It was the day after Thanksgiving, and John Winek was in Oregon spending the vacation together with his sister.
Then the decision got here.
Again in Southern California, Winek’s brother, sister-in-law and niece have been lifeless, their home was on fireplace. A Virginia cop who had “catfished” his 15-year-old great-niece was behind the rampage and was now on the run together with her.
“It’s incomprehensible,” Winek mentioned Wednesday. “They’re right here one second and gone the subsequent. No person ought to should undergo one thing like this.”
Austin Lee Edwards, 28, a Virginia police officer, posed on-line as an adolescent to be able to “groom” Winek’s great-niece, then drove throughout the nation to her house in Riverside, the place he killed the lady’s mom and grandparents and set fireplace to the house earlier than driving off with the lady, in response to Riverside police. Authorities initially mentioned that he was killed in a shootout with police after his car was stopped, however the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division introduced Wednesday that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The lady was not bodily harmed and is now within the care of kid protecting companies, officers mentioned.
For Winek and different relations, the tragedy comes with a lesson for fogeys.
“Care for your youngsters,” Winek mentioned. “Pay attention to what’s occurring. When you’re concerned, even when they’re upset about it, you’re doing the fitting factor.”
Detectives with the Riverside Police Division mentioned that Edwards met the teenage lady via a way of on-line deception often called “catfishing,” wherein a pretend profile or id is used to lure somebody.
“Dad and mom, please, please know your baby’s on-line exercise,” mentioned Michelle Blandin, the daughter of Sharie and Mark Winek and Brooke Winek’s sister, throughout a Wednesday press convention. “Ask questions on what they’re doing and whom they’re speaking to; anyone can say they’re another person. … If one thing like this horrific tragedy can occur right here in our neighborhood, in our neighborhood, it could possibly occur anyplace.”
The three relations killed within the rampage have been Mark Winek, 69, a longtime baseball and softball coach at Arlington Excessive College; his spouse, Sharie Winek, 65, a loyal mom and grandmother; and their daughter, Brooke Winek, 38, a single mom of two teenage ladies — together with the lady groomed and manipulated by Edwards. All of them lived collectively within the Riverside home.
Edwards — who had not too long ago grow to be a legislation enforcement officer in Virginia — portrayed himself as a 17-year-old whereas speaking on-line with the lady, utilizing “grooming” strategies, which might embrace ways reminiscent of asking for or providing sexually express photographs, offering items and giving out compliments, Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez mentioned.
He mentioned it’s nonetheless below investigation how the digital relationship between Edwards and the lady transpired and on what platform they met or communicated, however mentioned investigators imagine lots of these exploitative methods for “sextortion” have been used on this case.
“The sort of victimization takes place throughout each platform, social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, and so forth.,” Gonzalez mentioned. “That is yet one more horrific reminder of the predators present on-line who prey on our kids. When you’ve already had this dialog together with your youngsters on easy methods to be protected on-line and on social media, please have it once more. If not, begin it now to raised shield them.”
Edwards, who confirmed up on the Wineks’ house Friday, graduated from the police academy earlier this yr and had been newly employed as a patrol deputy with a southwest Virginia county sheriff’s workplace simply 10 days earlier than his rampage in Riverside, in response to Virginia officers.
“This horrific occasion began with an inappropriate on-line romance between a predator and a toddler,” Blandin mentioned via tears. “He took an oath to guard, but he failed to take action. As an alternative, he preyed on probably the most susceptible.”
Whereas Blandin mentioned Edwards tried to kidnap her niece, Riverside police officers mentioned they aren’t but describing the interplay as an abduction, as they’re nonetheless combing via bodily and digital proof, making an attempt to grasp if she was coerced or threatened to get into Edwards’ automobile. Nevertheless, Riverside police spokesperson Ryan Railsback mentioned there isn’t a indication the lady was concerned within the killings or fireplace.
Blandin mentioned she is grateful her niece is alive after every part that occurred, and known as on neighbors to look out for each other — as she mentioned her mother and father’ neighborhood did.
Police have been first notified of a scenario afoul on the Winek household’s cul-de-sac Friday morning, when neighbors known as in a few feminine who gave the impression to be distressed whereas getting right into a pink Kia Soul with a male driver. Quickly after, calls got here in a few fireplace on the Wineks’ house.
“The loving neighbors on my mother and father’ road noticed an unfamiliar automobile they usually instantly reported it to authorities,” Blandin mentioned. “Making that decision from that neighbor saved my niece’s life; and that neighbor is a hero in our eyes.”
Blandin mentioned her dad, Mark Winek, was soft-spoken and humble, and would “exit of his means to assist a good friend or stranger in want.”
His love for teaching started in 1993 at La Sierra Excessive College, the place he coached her ladies soccer group for 4 years, Blandin mentioned. He went on to educate at many various Riverside excessive faculties, discovering his house at Arlington Excessive, the place he had been an assistant baseball and softball coach for near a decade.
Blandin mentioned her mother, Sharie, had the “largest giving coronary heart conceivable.”
“She beloved my sister and I, alongside together with her 4 granddaughters, with each ounce of her being,” mentioned Blandin, as she gripped her relations’ arms for help. “She loved baking with us, and the spotlight of the yr was baking and adorning Christmas cookies. That may be a custom that I’ll keep it up.”
Blandin thanked folks for his or her generosity to the household’s GoFundMe account, which she mentioned shall be used to help her nieces, together with for a university financial savings fund.
John Winek mentioned he and his siblings grew up in Wisconsin and moved to California after they have been youthful and settled down in Anaheim. Mark and Sharie Winek have been married for greater than 40 years and John Winek had been one of the best man at their marriage ceremony within the Seventies.
He emphasised the pivotal function that Mark, Sharie and Brooke Winek performed in the neighborhood, saying that Mark Winek would supply to mow lawns for his neighbors who have been single moms and that Sharie Winek “bent over backwards for anyone within the neighborhood.”
Errick Winek, Mark Winek’s nephew and godson who attended USC, mentioned he and his uncle, who was an ardent Notre Dame fan, would usually tease one another concerning the rivalry between their faculties.
“I missed texting him this previous Saturday throughout the eve of the USC vs. Notre Dame recreation. That was one thing that made it hit house,” the 37-year-old Ontario resident mentioned.
“They’re a loving household. They lived collectively. They have been extremely shut — Mark and Sharie’s delight and pleasure have been their youngsters and by extension, their grandchildren. You by no means noticed them beam so brightly than after they have been round their household.”
