Police: Deputy posed as teen online to sexually extort girl

By AMY TAXIN and STEFANIE DAZIO
Associated Press

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A Virginia sheriff’s deputy posed as a 17-year-old boy online and asked a teenage California girl for nude photos before he drove across the country and killed her mother and grandparents and set fire to their home. Police say 28-year-old Austin Lee Edwards left with the teenager Friday and died by suicide during a shootout with law enforcement hours later. Family members and authorities said Wednesday that the girl is now in trauma counseling. The bodies were identified as Mark and Sharie Winek and their daughter Brooke Winek. Police say Edwards met the girl online and obtained her information by deceiving her with a false identity, known as “catfishing.”