Anthony Todt trial to begin
Connecticut man is accused of killing wife, kids at Celebration home
More than two years after authorities discovered Connecticut physical therapist Anthony Todt living with the decomposing bodies of his wife, children and dog inside their Central Florida home, his first-degree murder trial in their killings starts Monday with jury selection.
Todt, 46, faces a possible life sentence. Prosecutors initially pursued the death penalty against him, but former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala reversed course days before leaving office, citing concerns about Todt’s mental health.
Jurors, though, won’t hear about Todt’s mental state, including his involuntary commitment following arrest and expression of suicidal thoughts during his initial confession to the killings, the judge presiding over the trial ruled.
Todt is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty in the killings of his wife, 42-year-old Megan Todt; the couple’s children Alek, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4; and their dog Breezy. He has pleaded not guilty.
Megan Todt’s uncle Stewart Peil, of Norwich, Conn., said the impending start of Todt’s trial — nearly seven months after it was first scheduled to start — is resurfacing some difficult emotions for the family. The trial has been delayed several times due to court closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the death of one of Todt’s attorneys.
Peil doesn’t plan to attend the trial but said he may fly down to Florida when the jury delivers their verdict. His wife Cindi Kopko — sister of Megan Todt’s estranged mother — plans to sit through the trial, he said.
“We’re expecting a guilty verdict,” Peil said. “I’d be very shocked if there was not a guilty verdict.”
Though they’re hopeful for an outcome they think brings some semblance of justice, he said it won’t bring them any closer to closure.
“Whatever the verdict is, it’s not going to bring back Megan or the kids,” he said. “It’s going to be a very sad ending to what was a very promising life for Megan and her three children.”
Fraud case led to grisly discovery
Authorities discovered the grisly scene Jan. 13, 2020 while serving a warrant to arrest Todt on federal health care fraud charges related to his Connecticut business, Family Physical Therapy.
For years, Todt padded his bank account by billing
Medicaid and private health insurance companies for services he never provided patients — to the tune of more than $130,000, court records show.
Federal agents interviewed Todt Nov. 21, 2019 but lost contact with him in December after he stalled their communications. Deputies with the Osceola County Sheriff ’s Office tried to reach the Todts at their Celebration home on Reserve Place after relatives said they hadn’t heard from the family since Dec. 26.
When Osceola deputies and FBI agents swarmed the Reserve Place home Jan. 13 to arrest Todt, they found the door unlocked and smelled a foul order. Todt claimed his kids were away for a sleepover and his wife was sleeping, but officials eventually found their heavily decomposed bodies wrapped in blankets.
The victims had stab wounds and toxic amounts of Benadryl in their bodies, according to autopsy reports. Investigators said they were killed weeks before their bodies were discovered.
After his arrest, Todt was involuntarily committed under Florida’s Baker Act because authorities said he made comments about harming himself and said he had
ingested Benadryl pills.
Detectives interrogated Todt three times at the hospital, and he repeatedly confessed his involvement. Defense attorneys argued that all three interviews should be excluded from the trial because Todt was suicidal and had diminished capacity after a Benadryl overdose.
Circuit Judge Keith Carsten ruled to exclude the first confession because detectives failed to fully inform Todt of his constitutional rights but jurors will hear about his subsequent
admissions.
Although he initially confessed to the killings, Todt has since blamed his wife for the slayings in jailhouse writings. He claimed she took her life after poisoning the children with a tainted dessert and stabbing them in their sleep.
“You murdered our children,” Todt said he told his wife after he found the dead children.
Todt said his wife responded by saying, “I released their souls.”
While Todt’s defense attorneys are barred from talking about Todt’s mental health, they are not prevented from speaking about his wife’s mental health and have indicated they may do so in court.
Peil said he hasn’t for a moment believed that his niece harmed her children. Megan Todt was a stay-athome mom who friends and family say doted on her three children, homeschooling them and always cooking healthy homemade meals.
“Nobody could ever convince me that Megan killed her own children,” Peil said. “I don’t think she had anything to do with it.”
Peil said he also doesn’t think Todt falsely confessed.
“I have a hard time believing that he was coerced into the confession,” he said.
‘They were loved’
Christina Gerrity, who lives across the street from the Celebration home where the Todts lived and were found dead, said she plans to attend the trial.
Gerrity, her husband Sean Gerrity and their children Liam and Ava Gerrity, knew the Todt family from the neighborhood.
Liam, now 12, spent countless hours shooting hoops with Alek and Tyler in the alley between their homes and went over to the Todts’ for playdates often, Gerrity said. He was devastated by the loss of his friends and spoke about them often after their deaths, his mother added.
“There will forever be a stain on my son’s childhood memories,” she said. “Two of his friends died at the hands of someone that was supposed to protect them.”
The entire Gerrity family was shaken by the violence that unfolded in the big whiteand-black house just feet from their own. And the trauma of the gruesome murders still haunts their once-idyllic neighborhood.
It’s hard for her, and her neighbors, to look at the family home that became an infamous house of horrors, she said.
“No one can ever take away this monstrous act or bring back that beautiful family,” she said. “There is now the history of a very painful experience on our street and in our community.”
Though the community needs to heal, she doesn’t want Megan, Alek, Tyler or Zoe to be forgotten.
“These people existed and they were loved,” she said.