A Florida man who took the lives of a newlywed couple in front of their young child nearly thirty years ago was executed last week, marking the state’s first execution of the year. The adult daughter of the couple has shared her reflections on her childhood experiences related to the tragic events.
James D. Ford, 64, was put to death by lethal injection at Florida State Prison on February 13 for the killings of Greg Malnory, 25, and his wife Kimberly, 26, following the signing of his death warrant by Gov. Ron DeSantis on January 10.
“I sense that I’ve been deprived of so much affection …the affection from my mother and father,” Maranda Malnory, who saw her parents’ killings at just 22 months old, shared with Fox News Digital in an interview following the execution.
“I hesitate to call it closure, as it isn’t quite that, but there’s a sense of peace in knowing he can never escape and come after me again…” I am the only one left.
In the spring of 1997, on a Sunday morning, Greg and Kimberly Malnory embarked on a fishing trip at South Florida Sod Farm, where Greg was employed, accompanied by their 22-month-old daughter, Maranda.
The bodies of the couple were found the next day, April 7, 1997, close to their pickup truck in a field on the isolated 7,000-acre farm. Officials discovered Maranda secured in her car seat within the truck, having endured the assault, as per court documents.
“Tragic situation for Maranda, abandoned in her time of need.” “Her survival was truly a matter of divine intervention,” Connie Ankney, Greg’s mother, had shared with Fox News Digital. “It seems like divine intervention was on her side.”
At 29, Maranda lacks any recollection of the attack, yet she vividly recalls the moment she first discovered the chilling specifics of the case.
In her formative years, Maranda grew up under the care of her grandparents, blissfully ignorant of the tragic events that led to her parents’ demise, until she chose to uncover the truth herself.