67. The Patriarch (Anthony Todt)

Support for swindled comes from Simply Safe.

For the longest time, I thought home security meant an alarm going off after someone broke in.

But if the alarm is already blaring, it's too late.

The damage is done.

That's a reactive approach, and it leaves you with that awful feeling of violation, even if the intruder runs away.

That's why I switched to Simply Safe.

They've completely changed the game with Active Guard outdoor protection.

designed to stop crime before it starts.

Their smart, AI-powered cameras don't just detect motion.

They can tell you when there's a person lurking on your property.

That instantly alerts SimplySafe's professional monitoring agents in real time.

And here's the game changer.

The agents can actually intervene while the intruder is still outside.

Talk to them through two-way audio, hit them with a loud siren and spotlight.

and call 911 if needed.

It's proactive security, and that's real security.

I trust SimplySafe because there are no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and a 60-day money-back guarantee.

They've been named the best home security systems by U.S.

News and World Report for five years in a row, and I can see why.

Get 50% off your new SimplySafe system at simplysafe.com/slash swindled.

That's 50% off your new SimplySafe system by visiting simplysafe.com/slash swindled.

There's no safe like SimplySafe.

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other.

When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a four-litre jug.

When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

Oh, come on.

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia Trip Planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip.

Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

Whatever.

You were made to outdo your holidays.

We were made to help organize the competition.

Expedia, made to travel.

This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised.

She's serious.

This episode contains some graphic descriptions of violence to children and animals, so proceed with caution.

John Geramanti is too stupid to be evil.

At 8:25 a.m.

on February 10th, 2014, emergency crews in Ben Salem Township, Pennsylvania responded to a house fire on the 2900 block of Windsor Drive.

Upon first inspection, the house appeared empty.

But before firefighters could make entry, the homeowner pulled up behind them in a truck.

John Chermonte was shouting that his 74-year-old mother was asleep inside.

The fire crew contained the blaze in the kitchen to search the rest of the house, but found it unoccupied.

It would later be discovered that John Chermonte's mother had left the residence about two and a half hours earlier after John had called 911 to have her removed.

Mother and son had been arguing about money again.

John told the dispatcher that she had gambled away the $2,000 that he had won gambling.

It would also be discovered after an investigation of the damage that the fire at the Cheramonte house was no accident.

Ben-Salem fire investigator Robert Sponheimer determined that an open flame had ignited a flammable material, likely cardboard or newspaper, that had been spread across the kitchen counter near a coffee maker, a clear-cut case of arson.

But John Chairmonti had an alibi.

He was at the bank that morning, he said, and the surveillance video proved it.

At 8.15 a.m.

on February 10, 2014, John pulls up to a drive-through ATM but never makes a transaction.

He sits there for 11 minutes before moving his truck to the parking lot.

There, John opened his door to confront a bank employee who had just arrived for work.

Cheremonte complained about the branch opening up at 9 and angrily threw personal financial documents on the ground that he'd never retrieved.

It was quite the scene, almost like John Chermonte wanted everyone to know who he was and where he was on that particular date and time.

You can also see a firetruck and ambulance racing by in the background of the footage.

Four seconds later, Cheremonte is back in his truck, trailing the first responders to his burning house.

Authorities believed that John lied about his mother being in the home to stall for time.

He wanted to ensure that the evidence of his arson would burn beyond recognition, a lesson he had learned from the last time this had happened.

On March 19, 2011, at 4.33 a.m., emergency crews in Ben Salem Township responded to a house fire on the 2900 block of Windsor Drive.

Investigators determined that the fire originated in a plastic trash can under the kitchen cabinets.

It was rolled intentional.

But there was never enough evidence to charge the occupant of that home, John Chermonte, or anyone else, with arson.

However, an analysis of John's financial transaction history revealed a 55-year-old man in the throes of a gambling addiction.

The $40,000 insurance payout he received for the first fire certainly didn't help.

John Chermonte wasn't just going to walk away while he was ahead.

Almost three years later, Missinzi had taken another spin and set his kitchen ablaze again in hopes of winning big.

But it's rare to hit two jackpots in a row.

This time, John Chermonte was charged with arson, with danger of death or injury for putting the firefighters in harm's way.

