Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / CATFISHER COP Murders Family to 'ROMANCE' Teen Girl, Has More Victims

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CATFISHER COP Murders Family to 'ROMANCE' Teen Girl, Has More Victims · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: What is catfishing? It's going online and communicating with someone,
0:11
Speaker 1: someone whom you want to trick into believing you're somebody
0:17
Speaker 1: different than who you really are. I typically see it
0:21
Speaker 1: when men or women try to act younger and more handsome,
0:25
Speaker 1: or beautiful or richer than they really are in order
0:30
Speaker 1: to lure someone. But what happens when you finally are
0:33
Speaker 1: going to meet the person then they find out who
0:35
Speaker 1: you really are? Maybe catfishers You'll never think that far,
0:39
Speaker 1: But I can tell you one thing. I believe I
0:41
Speaker 1: know a catfisher who is also a killer. I mean,
0:45
Speaker 1: it's a grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being
0:48
Speaker 1: with us here at Fox Nation and Serious XM one eleven.
0:53
Speaker 1: Catfisher cop, Yes he's a cop. Austin Edwards is connected
1:00
Speaker 1: to a mass homicide in efforts to lure a teen
1:06
Speaker 1: girl to go with him, and what live happily ever after?
1:10
Speaker 1: What happens when she finds out you murdered her whole family?
1:13
Speaker 1: The murderous catfish Virginia cop that tricked a teen girl
1:18
Speaker 1: online before kidnapping her and killing her family. Here's the bombshell.
1:24
Speaker 1: As if there could be anything to top that he
1:26
Speaker 1: had been messaging underage girls for nearly a decade before
1:31
Speaker 1: his murderous rampage now uncovered or messages between the murderous
1:39
Speaker 1: catfishing cop Austin Lee Edwards and his now twenty one
1:44
Speaker 1: year old victim, They've all been reviewed very carefully and
1:50
Speaker 1: they show his perversion toward underage girls, and that it
1:55
Speaker 1: began seven years at least, let me emphasize, at least
2:00
Speaker 1: seven years before he was caught posing as a seventeen
2:04
Speaker 1: year old boy on the Internet trying to catch a
2:06
Speaker 1: teen girl. Now, this may bring to mind the case
2:11
Speaker 1: of Liberty and Abigail Abbey, the two girls who were
2:16
Speaker 1: murdered in Delphi, taken off a trestle bridge and murdered.
2:23
Speaker 1: Catfishing came to the forefront of the news then because
2:26
Speaker 1: cops were actually looking at a catfisher, a guy who,
2:33
Speaker 1: as I recall, lived at home I could only say,
2:36
Speaker 1: in the basement, But he had been posing as a
2:40
Speaker 1: very very buff Justin Bieber lookalike in order to lure
2:44
Speaker 1: young girls, trying to get them to send him naked photos. Well,
2:47
Speaker 1: this is very similar to that, by the way, in
2:49
Speaker 1: that case. So far, the catfisher has not been publicly
2:53
Speaker 1: connected to the murders, somebody else, the local pharmacy tech
2:57
Speaker 1: has been arrested. Back to Austin Lee Edwards, the catfishing cop.
3:02
Speaker 1: Now what I don't get as how he could have
3:06
Speaker 1: been doing this for so long and never ever was caught.
3:11
Speaker 1: Now the victim has not been identified, but I know this.
3:14
Speaker 1: She was just thirteen when the catfishing cop began messaging
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Speaker 1: her and trying to get nude photographs. Authorities have now
3:22
Speaker 1: uncovered at least four thousand messages between the pair. Four
3:27
Speaker 1: thousand messages. He says things like quote, did I tell
3:32
Speaker 1: you I went trick or treating? I totally did and
3:36
Speaker 1: I'm twenty me too. The girl wrote back, I'm thirteen.
3:41
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no doubt he knew she was under age.
3:45
Speaker 1: After initially meeting on o'megel it's a chat app. The
3:50
Speaker 1: two converse for at least two years. Messages now reveal
3:54
Speaker 1: then twenty year old Edwards would also masturbate on Skype
3:58
Speaker 1: calls with this little girl and ask her to undress.
4:02
Speaker 1: She said what she chose not to do. He would
4:05
Speaker 1: refer to the teen as his quote girlfriend sent her
4:07
Speaker 1: naked photos of himself, threatened violence if she would not
4:13
Speaker 1: do what he wanted her to do, The little Girl says, now,
4:17
Speaker 1: that's when I realized he was not mentally stable. According
4:21
Speaker 1: to the New York Post, now during several calls, Edward
4:25
Speaker 1: would hold up a hatchet, in fact, the whole collection
4:29
Speaker 1: of hatchets and knives to intimidate her. Now, as it
4:34
Speaker 1: turns out, he actually used one of these hatchets and
4:39
Speaker 1: a failed suicide attempt. We don't know how serious he
4:43
Speaker 1: was about it, but he did fail. His father actually
4:46
Speaker 1: told authorities his son had been drinking and dealing with quote,
4:51
Speaker 1: girlfriend problems. You mean under age sex victim problems. That
4:55
Speaker 1: is a problem, but not the one father seemed to recognize.
5:00
Speaker 1: According to the Little Girl, Edwards also shared his evil thoughts,
5:06
Speaker 1: often telling her she was the only person he had
5:10
Speaker 1: in the whole wide world, and that he would kill
5:12
Speaker 1: himself if she wouldn't communicate with him, even going to
5:17
Speaker 1: so far just to say she was his only reason
5:19
Speaker 1: for living. Now, that's a real way to get a girl.
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Speaker 1: Can threaten to kill yourself, Edwards, Now that's a way
5:28
Speaker 1: to get a girl. Tell her she's the only reason
5:30
Speaker 1: you're living. Run for the heels. If you hear that ladies.
