Edward Zakrzewski is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. EST today, Thursday, July 31, at Florida State Prison for the 1994 murders of his wife and two young children at their Mary Esther home.

• At the time, Zakrzewski had been stationed at Eglin Air Force Base. According to reports at the time, his wife Sylvia was considering a divorce following various marital issues.

On June 9, 1994, Zakrzewski murdered Sylvia by hitting her on the head multiple times with a crowbar, strangling her with a rope and finally striking her with a machete that he had purchased earlier that day, according to court records. 

• He also murdered his seven-year-old son Edward and his five-year-old daughter Anna with the machete. Both children had defensive wounds, court documents show.

The killings were premeditated, according to court records. On the morning of the murders, Zakrzewski’s son Edward called him at work to tell him that his mother was going to file divorce papers that day, according to court testimony.

During his lunch break, Zakrzewski went to an Army Surplus Store and purchased a machete, took it home and sharpened it, court records show. He also placed a crowbar in the bedroom and cut a piece of rope.

After returning home that evening, Zakrzewski sent the children to watch television, then called Sylvia to the bedroom where he had hidden the weapons, according to testimony. When she failed to respond, he struck her at least twice in the head and face with the crowbar in the living room without any conversation or provocation, court records show. He then carried her to the bedroom and struck additional blows with the crowbar before strangling her with the rope.

• According to court testimony, Zakrzewski called his son Edward to the bathroom to “brush his teeth” and struck him several times with the machete when he entered. He then called Anna into the bathroom, also to “brush her teeth,” and murdered her with the machete. The defendant then moved Sylvia to the bathroom and struck her several times across the head and neck with the machete, testimony showed.

Zakrzewski fled to Hawaii after the murders and changed his name to Michael Green. He was living with a minister at the time when his picture was shown on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

The minister reportedly told Zakrzewski, “This guy looks like you,” referring to the fugitive on screen. Zakrzewski surrendered to police on Molokai Island the next day and told them who he was, according to police reports.

Zakrzewski pled guilty to three counts of first-degree murder on March 19, 1996. Following a penalty phase proceeding, a jury returned a seven-to-five recommendation for death sentences on the murders of Sylvia and Edward, and recommended life in prison without parole for Anna’s murder. 

On April 19, 1996, Circuit Judge G. Robert Barron sentenced Zakrzewski to death for all three murders, overriding the jury’s life recommendation for Anna, court records show.

The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and death sentences on June 11, 1998. Over the following decades, Zakrzewski filed numerous appeals and postconviction motions in both state and federal courts, all of which were denied.

On July 1, 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant scheduling Zakrzewski’s execution. On July 22, 2025, the Florida Supreme Court denied Zakrzewski’s appeal against his death sentences. On July 30, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Zakrzewski’s final appeal for a stay of execution.

• Executive clemency was considered and determined to be inappropriate, according to the death warrant.