Nearly a month after Austin Lee Edwards “catfished” a 15-year-old Riverside girl and killed her grandparents and mother, questions remain regarding how he was able to quickly find a job after a short tenure with Virginia State Police.
Austin Lee Edwards, the cop who “catfished” a 15-year-old Riverside, California, girl and killed her grandparents and mother before taking his own life, used his own father as one of three character references on his application for a job as a sheriff’s deputy.
Loved ones of a slain Riverside family are speaking out for the first time Wednesday at a news conference with authorities as the investigation continues into the events that led up to an ex-Virginia law enforcement officer driving across the country to meet a teen girl police say he catfished online before killing her mother and grandparents.
Austin Edwards, a former Virginia state trooper, was accused of catfishing a teen girl, then murdering her family when he went to meet her. Virginia State Police said he passed all their background checks.