He was also charged with arson with intent to collect insurance, and one count of insurance fraud.

Before police could take John Chermonte into custody, he swallowed two handfuls of pills and drove his car into a wall, but he walked away clean.

John was then involuntarily committed to a mental health hospital where he threatened to blow up the police station.

In February 2015, a jury found John Chermonte guilty of all three charges, and he was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.

It was almost double the amount of time he would have received without his previous conviction.

John Chermonte had already served four years behind bars 25 years earlier.

For $800,

he had broken into a woman's home and shot her in the face.

True story.

Back in 1980, Robert Tote, a special education teacher at Ben Salem High School, was engaged to wed a 17-year-old nurse in a neighboring town.

Robert had received a blessing from the young woman's family.

The couple had already made plans with the priest at her church.

The date was set.

The only problem was that Robert Tote was already married.

to Loretta.

They had two young children together, a mortgage and everything.

Robert's fiancé didn't know.

Neither did his other mistresses.

But Robert had a plan to make it all work.

Robert Tote contacted one of his former students, John Chermonte, about a, quote, important assignment.

He offered the young man with significant learning disabilities $800 to kill the family babysitter.

In reality, the family babysitter was Loretta Tote, Robert's wife.

But John didn't need to know.

One of the reasons Robert reportedly chose John for the assignment was because he had always been so easily influenced, even without the details or the truth.

The troubled kid's slew of addictions made it almost impossible for him to say no to anything involving money.

This assignment would be no exception.

John Cermonte accepted Robert Tote's offer, who then handed him a gun.

You might want to practice using it a little, Tote instructed his student as a good teacher would.

And John Cermante did practice, in broad daylight, drunk, in an empty parking lot across the street from a church.

John let off a few rounds, then rejoined the christening ceremony to which he had been invited.

He snuck back in like a trained assassin, an apex predator on the hunt.

But when it came time to execute the plan and Loretta Tote, John Chermonte got cold feet.

At least the first time.

The original plan was to surprise Mrs.

Tote in the parking lot of the Frankfurt Hospital where she worked, force her into her car, drive her to a back road, and leave a bullet in her brain.

Robert Toad even gave John a ride to Loretta's job one night to carry out the deed, but John couldn't gather the courage to get out of the car.

So a new plan was hatched.

Robert Toad gave John Chermonte a key to his house and a date, March 19th, 1980.

Robert said he would stay out extra late that night.

He instructed Chermonte to walk through the front door and to shoot the person sleeping in the master bed.

Loretta, I mean the babysitter, would never see it coming.

Except she did, quite literally.

On the evening of March 19th, drunk on brandy and high on qualutes, John Chermonte stumbled through the front door of the Tote family home.

He made his way upstairs to the master bedroom, bumping into and tripping over every piece of furniture that stood in the way.

Loretta Tote sat up in her bed and screamed when she saw Chermonte enter the room.

He fired a bullet straight into her left eye then fled the scene, only stopping once to vomit on the front lawn on his way out the door.

The screaming and the gunshot had awoken Anthony Tote, Robert and Loretta's four-year-old son.

Anthony told police that he walked down the hall and saw a man, quote, wrestling with mommy on her bed before another, quote, black man with a T carved on his head, picked him up and carried him back to his room, whispering everything was going to be alright.

Loretta Tote also told police that there were two men in the house that night.

That's right, she had survived the attempted murder.

Loretta lost an eye and the bullet is still still lodged in her skull, but she lived to tell the tale.

Police also found evidence that two shots had been fired, but only one gunman was arrested for the crime.

John Chermonte.

He had been picked up on an unrelated charge and admitted to everything when questioned.

He received a four-year sentence in exchange for testifying against Robert Tote, who was charged with attempted murder on July 25th, 1980.

Robert Tote maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

Even Loretta was convinced that her husband was not involved.

She screamed out in agony when the jury announced they had found him guilty of attempted homicide, criminal conspiracy, and criminal solicitation.

Robert Tote was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

According to the Hartford Courant, Loretta Tote eventually accepted the prosecution's version of events, divorced Robert, and moved her two children to Connecticut.

Anthony, the son who had witnessed the attack, was plagued by night terrors throughout his childhood.

He'd never forget that night, but he was able to grow up and live a normal life for a while.

