Neighbors, children react to 4 bodies found in Celebration

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Parents in a Celebration development are helping their young children cope with the loss of their good friends after the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said four bodies were discovered Monday morning in a home.

Osceola County Sheriff Russ Gibson did not identify the four people who died but said their deaths were considered suspicious, and one person is in custody.

Deputies said they were called around 9 a.m. to a home on Reserve Place near West Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway and State Road 417.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said a death investigation was then launched.

“This is an isolated incident, and all parties involved with this death investigation are accounted for,” Gibson told reporters Monday afternoon.

Resident Michelle Augustin said the family who lived at the home always seemed happy.

Augustin said the family's landlord visited the home Friday looking for them.

“My mom was in the piano room, and she saw over (on) the property that somebody was looking into the windows,” she said. “He had already cut off the electricity -- the owner -- because the renter hadn’t paid.”

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Augustin said she and other neighbors have not seen the family since November.

“You don’t know what the human mind is capable of, and we won’t know until the facts come out,” she said. “But I hope we find out what happened.”

“I never heard any fighting or anything. Just happy laughs in the backyard,” Augustin said of Tony Todt and Megan Todt and their three children, who had lived at the home for almost a year.

Ten-year-old Lane Schlauder and his 12-year-old sister, Adison, live a few houses down from the Todt family. They said they played with the Todt kids nearly every day but haven’t seen them since mid-December.

“It shocked me when I heard that they were gone,” Adison Schlauder said. “I had to be here and watch everything happen and it was just crazy. We didn’t know what was going on. We thought they just packed up and left.”

Court records said the family was evicted from the home last month.

Parents in the neighborhood have been trying to help their children remember the happy times.

“They always had a smile on their face,” Lane Schlauder said.

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“They loved board games and soccer and basketball, and they just seemed like really happy kids,” Adison Schlauder said.

Marcelo Rodrigues, who lives nearby, told Channel 9 he photographed Tony Todt being handcuffed outside the home where the bodies were discovered.

The Osceola County Sheriff's Office will not say if Tony Todt has been arrested, if he is in custody or if he is being questioned.

Rodrigues said his wife watched deputies arrive at the home Monday morning.

“When police came, she was walking the dog, and we saw police with guns in hand. So she started to run, because we didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “We live in Celebration. It’s where dreams come true basically, right? And this has happened. So it’s really sad.”

A friend of the Todt family said autopsies were completed Tuesday.

It is unknown if Breezy, the family’s dog, was found dead or alive.

Scroll down to watch video of the scene from Skywitness 9.

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