Ex-Air Force sergeant to be executed over murder of wife and kids

Miami, Florida - A former Air Force sergeant who killed his wife and two young children is to be executed by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday.

Edward Zakrzewski, a former Air Force sergeant, will be executed by lethal injection in Florida over the murders of his wife and two children.
Edward Zakrzewski, a former Air Force sergeant, will be executed by lethal injection in Florida over the murders of his wife and two children.  © Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire & HANDOUT / Florida Department of Corrections / AFP

Edward Zakrzewski (60) pleaded guilty to the June 1994 murders of his wife, Sylvia, son Edward (7), and daughter, Anna (5).

His wife was beaten with a crowbar, strangled with a rope, and struck with a machete.

The two children were hacked to death with the machete, which Zakrzewski had purchased during his lunch break after being informed that his wife planned to divorce him.

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Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii and changed his name following the murders, but turned himself in four months later after being identified by friends on a television show called Unsolved Mysteries.

Zakrzewski is to be executed at 6:00 PM ET at the Florida State Prison in Raiford.

There have been 26 executions in the US this year, the most since the 28 executions of 2015.

Twenty-one have been carried out by lethal injection, two have been by firing squad, and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.

The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.

Florida has carried out the most executions in 2025 – eight.

Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire & HANDOUT / Florida Department of Corrections / AFP

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