also told DailyMail.com how ‘he was so sweet and didn’t have a bad bone to him.’

She said he would randomly blurt out ‘Dilly Dilly’ during practices — a saying that caught on among his students. He also regularly talked about his granddaughters, whom Kay said ‘were his absolute world.’

‘I graduated three years ago, and he would never miss a beat to text me every holiday and check in with me,’ Kay said. ‘This is a tragedy that someone could do this.’ 

Sharie, meanwhile, has been described a caring mother, with Errick saying she ‘was the most tirelessly, selfless person.’

‘Very few rival her devotion to her family and level of altruism.’ 

Brooke has been described as a loving single mother to her two teenage girls.