Listen to the first two episodes of The Clearing starting July 18. When April Balascio was 40 years old, something she’d feared for decades was finally proven true. Her father, Edward Wayne Edwards, really was a murderer. The Clearing is about what came after April called a detective in 2009 to tell him about her suspicions — a call that led to her father’s arrest and eventual conviction on multiple murders — and tracks the emotional journey as she and host Josh Dean dig back into her childhood, unravel the truth of her father’s life, and overturn a viral online narrative that had turned Edward Wayne Edwards into a kind of serial killer caricature. Produced by Pineapple Street Media in association with Gimlet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
April Bellagio has a lot of questions about her dad, Edward Wayne Edwards.
Questions about who he was and what he did.
I had no tangible evidence that my dad killed anyone.
Questions she's hoping I can help her answer.
Oh, they are labeled.
Yeah, labeled.
And Ed Edwards, he left behind a lot of clues, like a box of cassettes police confiscated from his trailer.
And how many cassettes are we looking at here?
60, I believe.
Feedback, feedback, feedback.
Still litter.
Still litter.
April's convinced there are answers out there somewhere.
Maybe on one of these tapes, he started confessing.
Here's some brief information to give you an idea of how this all started.
The tapes are a lot like the story of Edwards, jumbled, laden with mystery, and filled with clues that make it seem like he was always up to something.
While this thing is recording, putting everything I said on that freaking tape.
Tape.
I can see her coming in here playing that tape.
Oh, yeah.