Anthony Todt, the father accused of murdering his family in 2019 and keeping their bodies wrapped in blankets inside their Florida rental for weeks, took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday—and pinned the blame on his dead wife who he said believed the family needed to “pass over” before the apocalypse.
Speaking quickly and pausing often to cry, Todt told jurors his wife had life-long chronic illnesses that were the impetus for her belief the family needed to die in order to be reincarnated into a better life. But Todt claimed on the stand at Osceola County Court that it was his wife, 42-year-old Megan, who murdered their kids with a poisoned “pudding pie”—a total about-face from multiple confessions he initially made to police.
“I came home and my kids were dead,” Todt said, wiping away tears while looking directly at the jury. “It was the most horrible day of my life. What made it more horrible was that my wife died in front of me also.”
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Todt, 46, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of homicide despite allegedly confessing to murdering 42-year-old wife, Megan, and their three children—13-year-old Alek, 11-year-old Tyler, and 4-year-old Zoey—inside their Celebration, Florida, home. Todt was also charged with one count of animal cruelty for killing the family’s dog, Breezy.
In early interview with police, one of which was played for the jury, Todt said he suffocated and stabbed his kids and wife as part of an apocalypse-fueled suicide pact with Megan. He claimed he then tried to kill himself but “chickened out.”
But on the stand Wednesday he said he didn’t remember confessing at all, but he remembered telling his wife he would take the blame.
“I was covering for my wife. Obviously unsuccessfully. I had no clue how my kids died,” Todt said on Wednesday, adding that he had “no idea” his wife would kill their family and noting that on the morning of the murders she had woken up “pain free.”
“I didn’t see this coming,” he said, before stressing he did not kill his family.
Authorities were first made aware that the Todt family was missing just after Christmas in 2019, when family members asked Osceola Sheriff’s deputies to perform a wellness check. At one point, an FBI agent who had been investigating Todt’s Connecticut business for medical fraud also grew concerned and asked the Florida sheriff’s office to locate the physical therapist.
Ultimately, federal agents and deputies had to get an arrest warrant for alleged financial crimes in order to enter Todt’s home on Jan. 13, 2020. During a search, deputies found the heavily decomposed bodies of Megan, Alek, Tyler, and Zoey in the upstairs master bedroom—all covered in blankets.
The Orange-Osceola County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the four were killed by “unspecified violence” combined with overdoses of Benadryl—and that all but the 4-year-old had stab wounds. The report noted that Megan was stabbed twice in the stomach, while the two boys both had a single wound to the abdomen.
An arrest affidavit noted that “Anthony could barely stand and appeared to be shaking” during the grisly search, telling police he consumed Benadryl in an attempt to die by suicide.
Jurors heard one of Todt’s alleged confessions, where he told detectives that his ill wife started watching videos online that predicted the upcoming apocalypse and offered views on how to reach “salvation.”
On the stand, Todt said his wife “couldn’t keep the weight on” and often “couldn’t breathe” while sick with various ailments—and even suffered a miscarriage that threw her deeper in depression. He added that his wife also got involved in a religious group that believed in “an after life component” and that if they “burned the family karma” in their current life, they would be reincarnated into a better life.
“My wife was—she went from a very strong vibrant woman to barely holding on at 90 pounds,” Todt said on the stand while wiping away tears. “She went from a mom who provided for everything…to a person who could barely walk stairs on certain days.”
Eventually, Todt told investigators in the confession tape, he and his wife came up with the plan to kill their children and then themselves. In the video, Todt detailed the night he murdered his family, noting that first “rolled over on top” of Zoe “until she suffocated.”
“I needed to save her soul,” Todt said in the videotaped confession, noting that he wanted his family on “the other side.” “I wanted her to be with us.”
Todt then told investigators that he killed his two sons by suffocating them and stabbing them.
He said his wife then stabbed herself twice—and when that didn’t work, he suffocated her with a pillow.
“We had salvation in mind,” Todt said in the video. “We love our kids.”
Todt then allegedly claimed he suffocated the family dog. Finally, he explained that he tried to kill himself in various ways, including trying to overdose on Benadryl and hanging himself—but “chickened out” when he tried to use a knife.
Todt said on the stand Wednesday he tried to kill himself 10 times.
“I chickened out, yes,” Todt said. “I tried other means. I tried at least three episodes of Benadryl.”
But six months later, Todt argued that his wife was the one responsible, telling his father in an explosive July 2020 prison letter that Megan drugged their children with a tainted “Benadryl pudding pie.” Todt also claimed in the letter that after Megan confessed to killing the kids, she drank a bottle of family-sized Benadryl and stabbed herself in the stomach.
“Long story short, she gave them the Benadryl/Tylenol PM pie, separated them, woke up at 11:30 [p.m.], stabbed and then suffocated each one,” Todt wrote in the letter first reported by the Orlando Sentinel. “At the news of this I ran to the bathroom and puked—I was weak.”
