New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Ex-state man to serve four life sentences for killing his family
A former physical therapist in Colchester was sentenced to serve four consecutive life sentences Thursday for murdering his wife, three children and family dog.
Anthony Todt, 46, was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty for the deaths of his 42year-old wife Megan; their three children, 4-year-old Zoe, 11-year-old Tyler and 13-year-old Aleksander; and the family's dog, Breezy.
The verdict came more than two years after the family's bodies were found in their home in central Florida. They were killed sometime after they were last seen in mid-December 2019, and found decomposing and wrapped in blankets at the Celebration, Fla. home on Jan. 13, 2020, the Associated Press reported.
Cynthia Kopko, Megan's aunt and godmother, as well as the godmother to the Todt children, spoke after Anthony Todt was found guilty on all counts and recalled her niece's kindness.
“She had lots of empathy for everyone,” Kopko told the judge. “She had a giving heart.”
She also remembered the kids as being “very, very talented.” They played the piano and performed in convalescent homes.
“We watched them grow up,” she said. “To have this happen is a nightmare.”
“We loved Megan and the kids very, very much,” Kopko said with her voice breaking. “And all I have is pictures and memories I can hold in my heart.”
“My parents miss them, and his parents miss them and our families miss them very, very much.”
Kopko said she warned Megan many times about Anthony's controlling behavior. He would call them incessantly while they were out buying shoes or having lunch. Anthony Todt told the judge Thursday that he did this because he was worried for Megan's health, and he “just needed to make sure she was OK.”
Former Colchester First Selectman Mary Bylone wasn't surprised about the guilty verdict, but is hoping it brings closure for some.
“It's a tragic event and it's impacted a lot of people,” she said. “This will bring closure, but it's never going to bring back what's been lost,” she added.
Bylone remembers when the community first noticed the Todts were missing. Once the family was found dead and murdered, people were “enraged.”
“This is a guy that people trusted,” she said, as Anthony Todt was a physical therapist to many and was a soccer coach to young kids. “This guy was loved. That's why everyone believed him in the beginning. And to find out that your trust had been betrayed like that, I think that really was hard for people.”
“He had their children under his supervision and I think that really rocked people's worlds,” Bylone added.
After news spread about what happened to the family, Kopko said the community was traumatized.
“The children would ask their fathers ‘Are you going to kill me?'” she said.
As the jurors individually affirmed their verdict Thursday, Anthony Todt could be seen holding his hands up to his face, as if in a prayer, and shaking his head “no.”
Judge Keith Carsten in the Osceola County District Nine Court called Anthony Todt a “destroyer of worlds.”
Anthony Todt was sentenced to serve four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was also sentenced to serve one year in county jail for killing their family dog.
“Not one of those lives was less valuable than the others,” Carsten added.
The trial lasted six days. During closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell told the jury that Todt confessed to the killings to investigators, the Associated Press reported.
Police found the family killed on Jan. 13, 2020 while serving an arrest warrant to Anthony Todt for health care fraud. Anthony Todt “could barely stand and appeared to be shaking,” according to his arrest warrant. He was taken to the hospital and told paramedics he took Benadryl in an attempt to kill himself. He was then involuntarily committed, according to court documents.
Anthony Todt admitted to detectives that he killed his wife and kids. He said he used a knife to stab the boys and then suffocated them. He could not remember if he stabbed his daughter, but “knew he suffocated her on the bed.” He then told detectives once the children were dead, Megan “used a knife and stabbed herself in the abdomen twice.” He told detectives Megan took Tylenol PM and then he suffocated her until she died, according to the family's autopsy report.
He said he and his wife “had been planning for months to kill their children, and then kill each other in a suicide pact.
They all had to die together in order to be with each other in the next life,” according to the family's autopsy report.
The medical examiner deemed Megan and the three children's deaths as homicides through “violence of unspecified means.” The medical examiner also found toxic amounts of Benadryl in all four. The medical examiner found stab wounds to the abdomens on Megan, Aleksander and Tyler, and no evidence of trauma on Zoe, the autopsy report states.
Anthony Todt later claimed he took the blame for his wife, who he said had killed the children and then herself, the Associated Press reported.
Anthony Todt's attorneys made a motion to suppress his confessions, as well as prohibit references to his health care fraud accusation and the German translation of Todt's last name, which is “Dead,” according to court documents.
Anthony Todt called the death of his family a “catastrophe” Thursday and maintained his innocence. He said he put his wife on a pedestal while her health declined.
“I loved my wife, I loved my children,” he said. “I was not there the night my children died.”
“I did not do this,” he added.
Anthony Todt said he tried to kill himself “over and over again” after his family's death. He also said he didn't remember anything between him falling down the stairs and waking up in jail.