5:34
Speaker 1: Edwards even encouraged her to kill her own family. Messages
5:40
Speaker 1: show that at one point he asked her to skype
5:43
Speaker 1: and the girl said no, she couldn't because her mom
5:47
Speaker 1: was home, and he responded, kill her and then went
5:52
Speaker 1: on to say, I'm gonna give myself a black eye. Okay, oh,
5:57
Speaker 1: this poor girl. After two years of this and many
6:00
Speaker 1: attempts to break up, the then fifteen year old decided
6:05
Speaker 1: to block Edwards. But get this. After she blocked him,
6:09
Speaker 1: he continued to message her on different accounts, even though
6:13
Speaker 1: she had never shared her real name with him. Then,
6:17
Speaker 1: Edwards goes on to join the Virginia State Police. Hello,
6:20
Speaker 1: did anybody give this guy a psychological evaluation? Now? A
6:26
Speaker 1: prior mental health institutionalization should have stopped him from joining
6:31
Speaker 1: the force. A year after graduating, Edwards began working at
6:35
Speaker 1: the Washington County Sheriff's office. Now, let's get back to
6:41
Speaker 1: the teen girl he abducted after murdering her family. How
6:46
Speaker 1: that whole thing start? The details will make your heart sink.
6:49
Speaker 1: This is the home where it happened. It's still a
6:52
Speaker 1: crime scene, and the lady next door says she was
6:55
Speaker 1: more like family than a next door neighbor. She had
6:57
Speaker 1: actually just gotten the turkey out of the refrigerator and
7:00
Speaker 1: walked outside for a second, saw the smoke and the
7:02
Speaker 1: flames coming out of the front of the house. Mortified
7:05
Speaker 1: and horrified, she called nine one. This son of a
7:12
Speaker 1: he just has no clue what he took away from
7:14
Speaker 1: this world. For more than twenty years, they were next
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Speaker 1: door neighbors and the best kind. Every neighborhood needs a
7:21
Speaker 1: winning family, because they just were the all American love,
7:26
Speaker 1: in caring, supporting family that you can ever ask for.
7:31
Speaker 1: You're hearing our friends at Fox eleven and what she
7:34
Speaker 1: just said. Every lead I've got, every person that's been
7:42
Speaker 1: spoken to, agrees it's the all American family, the kind
7:49
Speaker 1: on the front of the Hallmark card, scrubbed and sunshine.
7:53
Speaker 1: So why are they all dead in their homes? And
7:56
Speaker 1: to go another step, the home is set on fire.
8:03
Speaker 1: There's a lot of reasons that a home can be
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Speaker 1: set on fire. To Daryl Cohen joining me, high profile
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Speaker 1: lawyer in the Atlanta jurisdiction, former felony prosecutor and one
8:15
Speaker 1: of the biggest murder capitals in the country. Now private lawyer,
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Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen, you and I have dealt with a lot
8:24
Speaker 1: of homicides. Many I don't know how many homicides I
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Speaker 1: either investigated as we would do before we would ever
8:34
Speaker 1: dream of entering and guilty plea to trial, much less covered.
8:39
Speaker 1: But when you see a murder and the scene is
8:44
Speaker 1: set on fire, that tells me something that this perp
8:50
Speaker 1: is different from every other killer. When you find out
8:54
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen that the purpose set the home on fire
8:57
Speaker 1: in a lovely residential area, what does that tell you
9:01
Speaker 1: before you even open the case file. Two words nancy
9:04
Speaker 1: cover up, Cover it up, hope that the fire and
9:08
Speaker 1: the ashes take all of the evidence and put it
9:12
Speaker 1: away where it's not going to be seen by law enforcement,
9:15
Speaker 1: by arson investigators exactly. So you know immediately when somebody
9:20
Speaker 1: sets the murder scene on fire, they're also staging. Anything
9:27
Speaker 1: a person does to the scene postmortem is staging, and
9:32
Speaker 1: it gives us a window into who the perp might be.
9:36
Speaker 1: I mean, think about it. Typically, when you kill somebody,
9:39
Speaker 1: you want to get out of there. You don't want
9:41
Speaker 1: to be near the dead body. You don't want to
9:42
Speaker 1: be the scene, near the scene, you don't want to
9:44
Speaker 1: be seen, you don't want to leave your fingerprints. But
9:49
Speaker 1: some perps stay to stage the scene crime stories With
10:06
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace, My whole point is if he had been
10:10
Speaker 1: handled correctly the first time and imprisoned for sexting a
10:16
Speaker 1: little thirteen year old girl, he was an adult at
10:19
Speaker 1: the time, he would never have had the chance to
10:21
Speaker 1: go on this cross country rampage. The former little girl
10:27
Speaker 1: says she was not quote surprised at all Edwards had
10:31
Speaker 1: unleashed violence on the girl. She says she knew how
10:35
Speaker 1: scary he really was. The little girl, now a woman, says,
10:43
Speaker 1: it's just crazy he was able to become a cop
10:46
Speaker 1: and everyone knowing with me, knowing he had so many
10:50
Speaker 1: mental health issues. I agree with her. How in the
10:54
Speaker 1: hay did he get past all those evaluations that to
11:00
Speaker 1: a teen girl whose family was murdered. If it had
11:05
Speaker 1: not been for a eagle eyed neighbor spotting a red
11:09
Speaker 1: Kia soul, that little girl could be dead today. Take
11:12
Speaker 1: a little of our friends at NBC four LA. Nobody
11:15
Speaker 1: could imagine this crime happening to my family, to our family,
11:20
Speaker 1: But the unthinkable did happen to Michelle Blanden's family. Her
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Speaker 1: father Mark Winnock, mother Sherry, and younger sister Brooke. The
11:28
Speaker 1: last time she saw them was on Thanksgiving. One day later, Mark, Sherry,
11:33
Speaker 1: and Brooke were found dead inside the Riverside home on
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Speaker 1: Price Court that Michelle grew up in. She was at
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Speaker 1: a store when a longtime friend and neighbor urgently called
11:42
Speaker 1: her in a panic. She called to tell us that
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Speaker 1: we needed to get there as soon as we could
11:47
Speaker 1: because my parents house was on fire. Riverside police inside
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Speaker 1: Her father, mother, and younger sister had been murdered. Oh
11:56
Speaker 1: so this girl gets a call to rush home that
12:01
Speaker 1: the home is on fire. I've spoken to a lot
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Speaker 1: of arson victims, and there's something about the burning of
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Speaker 1: your home. Thank Heaven, I have not experienced that. I
12:12
Speaker 1: hope I never do. But there's some feeling that goes
12:15
Speaker 1: through the victim's hearts and minds and soul when they
12:18
Speaker 1: see everything they own the world and all their memories
12:23
Speaker 1: just going up in flames. Little does this girl know
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Speaker 1: that when she gets back, it's not just the home
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Speaker 1: that she has lost. She has lost her family as well.
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Speaker 1: So why burn the place up to eradicate the evidence?
12:39
Speaker 1: So why is it so important to get rid of
12:43
Speaker 1: the dead bodies? What do we know about the victims.
12:48
Speaker 1: What do we know about this family? Is there something
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Speaker 1: nefarious going on with them? Is there something that neighbors
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Speaker 1: of twenty years somehow missed? Well, take a listen to this.
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Speaker 1: My sister Brooke was a loving single mom who did
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Speaker 1: her best to raise her two teenage daughters in a
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Speaker 1: loving way. My dad, Mark, the silly old man that
13:13
Speaker 1: I referenced him, always referenced him to be, was a
13:17
Speaker 1: soft spoken and humble man who would go out of
13:20
Speaker 1: his way to help a friend or stranger in need.
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Speaker 1: My mom, Sherry, the matriarch of our family, with the
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Speaker 1: biggest giving heart imaginable, did anything and everything for everyone.
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Speaker 1: So you've got the daughter spitting out about each one
13:41
Speaker 1: of her family members. There's nothing to say, you know.
13:45
Speaker 1: In our line of business, we always think that there's
13:48
Speaker 1: another side to the story. How could this seemingly normal
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Speaker 1: family be the target of a mass killing? What are
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Speaker 1: we missing? Let me go straight out with special guests
14:00
Speaker 1: winning us Kristin Kwan to BC y B joining us
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Speaker 1: from Bristol. Kristen question, what do we know about the
14:10
Speaker 1: area where the fire occurred and the murders. It's my
14:15
Speaker 1: understanding that it's a beautiful residential area. Yes, so it
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Speaker 1: happened in Liverside blockhere, a south neighborhood, just after eleven am. Yeah,
14:25
Speaker 1: it's described as a very very beautiful area in a
14:29
Speaker 1: nice neighborhood. Kristin Kwan joining me WC Y B Bristol.
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Speaker 1: I heard her say something very interesting to me, Daryl Cohen,
14:39
Speaker 1: you prosecuted a lot of inner city crimes. I learned
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Speaker 1: after my first jury trial to try to find witnesses
14:52
Speaker 1: after three pm because all the dopers and all the
14:56
Speaker 1: nary dwells, all the bad guys typically are up all
15:00
Speaker 1: night and then they sleep. So if I need to
15:04
Speaker 1: find a no good witness, don't even try till after
15:08
Speaker 1: three o'clock. On the other hand, if I want to
15:10
Speaker 1: go find the lady school bus driver or a mom
15:14
Speaker 1: that may have witnessed something in the neighborhood, you can
15:17
Speaker 1: go anytime from seven am on. But if you want
15:20
Speaker 1: to get a bad guy, they're like vampires. They are
15:24
Speaker 1: up all night and they sleep all day. My point
15:27
Speaker 1: is eleven am triple murder and arson that is a
15:33
Speaker 1: little out of the stereotypical pattern of crime, very different
15:37
Speaker 1: and see than the normal crime, very unusual during the
15:41
Speaker 1: middle of the morning or late morning. Too many people
15:44
Speaker 1: can see it too, meet people or driving by haphazardly.
15:49
Speaker 1: It's highly unusual and highly unlikely it would happen. Sadly
15:54
Speaker 1: it did, and it was tenas okay you did say eleven,
15:57
Speaker 1: am right? Christ and kawen, Yeah, okay am. And you
16:01
Speaker 1: know what, when I would prepare cases, I'd try to
16:04
Speaker 1: find out if there were similar transactions, if this perp
16:06
Speaker 1: had done anything like that in the past, so I
16:09
Speaker 1: could use it to prove scheme of course of conduct,
16:13
Speaker 1: to frame of mind of the case in chief. Very
16:16
Speaker 1: often I would find crimes were committed at about the
16:19
Speaker 1: same time of the day. Like I was telling him
16:21
Speaker 1: about BTK. He would strike while the man at the
16:25
Speaker 1: house Wasn't there same thing with the Golden State Killer,
16:28
Speaker 1: remember that Jackie joseph'angelo. He would watch a woman's home
16:33
Speaker 1: and wait till the man was gone. In fact, one
16:36
Speaker 1: of his victims says she had just heard her husband.
16:38
Speaker 1: She was in bed with her two or three year
16:40
Speaker 1: old boy, and she just heard the husband leave, shut
16:43
Speaker 1: the door, car crank up, leave and as she thought,
16:46
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, he's coming back in. He must have
16:48
Speaker 1: forgotten something. But it was the Golden State killer watching
16:51
Speaker 1: the house. All of his crimes same time of day,
16:55
Speaker 1: eleven am. Does not fit a triple homicide arson pattern.
