INFAMOUS: The Todt Family from Orlando
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Hi, crime jankez, i'm your host. Ashly flowers and the story I have for you today shoot you when I first shared IT. And I know we say this all the time that people literally don't believe that this type of crime could happen here.

IT was in part of the brand here, was supposed to be the happiest place on earth. That's right today we're going to orlando, florida high crime junkie. I'm your host ashly flowers .

and i'm .

bit and happy monday, everyone. I'm onna ruin your day. This is the story of the tote family.

Know those places that still feel like they're straight out of the thousand nine hundred fifties were nothing bad ever happens. That's celebration. Florida, the man acquired loans and picture perfect houses and condos cultivate a sense of tranquility is a place where neighbors said out on the front porch in the evening, soaking in the warm floor design and greeting their faithers as they pass.

But on this day, january thirteen, twenty twenty, a federal agent parked on reserve street isn't admiring the landscaping or enjoying the weather. He's got his eyes trained on one house, the home of Anthony tote. There's three agents staked outside his house because they have a warrant for tony arrest because of insurance fraud.

He owns a physical theory we practice in connect cut and he'd actually been billing his patients insurance companies for like I mean, we're talking tens of thousands of dollars for appointments that they just never actually had. So this investigation has been going on for months and they're actually been trying to track him down for the last two of those since he vanished from connective. Now the agent watching the house doesn't see any movement inside, the blinds are drawn IT doesn't look like there are any lights on, and he'd actually just about to leave when suddenly the front door opens and our walks.

Tony, now right away, the agent can tell that somethings wrong, because tony does not look good, I mean, can hardly walk. He looks sick, and his behavior is just weird, like he sits down in a chair, just kind of looking around. And then eventually he gets up and slowly, seemingly painfully, goes back inside.

So now that he has eyes on him, he calls for back up from officers at the aussie accounting share of office. And actually, this isn't the first time that local officers have been to this house either because they had gotten several calls from tony's sister asking for wellness checks, one on december twenty nine and then one on january ten, and the one in december. Apparently he had asked for someone to go check on them because he had been told the whole family got like super sick with the flu and spoken to them in days. SHE called tony and his wife Megan, like one of their sons. And although he had gotten some text like up until the twenty six, the last time he actually spoke to any of them was like the twenty three, twenty four.

So are they making the connection that this is the same guy you've been checking in on?

I don't think that they're making that connection. No, but i'm pretty sure that the officers or at least aware that, that someone has been happening or that there have been wildness checks.

So I getting nothing really happened at that first check though.

no. I mean, just like now in this agent sitting there, like the blinds were closed, lights were off, no movement in the house. And in some areas are, for some people, that might be concerning.

But celebration specifically, is full of the snowbirds, basically people who only live their part time. And the totes were known to travel. Tony, especially like he traveled regularly between connect, cut and florida. So just because no one came to the door, they weren't all that worried. But things had gotten a little more concerning just a few days ago when tony sister had called back and added that apparently tony's wife, Megan had mentioned that the world was gone onna be ending on the twenty eight but like, you didn't really know what that man.

i'm sorry, the worlds going to end and no one has been able to reach but we did not grow up in basically call to not call this like who read flag .

of the flags know? And I think again, like this is what she's doing. She's calling the police.

She's hoping someone has eyes on them. Like what else do you do? But like, fly down there. Not everyone has the ability to do that.

And here's a thing, it's not even just tony sister who sounded the alarm bell because the tok's landlord had called police because they hadn't paid their rent and they are actually getting evicted like they rent the house that they live in. And you obviously, when you start paying your bills like you, that's not a good thing. So the landlord attached to note to their door, basically giving them notice, but that's the thing.

This note hadn't even been touched. And this layer lord had also seen a facebook page called looking for the tote family that have been started by worried family members. And now she's worried, especially because tony and maybe to have three kids.

So SHE actually called to request police check on them as well. But again, even during this call, fox thirty five reported that they didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Okay.

but now they know he's home. I think they just saw him a hobbling around.

right? And they are fully prepared to serve that arrest warned. But they're not sure who else could be in the house. So the shares office sends some extra officers out just in case.

So once there, all there, a group of officers in agents approach the front door knocking and announcing themselves as police, but no, any answer. So they knock again, still nothing. But again, they like, no, tony is in there.

So eventually they just go ahead and try the door and they find that it's unlocked cautiously. They walk insights still announcing themselves. And that is when they smell IT.

IT is a smell that anyone who has been on the job knows and will never forget something or someone is dead. As they go further into the house, they come to a set of stairs, and when they look up, they see tony standing at the top. And just like the original agents said, he does not look well.

He looks sick, he's mumbling, and he's trying to make his way down this tears. But he can, again, barely move. So IT makes him a while.

When he finally gets to them, the officers asked him if there's anyone else in the house and he says that his wife is sleeping up stairs. And he actually, this point even turns around and calls for her, but like nobody hears any kind of response. So then they asked him, okay, wear the kids.

And then his responses strain. He says he doesn't know. Like he can remember they went to asleep over last night.

It's all just really fuzzy. So a few of the officers and an agent walk upstairs. And at the top, they see a door open to a bedroom.

And the agent would later explain that you can't really make out the details, but IT looks like someone is lying in bed, so SHE pushes the door open even further and seize a mattress at the foot of the bed as well, with what looks like more people in IT. But even without getting close, SHE can tell that these people aren't sleeping. They're dead, according to a podcast produced by the day called looking for the tote family, which was one of our main source material for this episode.

SHE can see a few feet peaking out from under the sheet and blankets, and just one look tells her that they have been there for a while. The officer is count four bodies in total, Megan, who is on the bed, and two of their three kids, thirteen year old alex and seven year old Tyler. There is a dog bed next to the mattress to, and in IT, they find the family dog breezy dead as well.

Okay, but where's the third kid?

That's their first question. Because as the officers look around the room, no one sees for your old joe. They ask tony where he is.

