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“I came home and my kids were dead, it was the most horrible day of my life,” Todt said on the stand in an Osceola County courtroom, reportsNews13. “What made it even worse is my wife died in front of me also.”
Megan Todt and children.
Jurors learned from Todt’s videotaped confession that when he and his wife talked to the children about dying, he claimed the kids responded, “We want to die with you,” reports theSentinel.
The recorded interview also captures Todt saying he then stabbed his sons Alek, 13, and Tyler, 11, and suffocated Megan after he says she stabbed herself.
Anthony Todt.Osceola County Sheriff
But in court on Wednesday he gave a different account.
After finding all three children dead, he said that he saw Megan stab herself.
“I wasn’t there the night my kids died,” he testified, WESH reports. “I felt like a failure. I decided I wanted to be with my family, that I wanted to die, that I deserved to die.” He said he responded with several attempts to kill himself.
Asked about the apparent contradictions between his testimony and recorded statement, Todt says that looking back, he likely was trying to cover for his wife’s actions and assume blame himself.
ClickOrlando reports that Todt’s attorney asked him directly if he killed his family.
“No,” Todt said.
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Todt and his family had moved to Celebration from Colchester, Conn., though it’s unclear how long they’d lived in the town, which Disney no longer owns. He traveled between the two states while he tried to salvage his beleaguered practice in Connecticut.
Todt was a longtime physical therapist and owner of Family Physical Therapy in Colchester. But court records show he was deep in debt.
Over the years, liens had been placed on a condo the family owned in Celebration, just blocks from their rental home. On Dec. 22, the landlord of the condo had filed an eviction notice, serving the family on Dec. 26.
Closing arguments in the murder trial began Thursday. Todt is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of animal cruelty.
source: people.com