17:00
Speaker 1: But as Daryl Cohen said, that's how it happened. But
17:06
Speaker 1: let's just wait a minute. Dave Matt Crime online dot
17:09
Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter, Riverside, California has many, many facets to it.
17:17
Speaker 1: What can you tell me about Riverside? Riverside is about
17:21
Speaker 1: an hour and a half west southwest of Los Angeles,
17:26
Speaker 1: so it's an area that is very middle class. It's
17:30
Speaker 1: got a lot of neighborhoods, you know, just as we
17:33
Speaker 1: see with this particular one. There's nothing extraordinary about Riverside
17:37
Speaker 1: and not knocking it. It's just another typical southern California community.
17:42
Speaker 1: But wait a minute. Three dead bodies in the home.
17:48
Speaker 1: That would be the single mom of two teen girls,
17:54
Speaker 1: the grandparents, her parents, but there's someone missing. Where's the girl?
18:05
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at tayl nine. He
18:09
Speaker 1: knew what he was doing, He knew what he was
18:11
Speaker 1: doing exactly, but thank goodness, he made a lot of mistakes.
18:16
Speaker 1: Parking in the driveway, having somebody see him. A neighbor
18:21
Speaker 1: took this photo out of her window of the suspect's
18:24
Speaker 1: red corner driveway, thinking it might have been stolen and
18:27
Speaker 1: dumped here. It was ten thirty in the morning last Friday,
18:31
Speaker 1: minutes before the Winno's home started burning. The neighbor, who
18:35
Speaker 1: asked not to be named, told me that she saw
18:37
Speaker 1: dressed in a black trench coat and face mask walking
18:40
Speaker 1: with the fifteen year old who lives in the house.
18:43
Speaker 1: They were getting into the red car. She was trying
18:46
Speaker 1: to mount the words to me, but nothing came out.
18:48
Speaker 1: The neighbor said. I looked down and saw she was barefoot.
18:52
Speaker 1: She was crying a little bit. She didn't try to
18:54
Speaker 1: make a run for it. There's a girl, the fifteen
18:58
Speaker 1: year old teen girl. I will never understand it. How
19:04
Speaker 1: did this guy now known as the Catfish Cop managed
19:08
Speaker 1: to disguise himself as law enforcement, passed all the tests
19:12
Speaker 1: and actually make the force, only to cross the country
19:18
Speaker 1: to kidnap a little teen girl and murder her family.
19:22
Speaker 1: Austin Edwards he had been messaging underage girls for nearly
19:27
Speaker 1: a decade before his murderous rampage. If it had not
19:33
Speaker 1: been for an eagle eyed neighbor spotting a red Kia soul,
19:38
Speaker 1: that little girl could be dead today. Straight out to
19:41
Speaker 1: Kristin Kwanda cyb Bristol Kristen, what exactly did the neighbors see?
19:47
Speaker 1: So the neighbors saw him, saw a man with a
19:50
Speaker 1: trench polon and he had the scroll holding her hand,
19:55
Speaker 1: and she appeared really really distressed. And that was the
19:59
Speaker 1: reason that she called nine to one. She called police. Now,
20:02
Speaker 1: interesting days mac, the same woman had noticed a red
20:07
Speaker 1: vehicle and even took a picture of it. What do
20:12
Speaker 1: you know about that? What happened with that day? Well,
20:14
Speaker 1: that actually is what got her really. Thank God for
20:17
Speaker 1: a neighbor that's paying attention, okay, because without her, Nancy,
20:22
Speaker 1: we don't have the answers to this story. Without her,
20:26
Speaker 1: we don't know who let the house, We don't know anything.
20:29
Speaker 1: Actually without this neighbor, and not directly next door, a
20:33
Speaker 1: little a couple of houses away, she sees this red
20:37
Speaker 1: car and she mentioned she thought maybe somebody had stole
20:40
Speaker 1: it and they just dumped it right there in that driveway.
20:42
Speaker 1: That's why she took the picture. That was her thought.
20:45
Speaker 1: But she paid close enough attention so that they could
20:48
Speaker 1: get the picture of the car. They had a license plate,
20:50
Speaker 1: they had all the information they needed because it didn't
20:53
Speaker 1: belong there. When she sees bill girl, Okay, the girl
20:59
Speaker 1: was barefoot and she the woman could tell they didn't
21:02
Speaker 1: looked like she had been crying. So while she says
21:05
Speaker 1: that she didn't make a run for it, well there
21:08
Speaker 1: was enough other you know, the way she was acting
21:11
Speaker 1: that the woman knew this is not right. There is
21:13
Speaker 1: something wrong. So red card should not be parked in
21:16
Speaker 1: my driveway. A girl shouldn't be barefoot walking with another
21:19
Speaker 1: man where she looks like she's franking. You know, it's
21:21
Speaker 1: amazing to me joining me Scott Johnson, forensic Psychologists, joining
21:24
Speaker 1: us out of Minnesota, thirty two years in the business,
21:30
Speaker 1: author of When I Love You turns Violent and physical
21:33
Speaker 1: abusers and sex offenders. You can find them at Forensic
21:36
Speaker 1: Consultation dot org. Scott Johnson. Isn't it the human mind? Amazing?
21:42
Speaker 1: And that is why I always wanted to question witnesses myself,
21:48
Speaker 1: of course before you put them on the stand, but
21:50
Speaker 1: in depth in a casual setting like in their home
21:54
Speaker 1: or their comfy or their apartment, and go through the
21:58
Speaker 1: story very slowly, and you ask questions that they really
22:03
Speaker 1: be irrelevant, like what exactly did you see what were
22:07
Speaker 1: they wearing? Did you see their face? What was their demeanor?
22:10
Speaker 1: Did they have anything in their hands? Did you see
22:13
Speaker 1: a car nearby? Was anybody else around? Just a million questions.
