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Celebration's Dark Secret: The Todt Family Murders · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I'm wondering if somebody can do a wellness check on
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: my brother in his family. They didn't really sick for
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: probably like the past week and a half, and I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: can't seem to get a hold of them.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: That call came from one concerned sister to dispatchers around
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the end of twenty nineteen. Christmas had come and gone.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: New Year's was almost behind us, but no one, including
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: their families, had heard from the Totes, an unusual enough
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: situation on its own, especially around the holiday season, but
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: neighbors hadn't seen them coming or going either, and now
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the FBI was after them as well. But it was
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a long journey that took the Tots up to that
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: day in twenty twenty, when law enforcement arrived on their doorstep.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And it started in the most normal of places. Anthony
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Tote met Megan Gula at Sacred Heart College, where they
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: both were studying to become physical therapists, and they couldn't
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: ignore the spark between them. Megan could light up any
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: room she walked into. It sounds cliche, but it's true.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: She was kind and caring. She loved music and cooking,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: and was focused on living a healthy lifestyle. Anthony or
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Tony as he liked to go by, fell head over
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: heels and asked Megan to marry him. Almost as soon
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: as they were done with their education together, they opened
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: up a physical therapy clinic where they both worked until
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: their family started growing. With two sons, Alexander and Tyler,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and a daughter named Zoe, the Toats looked like they
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: had it all. Megan left the clinic to homeschool their children,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and Tony focused on growing their business so he could
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: support the family, and then they moved to Celebration, Florida,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: a community built by the Walt Disney Company to be
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the most magical place on Earth to live. Shops, entertainment,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and Disneyland itself were only a stone throwaway, and it
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: was the perfect place to raise young children. But the
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: perfect location will only get you so far, and despite
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: their outwardly appearance and their posts on social media, there
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: were rumors that cracks had started to form along the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Tote's picturesque facade. Tony didn't exactly come from what would
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: be considered a normal familial background. Back in the day,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Robert Tote, Tony's father, had fallen in love with his mistress,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: wanted to be with her instead of his wife Loretta.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: But instead of handling things the legal way and filing
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: for divorce, he did something almost unimaginable. When Tony was
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: only four years old, he witnessed a young man attacking Loretta.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: The man shot her in the head before fleeing the scene,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: leaving the young Tony to watch as his mother bled
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: out in front of him. It was only through sheer
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: luck that Loretta survived the attack. At first, no one
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: could understand why someone would attack Loretta, but then the
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: would be assassin's identity came to light and all was revealed.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: It turned out that Robert had hired a former mentally
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: challenged student of his to kill his wife and free
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: him up to marry his mistress. Instead of getting what
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: he wanted, however, Robert Tote ended up in prison and
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: it was Loretta who remarried and moved on to fast
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: forward to the future. It looked like Robert's criminal genes
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: hadn't entirely skipped His son. Tony wasn't hiring any assass lessons,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: but he was on the investigator's radar for suspected fraud.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: The Tots still had their original physical therapy clinic that
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Tony and Megan had opened together, and even though the
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: family had moved from Connecticut to celebration, Tony still managed
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the business. He would still make frequent trips to make
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: sure that everything was in order. But the authorities were
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: starting to think that it was Tony's books that weren't
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: exactly as they should be. For years, Tony had been
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: charging insurance companies for treatments that he never actually provided.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: He'd actually made over one hundred thirty thousand dollars from
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: filing fraudulent charges, and even then he was still over
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars in debt. The Tots were living
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: well above their means, and by November twenty nineteen, the
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: FBI was able to prove it. They stormed Tony's office
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: with a warrant and collected evidence of fraud that would
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: put Tony away for quite a while. During his interview
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: with the FEDS, Tony told them that he would lead
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: guilty as soon as he found a lawyer to represent him.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: The authorities believed him and released Tony so he could
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: wrap things up before the charges were filed against him.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Hashtag white collar crime privilege. But only a month later,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Tony had cut off all communication with the investigators. At first,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: it simply looked like the Feds had been duped, but
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: then call started coming in from other family members claiming
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: that they had not seen or heard from the Toats
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: in weeks. Law enforcements not by the Tote's family home
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and celebration multiple times, but were unable to perform wellness
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: checks when no one opened the door. It was actually
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: only in mid January, when the Fed showed up to
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: serve toad Tis papers and with a warrant for his arrest,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: that anyone was actually able to set eyes on the family.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: The first thing that the authorities noticed that day in
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: January twenty twenty was the smell. It was an unmistakable smell,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: and one that had them fearing for the word, although
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: they must have had no idea what truly awaited them
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: inside the house. The door was unlocked. The smell got
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: worse when the investigators stepped inside. Tony came down the
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: stairs to greet them. He'd lost a lot of weight
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: and looked incredibly weak, trembling. He told the investigators that
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Megan was sleeping.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Tell me coming downstairs, Tony, upstairs, Hey, come upstairs, right Okayigno,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: it was all right, just stay called.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Any children you I can't remember down to the last Na,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: keep coming downtown. She like some sun?