But again, tony, he's like really out of IT. He says something like who isn't SHE in her but sleeping? But we know she's not.

I mean, officers are going room by room, looking in bed. They're looking in closes at anywhere they can, but he is not there. So they asked him a then.

But all he does is mumble something that they can even make out. So they have other option. They keep pressing. Where is zi? But he can't or won't tell them. And there are so desperate at this point that, I mean, they're literally looking in like the freezer, the fridge anywhere they think he could be or fit into because obviously, their minds are going to the worst case scenario at this point. Although i'm sure at the same time, like there is probably part of them that hoping to find her safe and sound, maybe she's staying with a relative, maybe she's with a friend, maybe she's just not in that at house but when they go back to the bedroom with Megan elegant Tyler, that's when they noticed another bundle of blankets laying at Megan feet across the bed, and when they pulled back the covers that when they find. So I.

I, I don't even want to ask, but how did they miss her the first time?

Not to get too graphic? Basically, the bodies had obviously been in therefore weeks I got good long while and since he is so much smaller than the rest of the family, IT was more decomposed. Actually IT was the same for breezy, their dog so there was lesser er to fine you know to me was easier for her be lost in that bundle.

But now that all the members of the family have been found, the officer is an agents exit the house with tony and they call for even more back up now there waiting. Tony mentioned that he had taken a large dose of benefico in order to try and die by suicide, which probably explains why he is acting the way he is. But they can have that happen.

He is the only one who can tell them what the heck happened inside that house. So he is taken directly to the hospital before along the house is swarming with officers. There are crime sca units, officials from the medical examiners office, federal agents, I mean, the whole deal, and they go through the house, room by room, but especially focusing on that bedroom where the bodies were found. And I don't think I can like fully comprehend and how bizzaro and just straight up horrifying IT is because there are a mix of items in there that point to just some twisted, like there are stuff t animals, there are other toys. There are two knives, both with blood on them and a few packages of, and looking for the tote family reports that there are even snacks like peanut m and ms and gater aid like sacks .

that have been sitting out for days and days, or even on open, on touch. Or or has tony been eating and drinking in that room this whole time that .

I think they don't know what has been going on this whole time or what he was doing this whole time? But the snacks aren't even like the end of that. They also find zip ties in the room too.

There's a restraint that's tied to the bed. There is this first aides spray with bloody fingerprint on IT. and. Then they find two baby guns once just out the open and the other is in this bag in a closet and then outside of the bedroom what they find its notably they find two cell phones which they think possibly are tony and Megan. It's not even just like right outside the bedroom.

They're actually on a table on their front porch, a man, there's a letter now it's been typed and printed out and when investigators read IT, they are stand. And I think to understand the rest of this story, you need to hear the whole thing. So, but can you read the letter for us?

I mean, can I sure, do I want to? T V D, all of this episode we go. As twenty nineteen comes to close and twenty twenty commencing, we as a family decided this course of action of salvation for several reasons.

We are seeing the end of world propac's coming true and choose not to have our family suffer and be subjected to foresee ene tortures, catechism c. Demise and continued agee, we will no longer be separated. Tony will be willing always and forever.

Now Megan will no longer be subjected to constant daily pain, torture of living and breathing from her progressive liver and lime disease complications. We believe we made the right decision for our family to gain salvation, and together, this forever. The continued increasing depression as a result of glas suicide anniversary, coupled with the agony of the miscarriage of color, Michael, recently and every eight years ago, has just fuel the overall depression.

Our whole family suffers on a daily basis in conversation with the kids constantly. The focus of ever lasting salvation and being together forever without pain and suffering is our ultimate goal and want. In addition, this family lives in daily constant fear of Robert.

We are very proud of what we contributed to this world, what our children have contributed. And I love we share for each other. Our one final wish is that we are kept together.

Please distribute our ashes along with our first baby brezec, in either the ocean or at harkness. So we may be with dad in eternal rest. We have prayed and we have meditated to this decision.

Please continue to pray for our salvation, and please be in peace that we are no longer suffering. We are sorry for the anguish and sorrow this has caused you, but IT was a decision we made as a family. Now we will be together forever without pain and suffering, and we will watch over and protect all of you. We love you all so yeah, I have so many questions 在 they're listing people we don't even know like Robert。 Why are they afraid of him and who is alguazils a lot here actually yeah.

I think the best thing that is just kind of break this downbent by bit because, I mean, this letter is really the first clue that things might not be so straight forward. So just starting at the top again, IT says, as twenty nineteen comes to a close and twenty twenty commencing, we as a family decided this course of action of salvation for several reasons. We are seeing the end of world privacy coming true and choose not to have our family suffer and be subjected to forseeing tortures, channel assist c demise and continued agony.

Okay, yeah, I caught that right away. Any imation of a propac's about the end of the world just screams domes day called to me yeah .

so here's the thing about that though. As far as investigators know at this point, they're not part of any called or even like formal religious organization. But obviously, again, they're like just finding this the very start of their investigation. It's now at the top of their growing list of things to ask tony when they can. So what will read the next part?

sure. We will no longer be separated. Tony will be wireless always and forever. Now Megan will no longer be subjected to constant daily pain, torture of living and breathing from her receive liver and lime disease complications. okay. So I don't get that part at all like the part about tony because it's kind of written like tony already dead and spoiler dudes still here yeah .

and so this is one of the things about the note that doesn't make sense. Like we don't actually know who wrote IT. Like the point of view changes a lot. Sometimes that seems like maybe Megan road at. Sometimes that seems .

like maybe tony rode.

I will be is used, but we don't know who actually and I say, pan, even time to pen this letter.

So what about that? Other part, like Megan health issues is, is that real?

Well, most of what we know about Megan health comes tony. I haven't seen the line, diseased, disputed, but we're actually gonna come back our health later on. So just like keep IT in the back of your head, but let me jum to the next part. So he says, we believe we made the right decision for our family to gain salvation and together ness forever. The continued increasing depression as a result of algoma suicide anniversary, coupled with the agony of the miscarriage of conor Michael recently and every eight years ago, has just fuel the overall depression or whole finally .

suffers on a daily basis. Again.

who's okay? So how is Megan dad? He died by suicide back in two thousand two.