Like his father, Anthony Tote was good with children and respected in the community.

And also, like his father, Anthony Tote's life was riddled with deceit.

Mounting lies leads to desperation.

Desperation leads to violence.

I am my father's son.

The picture-perfect family relocates to beautiful sunny Florida to live a life worthy of a fairy tale.

But there will be be no happy ending on this episode of Swindled.

They bribed government officials

and clear violations of decades state law and clearly on ethnic organizations.

Now we have picked books and records in the high ballot.

I mean, it's full of some god of swindler, etc.

Support for swindled comes from Simply Safe.

For the longest time, I thought home security meant an alarm going off after someone broke in.

But if the alarm is already blaring, it's too late.

The damage is done.

That's a reactive approach, and it leaves you with that awful feeling of violation, even if the intruder runs away.

That's why I switched to Simply Safe.

They've completely changed the game with Active Guard outdoor protection, designed to stop crime before it starts.

Their smart, AI-powered cameras don't just detect motion.

They can tell you when there's a person lurking on your property.

That instantly alerts SimplySafe's professional monitoring agents in real time.

And here's the game changer.

The agents can actually intervene while the intruder is still outside.

Talk to them through two-way audio, hit them with a loud siren and spotlight.

and call 911 if needed.

It's proactive security, and that's real security.

I trust SimplySafe because there are no long-term contracts, no hidden fees, and a 60-day money-back guarantee.

They've been named the best home security systems by U.S.

News and World Report for five years in a row, and I can see why.

Get 50% off your new SimplySafe system at simplysafe.com/slash swindled.

That's 50% off your new SimplySafe system by visiting simplysafe.com/slash swindled.

There's no safe like SimplySafe.

Epcot will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry.

It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and new systems.

Walt Disney had always dreamed of building a utopia.

He envisioned a completely self-sufficient community without cars or crime.

There would be no visible garbage.

It would be the future of urban living.

Disney called it the experimental prototype community of tomorrow, or Epcot for short.

Walt Disney and Company purchased more than 27,000 acres of land in Osceola County, Florida, to build Epcot just 10 miles south of Disney World in the early 60s.

But before they were able to break ground, Walt Disney died, and Epcot would become nothing more than a theme park 16 years later.

However, in the early 90s, the Disney Development Company revisited its founder's dream.

Another community was planned for 11 square acres of the undeveloped land.

But instead of the experimental prototype community of tomorrow, Disney would build a nostalgic community of yesterday.

They named it Celebration.

Celebration is a new concept in community development designed from the ground up.

Celebration combines the sanctity and warmth of the family home with a vibrant downtown.

Disney's town of Celebration, Florida, would be reminiscent of pre-war America.

Main Street, USA, white picket fences, traditional family values, the town square.

A throwback to the 1940s, where you could leave your door unlocked and walk to the local ice cream shop, or hold hands and skip to the polling place to vote against someone else's civil rights just like the good old days.

I'd like to see us go back to

old town morals and values and

a town where you feel safe and comfortable, you don't mind meeting your neighbor,

you can only hope that that's what's going to come out of it.

One of the first sales brochures for Celebration Florida read, quote, There once was a place where neighbors greeted neighbors in the quiet of summer twilight, where children chased fireflies and porch swings provided easy refuge from the cares of the day.

It was, quote, the destination your soul has been waiting for.

Celebration Florida, like most Disney products, found a global audience.

In November 1995, Disney held a lottery to decide which families would be lucky enough to pay 25% over market value for the first 500 homes.

More than 4,000 people applied.

What Celebration has done is enabled us to stop isolating ourselves in our homes and putting us back into the community where we belong.

By September 1996, the doors to celebration were open.

More than 10,000 residents moved in and were handed a 160-page rule book written by a homeowners association from hell.

There were regulations for having no more than two cars on the street.

Blinds and curtains must be white on the outside.

Only specific types of plants were allowed in residents' gardens.

And most importantly, importantly, every house must feature a Mickey Mouse hidden somewhere on the property.

To some, the authoritarian controls were a selling point.

The nice places have controls in America.

So there are plenty of controls here.

But I don't think that they are frightening controls.

And they will not interfere with people's real freedoms to do whatever they want to do in their lives.