22:18
Speaker 1: And this woman remembers the teen girl was barefoot and
22:23
Speaker 1: it struck her as odd. Isn't that amazing that she
22:28
Speaker 1: sees a man and a girl walking out of the
22:30
Speaker 1: house and that one thing struck her as odd? Absolutely,
22:36
Speaker 1: And it's the thing that sensory wise or brain picked
22:39
Speaker 1: up on that it just didn't look right. The man's
22:43
Speaker 1: dress the way he is, the girl's looking scared, and
22:46
Speaker 1: she has no shoes on, and so those things kind
22:49
Speaker 1: of get tattooed in the brain and think God that
22:52
Speaker 1: they didn't notice these things. So for right now, Oh,
22:55
Speaker 1: I've got his red car to go on. That's not
22:58
Speaker 1: helping us a lot to Doctor Tim Gallagher, joining US
23:02
Speaker 1: Medical Examiner for the entire state of Florida. You can
23:05
Speaker 1: find him at pathcaremad dot com. Lecturer University Florida Medical
23:09
Speaker 1: School and founder of the International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference.
23:16
Speaker 1: I would be in hog heaven at that conference, doctor Gallagher.
23:21
Speaker 1: It's a misconception that you can burn bodies to the
23:27
Speaker 1: extent there will be no evidence left. Explain, all right,
23:32
Speaker 1: that's a common misnoma. Actually sometimes burning the body you
23:35
Speaker 1: would actually create more evidence. One of the things that
23:39
Speaker 1: we need to know in the cases of victims who
23:42
Speaker 1: are in fires is were they killed before the fire
23:46
Speaker 1: was set or did they die as a result of
23:48
Speaker 1: the fire. And by then we can establish a timeline,
23:52
Speaker 1: you know, for certain acts that the suspect may have committed.
23:56
Speaker 1: You know what you're making me think of? Rest off
23:58
Speaker 1: the top of my head. The Teresa Hallbock case. She
24:04
Speaker 1: a twenty something amateur photographer. She was taking photos for
24:09
Speaker 1: the Penny Pincher type. It was auto Trader. That was
24:15
Speaker 1: you know those free little newspapers you get when you
24:18
Speaker 1: go into the grocery store. They're right there at the doors,
24:21
Speaker 1: like Penny Pincher Auto Trader. She went to the home.
24:25
Speaker 1: You're gonna remember this making a murderer on one of
24:29
Speaker 1: the streaming was the HBO or Netflix, Thank you, trying
24:35
Speaker 1: to pretend that Stephen Avery was innocent. Well, let me
24:38
Speaker 1: tell you. Her teeth and the studs off the back
24:42
Speaker 1: of her daisy flintest blue jeans were found in a
24:45
Speaker 1: fire pit in his backyard. Anyway, by burning her in
24:50
Speaker 1: the fire pit, he thought he got rid of all
24:51
Speaker 1: the evidence. But the teeth state, what's different about the
24:56
Speaker 1: teeth and the bones? Doctor Gallagher, Well, the teeth and
24:59
Speaker 1: bones are created mostly by calcium, and calcium is not flammable,
25:04
Speaker 1: so everything around it would be in center, leaving the
25:08
Speaker 1: calcium behind. So teeth, bones, and a lot of the
25:13
Speaker 1: even if the person had a medical device within them,
25:16
Speaker 1: for instance a pacemaker or a breast implant or some
25:22
Speaker 1: kind of other medical device, that would stay behind with
25:26
Speaker 1: the serial number on it, and then we can use
25:30
Speaker 1: that serial number to identify whose remains those are? Wow
25:35
Speaker 1: a question When you go to a dinner or a
25:37
Speaker 1: party or something like that, the people ask you medical
25:41
Speaker 1: examiner questions about why in the bones burn and the
25:45
Speaker 1: teeth remain, or questions like that, or can identify the
25:49
Speaker 1: victim by the serial number on her breast implant? Do
25:53
Speaker 1: they ask you things like that or do you just
25:54
Speaker 1: chat about politics and whether just curious? No, they do
25:59
Speaker 1: ask me things like that. They have to kind of
26:01
Speaker 1: make myself aware that are they asking me like how
26:03
Speaker 1: to get away with the perfect crime? Or you know,
26:06
Speaker 1: so I just kind of have to taper my answer
26:08
Speaker 1: a little bit. I don't want to be an encyclopedia
26:11
Speaker 1: for someone trying to get away with something elicit. Well,
26:14
Speaker 1: I assure you that's not why I'm asking. It also
26:17
Speaker 1: brings to mind Josh Powell. May he rot in hell
26:20
Speaker 1: with Satan forever. Josh Powell first kills his wife, Susan Powell,
26:25
Speaker 1: not prosecuted. Then he gets visitation with his two boys.
26:30
Speaker 1: Imagine that they go over to his home. He chops
26:33
Speaker 1: them with an axe in the neck, and then sets
26:36
Speaker 1: the whole house on fire. Another instance of trying to
26:39
Speaker 1: burn away the emmis Well, let me query you with
26:43
Speaker 1: another question. One the three dead bodies and a missing
26:45
Speaker 1: girl have to do with the sale of a home
26:49
Speaker 1: all the way across the country from Riversy, California and Virginia.
26:54
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Ashley Hope, wc y ME. According
26:58
Speaker 1: to Smith County, Virginia records, Edwards also recently purchased a
27:02
Speaker 1: home in Saltville from Jacob Gordon. I had the house
27:05
Speaker 1: on the market for just a few hours, and you know,
27:08
Speaker 1: I got a full price offer, and you know I
27:10
Speaker 1: was told it was a Virginia State trooper and we
27:12
Speaker 1: went from there. Add for the property on Alison Gap
27:15
Speaker 1: Road was recorded on November fourteenth. He was only behind
27:19
Speaker 1: me for about eight days. You know, he was actually
27:22
Speaker 1: very nice accommodating. He offered to help me on my home.
