Horror in a Disney Community: True Crime in Celebration

The planned community known as Celebration is located in Orlando. In the 1990s, Disney wanted to create an ideal town as an homage to Walt’s unrealized Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. With so much development strictly dictated, some Floridians made cynical predictions that the whole thing would end in chaos.

Aside from construction issues and lackluster building maintenance, Celebration flew under the radar. Horror didn’t come to the former Disney community until long after the hype died.

Celebration’s first homicide occurred in 2010. It involved a retired teacher (Matteo Patrick Giovanditto) and a homeless man (David-Israel Zenon Murillo). At first, the story seemed pretty cut and dry. However, as more was revealed about Giovanditto’s past, the reason behind the crime became much more complex.

After Murillo’s capture, Giovanditto’s former students and some parents claimed that the former teacher had been abusing children. During his time as a teacher, Giovanditto would invite children to trips to Walt Disney World and to sleepovers where parents had no supervision over their children.

The alleged inappropriate contact with children may have eventually been refocused on vulnerable adults. This could be what happened with Mr. Murillo, a 30-year-old drifter. Giovanditto picked up the homeless man, saying he would pay him to wash the retiree’s Corvette.

Murillo so little-to-no threat in Giovanditto and joined the retired man at his home. Then Murillo was offered a drink. Allegedly, Giovanditto drugged the beer given to Murillo, and he passed out.

While Murillo was incapacitated, Giovanditto removed the homeless man’s shoes, placed them in a closet, and took photos of his feet. Murillo slowly regained his senses as Giovanditto was said to be on top of him, removing Murillo’s clothing.

While still under the influence of whatever the drink had been laced with, Murillo attempted to find his shoes and flee the home, growing increasingly angry. Giovanditto allegedly kept trying to calm Murillo, attempting to gaslight him into believing nothing weird was going on.

Upon finally locating his shoes in the closet, he saw they were next to an axe. Murillo used the tool against Giovanditto, striking him multiple times before strangling the 58-year-old former educator to ensure he was dead.

Murillo was later found and sentenced to life in prison.

While that case may have been an instance of self-defense, the story of Anthony Todt is anything but that.

Celebration resident and physical therapist Anthony Todt had issues. He believed the world was ending. His finances were crumbling. Not even his loving family, comprised of his wife Megan and children Alek, Tyler, and Zoe, were enough to keep his worries at bay.

Troubles for Todt were adding up. The healthcare fraud he had been perpetrating was coming to a head. However, when his home was searched in connection to an arrest warrant for the crime, law enforcement found something much worse: several dead bodies.

Todt claimed that his wife was sleeping, and he appeared unaware of any issues as investigators entered his Celebration residence.

The bodies of Todt’s wife, three children, and a dog were discovered. The children’s skin had turned black from decomposition. Blood indicates that one or more of the victims had been stabbed. It was later found that the children had been drugged.

Todt’s family had been deceased for close to three weeks, and just before being interrupted by investigators, he had downed several Benadryl pills in an attempt to end his life. He was taken to the hospital and began speaking to police.

He started to spin a story about his wife being chronically ill and subscribing to various Eastern beliefs. Todt tried to pin the failed murder-suicide as Megan’s idea, although he admitted to ending the lives of his three children.

Considering the mountain of evidence the State had against him, it was astonishing to see Todt plead “not guilty.” He even confessed to the murders!

Two years after Megan, Alek, Tyler, Zoe, and their dog Breezy were found dead, Anthony was finally convicted of their murder. The rest of the Todt family had faced first-degree murder charges (four counts) and a single count of animal cruelty.

The verdict came with life sentences, one per each murder. Anthony Todt will have zero chance of parole for his disgusting crimes. Considering he was 46 at the time of sentencing in 2022, he may only make it a few decades before the Grim Reaper frees him.

When these two tragic cases occurred, I saw the first jabs aimed at Disney rather than the perpetrators. Although Walt’s company did plan and initialize the development of Celebration, its stake in the community has been very minor since 2004.

The primary connection the Mouse still has to the community is via the two utility companies, which include Reedy Creek. So, as easy as it would be to pin the horrors that occurred somehow on the (admittedly) odd choices Disney made when developing Celebration in the 1990s, the company has zero responsibility regarding what we will discuss.

Although I did give Disney a pass regarding Celebration, the company has had its fair share of in-park tragedies. Let’s not forget the instances of employees trying to abuse kids.

As I wrote this article, another instance of violence in Celebration hit the news. Earlier this month, two teenagers were arrested after another teen was shot multiple times at a Publix supermarket in the community. The assailants in question were arrested shortly after.

[Source: CBS News]

[Source: Daily Mail]

[Source: Dreading]

[Source: Orlando Sentinel]

[Source: People]

[Source: Law&Crime Network]

[Source: Click Orlando]

[Source: New York Times]

[Source: Morning Brew]

[Source: IAC]

[Source: Orlando Sentinel]