So I mean, right here in this paragraph are clearly some pretty devastating losses that they've had. So they have had these miscarriages. They've had her dad who died by suicide. So you can understand that there was this .

cloud of sorrow.

Yeah, yeah. We read the next part in .

conversation with the kids constantly. The focus of ever lasting salvation and being together forever without pain and suffering is our ultimate goal. And one, in addition, this family lives in daily constant fear of robbert. Okay, first of all, no, your children didn't like, make this family decision with you that your.

but yeah that's the part of all of this that like like grants me even when you talk about like the family depression like yes, i'm sure grandpas suicide affected the kids and i'm sure you're miscarriage if they were even aware of IT could have potentially affected the kids but they are not suffering so much because of those that they made this collective family decision which they are not even capable of making right? But go on, sorry.

要 but I have to come back with whose Robert？ right? Okay.

so now Robert is tony dad OK. And again, as they're reading this letter, investors don't know anything about him. So they are just just confused as your eye picking him up for the first time, just like Megan's health, we're going to get back to him. So so let's all just you guys.

we just read the last part.

Yeah, please.

We are very proud of what we contributed to this world, what our children have contributed and the love we share for each other. Our one final wish is that we are kept together, please, to tribute our ashes, along with our first baby breeze and into the ocean, or hartness, so that we may be with dad in eternal rest. We have prayed and we have meditated to this decision.

Please continue to pray for our salvation, and please be in peace that we are no longer suffering. We are sorry for the english and sorrow this has caused you, but IT was a decision. We've as a family now, we will be together forever without painting suffering.

And we will watch over each other. Expect all of you. We love you all. I mean, great. We broke IT down. By far, there are still so much to process in letter, and I just have more, more questions. I think the glowing thing out of all of this though is tony is definitely supposed to be dead right.

IT seems like that yeah I mean, like this seems like a suicide note on behalf of the whole family, yet they're still a man standing, right? So you're right.

This note leaves a lot of questions for investigators to try and answer both for themselves and for the family of the totes to literally as they were taking everything in this scene in before they could even talk to tony, the family were calling police in connect gate to report the totes missing. Officials in connect cut had no idea what was being unearth in florida. So when tony family called the local share of office to request another welfare check, they had a bomb dropped on them.

Even though police and connect cut are in the note, no one talks to the family just yet. Because by this point, industry or at the hospital with tony trying to understand just what the hell happened in that house, Adrian cutaway reported for click or lindo that he doesn't have any life threatened injuries, but he does have some wounds that need to be taken care of brinson. He's got some injuries to his hands.

There is like a Bruce on his chest, something on his neck. But again, nothing life threatened. So while there they are, the hospital, they get his statement twice, actually.

And here's what he says. He explains that both he and meggan started on this spiritual journey a while ago, and as part of this journey, they watched videos on the afterlife. And one thing LED to another, he said, which ended them realizing that if they all wanted to be together after they die, they would have to die together.

sorry. One thing LED to another, how did the hell does someone go from starting a spiritual journey to familiar IDE?

Grow your guys as good as mine. Also like again, i'm maybe not the person to ask, but like I don't know any doctor and that says like whoever you die with, you stay with for eternity so like this is on the fringe .

of stuff for they're just like projecting on to .

something weird maybe. But anyways, he says that they started formulating this plant back in either early june or july, and by december they had IT ready. Now, he doesn't say exactly which day all of this went down, but one night in late december, sometime before Christmas, he says he stabbed both of the boys in the optimal and then suffocated them. And then he suffocated zoe. But he can't remember if he stabbed her to, and then he suffocated breezy the dog so that he could also go with that.

But were the kids are wag lick, they know what was happening.

So he says that all of this happened in the middle of the night while they were asleep. But I mean, logically, if they were, if they were stabbed, then they would have woken up. There could have maybe been a struggle.

So I don't OK. I will get into all the details that there's a lot of questions around whether his story is true or not, but that's the story he gives about the kids. And he says that the following day IT was Megan turn is the following day I OK.

And so let me get through this part. I'm sorry, I listen. You're going to be like this whole time, like everyone will the following day. Apparently, SHE stabbed herself twice in the optimal, but that didn't kill her. So then he took some thailand, all pm, and eventually tony suffocated her too. And he says, after they were all dead, he waited for rigor modest to fade, which would have been about thirty six hours, and then he brought all into the bedroom and arranged them so that they could be, quote on, quote, comfortable.

And maybe that was part of their believe, like they had to be in the same room to be together in the next line.

make up whatever you want, like IT. Does that make sense? Then he says, finally, it's his turn. So he said he spent the next few weeks trying and fAiling to kill himself before police showed up at his door. Okay.

I find IT a bit odd how he successful sent five other souls. Yes, i'm counting the dog to the afterlife as planned. No issues. But he couldn't seem to scene themselves, have stables and stomach.

No shock.

I'm sorry if this sounds cold or colors or rever, but in my opinion, if he really believed the end of the world was coming and they needed to get to the other side is a family, so they all had to die together, I just am having a hard time believing that he would have a quote failed so many times for weeks, weeks, you know and .

like weeks and weeks that he's in this house with them. Like, I absolutely agree, when you think about IT, this mean killed his hits. Like, I hate this. I hate episodes like this. The Chris watts, like, I can take a lot. But like the idea of a parent who it's the one person to kid feels like should be protecting them, this do killed his kids and he doesn't even seem to have much, if any, remorse about IT because he's saying like either a Better place but like you're still here like he does not track so as .

he ever explain anything about that end of world propac's from the node.