27:26
Speaker 1: After purchasing the home, it appears he blacked out windows
27:28
Speaker 1: and put up dark curtains. Title was really weird. And
27:31
Speaker 1: then of course the owner told me also that he
27:35
Speaker 1: required that they sent the video of the basement. I mean,
27:38
Speaker 1: he didn't see the property before he purchased it, but
27:41
Speaker 1: he required a video of the basement, which seemed really
27:43
Speaker 1: weird to us. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, I mean,
28:01
Speaker 1: it's a grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being
28:03
Speaker 1: with us here at Fox Nation and Serious XM one
28:07
Speaker 1: eleven Catfisher Cop. Yes he's a cop. Austin Edwards. Here's
28:15
Speaker 1: the bombshell. As if there could be anything to top
28:18
Speaker 1: that he had been messaging underage girls for nearly a
28:22
Speaker 1: decade before his murderous rampage. Crime online dot COM's Jackie
28:28
Speaker 1: Howard joining Jackie, what can you tell us? Here's another
28:31
Speaker 1: bombshell for you, Nancy. Besides the home that Austin Lee
28:35
Speaker 1: Edwards bought where he blacked out the windows. He also
28:38
Speaker 1: had a Richmond Area apartment. Now we know that apartment
28:43
Speaker 1: was never searched. A judge approved edwards eviction from that
28:48
Speaker 1: apartment just this week. Now that that eviction is official,
28:53
Speaker 1: any evidence that might exist inside that apartment could be
28:57
Speaker 1: removed if it's not been already and destroy. That means
29:01
Speaker 1: any other evidence related to more victims harassed online by
29:07
Speaker 1: Edwards will be lost. The Riverside Police Department, which led
29:11
Speaker 1: the investigation into the murders, did not see a need
29:14
Speaker 1: to search the apartment. According to a spokesman, it was
29:18
Speaker 1: not needed in relation to their investigations. Also, the Chesterfield
29:23
Speaker 1: County Police Department and Sheriff's Office did not search edwards
29:27
Speaker 1: Richmond Area apartment either. According to the Los Angeles Times,
29:31
Speaker 1: there may still be some of edwards belongings in the apartment.
29:36
Speaker 1: The reason for the eviction was that Edwards had fallen
29:39
Speaker 1: behind on his rent and his landlord moved to a victim.
29:43
Speaker 1: Court record show according to the Los Angeles Times, that
29:46
Speaker 1: he owed eight hundred four dollars for his November rent,
29:49
Speaker 1: eighty dollars and forty cents in late fees sixty one
29:52
Speaker 1: dollars for court costs, one hundred and fifty dollars attorney fee,
29:56
Speaker 1: and ninety dollars in damages for utilities and trash. There's
30:00
Speaker 1: no word on whether investigators will seek a search warrant
30:04
Speaker 1: for what remains the entire family wiped out, a teen
30:08
Speaker 1: girl left without a home, or a family now orphaned
30:12
Speaker 1: because of the cat fishing cop with a perversion for
30:16
Speaker 1: young girls online. Joining me right now. Special guest Titania Jordan,
30:22
Speaker 1: chief parenting and marketing officer at Bark Technology. I've got Bark.
30:28
Speaker 1: I'm not a pay spokesperson, not getting a dime out
30:31
Speaker 1: of it, but I've got it on my phone to
30:34
Speaker 1: my husband. She's the author of Parenting in a Tech World. Tatania,
30:40
Speaker 1: what is cat fishing? It's a coal for term for
30:43
Speaker 1: an activity that's been around as long as there's been
30:45
Speaker 1: an Internet, namely pretending to be somebody else online. And
30:50
Speaker 1: it's gut wrenching to hear the story and even more
30:53
Speaker 1: gut wrenching to know that at Bark we're sending alerts
30:57
Speaker 1: daily around predatory behavior, risky contact, sextortion. In many cases
31:05
Speaker 1: we have to notify major entities like Nick Mick, the
31:09
Speaker 1: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. What exactly is it?
31:12
Speaker 1: What exactly is cat fishing? Yes, it's the act of
31:16
Speaker 1: creating a false identity and then interacting with somebody for
31:19
Speaker 1: a specific purpose, usually to lure them into some sort
31:23
Speaker 1: of relationship. It can include mild flirting all the way
31:26
Speaker 1: to years long partnerships. And the catch is that these
31:29
Speaker 1: people have never and will never meet them in real
31:31
Speaker 1: life except for in rare, unfortunate circumstances like the one
31:35
Speaker 1: we're talking about today. It happens so often. I've got
31:39
Speaker 1: twenty pages of similar transactions right in front of me.
31:43
Speaker 1: And we saw it most recently and the Delphi double
31:46
Speaker 1: murder of libby an abbey, where a catfisher, a pudgy
31:51
Speaker 1: guy that lived in his mom's basement, was using a
31:54
Speaker 1: Justin Bieber lookalike photo to lure young girls, including an abbey,
32:00
Speaker 1: meet up with them, get naked photos of them. Turns
32:03
Speaker 1: out his cat fishing seemingly has nothing to do with
32:07
Speaker 1: their murders, but it was a monkey rich thrown in
32:10
Speaker 1: the entire double home Aside investigation. Cat fishing It's happening
32:14
Speaker 1: all the time, and Tatonia Jordan just told you what
32:18
Speaker 1: it is, but what does it have to do with
32:20
Speaker 1: this chase. Virginia State Police tell us the suspected shooter
32:24
Speaker 1: served as a trooper right here in Metcha Richmond for
32:27
Speaker 1: about ten months before he resigned in October, and then
32:30
Speaker 1: he got a job in the Washington County Sheriff's office.
