‘Dateline’: What happened to Sherri Malarik and who killed her?

In 2001, 34-year-old Florida Naval Petty Officer Sherri Malarik disappeared and was found shot to death the next day. Greg Malarik, her husband, was tried twice for the crime, but her murder has never been solved. Malarik’s true-crime case is now the topic of a 2024 Dateline NBC episode, “The Sleepover.”

The night when Malarik vanished, her family was having a sleepover with Sherri’s sister’s children. Malarik and her husband, Greg, had several young kids, while Greg and Sherri also had children from previous relationships. The Malarik household was likely filled with the cheerful voices of children when Sherri stepped outside to speak with her husband, Greg, who was busy outdoors, tinkering with the family minivan.

The next day, Sherri’s brother-in-law found her body in the vehicle parked at a Winn-Dixie, a grocery store chain in that area. She’d been shot twice with a .25-caliber gun, NBC News reported.

Greg Mararik’s mistress

During the investigation into Sherri Malarik’s death, her son, Jason, who was then 11 years old, recalled Greg Malarik telling him his mom left to run an errand at the grocery store before Greg got in the shower. That night, Jennifer Spohn stopped by the Malarik’s house. Spohn was later revealed to be Greg’s mistress. She later said the timing of her visit to the home the night Sherri disappeared was a coincidence. Spohn said she needed to return a lawnmower she had borrowed from the family.

Spohn was naturally a suspect in the case but was never arrested for Sherri’s murder. No one was, in fact, until nearly twenty years after Sherri died, in 2020, when Greg, Sherri’s husband, was finally taken into custody.

Spohn revealed secrets

Although Jennifer Spohn is not believed to have murdered Sherri Malarik, something she told the police played a part in Greg’s arrest. In a conversation, she admitted to the authorities that Greg, who had been divorced before, said it would be easier just to kill Sherri than to go through that again.

While Spohn insisted that could never happen, still, Spohn said she helped drive Greg from the Winn-Dixie parking lot where Sherri was later found, dispose of evidence, including the gun, and timed the knock on the door with the lawnmower to help provide Greg an alibi. Greg and Spohn, meanwhile, were romantically involved for years after Sherri’s death.

Greg Malarik’s trials

Over the years, the Malarik children developed suspicions of their own about what happened to their mother when she disappeared and was later found dead. Some of the children thought their father killed her, while others believed Spohn was more involved than she let on.

Greg Malarik stood trial for the first time in 2022, but there was a mistrial. In 2023, Greg was tried again, but that trial, too, had its issues. In 2023, Greg was declared not guilty of Malarik’s shooting death, and her murder remains unsolved to this day.