Todt Family Murders

In December 2019, Anthony "Tony" Todt, a physical therapist from Connecticut, killed his wife Megan Todt and their three children — Alek (13), Tyler (11), and Zoe (4) — along with the family dog, Breezy, in their home in Celebration, a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida. At the time, a federal warrant for healthcare fraud charges had led authorities to raid Todt's physical therapy clinic in Colchester, Connecticut. Investigators had discovered in April 2019 that Todt was billing patients for care they never received, using the proceeds to help fund the family's Florida home and Disney World trips while he accumulated more than $100,000 in debt from unpaid loans.

Police performed a welfare check at the Celebration home on December 29, 2019, but left after no one answered. On January 9, 2020, authorities executing the federal warrant found Todt in the house with the badly decomposed bodies of his family. Family members were found stabbed in the stomach and smothered, with crucifixes gripped in their hands; the body of four-year-old Zoe had decomposed so severely that she was not initially found until investigators discovered her beneath her mother's body. The dog, Breezy, was found dead in the master bedroom. Todt had reportedly consumed a large quantity of Benadryl in what he described as a suicide attempt, and the children had also been drugged with Benadryl.

Todt's account of events shifted over time. He at points claimed Megan had stabbed herself in the liver after killing the children, and at other points said he was trying to save the family from "the Apocalypse" so the family could be reunited in the afterlife.

In January 2020, Todt was charged in Osceola County with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty, initially facing a possible death penalty. His trial began in early April 2022. Prosecutors presented evidence regarding his financial problems, the victims' Benadryl use, and inconsistencies between his statements and the physical evidence. Todt testified in his own defense, claiming his earlier confession had been made under duress and suggesting his wife may have killed the children due to a shared belief the world was ending. He also described returning to the home searching for a missing necklace belonging to Zoe before ultimately confessing to the murders.

On April 14, 2022, a jury found Todt guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, plus an additional year for killing the family dog. Todt is serving his sentence at Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in Milton, Florida. In 2024, he filed suit against the Osceola County Sheriff's Office and other officials alleging unauthorized release of a personal letter to his father.