32:32
Speaker 1: They tell me they hired him on November sixteenth, just
32:35
Speaker 1: ten days before this triple murder. Austin Edwards visiting more
32:41
Speaker 1: than CBS six covered edwards graduation from the Virginia State
32:44
Speaker 1: Police Academy back in January. A spokesperson says he was
32:48
Speaker 1: hired and entered into the academy in July twenty twenty
32:51
Speaker 1: one and was assigned to cover hin Rico County when
32:53
Speaker 1: he graduated. And guys, you were just hearing our friends
32:55
Speaker 1: at wtv R, now take a listen to Tony Shin.
33:00
Speaker 1: Investigators say this is the man who took their lives.
33:03
Speaker 1: Twenty eight year old Austin Lee Edwards, a law enforcement
33:07
Speaker 1: officer from Virginia who police used a fake Internet profile
33:11
Speaker 1: to appear to be a seventeen year old boy so
33:14
Speaker 1: he could have an online relationship with Brooks fifteen year
33:18
Speaker 1: old daughter. It's a method of internet deception called catfishing.
33:22
Speaker 1: He took an oath to protect, and yet he failed
33:25
Speaker 1: to do so. Instead, he preyed on the most vulnerable.
33:30
Speaker 1: Investigators say after killing the Winneck family, Edwards set the
33:34
Speaker 1: home on fire and took the teenage girl with him
33:37
Speaker 1: to Darni and Jordan, joining us chief parenting officer at
33:40
Speaker 1: Bark Technology. Once the catfisher starts talking to the girl,
33:45
Speaker 1: the girl, the young girl thanks, he's sixteen, seventeen years old.
33:48
Speaker 1: He then be friends are enough online to get valuable
33:53
Speaker 1: information like phone number and home address. Of course, sometimes
33:58
Speaker 1: people post photo that have their home address in the background,
34:02
Speaker 1: like they're in their front yard and you can see
34:04
Speaker 1: maybe their car or their home. Why is it important
34:08
Speaker 1: to never give out your home address or where you work,
34:12
Speaker 1: or any personal information like that to somebody you don't know?
34:15
Speaker 1: I mean, you outlined it clearly, but for everybody that
34:19
Speaker 1: it's only been half listening, and you are listening right now,
34:22
Speaker 1: pay attention. Pay attention to this. Your children need to
34:26
Speaker 1: know that the people they're talking to online aren't necessarily
34:30
Speaker 1: who they say they are. They can be tricky people.
34:33
Speaker 1: These are adults who are highly skilled in one thing,
34:36
Speaker 1: and that is tricking them. And they can be the smartest,
34:39
Speaker 1: most loved, brilliant children in the planet and they can
34:42
Speaker 1: still get tricked. Your children need to feel comfortable telling
34:45
Speaker 1: you about who they talk to online without ramification of
34:48
Speaker 1: doing so. You need to stay calm and they need
34:51
Speaker 1: to know that this is out there and that you
34:53
Speaker 1: are the safe place. So you do take the rich
34:55
Speaker 1: a stocky. This is your belly wick. How do you
34:58
Speaker 1: tell your children scaring them? What is catfishing? I mean
35:02
Speaker 1: I just say to my son, who are you playing with?
35:05
Speaker 1: And he says so, and so I'm like, who else?
35:06
Speaker 1: You know? Some other kid? I'm like, how do you know?
35:08
Speaker 1: It's not like a sixty five year old yah in
35:11
Speaker 1: his underwear in New Jersey and you're playing with him online.
35:15
Speaker 1: Don't give him your location or your real name. How
35:18
Speaker 1: do you tell them without scaring them? Detectives? So I
35:20
Speaker 1: teach about one hundred thousand kids a year and we
35:23
Speaker 1: talk about this in depth. I give them a sure
35:25
Speaker 1: way how you could never be catfish. So we talk
35:27
Speaker 1: about five factors of authentication. If you can't tell me
35:31
Speaker 1: their first name, their last name, their phone number, where
35:34
Speaker 1: they go to school, and where they live based on
35:36
Speaker 1: what you know to be true physically. Everyone else online
35:40
Speaker 1: is a liar. So then I asked the kids, how
35:43
Speaker 1: many webcams do you have at your disposal? They'll have
35:48
Speaker 1: a webcam on their Chromebook, their iPad, their desktop, their tablet,
35:56
Speaker 1: and their phone. So if you are talking to someone
35:59
Speaker 1: that you really have not verified who they are, and
36:01
Speaker 1: they're asking for personal information with parent guardian permission, tell them, hey,
36:06
Speaker 1: let's go to webcam. I just want to make sure
36:08
Speaker 1: you're not catfishing me and I wanted to make sure
36:10
Speaker 1: you are who you say you are. Well, I tell Detective,
36:13
Speaker 1: I tell the children it's usually my son. He can't
36:17
Speaker 1: play with anybody own line that he doesn't know in
36:20
Speaker 1: real life he's never met, and I think it's working.
36:25
Speaker 1: So that leads me to detective where's the girl? The
36:29
Speaker 1: last we heard of her, she's being taken out of
36:31
Speaker 1: the house by the guy wearing a trench coat and
36:35
Speaker 1: she's barefoot. The search is on for a red car.
