EP. 75 FLORIDA - The Dark Side Of DISNEY: Murder, Suicide & Death 01:13:27

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Warning, the following podcast is not suitable for all audiences. We go into great detail with every case that we cover and do our best to bring viewers even deeper into the stories by utilizing disturbing audio and sound effects. Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children. This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned. Walt Disney World, the happiest place on earth.

The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida is a place where families across the world travel in order to spend days or maybe even weeks together riding rides, eating good food, and making memories. Walt Disney World is a place where magic is real.

and your wildest dreams could potentially come true. But it's also a place where the nightmares of many have been gruesomely brought to life. Disney knows that it has dark secrets that call the House of Mouse home, and the company has its own nefarious ways of making sure that the public is kept in the dark about most of them. But still, history is history, and murder, death, and mayhem always leave a stain.

This is the story of the dark side of Disney and the recent celebration Florida family annihilation. I'm Courtney Brown. And I'm Colin Brown. And you're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪♪

It was 1959 in California, and Walt Disney and his team were beginning their search for a location to build their second theme park. Disneyland, which had opened just a few years earlier in California in the year 1955, had become a massive success in the United States and was drawing crowds in through its gates from across the planet.

Everyone was talking about Disneyland, and Walt Disney knew that this was the time to expand his empire. And after years of searching, considering everywhere from Niagara Falls to St. Louis, Missouri as potential homes for his new project, in November of 1963, Walt took a flight over an undeveloped swath of land near Orlando, Florida, to see if building a magical castle there would be feasible. And luckily for him, it was.

The gamble Walt was about to take on the Sunshine State was about to change the world. Now, let's fast forward to the present day. When people think of Florida, they usually think of a few things. Beaches, sunshine, oranges, and...

Walt Disney World Walt Disney World officially opened on October 1st, 1971 in Florida, the brainchild of animator, filmmaker, and entrepreneur Walt Disney himself. Tragically, Walt actually passed away due to a smoking-related illness shortly before the completion of Walt Disney World.

But his vision would still be finished and brought to life after his death in beautiful, blossoming colors. Currently, there are four theme parks on Walt Disney World property. Two water parks, multiple golf courses, 31 different themed resort hotels, a camping resort, and other attractions like shopping complexes and massive arcades.

It's an absolutely booming business that employs over 77,000 people and covers almost 40 square miles of land. Over 58 million people visit Disney World every year. And in 2018, the resort actually earned itself the title of most visited vacation resort in the world.

I went to Disney World growing up and I have to say it was genuinely the most magical experience of my entire life.

So my family actually used to go to Disney World or Disneyland

almost every year when I was a kid. That was our annual vacation. We'd pack up, fly from South Dakota down to Orlando, and we'd go visit Mickey and his friends at Disney World. So I have a lot of memories from Disney. I remember vividly being a kid, eating Mickey Mouse Rice Krispie treats, being excited to ride certain rides, and Disney is truly a magical place that throughout my childhood, I really did love.

Now, a couple of my favorite rides obviously include the Haunted Mansion. My mom is obsessed with the Haunted Mansion. She still is to this day. I know you're listening, Mom. I love you. And the Tower of Terror. Obviously, you know, I'm a ghost guy, a paranormal investigator, so how can I not love Haunted

an attraction where you ride through a haunted Hollywood hotel from the 1930s or 40s, I believe. And it's the Twilight Zone, too. That ride is fun. It's thrilling. And it's a little spooky, which is why, you know, I have so many great memories of riding the Tower of Terror, the Haunted Mansion, and...

But although Disney World is located in the heart of the Sunshine State, it isn't always sunny there. And that's what we're going to be talking about today in this episode of Murder in America.

about the tragic deaths, accidents, attempted murders, and suicides that have occurred on Walt Disney World property. And we're going to talk about the recent family annihilation that has permanently tainted the Disney name.

So first, let's talk about some of the accidents that have occurred on Disney property. And we need to start off by discussing Disney's no-death-on-premises policy. Basically, as Internet urban legend states, Disney company policy supposedly prevents emergency personnel from declaring that a park-goer is dead until they've officially been removed from Disney property.

