Man who killed his family after his wife sought a divorce is set for execution in Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man who killed his wife and two children in 1994 after she sought a divorce is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Edward J. Zakrzewski, II, is set to die July 31 in the ninth execution scheduled for this year in the state. He pleaded guilty in 1996 to three counts of first-degree murder and received three death sentences in the killings of wife Sylvia Zakrzewski, son Edward Zakrzewski, 7, and Anna Zakrzewski, 5.

The man beat his wife with a crowbar and machete and strangled her to death and killed the children with a machete June 9, 1994, in Okaloosa County.

He eventually turned himself into law enforcement after the case was profiled on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries,” according to court documents.

Another man on death row, Michael Bernard Bell, 54, is set to die by lethal injection July 15 at Florida State Prison. He’s convicted of killing two people outside a bar.

Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, who was convicted of raping and killing a woman in Florida, was executed following a lethal injection at the same prison last week.

The state also executed six people in 2023 but only carried out one execution last year.