36:40
Speaker 1: Take a listen to Rick Chambers KTLA. He murdered the
36:43
Speaker 1: girl's mother, Brooke, and the girl's grandparents, Mark and Cherry Winnock,
36:48
Speaker 1: and then set the fire as he dragged the struggling
36:51
Speaker 1: team to his car. Neighbors noticed that commotion and called police,
36:56
Speaker 1: but by the time they arrived, the home was burning
36:59
Speaker 1: and Edward was already driving back east. But about two
37:03
Speaker 1: hours after the murders, police spotted edwards red car on
37:07
Speaker 1: Highway two forty seven. SWAT units were called in and
37:11
Speaker 1: a pursuit began along Route sixty two in Kelso, though
37:15
Speaker 1: Edwards began shooting at the SWAT vehicle. Okay, so this
37:18
Speaker 1: guy not only has taken the girl martyr her entire family,
37:23
Speaker 1: but now he's shooting at cops. Take a list of
37:27
Speaker 1: Fox eleven parked in another neighbor's driveway. They left that woman,
37:31
Speaker 1: who described the girl as in distress and gave police's
37:33
Speaker 1: license plate. Officers tracked them down halfway to Vegas and
37:37
Speaker 1: say during the pursuit, Edwards lost control while shooting at
37:40
Speaker 1: police and their chopper. The girl managed to escape to safety,
37:44
Speaker 1: and police returned fire. Edwards had worked for two law
37:48
Speaker 1: enforcement departments in Virginia, with no priors or marks against
37:51
Speaker 1: his name. The teenage girl is in the color guard
37:53
Speaker 1: at Arlington High School. She's currently in protective custody. So
37:57
Speaker 1: this guy has a gun and is brazen enough to
38:02
Speaker 1: shoot at cops. To Scott Johnson, that tells me he's
38:08
Speaker 1: willing to kill again, even shooting at cops. He's already
38:13
Speaker 1: killed three people in order to get this girl back
38:16
Speaker 1: to his lair in Virginia with the blacked out windows
38:21
Speaker 1: and the heavy curtains. He's willing to kill to have
38:25
Speaker 1: sex with a fifteen year old girl, right, And you
38:29
Speaker 1: know this psychopathic traits, you know, the minimal if any
38:32
Speaker 1: anxiety or fear. You know, they really just don't care
38:35
Speaker 1: about tomorrow. They care about today, and so you know,
38:38
Speaker 1: to take the risk of being shot and killed it
38:41
Speaker 1: it didn't matter to him, and he just didn't care.
38:46
Speaker 1: It was about the power that control, the fantasy of
38:49
Speaker 1: having this victim back in isolation in Virginia and the
38:54
Speaker 1: rest just didn't matter to him. To detected Rich with
38:57
Speaker 1: Stocky joining us, and this is a guy that's law enforcement.
39:01
Speaker 1: He's been in a jail before. You know, the first
39:03
Speaker 1: time I ever went in full to county jail. When
39:05
Speaker 1: I walked out into the parking lot and it was
39:08
Speaker 1: a very bleak asphalt parking lot, it was the most
39:10
Speaker 1: beautiful thing I've ever seen. Just to get out of
39:13
Speaker 1: that jail. This guy knows the consequences. Was Dockey, absolutely so.
39:17
Speaker 1: I've arrested over three hundred of these internet predators, and
39:20
Speaker 1: it's butcher, Baker, camelstick maker. It could be firefighters, police attorneys, doctors.
39:25
Speaker 1: It is always a secret life that nobody knows about.
39:29
Speaker 1: And until we hit that door with a search warrant
39:32
Speaker 1: than the cats out of the bag, or in this case,
39:34
Speaker 1: when he goes so far and does these unbelievable horrible acts,
39:38
Speaker 1: now he knows he's found out. I mean Tatonia Jordan
39:41
Speaker 1: joining us from Bark. You can find her at bark
39:44
Speaker 1: dot us. Titania children and I think their parents have
39:50
Speaker 1: no idea what the children are up against. The level
39:56
Speaker 1: of deceit, the level of cunning, the brazen character of
40:02
Speaker 1: these online predators. This guy has already killed three that
40:06
Speaker 1: we know of, and willing to kill cops to get
40:09
Speaker 1: this girl alone in that blacked out basement. It's disgusting,
40:15
Speaker 1: it's angering, you know. The Cattie knowingly uses flattery and
40:20
Speaker 1: emotional manipulation as an adult against children to kick start
40:24
Speaker 1: a connection and then nurtures it steadily. It can happen
40:28
Speaker 1: to any one of us. You know, Detective rich Wistock.
40:30
Speaker 1: He says so many times, not my kid, not my kid.
40:33
Speaker 1: It absolutely can be your kid. It could be my kid.
40:36
Speaker 1: Daryl Cohen is joining me, former felony prosecutor now civil attorney. Daryl.
40:42
Speaker 1: You and I spent way too much time in the
40:44
Speaker 1: Fulton County jail. Once you've been in that place, you
40:48
Speaker 1: never you never want to go to jail ever. But
40:53
Speaker 1: this guy is so driven by his demons. He'll do
40:56
Speaker 1: anything to get this girl Nancy. Once you've spent one
41:01
Speaker 1: minute in the Fulton County jail, that's one minute too long.
41:05
Speaker 1: It is horrible, and it is indicative of so many
41:09
Speaker 1: jails this guy. Yes he is praised, Yes he is evil,
41:15
Speaker 1: Yes he is wrong, and it's hard to look into
41:18
Speaker 1: his mind. Christ and Kuan Wcyb joining us from Bristol, Kristen.
41:24
Speaker 1: Where is the girl now? The girl now is in protected,
41:28
Speaker 1: she'd be able to get away. I pray that she
41:31
Speaker 1: doesn't go to a foster home, that she goes to
41:33
Speaker 1: live with family. And now she is dealing with not
41:37
Speaker 1: only being in the car with a guy trying to
41:40
Speaker 1: rape her, but the murtyr of her mother and her
41:46
Speaker 1: grandparents and her home up in flames because of this guy,
41:52
Speaker 1: this Catfisher. Well, you may be happy to know that
41:56
Speaker 1: when he opened fire on the cops, they shot him dead.
42:01
Speaker 1: But this girl has a lifetime sentence of pain. Nancy
42:08
Speaker 1: Grace Crumbs story, signing off Goodbye friend,