Grieving California family speaks out after loved ones murdered in apparent catfishing scheme

Global News published this video item, entitled “Grieving California family speaks out after loved ones murdered in apparent catfishing scheme” – below is their description.

The family of a California couple and their daughter are speaking out after they were killed in what police describe as an intricate catfishing scheme.

Mark and Sharie Winek and their daughter Brooke were found dead in their home in Riverside, Calif., police said Wednesday.

A former police officer from Virginia was killed in a shootout with law enforcement after he allegedly killed the mother and grandparents of a 15-year-old girl he met online, police said.

Investigators believe that Austin Lee Edwards, 28, posed as a teenager to engage in an online relationship with the girl before driving from Virginia to the southern California city of Riverside, where he abducted her, killing her family in the process. Police said the girl had been placed into police “protective custody”

“Please know your child’s online activity. Ask questions about what they are doing and whom they are talking to,” the daughter and sister of the victims Michelle Blandin said.

“Anybody can say they’re someone else and you could be in this situation, which I do not want, for the world.”

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/9314487/ex-cop-catfish-teen-killed-family-accused-austin-lee-edwards/

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