As a little girl, April Balascio sensed something was wrong. People around her seemed to vanish — a laborer working for her father one day, a young couple from town the next. But no one ever gave her answers.
Years later, those haunting childhood memories returned. In 2009, driven by an unsettling curiosity, April began searching online for cold cases from the towns she had once called home. That’s when she stumbled upon an article about the “Sweetheart Murders.” The details were eerily familiar — too familiar.
Her heart sank as pieces of the puzzle began to fit together in the most horrifying way imaginable. The victims, the timing, the places… all pointed toward one person: her own father.
Terrified but determined, April picked up the phone and made the call that would change everything — she told police her suspicions. What followed confirmed her worst fears: her father wasn’t just a man with a dark past; he was a serial killer.
In the latest episode of What It Was Like, April shares her harrowing journey of uncovering the truth, the emotional turmoil of confronting reality, and the struggle to reconcile love for a parent with the horror of their crimes.
Her story is a chilling reminder that sometimes the monsters we fear most are much closer than we think.