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A former US Air Force sergeant who brutally murdered his wife and two young children is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday evening.
Edward Zakrzewski, now 60, admitted to killing his wife, Sylvia, along with their seven-year-aold son, also named Edward, and five-year-old daughter, Anna, in June 1994. The killings took place shortly after he discovered that his wife intended to divorce him.
According to court records, Zakrzewski used a crowbar to beat his wife, before strangling her with a rope and attacking her with a machete. He then used the same machete to kill their two children. The weapon had reportedly been purchased during his lunch break on the day of the murders.
Following the horrific attack, Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii and adopted a new identity. However, four months later, he handed himself in to authorities after being recognised by acquaintances on the television programme Unsolved Mysteries.
His execution is scheduled to take place at 6:00 p.m. (2200 GMT) at Florida State Prison in Raiford. It will mark one of the 26 executions carried out in the United States so far this year — the highest annual total since 2015, when 28 people were executed.
Of the executions carried out in 2025, 21 have been by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and three using nitrogen hypoxia—a controversial method that causes suffocation through the administration of nitrogen gas via a face mask. The use of nitrogen gas has drawn sharp criticism from United Nations human rights experts, who have labelled it cruel and inhumane.
Florida leads all US states in executions this year, with eight carried out so far. The death penalty remains a divisive issue in the United States. It has been abolished in 23 of the 50 states, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — have placed official moratoriums on its use.
US President Donald Trump has consistently backed capital punishment and, on the first day of his current term in office, called for its expanded use in cases involving what he described as “the vilest crimes”.
