Killer Cop Catfished Riverside Teen — But She Wasn't His First Victim: Report

RIVERSIDE, CA — The case of a Virginia sheriff’s deputy who catfished a Riverside teen, drove across the country, killed her family and set their home on fire made headlines nationwide in November.

But the Riverside girl was not Austin Lee Edwards' first victim, the Los Angeles Times reported this week.

A 21-year-old woman recounted to the Times how when she was in her early teens and Edwards was in his early 20s, he spent years communicating with her online, manipulating her and pressuring her for explicit photos.

“This guy stalked me and groomed me when I was a child,” she told the newspaper.

About eight years ago, Edwards had met the woman on Omegle, a web platform that randomly paired users, when she was 13. They went on to exchange thousands of messages as well as video chats over the two years that followed, during which time Edwards masturbated on camera, pressured the girl to show him nude photographs, which she did, and used racist and homophobic slurs, according to the Times.

Edwards told the girl he had no one else and threatened suicide if she cut off communication, the Times reported, adding Edwards also showed her his knife and gun collection.

In late 2016, the girl blocked Edwards on Skype, but he sent her messages from multiple Facebook accounts for years, including as recently as 2020, according to the Times.

“It definitely affected me more than I realized,” the woman told the Times. “He did a lot of damage to me.”

Edwards was 28 when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Thanksgiving weekend after killing the Riverside teen's family, fleeing with her, and engaging officers in a shootout, according to police.

Edwards had told the 15-year-old that he was 17, according to reports.

If you need help, call the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network sexual assault hotline at 800-656-4673 or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.