To others, Celebration Florida seemed like a dystopian nightmare designed by a cartoon company.

The classrooms were crowded, there was rampant wife swapping, and the bird noises were piped into the public streets via speaker.

Here in celebration, the fake snow starts blowing at six o'clock and every hour on the hour.

There was also a death pond, which had nothing to do with the alligators that lived in it.

During the first few years of the town's existence, At least five vehicles had missed the turn at the end of World Drive when entering celebration and drove directly into a retention pond 15 feet below the road.

Several people drowned in their cars, including a teenage girl and three tourists from Massachusetts, who were found at the bottom more than six months after they had disappeared.

In 1999, Disney finally built a wall at the intersection.

In 2004, Disney scaled that wall and left town.

The company sold its stake in celebration and the town center to a private equity firm from New York named Alex and Capital.

Twelve years later, residents were suing Lex and Capital for chronic negligence and breach of fiduciary duty for not properly maintaining the condo buildings, one of which had become uninhabitable after an eight-year leak formed mold and disintegrated the frame.

I think people came here because thinking they were going to be living on Main Street USA and, you know, the pixie dust would be sprinkled and their life would be perfect.

And they wanted the monorail to pick them up at their front door.

And, you know, this is real life, real

Not that the homes in Celebration had been built well in the first place.

Gizmodo reported that the original builders of the development were underqualified and overrushed.

Nearly all of the properties experienced problems within the first few years.

At least 70 homes needed new roofs.

And after the 2008 economic crisis, many Celebration residents no longer owned a roof to worry about.

Vast foreclosures ravaged the town.

In 2010, one man, in the midst of bankruptcy bankruptcy and divorce, decided to go out on his own terms.

Celebration Florida, you'll never want to leave.

The owner of a failed security firm barricades himself inside his home, the home soon to be foreclosed, shooting at deputies, then killing himself.

It happened in Celebration Florida, the picture-perfect locale built by the Walt Disney Company as a family-friendly small town.

The 14-hour standoff with 52-year-old Craig Fouché came days after the town's first homicide.

Just days earlier, a 58-year-old former teacher named Mateo Gian Vandito had been found strangled with a shoelace and bludgeoned to death with an axe in his home just a block away from the rubber ice rink.

A 30-year-old homeless man named David Murillo was convicted of the murder.

He said that Mr.

Gian Vandito had drugged and sexually assaulted him.

Former pupils of the slain teacher also came forward with molestation allegations.

These are the things that you can't control.

Things like this are going to happen.

So to me, it doesn't change my opinion or my feelings about celebration one bit.

Residents weren't worried about the town's first signs of violence.

The crime rate was still much lower than the national average.

Besides, these kinds of things happen everywhere.

It could happen anywhere.

I mean, it's we're people.

You know, people are everywhere.

Just because you know, you live in a nice town.

It's,

you know, I mean, it's, it's be human beings.

Yep, it is human beings.

And human beings continue to move to Celebration Florida, including a loving family from Connecticut named the Totes.

In 2017, Anthony Tote and his wife Megan and three children, Alec, Tyler, and Zoe, rented a home in the town once owned by Disney.

They were exactly the kind of family you you think would move to Celebration Florida.

Warm, close-knit, caring.

A row of friendly faces and a happy dog.

Maybe some matching clothes.

A stick-figure family on the well-traveled minivan.

They were the people in the stock photo of a store-bought picture frame.

And that's not an insult.

Family is important.

Who would know that better than Anthony Tote?

Anthony, the son of Robert and Loretta Tote, had become a successful physical therapist in Colchester, Connecticut.

He operated out of two offices there and loved working with the athletes.

Everyone Anthony touched raved about his magic hands.

Knee pain, back pain, didn't matter.

Tony could fix it all with a smile.

Over the years in town, he always seemed very generous, helpful.

They were always doing things for the community.

I know around Christmas, they were taking a collection for a family in need.

Really nice guys.

Outside of work, the patriarch was generous with his time and money.

Anthony coached his sons' baseball teams, donated to community causes, and never missed a piano recital.

The Totes were fitting in well in Celebration, Florida, but it was taking a while for the family to adjust to their new life.

Anthony Tote continued to practice physical therapy in Connecticut during the week and would fly back to Florida on the weekends to rejoin the family.

