‘HE DID A LOT OF DAMAGE’

‘Catfish’ Cop Groomed Another Teen Years Before Killing California Family: Report

The woman said she was 13 years old when Austin Lee Edwards began grooming her online, pressuring her for nude photos years before he was hired as a police officer.

Austin Lee Edwards, the police officer who “catfished” a 15-year-old girl and killed three of her relatives before taking his own life in November, had previously groomed at least one other victim, stalking and pressuring the minor for nude photographs, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 21-year-old woman, who was not identified, was 13 years old when she met Edwards, then 20, on the online messaging platform Omegle. The woman provided the Times with more than 4,000 messages sent in the two-year period after the two began corresponding over Skype, reflecting a sexually and emotionally toxic conversation. “YO WHAT THE FUCK I SAID I WANTED TITS WAITING ON ME WHEN I GOT BACK,” Edwards reportedly wrote in one message. The woman, then a tween, replied, “iM SORRY.” In 2016, as she began to pull away from him, Edwards began suggesting in video calls and text messages that he was hurting himself. Over one call, he showed her an injury that matched details of a police report around that time that ended with Edwards’ temporary detention in a psychiatric facility. The woman told the Times she’d only realized she had post-traumatic symptoms years after finally blocking Edwards. “He did a lot of damage to me,” she said.

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