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...