It was stressful but necessary, at least until the offices could fully operate without him.

Megan Tote stayed in Celebration to homeschool the kids and to shuttle them to practices and lessons.

She quit her job working as a physical therapist to keep the children engaged.

Being a mother was all she ever wanted.

By all accounts, Megan Tote did a wonderful job.

The effort was palpable.

You could hear it.

Alec and Tyler, 13 and 11 years old, were becoming more talented by the day.

Their piano teacher told the Courant that the boys were information sponges and some of the most gifted students he had ever had the honor of teaching.

And four-year-old Zoe Tote's creativity was just beginning to bloom.

You couldn't ask for anything more.

Family, that's what it was all about.

Anthony and Megan Tote were so proud of their children, they kept their friends and relatives updated on social media with a consistent stream of positive anecdotes and family photos.

Life was but a dream.

However, behind the facades of Facebook and Florida, a far more sinister reality was hidden away, and those close to the totes wouldn't realize something was wrong until it was far too late.

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Can I help you?

Um I'm wondering if somebody can do a wellness check on my brother uh and his family.

They've been really sick for probably like the past week and a half

um and I can't seem to get a hold of them.

Give me just a moment.

When was the last time you heard from them, ma'am?

Um The last time I physically talked to him was on

the last time I physically talked to him was either Monday or Tuesday.

And he was texting my sisters and I up until

Thursday.

Was supposed to call us between yesterday and today, and we haven't been able to get a hold of him.

I can't get a hold of him, my sister-in-law, or even my nephew.

Okay, what is your name?

My name is Chrissy.

C-H-R-I-S-S-Y.

And what are their names?

My brother's name is Tony.

My sister-in-law's name is Megan.

And then their three kids are Ally.

Oh, I'm sorry, Tote.

On December 29th, 2019, Anthony Tote's sister, Chrissy, called the Osceola County Sheriff's Office to request a welfare check on her brother's family.

The last time Chrissy talked to Tony, he said everyone in the household had come down with the flu, but she hadn't heard anything from him since, and that was days ago.

It was out of character.

That evening, sheriff deputies drove by the tote house in celebration, but found nothing odd.

No one answered the door, no car in the driveway, and the blinds were closed, so they left.

Chrissy called back 12 days later to request a welfare check at a different property, the condo.

Still, no sign from Megan, the kids, or Tony, whose physical therapy therapy offices in Connecticut had been closed for months without announcement.

The landlord of the family's home in celebration put a notice of eviction on their door that hadn't moved in weeks.

A Facebook group called Looking for the Tote Family had been created.

The Connecticut and Florida locals were talking.

I had actually called on December 29th, and I had an officer go out

because I was concerned.

My brother and his family, they had all been sick.

But there's actually been

more

developments there's actually an active fbi investigation that's happening up here in connecticut

and i just in in conversations with my sister um you know my my sister-in-law was making a comment about and we just kind of put it all together about um

basically the world ending on the 28th

the fbi had called the osceola sheriff's department looking for anthony toad too apparently he was under a federal criminal investigation for medicaid fraud The FBI and the Office of Inspector General discovered that since 2015, Anthony Tote had billed insurance companies for services never performed.

He would submit charges for patients who no longer received care and double, sometimes triple, billed for others he was actively treating.

Some of those charges were dated on Saturday and Sunday.

The treatment center wasn't even open on weekends.

Anthony Tote collected at least $130,000 this way, probably more.

When authorities questioned him on November 22, 2019, Tony admitted using the money to make payments on more than 20 short-term, high-interest loans he had taken out.

The debt was crippling and getting heavier every day.

Anthony Tote had already lost three civil judgments to creditors totaling more than half a million dollars.

He told investigators that he couldn't keep up the pace and didn't know what else to do.

Anthony Tote wanted to plead guilty.

Federal agents told him to get a lawyer and get back to them.

He promised to return to Connecticut on December 8th to turn himself in, but he never showed.

Flowers placed on the door of a Colchester business.

The owner of family physical therapy, Tony Tott, his wife, and their three young children and dog, have not been seen or heard from in weeks.

On January 10th, 2020, at the behest of Extended Family and the FBI, Osceola County Sheriffs conducted another welfare check on the tote's home and condo.