I don't know. Not all of his hospital confession is publicly available, but IT doesn't seem like he mentions anything about like permanence of the world. Anyway, over the next few days, investigators talk to the totes family. They talk to their friends, neighbors, pretty much anyone they can, to try and figure out why this happened. Now everyone they talk to say that they hadn't noticed any red flags up until, like very recently, except with the exception of tony sister, because she's one who said that Megan had been talking about this end of the world don day stuff.

But but this was all news to everyone else yet.

which is to me a little weird, right? Because we're not hearing that they like isolated themselves from everyone that seems like they were still around there. And I even if they not super social well and .

IT doesn't like they weren't even processing like they weren't like trying to get other people to join them there.

What a fancy worry. Oh my god, pretty the good news. yeah.

They aren't like trying to like convince everyone else that they were right. This was like their personal convictions and that was IT and they didn't even share IT right?

Like you think the world is ending and like you don't even like mention that to your family. I just I find that part hard to believe but you you have such a strong conviction like this if everyone's plant really was to like take their own life and the lives of their kids, of course you're not going to tell people that. But surely you would be like warning people of like the end of times, you would think.

But that's not what was happening. The communication with everyone is pretty Normal, even leading up to their deaths. Like in looking for the tote family, Megan ann uncle say that they had gotten some tax from her around Christmas, where he said that the whole family was gonna on a trip to saying, aug, we just might not have our phones much, if at all, which was so Normal, totally find zero red flags.

But then just before they were supposed to go on that trip, they got some more message, is saying that the whole family had gotten really sick with the flu. So they had a postpone. Now, not sure how many days after that they heard from the family again.

But sometime after Christmas, tony had texted them saying that Megan had misplaced her cell phone. And he also mentioned that they were gonna go off the grid for a while. And then after that, that's when they didn't hear anything else.

Okay, but how much of all that communication was actually just tony, because according to him, everyone else was killed sometime before Christmas being go.

And this is the part that's really unclear because we know that all of the messages sent after Christmas where one hundred percent tony, so saying that Megan lost her phone, they're going to be off the grid like that, him seemingly covering his tracks, but before then, it's a bit of a mystery. So like in my mind, even the one person that Megan supposedly told about this doom's day stuff, which is tony sister.

was that even Megan.

that's the question.

So is that because they haven't early in pointed when the family died? Or because even if they wore alive, tony was still like the main communicator?

I think it's because they still don't know exactly when they die, which is kind of a central question in this. And so what they do is they try to build out a timely using people outside of tony who is very much are near rata. And they do this by talking to his family, by talking to neighbors.

Now they learn that there was a Christmas concert in mid december that the whole family went to, which is the last time that they were seen alive. But other people who attended remember noticing that they did kind of stick out like everyone else is wearing, like super festive Christmas sweers. But the totes were dressed more plainly in cotton coat, regular clothes, which honestly is neither .

here nor there are. Like to me, sure, maybe they knew they weren't going to be around for Christmas, but they also could have just missed the memo to go all out and dress fast tive.

Yeah, I don't know how like Normal, like I would totally were all black to this thing. And like, that's that's IT for me. So I, I, I am with you there.

Actually, speaking of their neighbors, police also trying get a sense of who this family was again. Did anyone notice any red flags? Even if they went red flags at the time, maybe in high insight, but what they hear is overwhelmingly positive.

One neighbor says that the kids were extremely polite. They were, well, behave. They would take their trash out or hold the door open if they needed help.

And even though the kids were home school, they went to an actual school twice a weekend. And so they were involved in extra curricular activities. Megan went to yoga, transporter her kids everywhere.

The next neighbors were interviewed for that podcast I mentioned, and they have a sun that was good friends with alex and Tyler, and they said that they played together a lot. And all in all, they seemed like such a Normal family, a little reserved. Sure, especially tony.

But to be fair, tony didn't spend the majority of his time in florida, so he was in connective during the week. I told you he travelled time, and that's because he still worked up in connect cut during the week day. And then he would come down to florida on the weekends to be with his family.

So IT was kind of Normal to them that he know wasn't even as involved as he was like he didn't really have the connections that Megan and the kids had done in for that. So informative, the kind of unhelpful to like get them to how we ended up here. So they turn to the physical evidence.

All four autopsies are conducted on january fourteen, and still they don't really provide any more answers. The M E finds that all four died of David hydrogen, toxic, A K, A, A bencher overdose, as well as, quote, homicidal violence of unspecified means. Now what we're able to see from what was released as that both boys were stabbed once in the admin, and mean was stabbed. In the abdomen, the only one who may not have been stabbed. Zi, but the M, E, notes that he was so decomposed that they couldn't really tell.

Maybe I just missed IT, but the tony mention drugging them with the benefits. Al, in a statement.

yes, so that part didn't make IT into his first story that he told police. But honestly, that's very, pretty much is out the window. The more that they learn from the emmy because B, T, W, all of the stab wounds that the M, E finds, the M E says those are made post modern, like, not while they were still alive, which is what tony said.

K, that doesn't make any sense of everything he could have lied about, like, literally, he could have lied about who stopped them. But no, he lied about when they were stabbed.

It's super weird, right?

Well and why would he stop them after they'd already died? I think .

that's also a good question, also something I don't have any for now. They even um did an autopsy on breezy the dog but you know much like zie, there wasn't much that the that could do to determine her cause of death. Although there was a small hole the potentially could a stab wound hard to say.

So I mean, again, it's more than than F I like I didn't really provide any answers. So with this information that they get on, the fourteen investigators decide to interview tony again on january fifteen because obviously there are now even more questions, and this time he gives a bit more detail than in his hospital interviews. When IT comes to why he killed his family, he explains that Megan first became interested in the afterlife in April of two .

thousand and pause wind, he said they started planning the murders in july or even june. IT only took them three months to decide they should kill their whole family.

Well, according to one's version of events, yes. Do we believe tony version of events? I would say no, right? So in this interview, he elaborates on why they started researching the after life in the first place.

So he claims that he was all tied to Megan health. SHE started looking for alternative ways to feel Better, because he says that he was in a lot of pain, both physically and emotionally. SHE was leased, according to him, chronically ill.