Meaning that if a guest has a heart attack after riding one of the roller coasters and collapses on a sidewalk in the park, first responders are told to continue attempting CPR until the person who suffered the heart attack is out of the theme park and inside of a local hospital. And it's there, at the hospital, where they can finally be pronounced dead.

While this may sound like an urban legend, shockingly, it actually checks out for the most part. Even though loads of people have died on Disney property, after looking through death records and news reports, there are only a handful of deaths that were actually declared while the person was on Disney property. Most of the other deaths stemming from the accidents were, indeed, declared while the guests were at the hospital. There were actually only two examples of a declared death at a Disney park that I could find online.

One example came from an incident in 1984 where a plane crashed in one of the parking lots on property, and according to a New York Times article from the time, and this is a quote, a man was pronounced dead at the scene. The second incident I was able to locate occurred in 2018.

When a worker backstage at one of the on-property resorts was pinned on the ground by a utility cart and crushed to death, the Orlando Sentinel, a local newspaper, reported at the time that, quote, people ran over to help him and the worker pinned on the ground told them in Spanish to reverse the cart and that he couldn't breathe. First responders had to jack up the cart to pull him out. He died at the scene, an Orange County Sheriff's report had said.

And we thought that was so bizarre. There have indeed been many deaths on Walt Disney World property, but we could only track down a few where the victims had been declared dead at the scene. Even though it's not official Disney policy to declare people dead off property, it may seem like there may be more truth to that urban legend than we all realize. But now let's talk about the accidents.

There have been too many accidents at Disney World for us to cover all of them in this episode, so we are just going to look at a few that stuck out to us. One of these brutal accidents took place at the Magic Kingdom theme park in 2004. It was February, the weather was mild on that fateful afternoon, and crowds had begun to line the streets of the park in order to catch a glimpse of the daily "Share a Dream Come True" parade.

During this parade, massive floats adorned with Disney character actors would glide down the main streets of the theme park as other actors and performers dressed as Disney characters danced, high-fived patrons in the crowd, and waved at those who were there to watch the show. As the floats and Disney cast members were making their way from the backstage area to the performance area that day,

A 38-year-old man named Javier Cruz, who was dressed up from head to toe in a Pluto the dog costume, took a wrong step and got his foot caught up in one part of the massive float and he fell to the ground. But before he could get back up and free himself, the float, which weighed thousands of pounds, continued to drive forward and it crushed him to death.

This all happened while he was dressed as Pluto. In the end, Disney was fined only a few thousand dollars and handed a quote, serious citation and the incident was quickly forgotten. And now we're going to take an ad break.

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There have also been quite a few guests who have suffered fatal accidents at the parks. A number of Walt Disney World patrons have ridden rides and afterwards suddenly fallen ill and passed away. Some of those who died were suffering from other illnesses that the rides intensified and sadly ended up dying shortly after. Most of those deaths were considered to be natural, but other guests haven't been so lucky.

August 11th, 1977. It was a hot day in Florida, and the Magic Kingdom Park was packed. Families were taking one last trip to see Mickey before the school year was to begin, and the Florida sun beat down on the crowds. On that day, a four-year-old boy who was visiting the park with his family fell into the massive moat that surrounds the centerpiece of the park. The life-size recreation of Cinderella's Castle from Disney's iconic film, Cinderella.

Even though the boy's parents rushed to get help and tried their best to rescue their son from the water, the four-year-old died that day, and he became the first guest to die on Walt Disney World property. Eventually, after a court case, Disney was ordered to pay the family and subsequently installed some new safety measures in the park. But no memorial was ever erected for the young boy who lost his life. Another death occurred more recently, on July 5th, 2009.

If you've never been to Disney World before, then you might not know what the monorail system is. So I'm going to try to explain it to you. The monorails are public transit trains that run on a single rail that transport guests from their resorts to the parks and from the parks to other parks on the Disney World property. Over 150,000 people use these trains every single day.

