California Father Deliberately Crashes Vehicle, Killing Self and 2 Children

Early Monday morning, Alan Dean Edwards, 46, rammed his ’97 Accord into a parked semi-truck and trailer, killing him and his two children– Erick Dean Edwards, 8, and Alona Marie Edwards, 5– instantly. The incident took place off of I-5 North in Castaic, California.

After completing the initial investigation, California Highway Patrol detectives– in conjunction with the coroner investigators– concluded that Edwards’ collision was a deliberate act. The investigation found a number of pieces of evidence that pointed to this conclusion, including the fact that Edwards had to maneuver around certain objects in order to create the collision.

“Preliminary information indicates that the adult male suspect deliberately collided with a parked tractor-trailer at a high rate of speed without making any attempts to stop, killing himself and two victims in the car,” stated a Sheriff’s Department News release.

According to reports, Edwards had picked up the children from his estranged-wife, Sherri Edwards, for a scheduled visit on Friday . He then failed to return them on Sunday, causing Mrs. Edwards to file a missing persons’ report.

“This was a murder-suicide,” said a devastated Sherri Edwards. “Certain things left in the house are all red flags. He left his driver’s licence, his keys and my son’s asthma medication. All the doors were unlocked.”

In an interview with KTLA 5 News, Alan Edwards’ daughter from a previous relationship said, “We all knew he was going to snap eventually because … he’d already lost me, because of the way he treated me. So it was a power thing for him.”