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Where your where did you got any weapon? What's your
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: wife's name? Meghan as amurders megas her Megie? All right,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: come on body.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: The investigators followed through to the master bedroom, where they
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: quickly realized that Megan was far more than just sleeping.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: The bodies were discolored. Responding officer Michael Phelps later said
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: black and blue. Meghan, Alec Tyler, and even four year
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: old Zoe were all lying in bed, wrapped in blankets
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and in various stages of decay. Even the family dog
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Breezy had been killed along with them, and it looked
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: like Tony had been living with their remains for weeks.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: All of them, including Tony for that matter, had toxic
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: levels of benadrill in their systems, and Meghan and the
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: boys had also been stabbed, but their remains were so
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: badly decomposed by the time the investigators discovered them that
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: the coroner couldn't determine the exact cause of death. The
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: investigators were forced to rely on Tony's versions of events
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: in order to paint a picture of what happened. He
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: claimed that it all started a while back when Megod
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: contracted lyme disease from a tick bite. After that, the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: usually happy and outgoing mother of three had turned inwards
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and frequently suffered bouts of depression. It was during this
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: time that she'd allegedly become obsessed with the concept of salvation.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: She'd apparently found videos describing the end of the world
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: and had realized that they needed a way to save
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: their family. Together, she and Tony came up with the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: idea to kill their children and then themselves. According to Tony,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: when he and Megan approached the children to explain what
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: they intended to do, the children said that they wanted
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: to join their parents.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: That was it.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Then the only thing left to do was followed through.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Tony said he started with Zoe. I needed to save
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: her soul, he told investigators, I wanted her to be
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: with us. He claimed that he went into her room
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: while she was sleeping one night and sat on the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: bed with her for a while. He then said that
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: he rolled over on top of her and suffocated the
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: four year old in her sleep. Then he approached his
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: oldest Alec Tony first suffocated and then stabbed the teenager
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: in his sleep, before moving on to Tyler and doing
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the same thing to him. Megan, Tony claimed, had stabbed herself.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: She'd aimed for her own liver, but had missed and
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: lost the courage to follow through with the plan that
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: had supposedly been her idea in the first place. Tony
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: stepped in and suffocated her with a pillow. He then
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: wrapped all the bodies up in blankets and laid them
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: out in the master bedroom while he worked up the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: courage to kill himself. He had taken the benadrill, but
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: he'd found that he was too scared to turn the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: knife on himself. It was weeks later that the authorities
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: found them all and by the Tony had given up
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: on the idea of killing himself entirely, And it was
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: in court that, despite his earlier taped confession to detectives,
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Tony changed his story entirely. Quote my testimony today is
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the fact that Megan killed her kids and killed herself,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: he told the jury. The prosecution argued that Tony had
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: killed his family and then tried to cover up his
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: tracks by using their phones to message relatives to tell
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: them that everyone was sick. Quote. I think he blamed
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: his family for a lifestyle that he couldn't maintain. I
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: wish he had gone to them and told him that
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: they would need to live within their means. His solution
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: was instead to end everything. The jury agreed and found
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Tony guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: four consecutive life sentences with an extra year for animal cruelty.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: That is ten Minute Murder for today brief and binge
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• 11:33
  Speaker 2: for all that are there. And let's get to an email. Hi, Joe,
• 11:37
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• 11:39
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• 11:42
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• 11:45
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• 11:49
  Speaker 2: and missing and murdered Indigenous women is very prevalent here,
• 11:52
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• 11:55
  Speaker 2: a local case, the death of Selena. Not afraid the
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: entire case is it never seemed to add up and
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: what really happened is still often debated. I would absolutely
• 12:05
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• 12:06
  Speaker 2: would really interest you as well. Thanks again, Larissa and Larissa.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Let me start by saying thank you for the kind words.
• 12:13
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• 12:16
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• 12:19
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• 12:21
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• 12:24
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• 12:28
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• 12:30
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• 12:38
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• 12:41
  Speaker 2: So I will do this case. Absolutely one percent will
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: do this. And the main reason is I've been looking
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: into the missing and murdered Indigenous women. It's it's an
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: epidemic that I don't think most people know about. I
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: didn't know about it before I started reading about it.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: It's been going on for decades and decades decades, and
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: no one talks about it. I'm sure the indigenous communities
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• 13:07
  Speaker 2: it's not really a thing that's discussed as often as
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: it should be. There's so much injustice going on as
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: it relates to that, and so yes, I will do
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: that case. It may take me a little bit of
• 13:17
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• 13:20
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• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I'm doing that. So again, thank you for the email,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: and thank you for listening. Larissa, and that's going to
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: do it. That's your episode for today. Thank you for
• 13:30
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