Mystery deepens as friends reveal 'catfish' killer's movements before murdering teen's family
Darkest Mysteries Online - The Strange and Unusual Podcast 202412 Dec 2022

Mystery deepens as friends reveal 'catfish' killer's movements before murdering teen's family

Mystery deepens as friends reveal 'catfish' killer's movements before murdering teen's family

The former Virginia trooper accused of killing three members of a California family after “catfishing” their teenage relative drove to the state to visit a longtime girlfriend days before the triple homicide, a close friend of the ex-trooper said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.

The friend, Tommy Gates, declined to identify the girlfriend but said the two had met online. He believed she was two to three years younger than Austin Edwards, 28. A home that Edwards recently purchased in Saltville, in southwestern Virginia, was intended for the two of them, he said.

Edwards had been dating the woman for at least five years, a second close friend said in a text.

The trip raises new questions in the horrific case, including what plans Edwards made in the days and weeks before arriving in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, where he was accused of killing a single mother and her parents, and then driving off with the woman's 15-year-old daughter on Nov. 25 as their house burned.

In interviews, people who knew Edwards struggled to comprehend how he could have carried out the crimes. A woman who’d gone to community college with him and remained his friend was hospitalized under the weight of what her father described as crushing guilt.

“If she could have seen it, she could have done something to stop it,” said the woman's father, Rodney Shortridge. His daughter declined to comment.

Gates, 27, said he learned of the trip to California from Edwards’ father the day after the killings, when the father believed his son was missing, Gates said. Efforts to reach Edwards’ family have been unsuccessful.

Gates wasn’t sure where in California the girlfriend lived but said her home was not in Riverside, where the killings occurred.

Asked about the visit, Ryan Railsback, spokesman for the Riverside Police Department, said Thursday that investigators were trying to figure out Edwards’ plans but declined to comment further.

It isn’t clear what connection, if any, the trip had to a "catfishing" scheme in which authorities believe Edwards posed as a 17-year-old to interact with the 15-year-old girl. Gates said he didn't know about the alleged scheme.

"None of us had any idea," said the second close friend, who asked not to be identified because he feared association with Edwards.

Authorities have identified the victims as Brooke Winek, 38; Mark Winek, 69; and Sharie Winek, 65. Their cause of death has not been released. The teenage girl was not injured. Edwards died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Railsback said.

Speaking to reporters late last month, a family member of the Wineks, Mychelle Blandin, described her sister Brooke as a devoted single mom doing her best to raise her two children; her father, Mark, as a high school baseball and softball coach "with a big caring heart;" and her mother, Sharie, the matriarch of the family, who "did anything and everything for anyone.

"They are forever in my heart and I miss them deeply," she said, adding: "We have some solace that this person will never harm anyone again, especially a minor."

A 'spontaneous' trip
Edwards had traveled to California because he had some vacation time for Thanksgiving, the second close friend of Edwards said.

He "decided to up and go see her since he had just enough time to drive there and back before he had to work the following Monday,” said the friend.

It was Edwards’ first visit to meet the girlfriend, whom he often played League of Legends and Minecraft with, Gates said.

Neither Gates nor the second friend knew about the trip ahead of time, a move Gates described as unusual. The second friend said he learned of it from Edwards' father after Edwards didn't let him know he was heading home.

Believing Edwards was missing, his friends reached out to his girlfriend, Gates said.

In a text message with the second close friend, the girlfriend described Edwards' trip as "spontaneous" and said everything had gone well, the second friend said.

"Nothing was unusual to her about his mannerisms or anything like that," he said.

To Gates, this made what happened next that much more awful and perplexing.

“I’m angry, obviously,” Gates said. “He’s my buddy, my best friend. Before all this, he was one of the people I would have done almost anything for. How could he ever do something like this?”

Planning for the future
The last time Gates saw Edwards was in early October, when he visited him in the Richmond area. Edwards, who’d graduated from the Virginia State Police academy in January, was working as a trooper in a county that surrounds the state’s capital city, the agency said.

The two went to a Renaissance festival in Maryland and Edwards seemed “as happy as could be — openly,” Gates said. “I don’t know what was in his heart and mind. But to other people he was acting cheery and happy.”

Before joining the academy, Edwards had dropped out of high school in Richlands, in southwestern Virginia, and earned his GED, Gates said. He worked at Walmart and Lowe’s, according to Gates. In 2017, he attended Southwest Virginia Community College, earning no certificates or degrees, a school spokesman said.

