A background investigator didn’t verify a would-be trooper’s psychological well being historical past, permitting him to be employed for the Virginia State Police the 12 months earlier than he sexually extorted and kidnapped a 15-year-old woman and killed three members of her household in California, officers stated.

Col. Gary Settle, the Virginia State Police superintendent, wrote in a Dec. 30 letter to the state’s inspector basic that the hiring of Austin Lee Edwards, regardless of his 2016 involuntary admittance to a psychiatric facility, was “the direct result of human error” and gave the impression to be an remoted incident.

Edwards was employed by the state police in July 2021 and resigned 9 months later. He was then employed as a deputy sheriff in Washington County, Virginia, final November, simply 9 days earlier than the killings in California.

The slayings — and their connection to Virginia — prompted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to ask the state’s inspector basic for a “full investigation.”

Edwards posed on-line as a 17-year-old boy whereas speaking with the 15-year-old woman in California, a type of deception generally known as “catfishing.” He requested her to ship nude pictures of herself and she or he stopped responding to his messages.

On Nov. 25, Edwards killed the woman’s mom and grandparents, then set hearth to their residence in Riverside, a metropolis about 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Edwards died by suicide throughout a shootout with San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies the identical day. The woman was rescued. Riverside detectives are nonetheless investigating what prompted Edwards to drive throughout the nation and whether or not he deliberate the killings prematurely.

Settle’s letter was first reported Monday by the Los Angeles Times.

The Virginia State Police beforehand — and repeatedly — stated there have been no crimson flags throughout Edwards’ background investigation. However, Edwards disclosed his 2016 keep on the psychiatric facility — after he threatened to kill his father and himself when he was 21 — throughout a pre-polygraph interview. The episode was first reported by the LA Times.

At the time, a choose barred Edwards from buying, possessing or transporting firearms and the Times didn’t discover any report that he had petitioned a courtroom to revive his gun rights.

Settle wrote that Edwards’ disclosure of the 2016 incident wouldn’t have been a right away disqualifier for employment at that time of the hiring course of however relatively an “opportunity for clarification.”

But an unnamed background investigator queried the mistaken database — the right one was linked to firearms and would have pulled up the psychological well being order — and used the inaccurate search code, Settle wrote. That meant the investigator didn’t see the psychological well being order — which might have disqualified Edwards from state police employment.

This investigator was the one one who was “unaware” of the requirement to seek for psychological well being orders through the background course of, in response to Settle. A spokesperson for the state police didn’t instantly say whether or not that investigator had been disciplined or terminated because of the error.

The state police since modified its employment processes and background investigation insurance policies and coaching on account of Edwards’ hiring.

Youngkin’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.

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