On September 21, 2001, Sherri and her husband, Gregory Malarik, were hosting a large family sleepover at their home in Cantonment, Florida. The house was packed with their children, ages 3 to 11, along with several other nieces and nephews.
There was pizza, video games, and children running everywhere in the house. Sherri was also actively managing the chaotic party.
At 8 pm, in the middle of dinner and playtime, Sherri told the children she was going outside in the yard to talk to their father.
Jacob, Sherri’s 11-year-old son from a previous relationship, stated, “I just remember my mom walking by and saying nonchalantly, ‘Hey, I’m going to go outside to talk to your dad.’ And that was the last I saw of her.”
At the time, Greg was working on the family’s red Dodge minivan. Later on, he returned through the back door, and when the children asked where their mother was, he told them she had gone to the store.
Their niece, Lisa Leake, who was also visiting that night, recalled hearing Greg call Sherri outside.
Shortly after seeing her go into the yard, Lisa heard a sound like a ‘pop,’ a sound similar to a firecracker. That was when Greg came back into the house and told them Sherri was on an errand.
He then immediately took a shower and changed his clothes. At 9 pm, Jennifer Spohn, who would later be identified as Greg’s mistress, came by the house to return a lawnmower.
Greg sent the children to bed. In a later statement, Greg said he became concerned at 11 pm because Sherri still hadn’t come back, so he began calling the police and family members.
Because Sherri was an adult who had voluntarily left the house on an errand, immediate emergency dispatches were not triggered that night.
In the morning, Gregory called the authorities and extended family members again to reiterate that his wife had not returned from her errand. Alarmed by the news, their immediate family stepped in to assist.
Rather than waiting for the police to arrive and begin the search, family members got into their own vehicles and began to actively search for Sherri.
Sherri’s brother-in-law, Jeff Leake, then drove to the local malls and stores. At 8 am, he drove into the Winn-Dixie and Movie Gallery parking lot in Cantonment.
Jeff immediately recognised the family’s red Dodge Caravan parked in the lot. He walked up to it and found the doors unlocked. Upon looking inside, he discovered Sherri’s body crumpled into the passenger-side floorboards.
Distraught, he reached in and shook her arm, trying to wake her, but Sherri was unresponsive. Leake immediately called the police to report what he had discovered.
Deputies from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office arrived within minutes and cordoned off the minivan.
Detectives started examining the interior of the van. They noticed blood spatter on the passenger seat and found a .25 calibre shell casing wrapped inside Sherri’s clothing.
When he arrived at the parking lot, Greg was notified of the discovery. He did not approach the minivan, nor did he ask the deputies about his wife’s condition.
Greg did not show any visible signs of grief or even emotional behaviour, which raised the detectives’ suspicions.
A medical examiner later ruled that Sherri died from two gunshot wounds to the head by a .25 calibre handgun. She was 34 years old at the time.
Military Family
Sherri Lynn Malarik was born on February 12, 1967, in San Diego, California, to Dennis Panzer and Maria Elena Rubalcaba. She grew up in a close-knit home.
As the second-born child, Sherri took on the role of peacemaker between her three siblings. After high school, she and her sister enlisted in the U.S Navy around the same time. The Navy even stationed them near each other.
This is where they crossed paths with Gregory Paul Malarik. He was a petty officer first class, serving as a Navy air traffic controller.
By then, Jacob was already born, and his early memories of Greg were pleasant. He recalled Greg picking him up early from day care for fishing trips and rides on his motorcycle.
The two married in 1994 and had three more children, Jay, Jamie, and Tera, in quick succession. The family settled in Cantonment, Florida, near the Naval Air Station, Pensacola.
Sherri and Greg’s marriage began deteriorating soon after they got married. While Sherri was away on a year-long deployment to Greece, Jacob said a US Navy employee, who sometimes babysat for Greg, began spending more time at their home.
The woman was later identified as Jennifer Spohn. Jacob said he once found Greg and Spohn together on the living room floor.
He was too scared, though, to confront his stepfather and did not tell his mother what he saw.
The Affair and What Sherri Knew
Shortly after returning from her deployment, Sherri was playing with Tera when the toddler asked why Greg no longer loved Sherri.
Confused by the question, Sherri said, “Daddy still loves me,” then Tera retorted, “Daddy doesn’t love you, Daddy loves Jennifer.” Sherri then realised that the woman who casually babysat for them may have been having an affair with her husband.
Sherri confided this to her sister, Tina. Tina later recalled the weight of these conversations after Sherri’s death: “Everything, she told me in confidence. She didn’t want me to tell anybody, but she’s dead, so can I tell it now?”
In a later testimony by Spohn, Greg apparently expressed frustration over the prospect of a divorce, musing whether it would be easier to just kill his wife. Spohn said she was told this directly.
Unfortunately, she ended up holding on to that piece of information for the next twenty years.
The Futile Investigation
Detectives from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office moved in immediately after Jeff found Sherri’s body.
They got a search warrant for the family home and found Sherri’s purse inside a drawer in her bedroom. Detective Buddy Nesmith questioned the circumstances, wondering why a woman would go to the store without her purse or wallet.
The investigators also determined from the blood evidence that everything occurred within the van. Greg’s account seemed consistent, though, indicating he had been working on the van outside because it had been overheating earlier.
He claimed that Sherri left the house in the van at 7.30 pm to run an errand.
