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Post by Graveyardbride on Jan 27, 2020 11:03:42 GMT -5
Celebration Murders: Mother, Sons Stabbed to DeathOn Monday, January 13, Osceola County deputies went to the home of Anthony “Tony” Todt, 44, in Celebration, Florida, to serve a federal warrant for insurance fraud related to his physical therapy business in Connecticut. When they entered the house, they became immediately aware of an extremely foul odor, however, Todt insisted Megan Todt, his 42-year-old wife, was sleeping upstairs and the children were probably at a sleep-over.
The deputies didn’t believe Todt and when they went upstairs, found Mrs. Todt and their three children, Aleksander, Tyler and Zoe, aged 13, 11 and 4, respectively, in the master bedroom and all were dead.
According to sheriff’s office documents, family, friends and the landlord, as well as the FBI, were concerned about the family because no one had heard from them since before Christmas. Deputies made welfare checks on both January 10 and 11, but no one answered the door and they did not enter the house.
An arrest report released Thursday (January 23) reveals investigators knew Todt was in the home when they arrived January 13 because they saw him through the door as they were checking the location.
A preliminary autopsy report has been released indicating all four bodies were in early stages of decomposition. It is believed the woman and children were killed in late December, which means Todt had been living in the house with the bodies – all wrapped in blankets – for two or more weeks.
The report indicates Todt could “barely stand and appeared to be shaking” as he walked down the stairs from the second floor. “While standing outside of the master bedroom, I could see a person laying on the floor who was wrapped in blankets,” one deputy wrote. “Sticking out of the blankets was a foot that was black and blue in color.”
Meghan Todt was lying on a bed with two stab wounds to her upper abdomen, according to the arrest affidavit. Their two sons, Alek and Tyler, each with a single abdominal wound, were on the floor beside the bed. The 4-year-old girl was wrapped in a blanket at the foot of the bed beneath her mother’s feet. She did not appear to have suffered any stab wounds.
“They’ve been really sick, I guess they’ve had the flu,” Todt’s sister told law enforcement when she called on December 29 concerning the family’s whereabouts. “They’ve had the flu for probably a couple weeks. They were really down and out during Christmas. The only person we’ve been able to talk to is my brother, and now ... we can’t get a hold of any of them.”
Before arresting Todt, deputies transported him to the hospital because he made threatening comments and downed several Benadryl pills.
Todt has been charged with four counts of murder and one count of animal cruelty for killing the family yap dog. He is being held without bail in the Osceola County Jail.
Celebration, Florida, is (was) a picture-perfect community of approximately 10,000 designed by the Walt Disney Company: Homes with old-fashioned front porches, tree-lined streets, picket fences and well-kept lawns reminiscent of small U.S. towns of the early 1900s and the American Way. For a while, Celebration was tranquil and the residents happy in their nostalgic bubble, but as the moral fiber of the country deteriorated, it became impossible to halt the barbarians at the gate, as it were. Additionally, Disney had been gradually divesting control of its model town and in 2010, Celebration had its first murder
On Thanksgiving weekend, Matteo Patrick Giovanditto, a retired homosexual schoolteacher from Miami, was murdered in his condominium. The killer was David-Israel Zenon Murillo, a 30-year-old illegal alien with no fixed address and a long criminal history that included charges in 2008 of battery on a law enforcement officer and possession of a concealed firearm. He also was accused of improperly touching a female employee at a tourist attraction. However, despite numerous run-ins with the law and the fact he was a sexual predator, he wasn’t deported.
Just two days after the badly bludgeoned body of Giovanditto was discovered on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, San Diego native Craig Foushee, 52, an American Airlines pilot, barricaded himself in his Celebration home and held police at bay for 14 hours before shooting and killing himself.
“I’ve always thought of Celebration as a very safe community,” Heather Hardy told reporters following the murder and suicide in the once perfect community.
“Everyone calls it the bubble here,” Katie Sobczewski added. “You don’t want people to pop your bubble.”
But the bubble had popped and now a man has annihilated his family.Sources: Stephen Sorace, Fox News, January 26, 2020, and Sarah Wilson, WFTV, January 24, 2020; Henry Pierson Curtis, The Orlando Sentinel, April 26, 2013; Nina Mandell, The New York Daily News, December 3, 2010; and Celebration residents.
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Post by catherine on Jan 28, 2020 0:44:32 GMT -5
There's no way to keep the barbarians at bay, they've infiltrated everywhere and everything.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 25, 2020 18:07:09 GMT -5
Todt Indicted, State to Seek Death PenaltyA grand jury has indicted Anthony John Todt on four counts of first-degree murder for killing his wife and three children, and the state is seeking the death penalty.
Todt has confessed, but Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson declined to discuss the details – including the method or motive – and the defendant’s statements are redacted in the affidavit filed with the court.
