California Police investigate house fire homicides
NEEDLES, Calif. (NBC) - Police in California are investigating a suspicious house fire that left three people dead on Friday as homicides.
Authorities discovered the bodies of a popular baseball and softball coach at a nearby high school, his wife and their adult daughter Friday after a fire at the home in the Riverside neighborhood.
Witnesses saw the suspects car in the neighborhood the morning of the incident.
Authorities then traced the car to San Bernardino County near the city of Needles.
That is where the suspect died during a shootout with police.
Authorities believe that Austin Lee Edwards, a former Virginia State Police Trooper, drove from Virginia, murdered three members of the family.
After that, he then drove away with a 15-year-old girl.
Police also say he tricked the girl into a relationship by pretending to be a teenage boy.
The teenage girl has been rescued and is now with the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.
Police have not said whether the fire caused the family's deaths, or through some other cause.
