One night in 1980, April Balascio’s father, Edward Wayne Edwards, woke up the household and told everyone to start packing. They were leaving their home in Watertown, Wisconsin, after living there for a year.
It wasn’t new for Balascio, who was 11 years old. She was accustomed to moving every six months to a year without warning. It wouldn’t be until decades later when she discovered why.
“Each time we moved, it was hard,” Balascio told Fox News Digital. “You develop new friends each time, and then you have to leave them. But one thing that came out of it is you learn how to pack quickly and tightly because if you didn’t, your stuff would get left behind.
April Balascio as a child. (Courtesy of April Balascio)
“But it was hard having to upend everything,” she shared. “It was hard starting a new school every year or even sometimes twice a year. … He made us believe we were leaving because people were coming after us. So, there was also that fear that we were being hunted, that fear that we could be killed.”
Edward Wayne Edwards with his wife Kay Sept. 25, 1972. (Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network)
Balascio has written a new book, “Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father.” In it, Balascio details how she discovered her father’s true identity and the horrific crimes he committed.
The patriarch died in 2011 at age 77 from natural causes. At the time, he was behind bars after being sentenced to death by lethal injection.
April Balascio’s memoir, “Raised by a Serial Killer,” is out now. (Gallery Books )
“I wanted this story to be told, but it took a long time to write it,” Balascio admitted. “It was a very difficult thing to do. I was protecting my memories.”
Balascio described Edwards as charismatic, a “big kid” who enjoyed parties and entertaining. But he also had “a very dark side.”
“It was scary,” she said. “He was abusive. And especially as I got older, I became more scared of hearing his tires on the gravel in the driveway. I would wonder how he was going to walk through the house. Was he going to be in a good mood or a bad mood? For a while, I hated him.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Edward Wayne Edwards was charming and charismatic, but he also had “a dark side,” daughter April Balascio told Fox News Digital. (Courtesy of April Balascio)
“I witnessed his violence, and it was a common occurrence, whether he took his anger out on me or he took it out on my mom,” Balascio added. “Especially when I was younger, I witnessed more of him taking his anger out on my mom.
“I witnessed him hitting her, punching her in the face.”
For years, Balascio wondered why, at times, the family had to suddenly leave in the middle of the night. It stayed with her that Edwards also had a fascination with crime announcements in the local newspaper.
April Balascio had a nomadic upbringing. As an adult, she would discover why. (Courtesy of April Balascio.)
In March 2009, when Balascio was about 40, she began digging, revisiting the cases that intrigued her father. After searching for “cold case” and “Watertown” online, Balascio came across reports about the “Sweetheart Murders.”
In this Aug. 19, 1980, photo, a psychic, who was called in on the case of the two missing Jefferson County teens, stands near the car the couple had driven the night they were last seen, in Sullivan, Wis. (Michael Sears/USA Today Network)
In 1980, high school sweethearts Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew disappeared after a wedding reception. The remains of the 19-year-olds were found in a field two months later. Edwards, then a handyman, was questioned by police but insisted he had no information.
After the bodies were discovered, Edwards and his family left Wisconsin.
SIGN UP TO GET THE TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER
Judith Straub, 18, of Sterling, Ohio, was found in Silver Creek Metropolitan Park in August 1977. She was one of Edward Wayne Edwards’ five known victims. (Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network)
“I suspected my dad was doing some bad things, but I didn’t verbalize it to anyone,” said Balascio. “There was no proof. … I can’t say I suspected that it was exactly murder, but I did believe he was harming people.”
People search for Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew in Jefferson County. (Benny Sieu/USA Today Network)
Balascio learned that investigators had reopened the case. She reached out to detectives, eager to share everything she remembered from her childhood. Balascio told them she suspected her father could have been responsible for the killings but didn’t have any proof, only memories of what she saw and felt.
She described how, when the pair were initially missing, Edwards talked about them “constantly.” One day he quipped to a pal, “I bet you they find them in a field.”
William Lavaco, 21, from Doylestown was found in Silver Creek Metropolitan Park in August 1977. (Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network)
At a lab, Edwards’ DNA and the genetic material at the crime scene matched, Oxygen.com reported. Edwards was arrested in Kentucky, where he had moved with his wife. He confessed to five murders.
“That’s when it truly hit me how evil my dad was,” said Balascio. “He was a bad man.”
As a child, Edwards was raised in an orphanage and spent time in juvenile detention, the outlet reported. In 1962, he was arrested for an armed bank robbery and spent five years behind bars. His life of crime didn’t end there.
GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB
Edward Wayne Edwards at an orphanage. (Courtesy of April Balascio)
Edwards confessed to killing 21-year-old William “Billy” Lavaco and 19-year-old Judith Straub, another couple, in 1977. The murders took place in Ohio, where Edwards grew up.
Edward Wayne Edwards had a tumultuous childhood that led to a life of crime. (Alamy)
Edwards also confessed to murdering his foster son, Dannie Boy Edwards, in 1996. His motive was to collect the payout of the 23-year-old’s life insurance, which was worth $250,000.
Balascio remembers one of the last times she saw her father. He was hospitalized, and she decided to visit him with her children.
Edward Wayne Edwards died in 2011. He was 77. (David Harpe/USA Today Network)
“My daughter wrote my dad a get-well card,” Balascio recalled. “I don’t remember the exact words, but it said something to the effect that Jesus forgives everybody and everything. You just need to ask him. There was also something in there about God being forgiving and God being loving. My daughter was only in elementary school, but she had made this card for him.
“I remember my dad reading it and crying. He said, ‘It’s funny that you should say that because I was just thinking, telling God that he couldn’t forgive me for all the bad things that I had done.’
“We had to leave the room because he had an emergency that needed to be taken care of,” she shared. “I remember thinking, ‘Maybe he was going to change his ways.'”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
April Balascio is seen here with her parents at 7 months old. (Courtesy of April Balascio)
Balascio said she was “relieved” when Edwards died.
“He was supposed to be executed, and he ended up dying before the execution,” she said. “I was not looking forward to the execution. I knew it would be a media circus. I knew the reporters would be knocking on the door again and calling because he asked for the death penalty. His dying before the execution was a blessing. It was a relief. It was all over.”
Edward Wayne Edwards follows court proceedings along with defense attorney Larry Whitney. Edwards entered guilty pleas on two counts of aggravated murder for the 1977 killings of Billy Lavaco of Doylestown and Judy Straub of Sterling. (Phil Masturzo/USA Today Network)
But the story isn’t quite over for Balascio, who now lives a more peaceful life on a farm. She has submitted her DNA, hoping it could lead to answers to any cold cases her father may have been involved in.
Police searched the area along Highway 16 for the bodies of Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew, who went missing in August 1980. (Ned Vespa/USA Today Network)
“You don’t have to be a product of your environment,” said Balascio. “We all make choices. My dad made the choices that he made, and they were bad choices. But he has children who are all law-abiding citizens who have made the right choices and have loving families.
“I have so much empathy and sympathy for the parents who lost their children. … To this day, I still break down and cry when I think about the devastation that my father has caused in people’s lives… There are still repercussions from the evil things my dad did. That doesn’t go away.
April Balascio lives a more peaceful life on a farm. (Jonathan Easterling)
“My dad did confess to five murders, yes, but I also believe … there’s more out there,” she reflected. “There are more victims out there.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