He was in more pain every day. And then their misCarries over the years took a heavy emotional toll, he says on both of them. But this is also where he says that Megan started having code on, quote, visions, many of which showed an impending apocalypse.

He says that he would see their family being separated and subjected to all sorts of terrible atrocities. And they knew that they couldn't let that happen. And in order to avoid IT and still all be together, they had to die together.

And apparently this notion of being together was really appealing to them because we've, tony, live in part time and connective a part time in florida. They didn't have much time together as a family. And like the note elude to, he reiterates that the kids were basically in on the plane, which again, we call the major boon.

He claims that when they decided this was something that they were gna deal, he says human may can SAT the kids down and ask them questions like, if mommy died, how would you feel? If daddy died, how would you feel? And he claims that the kids were basically like, we don't want to live without you, we would rather die too.

Which, even if this happened huge, of course, a little kid is going to say that. That doesn't mean they are asking to be murdered by their father. I mean, this is some gross levels of manipulation here.

I know, I know. Now, according to the podcast, tony then goes on to describe how he researched different ways of killing the so that they would die in the fastest, most paintless way possible. And then they settled on benefico to put them to sleep and then stabbing them while they were out.

So he says, they make this putting pie. They added a tuna bento IT, hoping that all three kids would just overdose. And I will they slap, but then they didn't.

So the next night he says that he and Megan set the alarm for eleven thirty P M. I don't know why eleven thirty specifically, but he's adamant that that was the time. And then he says that they did IT together.

He gives a lot of detail, none of which I think matters. So i'm not gonna go into IT for this story. Plus I think it's pointless because his story is full of more alive because he talks about, again, the stabbing being done first when we know that that's not true.

So anyway, he gives us horrific play by play about how it's him. In Megan, they killed two of their kids together, and then he kills the third alone. The only thing you need to know is that the how does resemble his first story involving stabbing, suffocation? Then, after the kids are dead, he says breezy was killed because, again, they wanted her with them as well, and then Megan wanted to go next.

But what's the time line here? Is this the next day or now he's saying that .

I think he's sticking with the original. So starting at eleven thirty P M, I think by the time he dies, IT is technically the next.

it's like after midnight .

or whatever, right? So according to him, SHE drain some wine, some thailand, all pm, to calm her nerves and then stabbed herself. And SHE said that SHE was targeting her inferred vena cava, which is basically like this big blood vessel.

So SHE would bleed out quickly, but he didn't hit the first time. So forty five minutes goes by. She's still alive. He says he drinks a lot of benefico and then stabbed herself again.

But again, SHE didn't die, and he goes into so much detail about what he did and where he was, how he just couldn't die. And at at some point he says that he asked him to suffocate her, which he said he didn't know if he could do IT. But her response was something to the exchange of, if you love me, you can do this.

So he had to take more bencher al, and then he suffocated her with a pillow while they were laying there in bed. But here's the thing about how he says they all died. So not only did the autopsy show that all the stab wounds were again post mortem, which is not in line with any of the stories he told, but IT also showed that there was no evidence of suffer cation in any of the .

how is his version of a dense, so different from what the physical evidence is clearly saying.

I think, because he's lie in anyway, tony says that after Megan died, he laid bed with her for a while before eventually moving the kids to the primary bedrooms that they could all be together. He says he puts the series in their hands, and then once they're all arrange, that's when he tried to die by suicide. But I mean, we know how that went.

He says he tries numerous methods, all of which didn't work, or he chicken out of, I think the latter is the closest to the truth, if even true at all. And you know, as he's talking about this, like he he makes no to mention that he's not big on guns. So he, like, didn't just go out by a gun, which could have been an easy if he really was that desperate.

But apparently he read online that you can kill yourself with a paleo. So he went out and purchased two pal guns. Obviously that didn't work either. And he even considered, I guess, buying a real gun. But he didn't because there was a three day weight less.

Okay, again, not to sound like I burden for him to die, but you were in that house with their body four weeks .

yeah like what's three days?

How does this make any sense?

IT doesn't. And here's the other thing. So by the way, he didn't stay in that house the whole time. Apparently at some point he actually went to a store I know to get more band drill um another day he drove to sea sota for some unknown reason, and then he lost his phone at a starbuck.

why? Yeah do it's getting starbucks? And then he, they have this cond, so they rent in the house, they have this condo. And we know he makes another trip over to their condo to find this necklace that he says so he wanted. And this is all part of, again, this a laborat story he has. He says that when they all decided to die by suicide, each of them decided to have a special item when they died. And this necklace that he was going to get from the condo was zi special item well.

And like, yes, he's making all these trips, but he would have had believed to get the pellet guns at some point too. I mean, I don't think jordas h lives those right.

So you're not just like at home in some state of psychosis. You're getting five .

starbucks right at this point. Our investigators just, you know, letting him talk, getting as much out of him as possible, or are they calling him out on his B. S.

I saw, I know that they confront him with the autopsy report towards the end, like after he's done confessing what he doesn't do anything, he's still adamant that the kids in mean were stabbed before they die.

Okay, do so.

Whether they know what to make of the conflicting information or not, they are still trying to get as as possible out of him. Now, he confirms that everything sent from their phones after Christmas was in fact him. Although he can't remember, he says the exact day that they all died, so he can't save anything before Christmas was him too.

Now in talking to him, investigators obviously ask about his finances because they're trying to figure out that there could be any other motive here. And like high, this whole thing started with him being is a hot water with the feds. So they're wondering if financial al issues could have played any part in what happened. But tony says, no. He acknowledges that their finances weren't good, but he claims that they didn't influence his decisions at all.

A listen, I know we are not professionals, but money is usually brought up in a lot of the cases we've seen like this. So to me, IT seems like it's got to play at least some sort of contributing factor here in my it's hard .

to ignore again, especially when we're not talking about like a couple little things that we're .

like getting him in. How right? Looking at his .

confession in hand, tony is charged with the first degree homicide of his family as well as a count of animal cruelty. And since he confess, IT seems like it'll be a pretty straight forward case, right? But this case is anything but straight forward. And according to more of Adrian and cut ways reporting, tony throws another curve ball when he pleaded not guilty.

not guilty by resonance energy, or just straight up not guilty and .

stop not guilty. Up, he didn't commit the murders, according him. Now, cool.

but he can fast in a note to the police twice.

Not wrong. The thing you need to know about tony, though, is that he thinks he can control the narrative of what happened that night. And I think that at some point he realized that he has gone to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he doesn't change his story.

did that just not occur to him before?

I don't know. I don't know. He thought, maybe like because he was selling this attempted suicide thing, that he would look like a victim. None of this makes sense. Read so over the course of few calls to his sister from jail, he basically does a complete one, eighty, from his original statements.

So now he is saying that Megan was the one who killed the kids and he had no part in ah how many times have we seen like disgusting defense by men who kill their families and then all the students like the dead wife who cannot defend herself, like Taylor all this time? So his new story is that he doesn't remember what happened at all. All he knows is that he went over to their condo to look for the necklace that so I wanted IT is like a Mickey necklace.

And he says that he fell asleep bear. And then he doesn't know, he doesn't know what he told investigators. He doesn't know anything about his family's death, knows .

nothing 啊。 But that confession of his was pretty detail. They should take confessions of his were detailed.

And what wild is that? He just keeps conveniently remembering things when he needs to like, even though he doesn't remember anything. He knows that he was Megan who killed the kids and his description of her changes drastically from what I was before because now he's saying that he basically did that.

You know what he told him to do? He claimed he was controlling over bearing SHE prevented him from asking for help when he came. Things like their financial crisis .

or his health. So they are in al crisis.

Yes, yes, of course. Like so again, we have all this fraud of happening. And in addition to that, maybe as you the rates a result of this, but they were living way above their means.

And his physical therapy practice just wasn't making enough to keep them a float. So he efforts had taken out loans, but then he couldn't pay back the loans. And he just created this mound of death, but he could not get .

on top in this new version. Was he still planning killing his family? Like why is he looking for the necklace at the condo when he fell asleep?

okay. yes. So that's a little confusing, right? Because in one of their early calls, because I am we're getting all this from like calls he's having, he pretty much incentive ates that he was still on this plane and he's looking for the necklace because that was very special.

I don't that he wanted to die, right? But in later calls he changed his tune. He says that he was all Megan. The necklace was just something that so we wanted, but not because her plane was to die with IT just because he wanted IT. So again, this guy just says, whatever is convenient for him at the time, I think, is the take away. But there is something else his sister mentions on one of those calls that I think is important, and that is Robert, their dad, the one that the note said they were scared of. So basically, his sister tells tony that Robert is using the influx of media attention on their family to claim that he is innocent.

But of course, dad gona say his son is in his end.

Oh, no, no, no. Robert is saying that Robert is innocent, not .

tony 啊。 Who is saying Robert guilty? And of what exactly?

Alright, bucked up. Girlfriend, because we have to go back to march of ninety eighty, when tony was just four years old. So his family at the time, which consisted of him, his dad Robert, his mom la rada and his sister, they all lived in pennsylvany.

And one night, while his dad was out, a men broke into their house and shot later in the face. Somehow, thankfully, he survived. But according to an article for fox thirty five, in the subsequent investigation, IT was discovered that Robert had been the mastermind behind the whole thing.

Oh my god. Not only was he having an affair with a seventeen year old, he was also engaged to another woman completely. He was married toler. Yeah, this still is bad news. It's so basically, in order to be with the woman he was engaged to, he hired one of his former students to kill his wife.

But just like tony is doing now, Robert denied, and for a long time already to believe him, like SHE stood by her husband, SHE claimed he would never have done that, but he was still convicted anyway. And he served about ten years for attempted homicide, for criminal citation and criminal conspiracy. Now eventually, lauda did come to believe that he had been behind the whole thing, so SHE divorced him and took her two kids to connect with.

Tell her tony home when the attack happened.

Well, here's the thing. Not only was he home, he may have seen the intruder, although that isn't like totally confirmed. So yeah, he's in the house for sure, which is why I think you can see this LED to a strange relationship growing up. And even now, Robert doesn't have a solid relationship with either of his kids. But now that the told family is back in the headlines, Robert doesn't interview where he basically says he Robert is innocent, which kind of pieces of tony sister.

yeah, i'm not even family. Is that why the letter said they were scared of him? I don't understand.

And maybe maybe so the family hadn't had much contact with Roberts. I'm not sure why they not even mention. Apparently, tony had gotten ten over his fear at some point because in june, while he's sitting in prison waiting for trial, he writes his dad this twenty seven page letter detAiling his .

side of twenty seven pages seems like a lot of pages for someone who didn't remember anything.

Well, he sure remembers now IT wasn't. We absolutely cannot go through the whole thing, but I have picked out some of the highlights, which but i'm going .

to have you read. Okay, the first part says I write to you in response to letters I received from you to a correct all inaccuracies created and generated by the creative writing machine press to sell papers in the share of department who went to score a big win after screwing up a prior murder case that the governor of fraud a had to intervene and move out of this district to respond to your absurd allegations in your last letter and to offer you forgiveness. What is even happening?

The rantings of a mad man? I don't know. I think the other murder that he's talking about is the murder of a woman named noko montagu, whose case was taken away from one state attorney. Give to another. But that is like literally my best guess I could be wrong.

okay. And just to be clear, this doesn't have anything to do with either of their cases, right? He's just saying the share of department needs a win because of a screw up somewhere else right up.

okay. Continuing on, first of all, I am ten thousand percent innocent of all these proposals. Ous charges both on the state case and on the proposed medical fraud d case. The statements taken from me, we're interesting to say the least. I'm writing to you in confidence. Please do not share with anyone but your wife as I need not to be shown off as a trophy again, nor do I need to attend with the results of the telephone game when IT is time to testify in a couple months, please do not break my confidence.

