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.
“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.”
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.
“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.