And the Disney World monorail system is one of the busiest on the planet. The trains don't move very fast and on paper they're extremely safe. But sometimes in life, chaos takes the wheel. It was late in the day on July 5th, 2009 and 21-year-old monorail driver Austin Wuenberg was close to finishing his shift. Most of the guests had already left the park and headed back to their resorts for the night.

and the monorail purple that austin was in control of was pulling into the transportation and ticket center where monorail trains had to be put into backstage storage during their non-operating hours but as austin pulled the monorail train into the station to his horror the monorail pink which was supposed to have already switched tracks and parked on a different rail

had missed the switch and was moving swiftly in reverse. Even though Austin attempted to put the monorail purple in reverse in order to avoid an accident, it was too late and the two trains collided at an elevated speed. The cockpit of the monorail purple was crushed and Austin tragically passed away. Here is some audio from the home video recorded just minutes after the accident occurred.

You can hear the confusion in the workers' and guests' voices as they try to figure out what just happened and who may be hurt.

Is it just one? How many of this? The driver and the kid right there. Are you setting up for them? Yeah, they're on their way. Hey, I'm trying to get access to the driver. The driver?

Can you hear us? Hey! Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hey!

Tragically, just days before Austin lost his life, he'd invited a family to join him in the cockpit of this monorail train, and he allowed them to take a ride in the best seat in the house.

Here is some audio from that home video that the family recorded with Austin just a few days before the accident. We are in the monorail and we're right up here with the, what do they call you? This is the monorail pilot. You're the monorail pilot. This is Austin, the monorail pilot.

And Christian is getting to ride up front with the monorail co-pilot. Wow. Yeah, I just stopped at the wrong place. It's a long story. Well, here we are. We have to say goodbye to Austin now. We're at the Magic Kingdom. Welcome back, guys. I'll give you guys your honorary monorail co-pilot's license. Wow.

Thank you so much. Woohoo! This is your license. Take back. Thank you. No problem. Once again, Disney paid some money after the incident and was handed a citation, but they never erected a memorial.

I saw a few articles while doing the research for this podcast written by family members or friends of Austin's who have been asking for years for Disney to erect some sort of memorial for their friend and family member near the area where he died, but Disney has stayed silent on the subject. It seems that they already have enough problems with those trying to memorialize their loved ones on property. And now, let's discuss the ashes.

For years, people have been visiting Disney World and spreading their loved ones' ashes on the property. Even though this practice is strictly prohibited by Disney and guests who are caught spreading ashes are escorted off property and banned from future visits, the practice still remains very popular with Disney mega-fans.

There are even a few hot spots in the parks that attract those who wish to inter their family members forever in the House of Mouse. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride with its easy water access, Cinderella's Rose Garden, and in a macabre twist, the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion is one of Disney's most classic and famous rides, where guests sit in a moving car nicknamed a Doom Buggy.

and they take a leisurely stroll through the halls of a deteriorating abandoned mansion filled with ghosts and demons. Over the years, a number of people have been caught spreading their loved ones' ashes throughout the haunted mansion during the ride. But on October 19th, 1991, the haunted mansion would become frightening for a whole different reason.

On that day, a 15-year-old girl was critically injured while on board the attraction. According to the incident report, the young girl had exited her vehicle and had been jumping buggy to buggy during the ride. While she was doing this, she fell down onto the ride's tracks and was then dragged over 50 feet before the dune buggy screeched to a halt. She ended up surviving her injuries.

But all of this talk of haunted mansions and ghosts brings up another interesting point. The haunted mansion, along with other places on Walt Disney World property, is rumored to be actually haunted in real life. There are thousands of stories of paranormal activity occurring at Disney World over the years, but there are a few that stick out that we're going to share with you here. The first is the story of the Man with the Cane.

Allegedly, a number of Disney World employees have seen the spirit of a man with a cane on his lap riding the Haunted Mansion attraction. According to the accounts, the man has been seen multiple times in person and on security cameras, sitting in one of the doom buggies, staring straight forward. And when the employees went down to assist the man in getting out of the doom buggy at the end of the ride, he was gone.

