By Tim Stelloh -
NBC News
The Virginia police officer accused of killing three members of a California family, after impersonating another person (a fraud known in English as
catfishing)
to harass and blackmail a teenager, drove to that state to visit his girlfriend a few days before the massacre, according to a friend of the agent in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
This friend, Tommy Gates, refused to identify the woman the police came to visit, but said they had met online.
He believes he was two to three years younger than the officer, Austin Edwards, 28, and said Edwards had recently bought a house in Saltville, southwest Virginia to start a family with the woman.
According to another friend quoted by NBC News, the couple had been in a relationship for at least five years.
That trip to California raises new questions about the case, such as what plans Edwards made in the days before his arrival in Riverside, Los Angeles, where he was accused of killing the teenager's single mother and her grandparents to flee with the young woman. , 15 years old.
Home of the slain family in California.Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Gates, 27, said he found out about the trip to California from Edwards's father the day after the murders, when the man still believed his son was missing.
He said he's not sure where in California her girlfriend lived, but said her house was not in Riverside, where the murders took place.
Ryan Railsback, a spokesman for the Riverside Police Department, said Thursday that investigators were trying to find out more about Edwards' plans, but he declined to comment.
California investigates the kidnapping of a teenager and the murder of her mother and grandparents
Nov 29, 202200:34
It's unclear what, if any, connection the trip had to a
catfishing
scheme in which authorities believe Edwards posed as a 17-year-old to hook up with the girl.
Gates claimed he was unaware of the alleged plan:
"None of us had a clue
," said the other friend, who asked not to be named because he feared he would be linked to Edwards.
Authorities have identified the victims as Brooke Winek, 38;
Mark Winek, 69;
and Sharie Winek, 65.
The cause of their deaths has not been revealed.
The teenager was not injured.
Edwards committed suicide when cornered by the police.
Mychelle Blandin speaks during a press conference at the Riverside Police Department's Magnolia Station in Riverside, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2022. Watchara Phomicinda / The Orange County Register via AP file
Speaking to the press late last month, Mychelle Blandin, a relative of the Wineks, described her sister Brooke as a dedicated single mother doing her best to raise her two children;
her father, Mark, as a high school baseball and softball coach “with a big kind heart”;
and her mother, Sharie, as the matriarch who "did everything for everyone."
"They are forever in my heart and I miss them deeply," he said, "we are left with the consolation that this person will never hurt anyone again, especially a minor."
A "spontaneous" trip
Edwards had traveled to California because he had some Thanksgiving vacation time, his other friend told NBC News, "he decided to go see [his girlfriend] because he had just enough time to drive back and forth before he had to work on Monday.
It was the first time Edwards had been to see his girlfriend, with whom he used to play
League of Legends
and
Minecraft
, according to Gates.
Neither he nor the other friend knew about the trip in advance, something Gates called unusual.
The second friend claimed he found out from Edwards's father after he failed to tell him he was coming home.
Authorities advise parents how to prevent their children from being 'catfished'
Dec 1, 202201:22
Believing that Edwards was missing, his friends contacted his girlfriend.
In a text message with the other friend, the girlfriend described Edwards' trip as "spontaneous" and said everything had gone well.
“For her, there was nothing unusual in her manner or anything like that,” she stated.
For Gates, this made what happened next that much more horrifying and bewildering.
"I'm angry," he said, "he's my best friend. Before all this, he was one of the people he would have done almost anything for. How could he do something like that?"
plan the future
The last time Gates saw Edwards was in early October, when he visited him in the Richmond area.
Edwards, who had graduated from the Virginia State Police academy in January, was working as a police officer in a county surrounding the capital.
The two went to a festival in Maryland and Edwards seemed “as happy as could be,” Gates recalled, “I don't know what was in his heart and mind.
But before the others he was happy ”.
Before entering the academy, Edwards had dropped out of high school in Richlands, in southwestern Virginia, and earned his GED, Gates said.
She worked at Walmart and Lowe's, according to Gates.
In 2017, she attended Southwest Virginia Community College, without earning certificates or degrees, a spokesperson for the school said.
Shortridge, whose daughter also worked with Edwards at Walmart, recalled hosting a comic-con-type event that Edwards attended and discussing her future with him.
“He said he wanted to find a good job to help his family out of poverty.
And I thought: I respect him very much, ”she explained.
signs of trouble
In high school and for several years afterward, Edwards was prone to bouts of depression, Gates said.
In 2016 he was placed in a psychiatric hold after he threatened to kill his father, according to a police report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
According to Gates, Edwards harmed himself with an axe.
Gates did not know if Edwards had any other run-ins with law enforcement, and said he had been sorry for the incident with his father.
After the murders, Virginia State Police said they had found "no concerning indicators" in a background check on Edwards.
Following the publication of the Los Angeles Times article, police said Wednesday that "human error resulted in an incomplete database query" during their hiring process.
"While we believe this is an isolated incident, steps are being taken to ensure the error is not repeated," he said.
"It's frustrating": Parents of students killed in Idaho can't believe there are still no culprits or arrests
Dec 2, 202202:51
"Sworn to Protect"
Edwards left his post as a Virginia state trooper on October 28, ten months after graduating from the academy.
He wanted to return to southwest Virginia, where he could be closer to friends and family, Gates said.
With savings and money Gates believes Edwards got from a loan -- and the goal of taking his girlfriend east -- he bought a nearly $80,000 house on sight in Saltville.
Gates said he had heard the girlfriend discuss the move to Virginia when she was with Edwards, who had made a call with her on speakerphone.
“She had finally gotten her dream setup and had everything lined up to have the best life,” he added.
“Why would I want to end it all of a sudden?” she concluded.
After Edwards moved in on November 14, he covered the windows with what Jacob Gordon, who had sold him the house, described as tint that likely came from an auto shop.
He also hung blackout curtains, according to Gordon.
Gordon claimed that he did not know why Edwards had darkened the windows.
Gates, who hadn't visited the house but planned to, didn't know what to think either.
"It's strange for him," he said, "he liked the privacy of him, but he'd never done anything like that."
[Miami journalist arrested for kidnapping and exploiting his 88-year-old mother]
Gates found out about the murders and the alleged
catfishing
through the news.
At first, he said that he didn't believe it.
But as the story unfolded and more details emerged, he came to recognize that his best friend had probably done something horrible, even though he couldn't quite connect the man he'd known for years to the criminal described by Mychelle Blandin, a relative of the girls. victims.
“This horrible event began with an inappropriate romance between a predator and a girl,” Blandin said, adding: “He swore to protect and failed to do so.
Instead he preyed on the most vulnerable."