Shortridge, whose daughter also worked with Edwards at Walmart, recalled hosting a comic-con type event that Edwards attended and talking about his future with him.

“He was lower in the income level than your average people around here,” said Shortridge, a retired trucker who lives in nearby Tazewell. “Austin said that’s why he wanted to find a good job, to help his family out of poverty. I was like, man — I respect the hell out of that.”

Signs of trouble
In high school and several years after, Edwards was prone to bouts of depression, Gates said. In 2016 he was detained for 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 hurt himself with a hatchet.

"He was going through a hard time," Gates said. "He really snapped that night."

Gates wasn't aware if Edwards had had other run-ins with law enforcement, and he said he'd been remorseful about the incident with his father.

After the killings, Virginia State Police said it found no "indicators of concern" in a background check for Edwards. After the Los Angeles Times article was published, the department said Wednesday that "human error resulted in an incomplete database query" during his hiring process.

“Although we believe this to be an isolated incident, steps are currently underway to ensure the error is not repeated going forward,” the department said.

The statement didn't mention the police report cited by the Los Angeles Times or provide additional details. NBC News has not confirmed the details of the report.

Chuck Russo, a criminal justice professor at American Public University System and former law enforcement officer who conducted background checks for two Florida agencies for nearly a decade, said the person doing the state police investigation may have forgotten to check the correct box in a management system or failed to reach out to the agency for a records check.

Russo described the human error as a "huge black eye" for authorities. He also called on the sheriff’s office in Washington County, where Edwards worked after he resigned from the state police, to publicly state it is reviewing hiring practices.

The sheriff, Blake Andis, has not responded to requests for comment.

'He took an oath to protect'
Edwards quit his post as a Virginia State Police trooper on Oct. 28 — 10 months after he graduated from the academy. He wanted to move back to southwestern Virginia, where he could be closer to friends and family, Gates said.

With savings and money that Gates believes Edwards obtained from a loan — and a goal of bringing his girlfriend east — he bought a home sight unseen for nearly $80,000 in Saltville.

Gates said he'd heard the girlfriend discuss the move to Virginia when he was with Edwards who had placed a call with her on speaker phone.

"He'd finally gotten his dream setup and had everything lined up to have the best life," he said. "Why would he want to end it all of a sudden?"

After Edwards moved in on Nov. 14, he covered the windows with what Jacob Gordon, who had sold him the house, described as tint that was likely from an auto shop. He also hung blackout curtains, Gordon said.

Gordon said he didn't know why Edwards had darkened his windows. Gates, who hadn't visited the house but planned to, didn't know what to make of it either.

"It's strange for him," he said. "He liked his privacy but he never did anything like that."

Railsback said Friday that authorities had still not analyzed the items recovered from Edwards' home.

Gates learned of the killings and alleged catfishing from news coverage. Initially, he said he didn't believe it. But as the story developed, and more details were released, he said he came to acknowledge that his best friend had likely done something horrific — even if he couldn't square the man he'd known for years with the criminal described by the victims' family member, Mychelle Blandin.

"This horrific event started with an inappropriate online romance between a predator and a child,” Blandin said, adding: "He took an oath to protect and yet he failed to do so. Instead, he preyed on the most vulnerable."

Mystery deepens as friends reveal catfish killer's movements before murdering teen's family

True Crime Podcast 2022 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls Virginia trooper True Police

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

Avsnitt(1000)