The door was locked and all the windows had the blinds closed, the report said.

In addition, there was mail in the postbox that was almost a week old, and the eviction notice from December 31st remained on the front door.

Deputies also found the family's only vehicle, a maroon Honda Odyssey, parked behind a building in their condo complex.

When investigators returned the next day, the van had not moved.

There were no signs of life from anyone in the Tote family.

Until three days later, the patriarch emerged.

I'm a new special agent with the Department of Health and Human Services.

And your agency has gone out to do a welfare check several times at 202 Reserve Place and 211 Longview Avenue because we have

an arrest warrant for the target that

resides here.

And we have our agent's house eyes on our target right now.

And we were hoping to execute the arrest warrant.

And we were hoping that we could have two deputies meet us out there.

who's the first man you have the warrant off for ma'am?

Anthony Tote.

It's T-O-D-T.

Federal agents with the Department of Health and Human Services have been staking out the Tote residence for about an hour when they saw him.

There he was.

Anthony Tote, their wanted man.

He walked out the front door and sat on the porch.

a feature of every celebration home.

By the time the requested backup arrived, Anthony had lumbered back into the house.

Deputies and federal agents surrounded the place.

A few knocks on the door went unanswered, but the place was unlocked.

When authorities entered the residence, they immediately smelled death, and they heard a mumbling voice coming from the second floor.

It was Anthony, wearing a t-shirt and underwear, struggling to walk down the stairs.

Agents asked about his wife.

Tony said she was asleep upstairs.

Megan, he yelled.

There was no reply.

When asked about the children, Tony replied that they might be at a sleepover at a friend's house, but he seemed rather confused.

The officers went upstairs and entered the master bedroom on the right.

There was a body on the bed, wrapped in blankets, a black and blue foot sticking out.

A deputy called out Meg's name and pulled back the blanket to reveal her face.

It was as quote, black as leather.

On the floor, two more mummified bodies were discovered on mattresses.

They belonged to 13-year-old Alec Tote and 11-year-old Tyler Tote.

Both of them were holding rosary beads.

The youngest daughter, four-year-old Zoe, could not immediately be located.

They asked Anthony repeatedly where she was, but were given no clues.

Eventually, they found Zoe at the foot of the master bed wrapped in sheets, so small and decomposed that she had escaped the first glance.

Investigators also found a loaded gun, a bloody mattress, and makeshift restraints on the bed.

The family dog, Breezy, was also found dead.

Anthony Tote was immediately taken to a hospital.

He had told authorities that he had swallowed a fatal amount of Walgreens brand Benadryl because he wanted to kill himself.

When he was cleared two days later, he was taken to jail and questioned.

Anthony Tote confessed to killing his family.

On January 13th, 2020, Osceola County Sheriff's deputies responded to 2002 Reserve Place in celebration to assist federal agents from the Department of Health and Human Services in serving a federal arrest warrant for Anthony Tote.

Anthony has cooperated with the investigation and he has confessed to killing his wife Megan Tote, 42 years of age, whose date of birth is January 28,

1977,

and their three children.

Alec Tote, 13 years of age, born September 26, 2006.

Tyler Tote,

11 years of age, born December 30th, 2008,

and Zoe Tote, who was 4 years of age, born July

23rd, 2015.

Anthony also killed their family dog, Breezy.

Autopsies of Megan, Alec, Tyler, and Zoe revealed that they were all murdered in a similar fashion at least two weeks before they were found.

According to the evidence, Anthony Tote had drugged his wife and kids and dog with Benadryl and then stabbed them.

Except for little Zoe, she had no visible injuries unless they had decomposed out of view.

Anthony Tote was indicted on four counts of first-degree murder and one charge of animal cruelty.

I haven't got any explanation as to what happened in this house.

I'm telling people you couldn't have done this.

What do you have to say to the family?

What about Prida?

Say something.

Are you sad about this?

Say something.

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Hello,

hey.

What's up, G-Spuff?

It's good to hear your voice.

I've been held in isolation, and I still am.

I'm making this phone call under direction and supervision.

No, I get it.

I get it.

I get it.

No, it's nothing.

It's beyond what I can explain right now.

No, trust me.

So, just, you know,

high level.

Are you okay?

Hey, I'm in the Equal Asia Chateau.

