Florida Father Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder For Brutal Slayings Of His Family & Dog: 'I Needed To Save Her Soul'

The verdict is in for the father on trial for murdering his wife, three children, and their dog in 2020.

According to WESH2, on Thursday, the jury found Anthony Todt guilty on multiple counts of first-degree murder and animal cruelty in the brutal killings of his wife Megan Todt, their 13-year-old son Alek, 11-year-old son Tyler, and 4-year-old daughter Zoe, as well as the body of their dog Breezy.

The guilty verdict came in a couple of days after the start of the trial. As we previously reported, the 46-year-old dad was arrested on January 13, 2020, by FBI agents and Osceola County when they arrived at his home in Celebration, Florida, to serve a federal warrant for health care fraud charges regarding his physical therapy business. But while searching the home, they discovered the four family members’ bodies all wrapped up in blankets in the master bedroom.

Anthony had been living with the human remains for more than a week, with authorities believing he killed the family toward the end of December. Autopsies later discovered that there had been toxic amounts of Benadryl in their systems.

When the first day of the trial on Monday, Assistant State Attorney Danielle Pinnell claimed Anthony admitted that he and Megan made a pact to murder the entire family because they need “to die in order to pass over to the other side together” before the start of the end of the world. The Orlando Sentinel then reported that Anthony blamed his wife for the horrific deaths in videotaped confessions shown to the jury on Tuesday, despite previously confessing to the murder.

He told detectives that it all started when she had watched some videos about how to achieve “salvation” due to the apocalypse, which led them to plot the slayings. According to the videotaped confession, Anthony then told police that they had talked with their kids about dying during which he claims they said:

“We don’t want you to die. We want to die with you.”

The parents went on to plan the brutal slaying before Christmas, starting with their youngest child Zoe. As we reported, Anthony “took the time to sit with” Zoe for hours on her bed before rolling over on top of her with a pillow. But in the new video confessions, he told detectives:

“I needed to save her soul. I wanted her to be with us.”

Per the Orlando Sentinel, Megan allegedly had been outside when he killed their daughter but helped him suffocate and stabbed their two sons:

“We had salvation in mind. … We love our kids.”

After killing their dog, she allegedly stabbed herself in the stomach. But when she failed to kill herself, he claimed he suffocated her with a pillow at her request. Megan allegedly told her husband at the time:

“If you love me, you can do this. I want to be with my babies.”

When everyone was dead, Pinnell told jurors on Monday that is when Todt “took all of their bodies and placed them all into the master bedroom.” In the weeks after their deaths, Anthony told detectives that he attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on Benadryl and hanging himself after he “chickened out” using a knife.

During the confession, Anthony reportedly said he wanted to be on “the other side” with his family members now, adding:

“That’s where I want to be.”

Despite confessing to the murders, Anthony has changed his story quite a bit. He later claimed he was not home when the murders happened, telling his sister Chrissy Caplet in one phone call recording obtained by The Day:

“I couldn’t stop this because I wasn’t there.”

Anthony then implied to his sister that Megan had been the one to kill the kids before killing herself in two calls in March and April 2020:

“There were multiple attempts, just so you know, multiple attempts in the last … over a time frame, there’s been attempts. Which is why this time I was stuck down here trying to handle things.”

While on the stand Wednesday, Anthony again pointed fingers at his wife for the murder. He said, The Daily Beast reports: