The families of Anthony Todt hope to finally get answers as the "Disney dad’s" trial began over the murder of his wife, their three children and the family dog.
The first day began with the questioning of potential jurors, who will be confronted with gruesome images from a vacation home near Disney World in Florida - where Mr Todt is alleged to have stayed with the mummified remains of his family for weeks before his arrest.
Mr Todt, 46, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, and one of animal cruelty, in January 2020 after local sheriff deputies were asked to check on the family by his sister Kellie Ball, she told The Daily Beast.
They found Mr Todt "could barely stand and appeared to be shaking", telling officers he drank Benadryl in an attempted suicide.
The medical examiner found the family was killed by an overdose of Benadryl combined with "unspecified violence"; three of the four had stab wounds. Mr Todt has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
“All we want to know is what happened to our family,” Ms Ball told Daily Beast.
“I am anxious about the trial, but anxious to finally get answers. Not really about the outcome,” she added. “I’m just ready to hear some actual evidence.”
That evidence will include pictures from the crime scene after defence attorneys failed to keep jurors from seeing the decomposed bodies of his wife Megan Todt, 42, their children Alec, 13, Tyler, 11, and Zoe, 4, and the family’s pet dog Breezy.
Defence attorneys argued that the pictures showed that Mr Todt’s youngest child, Zoe, was clutching a stuffed animal.
"The four deceased victims were in a state of decomposition when police found their bodies. Photographs of the deceased victims are shocking and unduly prejudicial," wrote public defender Peter Schumer in motion to exclude the images.
“I think the fact that you’re showing stuffed rabbit animals is designed solely to elicit sympathy on the part of jurors,” a defence attorney added during the October hearing, according to Law & Crime.
Horror photographs from the rental home where Mr Todt allegedly lived with the remains of his family for weeks also showed a bloody mattress, restraints, and a gun, according to the criminal complaint.
The jury selection process will whittle down 150 candidates, with Click Orlando reporting the questioning focusing on whether they had seen news coverage or had any religious beliefs that could affect their impartiality.
The trial continues.
