According to an unsealed affidavit and criminal complaint, physical therapist Anthony Todt, 42, was being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for submitting fraudulent claims in Connecticut when he was charged with killing this wife, Megan, their three children, ages four to thirteen, and the family dog in her Florida home.  Authorities said he was motivated by a need to pay off personal loans.  Todt confessed to the murders and is cooperating with detectives, according to Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson.Gibson’s family was killed in late December in a five-bedroom rental home that was sold last year for $650,000.  He would not tell authorities how it happened, stating he would “wait until the coroner released results.”  Court records show the landlord was seeking the family’s eviction because they owed more than $5,000.  Todt was working at his practice in Connecticut during the week and traveling back to Florida on the weekends to be with his family.

Photo by Ehud Neuhaus on Unsplash

Authorities found that forty years ago, in Philadelphia, Todt’s father, a local teacher, married with two children, had also tried to have his wife murdered.  Todt, only four years old at the time, remembers his mother’s screams before she was shot in the middle of the night, according to court records.  Prosecutor Alan Rubenstein said Todt’s father had deceived everyone, including his wife, an underaged girlfriend, a separate fiancé and the priest who had planned to marry the couple.Both Loretta and Tony Todt told police there were two men in their home the night of the crime.  Loretta had been shot in the head, rushed to the hospital and survived.  “The bullet pierced her left eye and it lodged near her brain,” Rubenstein said. “She should’ve been dead.”Ultimately, however, her husband was convicted of the charges, and he later appealed his conviction, but the verdict was upheld.  It would take years for Loretta to accept what really happened that night.  She maintained her husband’s innocence throughout the trial and struggled to come to terms with the fact that her husband was responsible for her injuries.“She just didn’t believe it,” Rubenstein said. “I said [to her], ‘What more are we going to have to show you?’”In late 2019, agents in Connecticut obtained search warrants for Todt's physical therapy clinics, and agents interviewed him in the process.  At first, the physical therapist denied submitting bills for services he had not performed, but he later admitted to fraud and trying to pay off his personal debt.  His businesses also owed nearly $100,000.  “When asked if he was living above his means, Todt replied, ‘That’s the best way to put it,’” the affidavit reads.One relative said she was worried about Todt’s state of mind and had asked deputies in Florida to do a well-being check on the home in December.  The bodies were later discovered when agents went to the house to serve a warrant.  His youngest child, Zoe, was the same age Tony Todt was when he witnessed his mother’s attempted murder.Rubenstein said of the current events, “It’s hard to believe that this happened.”

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