Greg said that when she had not gotten back by 11 pm, he became concerned, and that’s when he contacted the police and some family members. Investigators spoke with him more than 20 times, and the story never changed.
While they never found the murder weapon, investigators did uncover the affair with Spohn and the missing purse.
There was gunshot residue on his hands and clothing. This was certainly compelling, but it was not enough to charge him with first-degree murder.
Lacking other evidence, the case went dormant for almost twenty years, and it was not until 2020 that the investigation took a break.
Now, on the night that Sherri disappeared, Spohn arrived at their home late in the night. She and Greg said that Spohn was returning a borrowed lawnmower.
When she was re-interviewed by cold case detectives in March 2020, Spohn broke down, admitting that the lawnmower story was completely made up. Under a grant of full immunity, she also admitted she was there to help Greg execute a premeditated murder.
She gave them a step-by-step account of what happened after Sherri got to the backyard. Apparently, Greg shot her in the family’s Dodge minivan.
This was the popping or firecracker sound that Lisa heard from the house. He then drove the vehicle to the Winn-Dixie supermarket.
Spohn added that she was waiting for Greg at the parking lot in her own car. She picked him up, and they abandoned the Dodge minivan with Sherri’s body inside.
With Spohn’s cooperation, investigators searched the digital correspondence from 2001. They found an electronic paper trail between her and Greg, which proved the planning of Sherri’s murder.
The messages also painted a clear picture of their illicit affair and explicit desires to remove Sherri from the picture.
As part of the reopening of the investigation, investigators also interviewed the children again. Gregory Malarik Jr., who was now an adult, said the night his mother vanished, he heard an audible pop sound after she went outside to talk to their father.
After some time, his father returned inside alone, immediately stripped, and took a shower.
Two Trials and no Conviction
The first trial opened with the goal of building a circumstantial case focused on Gregory’s extramarital affair and the financial motives for killing his wife.
State prosecutors also introduced the 2001 emails between Gregory and Jennifer Spohn, showing them discussing how to trick a polygraph test. The prosecution also called Sherri’s children to testify about Greg’s reaction to Sherri’s disappearance and death.
Jennifer Spohn was the star witness under an immunity agreement and testified that she helped Greg plan the homicide. She also picked him up after he ditched the minivan and even threw the bag containing the murder weapon off a local bridge.
The defence attorney, Chris Crawford, focused on the 21 years that had passed. He pointed out that the children’s memories of what they heard when their parents were outside were not included in the 2001 police statements.
After four hours of deliberation, the jury was deadlocked, and a mistrial was declared. The state, however, decided to retry Gregory in 2023.
This time, the defence decided to shift the blame from Gregory to the main witness, Spohn. They also focused on the lack of physical evidence.
Crawford said that the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and NCIS mishandled the 2001 investigation. No DNA or fingerprints belonging to Greg were found in the minivan.
There was also no forensic evidence found in the family backyard, where prosecutors said the shooting happened. They argued to the jury that Spohn possessed motive, means, and opportunity to kill Sherri.
She was portrayed as a scorned mistress who lied to the detectives to save herself from facing first-degree murder charges. The family was also divided, as Jacob testified for the prosecution regarding Gregory’s history, and Tera testified for the defence, asserting her father’s innocence.
This time, the jury deliberated for 8 hours in October 2023 before returning a verdict of not guilty. Because a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime under the double jeopardy laws, Gregory Malarik walked out of court that day, a free man.
He told the Pensacola News Journal, “I’m grateful for Chris and his team, and I’m glad it’s all over now.”
When the “not guilty” verdict was read on October 13, 2023, it closed the state’s case against Greg. But it tore the children apart.
Half the family wept in relief while the others were devastated. Sherri’s sister, Tina Leake, was extremely frustrated, stating the family knew this trial was their only shot at getting legal justice.
Knowing that Gregory would never face charges for the crime left the maternal side of the family with fresh grief. Tera, on the other hand, was firmly on the side of her father.
She explicitly stated to the press and the courts that her father was innocent. Tera openly celebrated the jury’s ‘not guilty’ verdict, expressing immense relief that she would not “lose the only parent I have left.”
Aftermath
Following the acquittal, Gregory was released from custody. He soon left the Pensacola area to avoid heavy media scrutiny.
He has since kept his whereabouts private, but maintains relationships with those of his children who have supported his innocence.
The siblings have since split into two factions that no longer interact. Jacob continues to live his life carrying the memory of his mother.
He remains vocal in the belief that his stepfather, Gregory, was guilty and still maintains close ties with his aunt, Tina.
Tera Malarik currently lives in Florida and remains her father’s loudest defender. She celebrates his freedom and maintains that the justice system worked correctly in clearing his name.
The other siblings have also largely retreated from the public eye since they testified in court. Some of them side with Jacob, while the rest side with Tera. This has completely divided the family.
Despite admitting on the witness stand that she helped plan the murder of Sherri Malarik and disposed of the murder weapon. Spohn is currently free. This is because she signed a binding, full-immunity agreement with the state of Florida in exchange for her testimony in court.
She did, however, change her name to Jennifer Brake and relocated to Illinois.
Tina and Jeff continue to live in Florida, where they raised Sherri’s children. Tina continues to participate in documentaries about her sister’s murder. Though she has publicly said that she has lost faith in the criminal justice system.
If you would like to read other stories on child prodigies and creepy phenomena, check out our articles on the 2016 Creepy Clown phenomenon and Kim Ung-Yong, the child prodigy.