So spoil the alert. We have a letter.

I say, well, we are reading this.

Yeah, he didn't want to get published, but IT was entered into evidence and then released in records request. So here we are.

okay. The next section says, my wife and my children were and still are everything to me. I love my wife still very deeply. And it'll be the hardest thing to sit there and tell everyone that I was her that did this when I was not home, and then SHE committed suicide in front of me. So he's sticking with his story, that all of this was her fault, yeah.

But he also goes into a lamor detail about her health and how he says IT impacted the family. So in this version, he basically describes her as practically in mobile. He says that he could barely walk, and they did numerous physical therapy sessions every day to help her.

He says he lost a ton of wait to their illness. And he makes a point to say that her drop in weight. Are you ready for this? Probably not resulted in, quote, the loss of all female features, gross.

And the way he speaks about her doesn't get any Better. He claims that they move down to florida because the warm weather was good for Megan's health, and that they moved from the condo, the house, because they need more space. But even here, he paints Megan as controlling everything from where they live to their finances, SHE controlled at all. So according to him, this whole medicated fraud thing that was all hurt too. And he just did whatever he wanted because, quote, honor to obey her.

So he's just blaming all his problems on her and basically held loyal he was to her. And how A G I loved her.

yeah, because he's teeth. You know, a great husband who honor novit her that the problem with her. And you know, when he tells the story, he said he was happy to do IT because even when he was commuting back in fourth every week, working some wild hours just to make ends meet, he knew he was Carrying for his family. So he also goes on into pages and pages of detail about what happened the night his family.

I, even though he had just told his sister he didn't remember anything again.

Yeah, now he does. So here is his most recent version of events. He writes that on that day, Megan woke up without pain for the first time in a long time, and so they wanted to make the most of IT, so they hung out as a family.

And later that day, Megan asked if he could go get so he's making snacks, lace from the condo. He agreed, saying he had to duce some maintenance over there anyway, so whatever. And Megan also made a comment about wanting everyone to go to bed early that night since they were getting over the flu. So that's ford. He's at the condo.

He ended up falling a sleep in the car and then woke up the next morning in a panic because he said he had missed his imagine thirty A M physical the section so he's like, go home fully quote, prepared to receive a scolding, as I would on occasion, if I forgot to do something, but this would have been harsher. And quote, but he says that that's not what you ve found. But can you read the next part?

yeah. I entered the house to find the melted desert and remnants on plates on the table. IT was some sort of fruit putting pie in a gram cracker crust. IT looked very good as all of my wife's deserts were, but smelled horrible. Turns out IT was a bender putting pie.

So after that, he kind of ramble on a bit, saying that he eventually found back again at the top of the stairs, and when he saw her, instead of getting scolded for being late, he was relieved that they didn't get him. So he then goes on to tell him about a vision that he had gotten the day before while meditating about the end of the world that he was coming. And in order to escape, they had to release their souls. So he blames this on her colonial spiritual belief, saying that they had moved further from organized religion. And while he didn't necessarily believe IT again, he's supported her and just followed her lead.

Okay, this next section is a long one. Long story short, he gave them the benefits, slashed piano P, M, pie, separated them, woke up at eleven thirty, stabbed and then suffocated each one. At the news of this, I ran the bathroom and puke.

I was weak. SHE continued to tell me what happened and then what did to pray, flash, meditate together. I needed to see my kids.

When I went in, I was horrified. IT was peaceful, no signs of structure, SHE said. But I couldn't believe her that there wasn't a struggle.

I got a warm washcloth and wiped each of their faces, held them, cried and work to make them look more comfortable by closing their mouth, eyes and loosening their nasal passages. IT was Normal for media wash their faces when they weren't well throughout that whole time. Make kept checking on me very calmly, asking if I was OK while drinking something.

Turns out the bench al sh'd been stockpiling for a while. I would respond to her, no, you murdered our children. And he would respond, relax and believe in what I saw. I released their souls. Okay, if he's in his right mind during all this, why isn't he calling the police?

Because he says Megan hit their phones.

Okay, fine, go to an area, borough phone also, by the way.

the phones are like on the front porch. So like, right? Not that well.

But to you your point, you can drive the starbucks, you can drive to a phone. And so but you would specifically asked what, you know, neighbor thing, whatever. He has a specific answer for this too. He was like, all, you know, we live in area with lot a snowbird, so know maybe no one was home.

Okay, this is winter. It's december. Snow ers are supposed to be in well. And also you can go to the years gas station try to flag that's saying, I mean, there are people who can go to for help. Pa, he's even reverting to the whole suffocation thing when the autopsy had already shown. That's not what happened.

This guy, I don't understand, like I think he's just so back into a corner that he can't make sense. So I there there's a truth and there are somewhere right like we know you did IT. What's the truth?

right? right?

okay. So the next thing he goes into, he talks about Megan staff, if you wanted to read that.

roque, about going back into the bedroom. I heard a horrific sound of something rubbing a latex, and SHE had stabbed herself the first time I ran her bedside, and he said, please don't leave me alone to die as I didn't leave the kids to die alone. When I pulled this knife, IT will go quick.

I can feel IT happening now. Before I could react, the knife was pulled and thrown on the bed. Some place there was blood, a lot of blood.

I beg her to let me call. I would take all responsibility as I felt IT was all my fault. After a while, nothing happened. SHE had more of her drink and asked me to leave her for a few minutes as I was dressing her out with all my pleading of asking her to go for help. Wear phones were exact time.

So out of this he was on to say, that mean that up drinking a family size bottles of benetton and and stop herself again. But like his other version of event, SHE still didn't die. So that's when SHE asked him to sufficit her with hello, but he says he couldn't do IT to which, according to him, he said, quote, I finally found something you suck at. Wow.

that sounds pretty nervous. stick?

