The suspect in a Southern California triple homicide was a former Virginia law enforcement officer who investigators believe drove across the U.S. to meet a teenage girl before killing three members of her family. Austin Lee Edwards, 28, likely set fire to the family's home on the day of the shooting. After exchanging gunfire with deputies, they fatally shot Edwards after locating him with the teenager. Until last month, Edwards was a Virginia State Police trooper and was recently hired as a sheriff's deputy in that state, reports the Associated Press. The bodies in the home were identified as the girl's grandparents and mother. Their exact cause of death remains under investigation. The teenager was unharmed and taken into protective custody by the Riverside County Department of Social Services. Authorities believe Edwards parked his vehicle in a neighbor's driveway, walked to the home and killed the family members before leaving with the girl.
Dispatchers were alerted to smoke and a possible structure fire a few houses from the disturbance call. The Riverside Fire Department discovered three adults lying in the front entryway. Police said the cause of the fire was under investigation but appears to have been intentionally set. Riverside authorities distributed a description of Edwards' vehicle to law enforcement agencies and several hours later, police located the car with Edwards and the teenager in Kelso, an unincorporated area of San Bernadino County. Edwards had fired gunshots and was killed by deputies returning fire. Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez called the case “yet another horrific reminder of the predators existing online who prey on our children.”