Wearing a vest only for the past at least six weeks, David telling me.

I don't remember anything

pretty much over Christmas and the first week I got here.

I don't remember coming here.

I don't remember anything

um

after the events that happened, all that kind of stuff.

I have no idea

um where I was, where I am

Very, very worried about you.

What's up, Cheese Puff?

That's how Anthony Tote greeted his sister, Chrissy, in a series of phone calls from jail in March and April 2020 that were obtained by the day in New London, Connecticut.

Anthony told Chrissy that he couldn't remember anything since Christmas.

Moreover, he didn't remember going to jail.

I have no idea what I told investigators, he claimed.

But Anthony Tote did remember the night of the murders.

He said he was performing some maintenance at the family condo and accidentally fell asleep in his car.

He woke up the next morning and returned to the house to find his entire family had been slaughtered.

Anthony insinuated his wife, Megan, was responsible for what had happened.

He didn't go into much detail because he knew the calls were being recorded, but Tony claimed there had been, quote, multiple attempts in recent years.

And he expressed guilt for not being at home that night.

I couldn't stop this because I wasn't there.

I told Chrissy.

I know.

I know.

And I get what you're saying.

I'm just saying

this is awesome.

Multiple attempts in the last seven.

Anthony Tot also claimed that Megan prevented him from reaching out to family about their financial and health problems.

He said he loved, honored, and obeyed his wife at all times, but she was controlling.

Chrissy expressed frustration that he didn't ask for help anyway.

We're just so confused at all of this.

And I, you know, we can't don't get into it.

But I just, it's, it's just,

you know, that we would have done anything for you.

And that's the part that just hurts.

We want to help you.

We wanted to help you in any way that we could have.

Wasn't allowed to.

Wasn't allowed to.

The the the whole aspect of, you know, I'm sorry I was forced to move away from you guys.

Um, that was all her.

Um

she uh

yeah, I really lived and she didn't want anybody knowing anything about what was going on.

But Tony,

it's barely like I just

it's it's just

I don't know.

It just I I just wish

I don't know.

I don't even know how to say it, but I wish,

and again, everything's hindsight.

Like, I just wish she would have talked to us, whether you were allowed to or not.

But I just wish she would have talked to us.

On June 19th, 2020, Anthony Tote sent a letter to his father, Robert Tote, from jail.

It was 27 pages of defiance and an explanation of what had happened.

He asked his father not to share, but the Florida State's Attorney Office copied it and distributed it to journalists, so millions of people have read it.

This is what it said.

In the letter, Anthony claims to be 10,000% innocent of both the murder and fraud charges.

10,000% is very convincing, but Anthony provided more detail anyway.

Again, he said his wife Megan was responsible for everything.

According to Tony, Megan Tote had been chronically ill since 2011.

Ever since a bug bit her at Disney World, he wrote.

Liver failure, drug-induced hepatitis, and nerve dysfunction.

He also claimed that Megan suffered from depression after a recent miscarriage and her father's suicide.

Tony said the family moved to celebration because of Megan.

The sunny weather and salt water were good for her health, but she still struggled to get out of bed, according only to Tony.

And while Megan was, judging by Anthony Tote's description, seemingly incapacitated, Anthony Tote described himself as father of the year.

He detailed how he cooked and cleaned and shuttled the kids around, while also flying back and forth to Connecticut every week just to pay the bills.

However, Tony also said Megan handled all the finances, and it was her alone who was responsible for the healthcare fraud.

Tony wrote that, despite telling investigators earlier that she had no involvement.

But after her death, according to Tony, Megan Tote seemed to be everywhere and nowhere, all at once.

Also in the letter, Anthony detailed that fateful day in question.

He remembered it starting out, quote, phenomenal.

Megan woke up without pain for the first time in months.

He said he spent the day playing basketball and soccer and freeze tag with the kids.

Later that evening, Anthony wrote to his father that he went to look for Zoe's Mickey Mouse necklace at the condo.

Megan said she'd been asking about it all day.

While there, Anthony said he performed some maintenance tasks.

He had brought his tools.

Anthony said he had planned to stay the night.

The next morning, Anthony wrote that he returned to the house after oversleeping to find baked goods on the counter.

