Anthony Todt Convicted of Murdering Wife, 3 Children, and Family Dog

On Thursday, April 14, 2022, Anthony Todt, 46, was found guilty of killing his family and was convicted of 4 counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty. His wife, Megan, was 42 years old, and they had three children together: Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, four. There was also a family dog, named Breezy. The family lived in Celebration, Florida, just a short drive away from Disney World. Disney actually built the original town where Anthony and his family lived.

People.com reports that, on January 13, 2020, Megan’s family called the police. They had become worried about her after months of silence. The police found Megan, Alek, and Tyler’s bodies all with stab wounds. All 3 children and Megan showed evidence of having been smothered, and all the bodies had large amounts of Benadryl in them. The bodies were all wrapped in blankets and found in the master bedroom. They had been dead for about 3 weeks, and Todt had been sleeping with their decomposing bodies.

When Anthony opened the door for the police, he was also drugged with Benadryl. Gail Shortland, who writes for the Mirror, wrote that Anthony had allegedly told the police that, “Megan had suffered with her health and had become obsessed with the idea of reincarnation. Todt said they made a suicide pact because she believed that there was an apocalypse coming – and that if they all died and “burned the family karma” they’d be rewarded with a better life and salvation”. He claimed that he and his wife had told the children about their pact and ideas of the afterlife. He said that the children had said they wanted to die with their parents. He told the police that he had smothered four-year-old Zoe before stabbing and smothering his sons. Anthony told police officers that Megan had stabbed herself and drank more medicine, but asked for his help when she didn’t die quickly. Todt had Benadryl in his system as well, but admitted to being unable to stab himself.

Once on the stand, Todt’s story changed. Several times, in fact. Todt gave a couple conflicting accounts of the deaths of his family. He blamed his wife and her alleged mental health struggles. One story he claimed was that his kids had already been dead when he had come home one day. He said that Megan had spiked their “pudding pie” with Benadryl and then stabbed them. When Todt confronted her, she stabbed herself and died in front of him. He told the court that his initial confession, that he had been the one to kill his kids, had been in an effort to cover for Megan. He spoke about her health struggles. Megan had dealt with Lyme disease, depression, and a miscarriage. 

The defense backed him up, arguing that his original confession had been while he was drugged and suffering from trauma. The prosecution argued that the original, taped, confession actually closely matched the evidence police officers had found on scene. They pointed out the control Todt had sought to have over his family in “life and death”. He had had a private physical therapy practice in Connecticut, and would commute back to Florida for weekends. His practice started to struggle with investigations of fraud. The prosecution also questioned why Todt hadn’t called the police on his wife, and questioned his inability to stop her from killing herself. The defense argued that the bodies were too composed to determine exact details about their deaths, but the prosecution argued that Todt had let their bodies rot for that exact reason.

Anthony Todt was found guilty for all four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty. He received four life sentences without the chance for parole, and an additional year for animal cruelty. Throughout the trial, Todt stuck to his plea of not guilty. Upon hearing his sentence, he said “I loved my wife. I loved my kids. They were first and foremost in my life. I did not do this.”

The judge, in response to Todt’s story about an impending apocalypse, told him, “You, Anthony John Todt, are the destroyer of worlds”.