Virginia police describe how they missed background of ‘catfishing’ cop who killed 3 California family members

Virginia State Police failed to uncover the 2016 mental health detention order of a department applicant who police say killed three members of a Riverside family in November, an order that, at one point, banned him from owning a gun.

Details about how the investigator did not recognize the mental health history of Austin Lee Edwards were disclosed in a Dec. 30 letter from Superintendent Col. Gary T. Settle to the commonwealth’s inspector general. The letter suggests that other opportunities to flag troubling background were missed and includes information about changes in the agency’s process.

The detention order “per policy is a disqualifier for employment,” Settle wrote in the letter obtained by this news organization.

Yet Edwards was hired in July 2021 despite what the state police have described as a “robust,” “thorough” and “extensive” background investigation. Edwards graduated from the academy in January 2022 before resigning in October 2022. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia hired Edwards on Nov. 16, 2022. That agency said the state police did not disclose any negative background on Edwards.

On Nov. 25, Edwards, 28, showed up at the Riverside home of a 15-year-old girl with whom he had developed an online “catfishing” romance while posing as a 17-year-old boy. He drove cross-country, Riverside police said, after she rebuffed his request for nude photos of her. Edwards killed 69-year-old Mark Winek, his wife 65-year-old Sharie Winek and their daughter, Brooke Winek, 38, who was the girl’s mother, and set the Price Court home ablaze, police said.

Edwards fled with the girl. Using his service revolver, he engaged in a gun battle with San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies in the Mojave Desert before killing himself, the department said. The teen escaped from the car safely and is being cared for by Riverside County Child Protective Services.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin subsequently called for the inspector general to investigate Edwards’ initial hiring.

The state police said in December that “human error resulted in an incomplete database query during Edwards’ hiring process.” The agency at the time did not describe the error, what should have been uncovered or whether that information would have disqualified Edwards from being hired.

Settle wrote that the background investigator researching Edwards mistakenly entered a code for “applicants” in the computer database instead of “firearms.” The correct search term would have found the order, which would have disqualified Edwards, Settle wrote. Background investigators are trained to use the “firearms” search term, but this investigator was unaware of the requirement, Settle wrote.

What was missed was a temporary detention order filed with the court after an incident in 2016 in which Edwards cut himself, bit his father and threatened to kill himself and his father, according to a report written by the Police Department in Abingdon, a small southern Virginia city. Edwards wrestled with medics and police before being taken to a hospital and then to a facility where patients can be given short-term treatment for a mental health crisis, the report said.

That detention order banned Edwards from owning a gun. That document, obtained by SCNG from Southwest Virginia Today, has a portion to be filled in when the revocation is restored. But in Edwards’ case, it was not filled in. A Bristol General District Court clerk said she did not know whether Edwards ever petitioned to get his gun rights restored. A Virginia Supreme Court spokesperson did not return email and voicemail messages seeking that information.

Edwards was examined and judged to have a mental illness.

“There exists a substantial likelihood that, as a result of mental illness, (Edwards) will, in the near future, cause serious physical harm to him/herself or others, as evidenced by recent behavior,” according to a temporary detention order signed Feb. 8, 2016, in Washington District Court.

State police have made changes to other background check procedures as a result, Settle wrote.

Background investigators and polygraph examiners will now be required to discuss any “potentially relevant” information with the department. Edwards told the polygraph examiner that he had checked himself into a mental health facility after he attacked his father, Settle wrote. Yet that information didn’t prevent Edwards from being hired.

“It has always been the practice to share such information in accordance with training. However, as an added safeguard, this is now a requirement,” Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman, said Tuesday. “Putting it in writing as a requirement is an added safeguard.”

Settle wrote that the disclosure “would not have been an automatic disqualifier at this stage of the background process. However, this would have been an opportunity for clarification.”

Applicant investigators must now interview all adults living with applicants, not just those listed as references. Family members of Edwards were interviewed during the background check, Geller said, yet whatever they said about the attack, if anything, didn’t raise a sufficient alarm to block Edwards’ hiring.

Settle’s letter was written in response to a “Hotline Incident Report” that claimed the state police hired Edwards despite knowing of his mental health background and that Edwards told state police employees he was suicidal and threatened to kill others. Settle wrote that neither was true. But investigators apparently never saw the Abingdon police report.

Riverside police continue to investigate the slayings. They have not disclosed how the Wineks were killed, other than to say detectives do not believe the victims were shot. Detectives are poring over digital communications between Edwards and the teen, a process that can require days of work to get through only a few hours of messages, said Officer Ryan Railsback, a Police Department spokesman.