JUST IN: Florida Executes U.S. Air Force Vet Edward J. Zakrzewski II β€” “Thank You For Killing Me”.. A new record for the state of Florida. Governor DeSantis has signed the ninth death warrant this year, the most for any governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The latest execution set for former Egglund Air Force Base Airman Edward Zachuski. He’s convicted of killing his wife and two children. In 1996, Zach Ruski pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder, receiving three death sentences. He raised his right hand and swore an oath to the United States of America to protect, to serve, to defend. Edward James Zakvski II earned the rank of technical sergeant in the United States Air Force. That rank does not come easy. It takes years of discipline, performance, and proven leadership. He was 29 years old on June 9th, 1994. By the end of that night, his wife and both of his children were gone. 31 years later on July 31st, 2025, the state of Florida strapped him to a gurnie. It was Florida’s ninth execution of that year alone, a modern state record not seen since 1976. Before we get to that chamber, we need to go back to the beginning. Welcome to the last sentence. This case is one that the American news cycle almost erased completely. Not because it was insignificant, not because the facts were unclear, but because of what else was happening that same week. An event so consuming that it pulled the attention of an entire nation away from a mother and her two children who deserve to be front page news. We are going to talk about that and when we get to it, you will understand exactly how something this serious got buried. There is something else you need to hold on to as we go through this case. This man did not accept his sentence quietly for 31 years. He fought it through every level of the state court system through the federal courts and finally all the way to the United States Supreme Court. They turned him down. Every single court without one dissenting voice at the highest level. If you want to follow cases like this one, cases that nearly disappeared from public record, subscribe to this channel right now. That is exactly [music] what we are here for. Every week we cover the people and the cases that did not get the attention they deserved. Now let us get into what actually happened. Edward James Zakvski 2 was born on January 31st, 1965 in Kalamazoo, Michigan of Polish descent. After a brief period in college, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was disciplined, focused, and capable. He worked his way up to the rank of technical sergeant, a supervisory non-commissioned officer position that requires consistent performance and demonstrated leadership over years of service. By 1994, he had returned to education, attending Knight College while maintaining his military career. He was one year away from completing his degree. On paper, he was a man with a career, an education, and a future in front of him. The woman who became his wife was born in South Korea. Her given name was Ponim. Before meeting Edward, she had been married to another American military man, a relationship her family back in South Korea openly disapproved of. That marriage ended with no children. She was working at the Air Force base exchange store in Montana, confirmed through defense attorney court testimony, when she met Edward Zakvski. They married after she became pregnant and she adopted the American name Sylvia. She was 34 years old at the time of her death. Together they had two children. Their son Edward Zakvski 3 was 7 years old and known within the family by his Korean middle name Kim. Their daughter Anna Zakvski was 5 years old. Between 1989 and 1992, the family was stationed in South Korea. For Sylvia, those years were the closest she had felt to peace since leaving her homeland. But court documents later revealed she faced discrimination there for being married to an American and for having mixed race children. The return she had longed for carried complications she had not anticipated. In 1992, new orders came. The family relocated to Mary Esther in Okaloosa County, Florida near Eglund Air Force Base. In April of 1994, they purchased their first home together on Shrewsbury Road, 40 mi east of Pensacola. From the outside, it looked like a family building something permanent. Behind that front door, the marriage was falling apart. Sylvia wanted to return to South Korea. She had told people around her that she intended to go back and planned to take the children with her when she did. Before June 9th, 1994, there was already a warning. A neighbor of the Zakvsky family heard Edward Zakvsky state on at least two separate occasions that he would end his family’s lives before he would accept a divorce. He said it directly. He said it more than once. That neighbor made the decision to stay silent. Not to Sylvia, not to anyone at Eglund Air Force Base, not to law enforcement. That information remained buried until investigators were already standing inside the house on Shrewsbury Road….read more πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡

In 1998, Gulf War veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson was convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her three children in the same Okaloosa County. He was also sentenced to death and executed on May 1st, 2025, 3 months before Zakvski. Two military connected men, same county, both executed in the same year. July 31st, 2025.

Florida State Prison near Stark. Paul Walker, deputy communications director for the Florida Department of Corrections, confirmed the official details of that day. Zach Schevsky woke at 5:15 in the morning. His final meal was fried pork chops, fried onions, potatoes, bacon, buttered toast, root beer, ice cream, pie, and coffee.

One visitor came that morning. Their identity was not disclosed. No spiritual adviser was requested. No family members from either side were present. Detective Joe Nelson made the 4-hour drive to the prison. The lead investigator, who had worked this case since June of 1994, had never attended an execution in his career. He attended this one.

Before the procedure began, Zakvsky recited lines from Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. He stopped before completing it. Then he delivered his final words. I want to thank the good people of the Sunshine State for killing me in the most cold, calculated, clean, humane, efficient way possible.

I have no complaint. Calculated. The same words Judge Baron used in 1996 to describe the planning behind June 9th, 1994. Zakvsky was pronounced dead at 6:12 in the evening. It was Florida’s 9inth execution of 2025, a modern state record. Texas and South Carolina, each recorded for that same year. Florida had not reached that number since 1976.

Outside the prison, Detective Nelson spoke to reporters. His words were brief and direct. It’s over now. It needed to stop. This case leaves behind facts that are hard to set aside. A neighbor heard Edward Zakvski threaten his family on more than one occasion and chose to say nothing. Not to Sylvia. Not to anyone.

A 7-year-old boy made a phone call to his father one morning with no understanding of what it would set in motion. Sylvia wanted to go home. She spent years trying to get back to South Korea. She never made it. Anna was 5 years old. She never got the chance to grow up. And the country nearly missed all of it because of what was unfolding on a California freeway that same week.

Three people who deserved full national attention were passed over completely. The jury deadlocked on Anna’s murder. Under Florida law as it stands today, that deadlock would have meant life in prison. A judge overrode it. Under current Florida law, that override would not have been permitted. Was that justice or a system bending its own rules to reach a conclusion it had already decided on? Leave your answer in the comments below.

Sylvia Zakvski, 34 years old. Edward Zachevsky 3, known as Kim, 7 years old. Anna Zakvski, 5 years old. Edward James Zakvski 2 was born on January 31st, 1965. He was executed on July 31st, 2025, exactly 60 years to the day. His wife and children never came close to that number. Detective Joe Nelson first walked into that house on Shrewsbury Road in June of 1994.

He carried this case for 31 years. On July 31st, 2025, he drove 4 hours to Florida State Prison to sit in that witness room and see it through to the end. That says everything about what these three lives meant to the people who refused to let this case disappear. If this documentary reached you, share it.

Most people have never heard the name Sylvia, Edward, and Anna Zakvski. That needs to change. Subscribe to this channel for more cases like this

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