To Catch a Predator Dustin McPhetridge FULL Police interview

To Catch a Predator Dustin McPhetridge FULL Police interview

To Catch a Predator Dustin McPhetridge FULL Police interview"I thought you was wantin' to be shaved...down there."-Dustin showing that Barber-ism begins at home.Dustin Jacob McPhetridge appeared on the Bowling Green, Kentucky investigation of To Catch a Predator. He is most known for his disability, as well as his outrageous demands while in prison.Dustin McPhetridge was 26 when he arrived at the sting house with the hope of meeting a thirteen year old girl named "Laura" that he thought he was chatting with online. He had a twisted and sordid chat with the girl wanting to shave her privates, get her drunk and have rough anal sex with her. Dustin, the consummate gentleman, gave Laura a choice on where to put his sperm first (mouth, pussy, or ass). He also wanted her to wear a pair of panties for 2-3 days straight and then send them to him. He even sent a picture of a couple having sex. The icing on the cake was when he said that he wanted to have a threesome with her EIGHT year old sister. [1]After a four hour drive, Dustin waddled into the house with an electric razor and KY Jelly and tried to coax the decoy over to do all the twisted things he had on his mind. He instead got to meet Chris Hansen. Dustin went right into victim mode blaming the girl for the situation, saying she led him on.After his arrest, Dustin pulls every pity string he can ranging from his disability to his weight to getting bullied with Sgt. Dudinskie, the officer in charge of his interview. Dudinskie fires back with details of his chatlog that showed Dustin to be a very disgusting predator that hid behind his disability. [2]He was sentenced to five years in prison for traveling across state lines to meet a minor for sex. He was also sentenced to eight years for possession of child pornography. The sentences ran concurrently but because Dustin wasn’t convicted on the CP charge until two years after his first conviction, he actually ended up with a ten year sentence.[3] Dustin was released on lifetime federal sex-offender probation and now helps to run a convenience store in Surgoinsville, Tennessee.Behind the scenesDustin has cerebral palsy. He demonstrated before, during, and after the sting his devious behavior of using his disability to garner sympathy as well as escape trouble. Casey and the lead KBI investigator even said they felt sorry for Dustin when he saw him struggle to enter the house, but kept in mind his reason for showing up at the house was to molest a child.Partway through serving his sentence, he wrote a letter to his convicting judge saying he had learned his lesson and requesting that he immediately be released from serving the remainder of his sentence. If his request was denied, in lieu of release, he requested a walk-in jacuzzi in his cell. Both requests were denied.Dustin was scheduled to be back in court February 2020 due to probation violations, mainly failing his sex offender treatment program, subsequently being kicked out, and polygraph tests asking if he had viewed child pornography since his release. A series of continuances have been given due to Dustin's health, COVID-19 concerns, and scheduling conflicts.[4] Dustin was given yet another continuance September 2021 because his family had paid vacation plans. Recent photos show that Dustin uses a wheelchair. During examination of his counselor, he revealed that Dustin has spent the most time of any offender in the program because he either refuses to own the actions that led him to this point, or makes excuses on why he can't make any positive changes in his life. Dustin also gained the ire from his peers in his classes because they believed his rehabilitation to be a waste of time. Time that could be better invested in their recovery.[5]TriviaDustin apparently "doesn't like lawyers", as he revealed in his police interrogation.Dustin misunderstood Chris when he said he wasn't law enforcement and couldn't arrest him. Dustin thought Chris meant that no arrests were going to be made, which was obviously not the case. Dustin brings this up in his interrogation, saying that he wishes Chris didn't "lie" to him about him not going to be arrested.Dustin has a large affection for his mother (due to the fact that she talks people out of pressing charges for the things he does), requesting that she be put in custody of him during his trial. The judge denied his request.Affectionately nicknamed “D-MAC” by fans of To Catch A Predator..He made a handful of wrestling DVDs for professional wrestler Ricky Morton. He lost all the digital footage when cops seized his computer since it also housed his collection of CP. He also ran Morton's website. In a now infamous article on the site made a couple of months before his arrest, he pleads with the wrestling community to donate to Morton's legal fees stemming from his arrest for non-payment of child support.Ricky Morton references Dustin in an interview about the wrestling DVDs, calling him the "cripple boy". Right after, he talks about seeing Dustin on "the predator show".[6]Despite his disability, he served the most time of all those caught in the Bowling Green sting. This is probably because he committed three different crimes in three different jurisdictions. His most serious was the federal crime of crossing states lines to commit crimes involving children.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

14 Aug 20231h 28min

Alek Minassian — FULL police interrogation of Canadian Terrorist Attacker CREEPY!

Alek Minassian — FULL police interrogation of Canadian Terrorist Attacker CREEPY!

Alek Minassian — FULL police interrogation of Canadian Terrorist Attacker CREEPY!Alek Minassian was arrested as the driver in the deadly 2018 Toronto van attack, a careful and skillful Toronto police detective interrogated him for close to four hours. Minassian couldn’t keep much to himself. This is the full interrogation video, as released to me by order of Justice Anne Molloy of Ontario Superior Court in response to a request National Post made, joined by other news organizations. True Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

13 Aug 20232h 53min

Investigators describe how shooting that killed Gwinnett County teen unfolded

Investigators describe how shooting that killed Gwinnett County teen unfolded

Investigators describe how shooting that killed Gwinnett County teen unfoldedIn Tuesday's trial, a jury heard testimonies from the mother of Tori Lang, witnesses and the cops who found Lang's body.True Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

