One night in 1980, April Balacio's father, Edward Wayne Edwards, woke up his family and told everyone to start packing. They were leaving their home after living in Watertown, Wisconsin for a year.
That wasn't new to 11-year-old Barascio. She was used to moving every six months to a year without notice. It wasn't until decades later that she discovered the reason.
“Every time I moved, it was difficult,” Barasio told FOX News Digital. “You make new friends each time, but each time you have to say goodbye. But one of the things I learned from it was that I learned how to pack my bags quickly and securely. Because they will be left behind.”
Daughter of serial killer confronts him behind bars over explosive diary that suggests she was also a victim
April Barasio as a child. (Courtesy of April Barasio)
“But it was tough having to turn everything upside down,” she said. “It was hard starting a new school every year, or sometimes twice a year.…He made us believe that we were dropping out because people were coming after us. So there was a fear that we were being chased and that we might be killed.”
Edward Wayne Edwards and wife Kay, September 25, 1972. (Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network)
Barasio has written a new book, “Raised by a Serial Killer: Discovering the Truth About My Father” In it, Baracio details how he discovered his father's true identity and the horrific crimes he committed.
The patriarch died of natural causes in 2011 at the age of 77. At the time, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection and was in prison.
April Baracio's memoir, “Raid by a Serial Killer,'' has been published. (Gallery Book)
“I wanted this story to be told, but it took me a long time to write,” Barasio admitted. “It was very difficult. I was protecting my memories.”
Barasio described Edwards as charismatic and a “big kid” who enjoyed parties and fun. But he also had a “very dark side.”
“It was scary,” she said. “He was abusive. Especially as I got older, I got scared to hear his tires on the gravel in the driveway. I wondered how he was going to walk around the house.” Was he in a good mood or I hated him for a while.
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Edward Wayne Edwards was charming and charismatic, but he also had a “dark side,” his daughter April Baracio told Fox News Digital. (Courtesy of April Barasio)
“I witnessed his violence, and it was a common occurrence, whether he took out his anger on me or on my mother,” Barasio added. “Especially when I was younger, I would often witness him taking out his anger on my mother.
“I witnessed him punch her and punch her in the face.”
For years, Barascio had wondered why his family sometimes had to leave their homes suddenly in the middle of the night. She remembered that Edwards was also interested in crime reporting in local newspapers.
April Baracio grew up as a nomad. When she grows up, she will know why. (Courtesy of April Barasio)
In March 2009, when Ms. Barascio was about 40 years old, she began research to revisit the case that had intrigued her father. After searching for “cold case” and “Watertown” online, Barasio came across a report about the “lover murder case.”
In this August 19, 1980 photo, a psychic called in the case of two missing Jefferson County teenagers shows a married couple in Sullivan, Wisconsin, the night they were last seen. I was standing near the car I was driving. (Michael Sears/USA Today Network)
In 1980, high school sweethearts Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew disappeared after their wedding reception. Two months later, the 19-year-old's body was found in a field. Edwards, who was a handyman at the time, was questioned by police but claimed he had no information.
After the body was discovered, Edwards and his family left Wisconsin.
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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 father was doing something wrong, but he didn't tell anyone,” Barasio said. “There was no evidence. … I can't say I suspected it was exactly murder, but I believed he was harming people.”
People are looking for Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew in Jefferson County. (Benny Hsu/USA Today Network)
Barasio learned that investigators had reopened the case. She contacted detectives and wanted to share everything she remembered from her childhood. Barascio said he suspects his father may have been involved in the killing, but has no proof, only memories of what he saw and felt.
She described how Ms Edwards talked about them “constantly” when they first went missing. One day he said to a friend: “I'm sure you'll find it in the fields.”
William Labaco, 21, of Doylestown, was found in Silver Creek Metropolitan Park in August 1977. (Akron Beacon Journal/USA Today Network)
Oxygen.com reported that the lab matched Edwards' DNA to genetic material from the crime scene. Edwards was arrested in Kentucky, where he and his wife had moved. He confessed to five murders.
“That's when I really realized how evil my father was,” Barasio said. “He was a bad man.”
As a child, Edwards grew up in an orphanage and spent time in a juvenile detention center, the newspaper reported. In 1962 he was arrested for armed bank robbery and spent five years in prison. His life of crime did not end there.
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Edward Wayne Edwards at the orphanage. (Courtesy of April Barasio)
Edwards confessed to killing another couple, 21-year-old William “Billy” Labaco and 19-year-old Judith Straub, in 1977. The murder occurred in Ohio, where Edwards grew up.
Edward Wayne Edwards had a turbulent childhood that led to a life of crime. (Alamy)
Edwards also confessed to killing his adopted son, Danny Boy Edwards, in 1996. His motive was to collect the 23-year-old's life insurance payout (valued at $250,000).
Barasio remembers the last time he saw his father. He is in the hospital and she decides to go to him with her children.
Edward Wayne Edwards passed away in 2011. He passed away at the age of 77. (David Harp/USA Today Network)
“My daughter wrote my dad a get-well card,” Barasio recalled. “I don’t remember the exact words, but it said something to the effect that Jesus forgives everyone, forgives all. Just ask Jesus. , it also said that God loves me. That's all my daughter did. Even though she's still in elementary school, she made this card for him.
“I remember my dad reading it and crying. He said, 'I was just trying to tell God that he won't forgive me for all the bad things I've done. It's strange for you to say something like that.''
“We had to leave the room because he had an emergency,” she said. “I remember thinking, 'Maybe he was going to change his ways.'”
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Seven-month-old April Barascio is pictured here with her parents. (Courtesy of April Barasio)
Barasio said he was “relieved” when Edwards died.
“He was supposed to be executed, but he ended up dying before he could be executed,” she said. “I wasn't looking forward to the execution. I knew there would be a media uproar. Reporters would be knocking on the door again and calling because he wanted the death penalty. I knew that. It was a blessing that he died before the execution. I was relieved that it was all over.”
Edward Wayne Edwards follows the court proceedings with defense attorney Larry Whitney. Edwards entered a guilty plea to two counts of aggravated murder in the 1977 killings of Billy Labaco of Doylestown and Judy Straub of Sterling. (Phil Masturzo/USA Today Network)
But for Barasio, the story isn't over yet. Baracio now lives a more peaceful life on the farm. She submitted her DNA in hopes of solving a cold case involving her father.
Police searched an area along Highway 16 for the bodies of Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew, who went missing in August 1980. (Ned Vespa/USA Today Network)
“It doesn't have to be a product of the environment,” Barasio said. “We all make choices. My father made the choice he made, and it was the wrong choice. But he has children, and they are all law-abiding.” They are citizens, they make good choices, and they have loving families.
“I have great sympathy and compassion for the parents who lost their children.…Even now, my heart breaks and weeps when I think of the devastation my father brought to people’s lives…The effects of his evil deeds remain. My father did that.
April Balacio lives a more peaceful life on the farm. (Jonathan Easterling)
“My father did confess to five murders, but I also believe… there are many more,” she recalled. “There are more victims.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
