IN THE BEGINING...

Eddie was born in Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, Indiana on October 23, 1966, to Spencer and Jerrietta Nunley. “My life was never extraordinary, exciting, or very interesting, but I have always been blessed,” Eddie explained. His family included three brothers Mark, Keith (Deceased,) and Wayde (Deceased,) along with several cousins and an aunt and uncle. All who lived in Pekin, Indiana.


LIFE AT HOME...

Eddie and his brothers would grow up and finish school at East Washington High School in Pekin. Childhood was spent playing in the woods that began where his backyard ended. Every day, the woods became anywhere his imagination would take him. Like most of the kids who lived in his hometown, Eddie fished and swam in the Blue River that ran through the edge of town. He would often play in a nearby park, but only after he and his brothers finished their chores. Most of his life was centered around his brothers as his parents worked so many hours. His mom was a nursing assistant, and his dad ran a retread shop in Louisville, Kentucky. At age 12, his dad brought the family to church located in Salem, Indiana where Eddie met most of his friends.


FAMILY AND CHURCH...

It was church where he would meet his future wife who he met at Vacation Bible School at age 13. He had never felt the same about another girl. His parents felt the two were seeing too much of each other at such a young age. Both would run away in Eddie’s 1978 Pinto to Florida when he turned 17. Concerned about their parents, and the worry they felt they had caused, they “negotiated” to return home if the parents would allow them to get married. The parents conceded and Eddie, at age 18, was married on October 11, 1984. One year later after graduating High School in 1985, Eddie’s first son was born. By 1986, Eddie, his wife, and infant son moved to Lakeland, Florida. Three years later, the couple gave birth to their second child, a beautiful little girl. They spent the next two years in Lakeland and then decided to move to Borden, Indiana where their third and last child was born, their second son. The two chose to settle down and decided to buy a modest home with a big back yard. This is when Eddie thought his life was perfect, just as he had always imagined it would be.


WHEN IT BECAME DIFFICULT...

As most marriages, there were difficulties and the couple grew unstable. He tried to convince himself that everything was fine, but as he ignored the problems, everything changed in 2004 after 20 years of marriage.  His wife divorced him and left with their children. That year felt like a blur. He was left in his house, alone, believing his children wanted nothing to do with him. Looking back, he realized he had made so many mistakes. He was unable to face the facts and chose to ignore the problems instead of dealing with them. Being present would have changed everything. “Spilled milk,” Eddie explains; he was alone and emotionally destroyed. Eddie decided to treat his pain and deep depression with drugs and alcohol. Meth and learning how to make it became his gateway to easing the loneliness that he felt was crushing him. He remained, "paranoid" about drug addiction and just wanted to seclude himself from the world and wanted to be left alone. In late 2005 his daughter called asking if she and her brother could move back home. Eddie was overjoyed, but none of this would prove to be easy. His house was in foreclosure, and he was faced with eviction. None of that mattered as long as they were all together. His oldest son and daughter soon joined and once again he had his family, although the dynamics had changed. He almost felt whole again. As the kids finished school, they moved out and Eddie found himself alone, again. He returned to the same crutch, drug abuse. His use of meth kept him from thinking or feeling anything and he became numb. He found himself turning back to that same circle of friends who were fighting the same demons and addictions as himself. Partying became common place to keep him from feeling anything or dealing with the problems he felt were impossible to overcome.


YOU ARE THE COMPANY THAT YOU KEEP...

Eddie met a variety of people, most of whom had been doing the same illegal drugs longer than himself. He learned how to navigate that world and met a young woman who seemed to have devoted herself to being his girlfriend, even as he made it clear he did not share the same feelings. He felt she had become delusional. She made claims that he was cheating on her with another woman who he had friended. This woman would be with him the night of the alleged offense and leave moments before the mother returned. On April 13th, 2008, the mom left her daughter with Eddie to babysit for what was to be just a few hours. Instead, she did not return until the next afternoon. She picked up her daughter only to return to ask if she and her daughter could stay with him for a little while because the man she was currently living with had thrown her out. Eddie refused and asked her not to come back. She got in her car, but soon returned again, upset. She parked her car out of sight at the end of his drive and left her daughter and estranged husband inside. As she walked up to the property, she became enraged and started damaging property screaming for Eddie to come out of his home.  She was accusing Eddie of molesting her daughter as she damaged his truck, motorcycle, and other items on his property. Eddie called the police. She left and filed a police report, not in Harrison County where the alleged molestation was accused of occurring, but in Salem, Indiana. Nearly a year later, the mother, with a new boyfriend, also named Eddie, was involved in a similar situation that resulted in that man's arrest for physical abuse of her daughter, also with no evidence. Her 7-year-old daughter would later hand write an affidavit stating she had lied about what the boyfriend had done, and he was released. Then in on May 29th of that same year in 2008, Eddie Nunley was arrested that led to his sentencing with a guilty verdict on December 3, 2008 for more than 70 years with only his word against the alleged victim as evidence. When the initial police report was filed on April 14, 2008, no DNA was collected even though it was offered by Eddie.


THE ROAD TO FREEDOM...

Since 2008, Eddie has fought to regain his freedom while struggling to find strength and hope. Just when Eddie would feel he was at the end of his mental and physical rope, he found solace and strength in the few remaining friends and immediate family, both born into and chosen, that was left in his life. Since his incarceration, Eddie has lost two of his brothers to drugs, Wayde, the oldest and Keith, the youngest which happened on Eddie's birthday, October 23, 2019. That loss was perhaps one of the hardest to endure. His mother, the one person he felt loved him unconditionally, passed away in 1998 before his incarceration and in 2023, he lost his father with whome he had a strained relationship. Since losing most of his family and enduring his incarceration, he has learned that the most important lesson in his life was losing absolutely everything. All that loss has made him realize that the only things he really needed were the very people he had previously shunned. Thankfully, he has one brother left in his life, Mark. “You don’t need material things to be truly happy,” Eddie states. As cliché as that may sound, his life has been enriched by his three children and thirteen grandchildren, some of which he has never met. Thankfully none were ever witness to Eddie’s drug or alcohol abuse. A lesson he would have never learned any other way than the path he chose that led him to prison.

“I will not stop fighting for what is right, for the truth and my freedom. While I am not guilty of the charges in this case, I am guilty of the life I led that put me in prison. For that I am grateful, for prison saved my life."

- Eddie