Relative of teenage ‘catfishing’ victim whose family were killed by deputy speaks out
‘Catfishing led to the deaths of the three most important people in my life,’ Mychelle Blankin said at emotional press conference on Wednesday
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A California woman whose sister and parents were allegedly shot dead by a police officer in a “catfish” triple homicide says the suspect had betrayed his oath and “preyed on the most vulnerable”.
Mychelle Blankin wept at a news conference on Wednesday as she paid emotional tribute to her parents Mark Winek, 69, mother, Sharie Winek, 65, and sister Brooke Winek, 39, who police say were killed at their home in Riverside, California, by Virginia cop Austin Lee Edwards on 25 November.
Edwards had posed as a teenager to groom and sexually extort Brooke Winek’s 15-year-old daughter in a practice known as “catfishing,” the Riverside Police Department said.
Authorities say he drove 4,000kms across the country and killed the three family members before setting their home on fire and kidnapping the teenager. He was killed in a shootout with San Bernadino County sheriff’s deputies.
Ms Blankin said her family had “lived and loved selflessly”, and described her sister Brooke as “loving single mom who did her best to raise her two teenage daughters in a loving way”.
She urged parents to pay attention to their children’s online behaviour, according to KABC.
“Parents, please know your child’s online activity, ask questions about what they’re doing and whom they are talking to,” she said.
“Anybody can say they’re someone else and you could be in this situation.”
She said Edwards had an “inappropriate online romance” with her 15-year-old niece.
“Catfishing led to the deaths of the three most important people in my life. My dad, my mom, and my sister,” she said.
“He took an oath to protect and yet he failed to do so,” she went on. “Instead he preyed on the most vulnerable.”
Ms Blankin also paid tribute to the neighbour who spotted a suspicious vehicle outside her parent’s home and contacted authorities.
The call had “saved my niece’s life,” she said. “And that neighbour is a hero in our eyes.”
Friends of the family have set up a GoFundme page to help provide for the two surviving daughters.
“For my two young nieces who are now left motherless, we hope that this community can wrap their arms around them and lift them up,” she said.
“They have the most difficult journey ahead as they are minors and they don’t understand everything that has happened.”