12 Aug 20231h

Police Officer Who Shot His Wife in the Head Gets Questioned FULL Police Interrogation

Police Officer Who Shot His Wife in the Head Gets Questioned FULL Police Interrogation

Police Officer Who Shot His Wife in the Head Gets Questioned FULL Police InterrogationThe disturbing interrogation tape of Matthew Boynton unveils his alleged attempt to kill his wife for trying to leave him in Griffin, Georgia.True Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

12 Aug 202328min

Anthony Palma Child Killer 30 Year Cold Case Police interrogation

Anthony Palma Child Killer 30 Year Cold Case Police interrogation

Anthony Palma Child Killer 30 Year Cold Case Police interrogationNeighbor is arrested for 1997 murder of Oklahoma girl, 8 - after he VOLUNTEERED a DNA sample that matchedAnthony Palma, 56, has been charged with the first-degree murder and kidnapping of Kirsten Hatfield The eight-year-old girl went missing from her Midwest City, Oklahoma, home on May 14, 1997 Her body has never been recovered - if she were alive today, she'd be 26DNA found on the windowsill of her bedroom and a pair of her underwear recovered from backyard led to Palma's arrest 18 years after the crimePolice say DNA test results showed a match of one in 293 sextillionPalma served more than a year in prison for assault in the 1980sAn Oklahoma man has been arrested in connection to the cold-case disappearance of his eight-year-old neighbor who was abducted from her bedroom in 1997.Investigators used DNA to link Anthony Palma, 56, to the murder of Kirsten Hatfield, who was reported missing from her Midwest City home on May 14, 1997.An affidavit said Palma gave a DNA sample willingly in June to investigators who were following up on the case. Results showed a match of one in 293 sextillion. Kirsten is presumed dead, although her body has never been found. If she were alive today, she would be 26.Palma was arrested Monday on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping, according to the affidavit, which was released on Tuesday by Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes. Clabes said investigators are searching Palma's home for any evidence. The suspect lives two houses away from where Kirsten's family lived in 1997.Police tape could be seen around Palma's property on Monday night. The request for his arrest warrant, which was issued Friday by Midwest City Police Detective Darrell Miller, stated: 'There have been no verified sightings or contact from Kirsten since May ... of 1997. Therefore, it can be concluded that she was killed shortly after her abduction.True Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

11 Aug 20231h 37min

I Found A NSFW Video Of My Sister

I Found A NSFW Video Of My Sister

I Found A NSFW Video Of My SisterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

11 Aug 202331min

WILD Police Interrogation of Florida's Youngest KlLLER!!

WILD Police Interrogation of Florida's Youngest KlLLER!!

WILD Police Interrogation of Florida's Youngest KlLLER!! Police interview in Jacksonville, Florida Duval County. This was a tragic situation that left a loving homeless man passed away and sent to heaven to soon. The young assassin was surprisingly not affiliated with ATK or KTA.. allegedly but was it gang related? WILD Police Interrogation of Florida's Youngest KlLLERTrue Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

10 Aug 20232h 39min

Full Police Interrogation of the Predator Who Strangled a 12-Year-Old

Full Police Interrogation of the Predator Who Strangled a 12-Year-Old

Full Police Interrogation of the Predator Who Strangled a 12-Year-OldThis podcast contains the full interrogation of Robert Howard, the man accused of raping and killing 12-year-old Naomi Jones. After five days of Jones missing, her body was discovered by a local fisherman, covered in duct tape, and thrown into a creek close to her mother's apartment. Howard, a registered sex offender, was a suspect because he lived near the apartment complex Jones and her family lived in. Howard was arrested for the murder of Jones on June 7, 2017. The next day while in jail, Howard admitted to strangling Jones and throwing her body over a bridge. On August 18, 2021, Howard confessed again during his trial. He was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of paroleTrue Crime Podcast 2023 Police Interrogations, 911 Calls True Police Stories PodcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/darkest-mysteries-online-the-strange-and-unusual-podcast-2024--5684156/support.

9 Aug 20232h 23min

Populärt inom Fiction

thrillerpodden
sista-samtalet
pratkoma
edgar-allan-poes-skrackvarld
konspirationsteorier
skrackstunden
sexnoveller-deluxe
rss-konspirationsteorier
erotiska-berattelser
storytime
midnattstaget-creepypastor-fran-internet
rss-nattskiftet
rss-creepypastaradion
rss-p3-serie
fangelsehalan
p3-serie
tolkienpodden
karatefylla
fenomen
rss-hemligt