The news that State Attorney Aramis Ayala (above) will seek Todt’s execution comes amid a feud between Ayala and Gibson centered on the killing of Nicole Montalvo, a St. Cloud mother who vanished in October. She was dismembered and parts of her remains were later discovered at two properties owned by her in-laws. Gibson’s detectives arrested Montalvo’s estranged husband, Christopher Otero-Rivera, and father-in-law, Angel Rivera, on murder charges, but Ayala missed a deadline for seeking the death penalty. The sheriff requested Governor Ron DeSantis intervene in the matter, arguing that Ayala had hindered the collection of evidence in the case and citing her opposition to the death penalty as an aggravating factor. As a result, DeSantis reassigned the case to State Attorney Brad King in Ocala.
Ayala countered, claiming Gibson rushed the arrests of Otero-Rivera and his father in order to boost his reelection campaign. She also cited flaws in the case, including a lack of clear evidence as to which of the men killed Montalvo and how the victim died.
But this wasn’t the first time Ayala, who admits she opposes capital punishment, missed a deadline. In 2017, she neglected to file for the death penalty in another case, incurring the wrath of Gov. Rick Scott, who declared, “It is absolutely outrageous that Aramis Ayala failed to seek justice in the case against Emerita Mapp, who is accused of attacking multiple people and killing Zackery Ganoe.” As a result of her failure, Scott removed numerous murder cases Ayala was handling and reassigned them.
After losing her battle with Gov. Scott, Ayala established a death penalty committee, which decided Todt deserves to be put to death for his crimes. Still, Ayala admitted her position on capital punishment hasn’t changed and this is one of the reasons she will not be seeking reelection.
According to federal agents, when confronted in November, Todt, a physical therapist, confessed to a brazen fraud scheme in which he routinely billed insurance companies and Medicaid for treatments he never provided to patients at Family Physical Therapy, his business in Connecticut. Although initially cooperative, he suddenly relocated to Florida without informing the authorities.
Todt is currently being held without bail in the Osceola County Jail.Sources: Jeff Weiner and Cristóbal Reyes, The Orlando Sentinel, 2020; State of Florida v. Anthony John Todt, Case No. 2020-CF-149; and Scott Powers, Florida Politics, November 20, 2017.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Jul 28, 2020 16:10:15 GMT -5
Anthony Todt Claims Wife Killed Children and HerselfIn a 27-page letter addressed to his father, Robert “Bob” Todt, in Westfield, Mass., Anthony Todt wrote from his cell in the Osceola County Jail, he is now claiming his wife killed their three children and herself.
According to Todt, his wife Megan was a sickly woman in need of constant care and it was her depression and the aftereffects of Lyme disease that prompted the family’s move to Florida from Connecticut. “I was determined she was going to get better, and she was, though the good days were amazing but the ‘bad days’ were even more depressing for her,” he wrote. He described the day of the murders as “phenomenal” because Megan had awakened without pain for the first time in months. He went to do some maintenance work in a nearby condo they owned and when he returned, found what remained of a pie, which, he said, “looked very good, as all my wife’s desserts were, but smelled horrible” because “it was a Benadryl pudding pie.”
His wife then told him what she had done and he discovered the children dead in their beds. There were no signs of a struggle and he proceeded to wipe their faces with a washcloth and “worked to make them look more comfortable.”
When his wife asked if he was okay, he said, “No ... you murdered our children,” to which she replied, “I released their souls.”
Then, he claimed, Megan Todt downed a bottle of Benadryl and stabbed herself in the abdomen. He begged her to allow him to call for help, but she wanted to die, saying, “I have to be with my babies.” He couldn’t find the phones to call 911, but “tried CPR until I physically couldn’t anymore.”
Todt then proceeded to move the bodies of his family, arranging them “in comfortable sleeping positions,” covered them “for warmth and protection” and placed rosaries in their hands. According to the letter, he then attempted to kill himself several times, but failed, explaining this was “yet another thing I sucked at.”
Following his ordeal, he claimed he existed in a haze until the authorities appeared on January 13.
The letter was apparently written in response to a report in The Hartford Courant wherein his father discussed the 1980 shooting of his wife, which 4-year-old Anthony Todt witnessed. “There’s only so much trauma a young kid can take at that point,” said Bob Todt, a teacher who was convicted of hiring a student to kill his wife, Loretta. Mrs. Todt lost an eye, but survived. Although the elder Todt adamantly denied involvement in the crime, he indicated he blamed himself for engaging in an extramarital affair and leaving his family vulnerable the night of the shooting.
“I offer you forgiveness for not being there to protect us that night, March 19, 1980,” Anthony Todt wrote in his letter. “Although we were both not there [on] our respective nights in question, for different reasons, I cannot forgive myself if I don’t first forgive you.”
Anthony Todt also wrote that he plans to honor his family by starting a not-for-profit corporation to provide assistance for the chronically ill in their memory: “MATZB2019: Alive and at Peace.” The acronym combines the first initials of Megan Todt and their children, as well as that of the family dog, Breezy. “I know that I need to work on the name,” he added.Sources: State of Florida v. Anthony John Todt, Case No. 2020-CF-149; Stephen Sorace, Fox News, July 28, 2020; and Jeff Weiner, The Orlando Sentinel, July 27, 2020.
