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A MURDERED woman’s son has revealed the heartbreaking final words of his mother before her remains were discovered inside a car in a decades-long unsolved murder.
Sherri Malarik was hosting a sleepover for her five children and their cousins on September 21, 2001, when her husband, Gregory, reportedly called her into the backyard of their home in the Florida suburbs, according to her son’s story.
Gregory allegedly shot and killed Sherri – but was acquitted of the crime last year.
“I just remember my mom walking by and saying nonchalantly, ‘Hey, I’m going to go outside to talk to your dad,'” Sherri’s son, Jacob Malarik, told the Pensacola News Journal in 2023.
“And that was the last I saw of her.”
Gregory Malarik was prosecuted twice for the murder of his wife with Florida Assistant State Attorney Amy Shea arguing in both trials that Gregory shot Sherri twice outside as she sat in the passenger seat of the family van.
He then allegedly drove the van to a Winn-Dixie supermarket, where he left her remains.
Jacob, now 33, and his brother, Gregory “Little Greg” Malarik both testified that they saw their dad come home and go straight to his room.
When the boys asked Gregory where their mom was, he allegedly responded that Sherri had gone to the store to get some milk.
The next morning, Sherri’s brother-in-law discovered her body inside the family’s minivan in a parking lot near Pensacola, Florida. She was shot twice with a .25-caliber gun.
From the beginning of the case, investigators were reportedly suspicious of Gregory after it was revealed that he had been having a years-long affair with a woman named Jennifer Spohn while Sherri, a Navy air traffic controller, was stationed in Greece.
Nearly 19 years after Sherri’s killing, Gregory was arrested on March 7, 2020 after Spohn confessed in exchange for immunity that she helped him dispose of evidence and flee the scene of Sherri’s murder.
Two first-degree murder trials followed the charges, but prosecutors never convicted Sherri’s husband of killing her.
After Gregory was arrested in 2020, it took two years for the trial to begin. Two of Sherri’s sons testified against their dad, who has always denied killing Sherri.
The first trial ended in a hung jury and Circuit Judge John Simon was forced to declare a mistrial.
In October of 2023, Gregory stood trial again – this time with his youngest daughter, Tera, testifying on his behalf.
The jury deliberated for over eight hours before deciding that Gregory was not guilty of murdering Sherri.
While Jacob still believes that Gregory killed his mother, Tera, now 26, has publicly supported her dad.
After his acquittal on October 13, Tera posted a message of support for her dad on Facebook, according to NBC News.
“Thank God, justice prevailed and dad is innocent,” she wrote.
The Sleepover, which documents Sherri Malarik’s tragic death, aired on Friday, February 2, 2024.
New episodes of Dateline are also available to stream on Peacock.