Yes, that's actually something that stuck out to me when I was suffering through all twenty seven pages of this letter. There's a ton of little clips like that or he like, brags about his medical knowledge. He just finds these moments to boost his own ego a bit.

which is grows. But can we pause for a second? Isn't making supposed to be super sec like partly a mobile? He said.

as if he said, yeah.

how is he able to stab herself, get up, walk around, stop herself again, all world apparently tucking bena. I mean, honestly, how would he supposedly be able to kill all the kids if SHE was so weak?

Because he is either lying about how six he was, or about how the kids died, probably both with this student.

probably boah.

And I have such a hard time believing that he was as sick as he says, because remember, when police are talking like the neighbor's and stuff, they're like, yeah.

we saw her. She's at yoga there.

Totally noral family. There's nothing off .

adding up oh, my god. And just be clear, he's still sticking to the stabbing thing even though the army has said that IT happened after. I guess the first responders happen to see like a lot of blood at the scene because the only thing I can come up with that would like begin to make sense to sticking with the story is to explain like a really bloody but if you're gona change your story to change IT match the facts I I don't I don't understand any of IT .

that's the thing is so I actually looked for this because again, I I agree with you like if you're going to this is your way you're fourth, fifth twelve version of this story. Like usually when you see this happening, it's because like they are getting more information .

and there are you like course correct, right? No, that wasn't really change IT to.

It's not happening here. And so I did try to find out what the scene look like. I finding describing exactly how much blood there was or wasn't at the scene.

I know there were some bloody fingerprints. I know there some blood on some knives and maybe some blood that was collected for testing. But I can't tell you if this is a bloody scene or if they're just like very small amount of this stuff.

right? And what on this topic, was there any forensic evidence that backs up, I mean, any of his story or gives us a clear picture of anything?

Reporting on the actual forensic evidence is really few and far between. But one of that cordy ero reported for the orlando signal that tony fingerprints were found on boxes of benzo, which you'd expect, but they did actually compare meggan prince to any of the ones that they found. why? why? I have no idea.

I don't know if they didn't know that that that was gonna be their defence like I don't know, I am very confused. Um there were others stuff done tube. So there was male DNA found on the knife, maybe male DNA found under zo nails. But I don't even know if that was ever a hundred percent match to tony.

So okay, what you're telling me is both the prosecution and the defense are basically going to go to trial with just tony, numerous conflicting confessions.

Well, maybe not because as the trial loops closer, tony's defense actually petitions to get some things thrown out of evidence, including his first fashion .

at the hospital. OK, that's specific.

why? So IT turns out that before police started questioning him, they didn't maran dise him properly and is mental, say, at the time I was in tion. So the judge does end up siding with them, and that confession is partially excluded. But I don't know that IT matters because there are still two other confessions, because he had that other one at the hospital and then one at the station, which are still fair game. Now, a click or lando article by Brenda argetti tes that there are a few other things that the defense throws out to, the biggest one being that the prosecution can't bring up the insurance fraud cases.

which I kind of get their separate cases, but are they thinking they're not at all connected?

I am not sure, but I don't know. Even if even if if IT was partially reason, I don't think there's enough of a connection. The prosecution actually doesn't seem to care like they don't object to this. They seem a thing that they can prove their case without IT. Now the other thing that they can't bring up our his suicide thoughts or and this is really interesting, the fact that in german tote means dead or .

creeps a little side out there.

I know. So we are coincidence, right? So this is what's in this, what's out, whatever. Toni's trial is delayed several times for multiple reasons, but on April eleven of twenty twenty two, IT finally starts. The prosecution takes the jury through the evidence that they do have, primarily relying on tony's original confessions before he changed his story. But after just three days, the prosecution rest their case.

That seems quick.

but the defenses even short, they only take one day to go through their stuff. And the first witness, the only witness they call, is tony. And tony story is similar to the letter he wrote to his dad.

Megan was really sick, and SHE became really spiritual, which LED her to believe in the afterlife. But in order to get there and be together, they had to die together as a family. Now, even on the stand, he still doesn't remember what day the kids died.

He gives a range of somewhere between the fourteen and and the and eighteen. And he also talks about that suicide note that was left, which he says Megan wrote. When asked why he didn't go get help, he explains that he yelled out a window like frickin paul reviewer or something, but like no one k and that he thought he would die if he left her. So he just stayed and try to help her pass away.

Okay, but for weeks.

yeah, but he did have time to get starve. C, I can't leave the starfish thing out of IT IT just like, so I don't know, this guy hears himself, but he goes on to say that his original confessions were just him trying to cover for her, and that he wasn't an active participant in his kid's deaths. And of course, as you can imagine, the prosecution rips in the hemon basically demount everything he says.

But what really stands out about this cross examination isn't the facts of this case. It's tony tone and the way he speaks to the prosecutor. It's honestly uncomfortable to listen to because he is so condescending.

You can tell he's trying control this whole narrative and he thinks that he can convince her that his version of events is the right one. But of course he doesn't budge and that makes him mad. And there are even these moment where he, like.

snap at her, which is probably attacked, right?

Oh my god, a hundred percent SHE is showing the jury his true colors, which pays off. According to branda argenta and Lawrence savannas reporting for click or orlando, they eventually find him guilty on all charges, but tony can't just let the rest. Once the verdict is red, he addresses the court, saying he maintains his innocence.

He goes on and on. His lawyer even tries to get him to sit back down twice before he finally finishes, ultimately, tony sentence to life as well as an additional year for breeze's death. And unsurprisingly, he files in appeal. But I couldn't find where that appeal stands as of right now.

Well, actually, you are right this case completely. And by day, I know .

that there are no winners in this case, and there are still on answer questions about what happened and what LED up to IT. Again, like, I hate these cases, but I get so deeply, like invested in them because there is so little known about family aniela ors. To me, that is an area that really needs to be studied, because surely there are signs we can look for. And I think there are red flags that popped up all over tony story, right? But like people weren't seeing them enough to help, what are the signs that we could be looking for to prevent this from happening to another family?

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Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?