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Post by jason on Jul 28, 2020 17:06:28 GMT -5
Another dumbass criminal. If the pie "smelled horrible," it would have tasted worse and no one would have eaten it.
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Post by Kate on Jul 28, 2020 21:27:39 GMT -5
Another dumbass criminal. If the pie "smelled horrible," it would have tasted worse and no one would have eaten it. I think this man has a warped idea about Benadryl. It causes drowsiness, but kids that age would have to take an awful lot of it to pass out. Also, the liquid form has a grape or minty taste, so I don't think it would make a pie smell horrible.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 12, 2022 14:02:14 GMT -5
Prosecution Makes Opening Statement in Trial of Family Annihilator Anthony TodtIn Kissimmee, Florida, the prosecution is presenting its case in the trial of Anthony John Todt, who is charged with the December 2019 murders of his wife and children in their Celebration home. The Defendant has pled not guilty and he isn’t facing the death penalty.
“The defendant, in his interview, says that Megan Todt and himself had an agreement that everybody needed to die in order to pass over to the other side together because the apocalypse was coming,” prosecutor Danielle Pinnell said in her opening statement. Todt, a physical therapist from Connecticut, admitted suffocating his 4-year-old daughter, Zoe, by rolling on top of her as she slept, and suffocating and stabbing his two sons, Aleksander and Tyler, ages 13 and 11, respectively. He then suffocated the family dog. His wife, he claimed, unsuccessfully attempted to stab herself to death and he was forced to finish the job by suffocating her. “And then, the defendant says, after everybody was dead, he took all of their bodies and places them all into the master bedroom (above),” the assistant state attorney continued.
Todt was discovered inside the house with the decomposing corpses of his family on January 13, 2020, when federal agents were attempting to arrest him on charges of fraud.
Prior to trial, the public defenders representing Todt filed a motion in limine requesting the prosecution be forbidden to mention the fraud case, alleging there was no evidence such charges had anything to do with their client’s annihilation of his family. In a second motion in limine, they asked the court to forbid any mention of the fact that in German, the word “Todt” means “dead.” Judge Keith Carsten granted both motions.
The trial is expected to last two weeks. Sources: State of Florida v. Anthony John Todt, Case No. 20CF000149AOS, Division 12A; Holly Bristow, WOFL, April 11, 2022; and Bob Hazen and Megan Mellado, WESH, April 11, 2022; and The Global Herald, April 11, 2022.
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Post by kitty on Apr 12, 2022 18:06:28 GMT -5
Why would the prosecution have wanted to mention that "Todt" means "dead" in German? What would that prove?
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Post by Graveyardbride on Apr 17, 2022 10:27:22 GMT -5
Todt Takes Stand, Jury Finds Him Guilty on All Counts
On Thursday (April 14), the jury found Anthony J. “Tony” Todt guilty of the murders of his wife and three children, and before sentencing him to four consecutive life sentences, Judge Keith Carsten pronounced him a “destroyer of worlds.”
On Tuesday, the jury was shown a video in which Todt confessed to killing his family, however, when he took the stand in his own defense the following day, the Defendant claimed he had been covering for his wife. Megan, 42, he insisted, was obsessed with reincarnation because of worsening health problems brought on by Lyme disease and depression over her miscarriages. As a result, he continued, she began practicing a Hinduism-based religion with an afterlife component and believed they could all be reunited in a better life.
When he got home, he testified, his wife showed him a suicide note and “said the kids were dead.” She then stabbed herself on the bed and he commenced searching for the cell phones to call for help. “I thought she was going to die,” he told the jury. “I thought in my decision-making, the best chance was for her to tell me where the phones were. ... I couldn’t help my wife pass. I felt like a failure. I wasn’t there the night my kids died. I felt like a failure. I decided I wanted to be with my family, that I wanted to die, that I deserved to die,” he claimed. “She had blood on her shirt and after that, after I said a few uncolored words to her, I went and discovered the kids. I went into the rooms and found them dead.”
The defense argued the inconsistencies in the Defendant’s statements make what really happened unclear. “His testimony is that Megan did it all, he wasn’t acting at her direction, he wasn’t acting with her. He came home to his kids being dead. His wife was alive, but essentially dying, stabbed herself in front of him and everything. The evidence in testimony has not been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Todt was the one that did these things. ... There are holes, there are gaps, and there is reasonable doubt.”
Unfortunately for Todt, members of the jury saw through his preposterous scenario and after initially sending a note to the judge claiming they were deadlocked, continued deliberating and unanimously found him guilty on all counts. Total deliberation time was a little more than six hours.
Sources: WESH, April 15, 2022; Associated Press, April 15, 2022; and State of Florida v. Anthony John Todt, Case No. 20CF000149AOS, Division 12A.
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Post by Kate on Apr 18, 2022 14:16:06 GMT -5
I'm glad the jury found this idiot guilty. His stories just got more and more bizarre, especially the "Benadryl pie."
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