It was a half-eaten fruit pudding pie and a graham cracker crust.

It looked good but smelled terrible, Tony claimed.

Turns out it was full of Benadryl.

And then he saw Megan.

She began telling him about a vision she had about the end of the world, about a virus attack and an eventual invasion.

Tony said Megan told him that she and the boys had been granted salvation.

She said she had to release their souls.

Long story short, Tony wrote to his father.

She gave them the Benadryl Tylenol Pione pie, separated them, woke up at 11.30, stabbed them, and suffocated each one.

At the news of this, I ran to the bathroom and puked.

I was weak.

From there, Tony claims he went into a bedroom to find his dead children.

He said he took a warm washcloth to their face, held them, and cried.

He wrote that he worked to make them more comfortable by closing their eyes and mouths and covering them with blankets.

The whole time this was supposedly happening, Megan would pop her head in every once in a while to check on the grieving father while sipping a Benadryl cocktail.

Are you okay, she would ask.

Tony wrote that he responded, No, you murdered our children.

Relax and believe what I said, Megan apparently replied.

I released their souls.

Tony also wrote that Megan hid their phones and handed him an empty bottle of Benadryl to throw away.

About that time, Tony said he heard what sounded like something rubbing a latex balloon coming from the master bedroom.

He claimed he ran into the room to find Megan had stabbed herself.

Please, don't leave me alone to die, she pleaded.

Anthony Toad claims he never called for help because Megan didn't want him to.

After that, according to his letter, Megan got up to turn on the faucets in the bathroom, continued drinking Benadryl, and then went back to bed before stabbing herself again.

She then put a pillow over her face and asked Anthony to quote, please help me pass.

In the letter, Anthony Toad claims he couldn't bring himself to do it, even after she said she was in pain ten times greater than childbirth.

Anthony refused.

In response, he said, Megan quipped, I finally found something you suck at.

I can still breathe.

But eventually she stopped breathing, and Tony says he tried to give his wife CPR until he physically couldn't anymore.

But it didn't work.

In the letter, Tony calls this the final act of his chapter of failures.

And then he got up and cleaned the kitchen, apparently, per the request of Meg, Meg, he wrote, before gathering the bodies of his children and wife all in the same room.

I wanted to die, and I wanted the family together, Tony said.

According to his letter, he tried to commit suicide at least eight times.

He had failed again.

After that, Anthony Tote claims not to remember much.

He dedicates the final third of his letter to quote other facts about the case that he claims proves he's an innocent man.

Tony also wrote about his plans to write a book, and he says he's going to start a non-profit organization in his family's memory.

It will be called MATZB 2019, Alive and at Peace.

It will be dedicated to providing resources and services to the chronically ill.

I know, he writes, I need to work on the name.

At the end of the letter, Anthony Tot addresses his father.

Another reason I wrote is to offer forgiveness to you.

and extend a fragile olive branch.

I don't know what kind of relationship I want with you, or any.

Time will tell.

I offer you forgiveness for not being there to protect us that night, March 19th, 1980.

Although we were both not there on our respective nights in question for different reasons, I cannot forgive myself if I don't first forgive you.

The happenings of the night in 1980 are not mine to forgive, as I don't really know what happened and don't really care at this point.

I haven't dealt with you because I had my independent views, formed by myself, as I am allowed to as an adult, about the person you were and how I was shown off at the funeral of Aunt Gloria as a trophy, despite telling you I didn't wish to be ahead of time.

I also thought you were a pompous, narcissistic ass, and I didn't want to have a relationship with you.

There it was said.

I am extending the fragile olive branch, and we will see.

Don't burn it this time.

Anthony Toad pleaded not guilty to the four counts of first-degree murder.

His trial was scheduled for September 27, 2021.

In Celebration, Florida, an estate cell was held at the Toach residence to repay their debtors.

There were baseball cards, pianos, and old dog toys.

People lined up to rifle through the things of a family they used to know.

Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, aka Deformer, aka Frightening Controls.

For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at SwindledPodcast.

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That's it.

Thanks for listening.

My name is Brooke from Thankford, Maine.

My name is Natalie from Wynwood, Pennsylvania.

My name is TJ from Pickerington, Ohio, and I am a concerned citizen and a valued listener.

Vacation or no motherfucking vacation.

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