With Disneyland having its own motto about being the "happiest place on Earth", you only have to look at the smiles on the faces of the children (and some adults) to see it in action. Unfortunately, Disney's family friendly image sometimes hides a dark underbelly that you might not know about. This one, comes in the form of Celebration, Florida.
More than just the rumors that no one is allowed to die on Disney property and that they’re taken out of the confines of the park before passing away, there's an even darker story about a supposedly picture-perfect town in the shadow of Disneyland.
Shortly before Walt Disney's death in 1966, he unveiled grand plans for his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). A short propaganda film explained the world of tomorrow, with a supposedly idillic community that took us into the future with underground roads, a 30-story hotel and convention center, and modern technology that was mind-blowing for the time. Although Disney had bought up masses of land in Florida, the plan was shelved following Walt's death, and EPCOT eventually became a theme park in 1982.
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But what to do with all that land? The idea of Disney's dream was eventually revisited in the '90s when the Walt Disney Company welcomed its first family to Celebration.
Sometimes known as "Disney's Town of Celebration", the master-planned community (MPC) still kept plenty of Walt's utopian ideas - albeit without the Jetson-inspired innovations.
A 1996 brochure for Celebration was created by Disney's infamous Imagineers, promoting a picturesque backdrop where "children chased fireflies. And porch swings provided easy refuge from the cares of the day."
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Disney CEO Michael Eisner was heavily involved in Celebration's early days and wanted to promote its idyllic vision, but ultimately, the company sold ownership in 2004. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be long until the Disney dream came tumbling down when Celebration faced its first murder in 2010.
58-year-old Matteo P. Giovanditto was found murdered in his condo, having suffered a brutal attack where he was strangled with a shoelace and attacked with an ax, things got even worse. According to a 2012 investigation by the Daily Beast, Giovanditto was a former teacher and sex offender who'd moved to Celebration after years of assaulting his students.
While most towns in America have some sordid history with murder, the fact Celebration was a former 'Disney' town means no one expected it to happen here. Just days later, Celebration was rocked by its second violent death when 52-year-old Craig Foushee barricaded himself in his house for 14 hours and was found dead by police following a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Celebration tried to get on with normality, but the worst was still yet to come.
The most infamous is also the most tragic, with the case of Anthony "Tony" Todt involving the murder of his wife, their three children, and even the family dog in December 2019. Todt confessed to the murders, while it was later revealed the family was in over $100,000 worth of debt with Todt seemingly using this to fund regular trips to Disney World.
Police performed a welfare check when mail started piling up and Todt was said to be acting strangely. Discovering a pungent odour and the family members in their respective beds, they'd been stabbed in the stomach and smothered, then arranged with crucifixes in their hands.
Perhaps the most chilling was another Disney connection. Even though Todt maintained that he doesn't remember the murders, he instead recalled his last memory of looking for a missing Mickey Mouse necklace that belonged to his daughter, Zoe.
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Todt was convicted to life in prison in 2022, and since then, Celebration has tried to get back to its 'perfect' status. According to a statistics from 2023, 13,150 people still call Celebration home. While the Disney dream might've gone, there's still a distinctly Disney feel to Celebration...despite its very un-Disney history of the macabre.