This is why parents warn their children not to get involved with strangers online. 

An online conversation turned into a tragedy after a Virginia sheriff’s deputy traveled all the way to California and murdered three family members of a 15-year-old teenage girl he had met online, set their house on fire, and then tried to kidnap the girl.

Austin Lee Edwards, 28, an ex-trooper with the Virginia State Police, had just started working for the Washington County Sheriff’s office when he committed the heinous murders and then drove off with the teenager.

On Friday, November 25, the Riverside Police Department received a 911 call in the morning requesting them to do a welfare check after a distressed young woman was spotted getting into a car with an unknown man.

As the police responded to the scene, another call came in about a fire at a nearby home. Fire Department officials rushed to the house, where they found three bodies, who police determined had been victims of a homicide.

Police later identified the murder victims as Mark Winek, 69, his wife Sharie Winek, 65, and the couple’s daughter, Brooke Winek, 38. They also said the man who kidnapped the teenager was Austin Lee Edwards.

After an initial investigation, police tracked down Edwards’ car several hours later. They found Edwards driving the teenager around San Bernardino County.

When San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office officers finally caught up with the suspect, Edwards opened fire at them. The deputies returned fire and fatally shot him, and according to the police, they pronounced Edwards dead at the scene of the shootout.

Fortunately the kidnapped girl was not harmed in the gunfight or by the kidnapper, and the police placed her into the protective custody of the Public Social Services Department of Riverside County.

The Riverside Police Department released a  statement saying they believed the suspect and the teenager had met online and developed a relationship. That is how the officer got her personal information. Edwards had lured the teenager into a relationship under a false identity (“catfished”) and then traveled from Virginia to California to meet her.

Edwards parked his car near the home and went to the teenager’s house. It is unclear what transpired in the home, but at some point, he killed the teenager’s mother, grandfather, and grandmother, then walked back to his car with the scared teen and left.

Edward, whose home is in North Chesterfield, traveled over 2,500 miles to Riverside to meet the girl.

The suspect quit the Virginia State Police and had just been hired by the Washington County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia two weeks before and was in the process of being assigned to its patrol division.

In a statement released by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Blake Andis expressed his anger and shock that such a person could conceal his true identity as a murderer and infiltrate the department. He also consoled the family and friends of the murder victims.

He said that the department had contacted all past employers, including the Virginia State Police, but no one disclosed that they had experienced trouble, reprimanded, or had conducted any internal investigations on Edwards.

The police have not yet released the cause of the deaths, and they said they were still investigating what caused the fire at the house, though it looked like someone set it.

Police do not believe the girl was complicit in the crimes.