Growing up, April Balascio buried her own suspicions about her father, Ed Edwards, because they were too painful to bear. It wasn’t until 2009 that April finally allowed herself to piece together the harrowing puzzle of her father’s dark secrets.
Not Who They Thought He Was
Ed Edwards was handsome and charming; April described him as a “ladies’ man” who was well-liked by his community. Despite Edwards’ charismatic exterior, April always knew something was wrong with her father.
Searching for Answers
In 2009, April decided to do some investigating, steeling herself for the worst. She had no idea that her amateur sleuthing would lead to the capture and arrest of one of America’s most prolific serial killers: her own father.
Difficult Past
Edwards was an emotionally and physically abusive father. He had grown up in an orphanage where he claimed to have been abused himself; later, Edwards was dishonorably discharged from the United States Army, resorting to a life of crime.
Saving Face
April’s father spent time in prison for arson and gas station robbery. At one point, he even made an appearance on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. Still, by the time that Edwards met Kay, April’s mother, he appeared to be a new man. Nobody knew that he had simply perfected the art of lying.
Following His Lead
When April was in the second grade, her father took her to a park in the heat of summer. At the time, her father had managed to maintain his outward facade, handsome and alluring as ever. She asked him what they were doing there…
Deep in the Woods
Edwards led his daughter into the Ohio wilderness, past a pond and a tall gathering of weeds. They made their way down a paved path. Then, he pointed at the ground, and said, “Here!”
Traumatic Memory
The next thing April remembered was flashing lights and the screech of a siren. He told police he “stumbled” across the bodies of 21-year-old Billy Lavaco and 18-year-old Judith Straub, even pretending to be helpful with detectives who arrived on the scene, answering their questions with practiced ease.
Narcissistic Tendencies
The vivid and traumatic memory of seeing the rotting corpses of Billy and Judith, who had been shot point-blank in the back of the neck, stuck with April as she grew older. She realized that her father was the one who alerted the police in the first place.
Obsessed with Murder
Throughout the years, Edwards moved their family from town to town without reason or warning every few months. They would pack up in the middle of the night and, the next day, settle down somewhere new. April also noticed her father’s bizarre fixation with local murders.
He Wanted to be Part of It
Her father cut out newspaper clippings detailing nearby cases, taping up them on walls around the house. She watched as Edwards inserted himself into investigation after investigation…
Two Sides
April was bothered by the way her town perceived Edwards. “He was always saying one thing and doing another,” she said. “He was either extremely loving and kind, or he was extremely abusive, verbally and physically.”
Difficult Reality
“Kids aren’t stupid,” she maintained. It didn’t pass over April’s head that dead bodies tended to turn up wherever they lived, but the thought of her father being held responsible was too sinister for April to fathom.
Unearthing the Past
By 2009, April had become increasingly estranged from her father over the years. She was married and had three children of her own. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps the time had come to do a bit of digging into her father’s past.
The Sweetheart Murders
April discovered that Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew disappeared from Watertown, Wisconsin in 1980. Their murder was called “The Sweetheart Murders.” April recalled an unsettling memory from her past…
She Was There
One morning in 1980, when April was 11 years old, Edwards woke up their entire household. He told everyone to pack their bags immediately. They were leaving Watertown, Wisconsin, where they had lived for almost a year.
Skipping Town
April was used to leaving places at a moment’s notice. “He’d tell us that we had to move in secret because he was protecting us because there were people who wanted to hurt him or us,” she said.
Too Much of a Coincidence
April didn’t think too much of it when the Edwards family left Watertown in 1980. Then, in 2009, she found an article revealing where Timothy and Kelly had been killed: a venue called the Concord House, where her father had worked as a handyman before they all skipped town.
Finding Proof
Between 1974 and 2000, Edwards lived in over 12 states under a number of false aliases. April knew the Watertown murders had to be connected to her father. “I started hyperventilating,” April said. “Because that was the moment it really hit me that my dad was the horrible, horrible person that I’d always suspected him of. I just never had the proof.”
She Wished it Wasn’t True
April secretly hoped she’d be proven wrong: “During this whole process, you’re still holding out for hope that he’s not this monster that I think he is, that he’s just my dad and has a temper…” Eventually, the mother of three went to the authorities.
Another Confession
Weeks later, detective Chad Garcia of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office told April that Ed Edwards’ DNA matched the DNA found on the victims. He was taken into custody at his mobile home on July 20, 2009. One year later, he made a disturbing confession…
Serial Killer
In early 2010, Edwards claimed he had murdered four people: the 1980 Sweetheart Murders of Tim Hack and Kelly Drew in Wisconsin, as well as the 1977 murders of William Lavaco and Judith Straub in Ohio. Later that year, Edwards confessed to one more killing.
Heartless Murderer
“I’ve always been into crime,” Edwards said on the murder of his 25-year-old foster son, Dannie Boy Edwards. “And with Danny, I saw an opportunity… I set it up to collect the money and ended up getting $250,000 out of it. And it was arranged, it was pre-meditated, it was thought-out, it was planned, and that’s what I did.”
There Might Be Others
Edwards was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2011 of natural causes while on death row, only one month after his initial sentencing. Although Edwards confessed to five murders, law enforcement believed he was responsible for even more…
It Didn’t Stop There
It is believed that Edwards may have been responsible for the 1960 murders of Beverly Allan and Larry Peyton. Detective Garcia also said he was “pretty confident” that Edwards may have killed at least five to seven more people, and “who knows beyond that.”
Telling her Kids
April is now in the process of piecing her life back together. She said that telling her kids that their grandfather was a cold-blooded murderer was enormously difficult, but necessary to prevent them from stumbling across it online. “I’d rather have that come from me than from someplace else,” she said.
The Clearing
At first, April shied away from discussing her father. However, in 2018, she appeared on a true-crime podcast: The Clearing. The primary reason April opened up about Edwards was to prevent misconceptions about the crimes her father actually did commit versus the ones true-crime junkies were pinning on him.
Clearing the Air
She found it infuriating that Internet sleuths were assigning Edwards responsibility for the Zodiac murders and other high-profile unsolved cases. “No one was paying attention to the cases that I believe that my father actually did commit,” she said. “I want to set the facts straight about some of the myths or accusations out there.”
Rallying for the Truth
On the podcast, host and journalist Josh Dean works with April to deep dive back in time. In an attempt to explain how Ed Edwards ended up behind bars, the pair explore April’s childhood, exploring the dark side of her father’s life. Together, they aim to “overturn a viral online narrative that had turned Edward Wayne Edwards into a kind of serial killer caricature.”
Guilty Conscience
April still struggles with guilt about not reporting her father sooner. She knows she could have possibly saved lives, but the guilt of turning in her own father and acknowledging what he had done was too traumatic.
It Was All A Game
At the end of the day, April has one question: Why? She thinks she knows the answer: it was all a game of cat-and-mouse to him. Regardless, April’s courage helped solve cold cases that would have otherwise remained on the shelf, gathering dust.