Another user online shared the story of "The Boy" that haunts the Haunted Mansion ride and even posted supposed photographic evidence The anonymous user stated that during their ride, they snapped some photos so that they could remember the experience But after checking them out shortly after getting off of the ride, they noticed a small child peeking his head out from the doom buggy only a few feet in front of them, staring directly at the camera

As the photo was taken with a discrete infrared camera, as the poster stated, there would be no reason for the child to be staring right at them. Now, take this all with a grain of salt, but we're going to be posting this photo on our Instagram, at Murder in America, after this episode goes live. And even though it might be fake, it is indeed creepy.

There's also the famous ghost of George, the spirit that haunts the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, another attraction that has become a magnet for ash dumping. According to some cast members who have posted on online forums, every morning the employees that work the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction say out loud, good morning George, and also state, good night George, out loud at the end of the night before leaving the building.

Because if they don't greet the spirit, he causes technical malfunctions throughout the day. There are so many stories from Disney World about paranormal activity that, once again, we could never tell them all here. But it is interesting to think about the happiest place on earth being haunted, right? And now we're going to take another ad break.

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And while the official answer is no, there have definitely been a few incidents that have crossed that line. Take, for example, the murder that occurred near Disney's Pleasure Island shopping complex on New Year's Day in 1992. On that day, 21-year-old David Mark Eldert had been visiting an ex-girlfriend of his when her new lover showed up.

There was an altercation between the two men and the new boyfriend ended up shooting David five times, killing him. He then dumped his body in a grassy area near the parking lot of the shopping center. It turns out that David's killer was a man named Christopher Fenn who was a Walt Disney World employee at the time. Eventually, Christopher was convicted for David's murder

Another incident that occurred on Disney World property happened in that same year, 1992. In the fall of that year, a 37-year-old man named Alan J. Ferris approached the Epcot theme park on the Walt Disney World property after closing one Saturday night and demanded that the security guards let him inside. That night, Alan was in search of his ex-girlfriend, who he knew worked at the park, but he was denied entry.

The two had recently broken up after she ended their eight-year relationship, and Alan hadn't taken this too well. In fact, at the time, he was already under a court order to avoid his ex-girlfriend because she felt he was a danger to her. That evening, upon learning that he wouldn't be seeing his former lover, Alan pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun from his tote bag and fired three times at the nearest security guard, who took off running into the park uninjured.

The two other security guards also took off running, but stopped in their places after more shots were fired. Allen, knowing that his time was running out, then took the two remaining guards hostage inside of a nearby restroom for 10 minutes while making demands to sheriff's deputies who swarmed the area. But eventually, he released the security officials, slowly stepped out from the bathroom, placed the shotgun to his head, and pulled the trigger.

Sadly, Disney has seen a lot of suicides over the years. If you've ever stayed on property at Walt Disney World, then you'll probably know the Contemporary Resort, as so many of the monorail lines that you ride during your stay include stops at the hotel. The Contemporary Resort is a tall trapezoid-shaped building with a large atrium in the center. It's filled with restaurants, gift shops, and guest suites.

However, in recent years it's become a beacon for those who want to take their lives at the happiest place on earth. In March of 2020, a woman jumped to her death from a high floor inside of the hotel and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Another suicide occurred in the same way in 2016 and in 2014.

And back in 1992, an accident occurred at the hotel when a Disney employee was startled by wasps while on the observation deck. Trying to get away from them, she fell to her death hundreds of feet below.

Now, typically, when someone dies at Disney in this type of manner, employees will quickly cover the body with a tent and place signs in the area informing guests to "pardon our dust." We'll never truly know just how many people have died on Walt Disney World property, but before we move on to the Disney-related family annihilation, there are a few more dark incidents that occurred at Disney World that we want to discuss.

If you remember, back in 2016, an extremely tragic event occurred at the Grand Floridian Resort. 2016, in general, was a tragic year for Orlando, and the month of June 2016 was one that the residents of the city would never forget.

On June 10th, 2016, former voice contestant and singer Christina Grimmie was gunned down and killed by an obsessed fan who then immediately committed suicide while she was signing autographs at the Plaza Live, one of Orlando's oldest theaters.

Christina's murder was shocking and quickly became national news. Then, just two days later, on June 12th, 2016, a man walked into the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and opened fire, killing 49 people and injuring 53 more in what would become America's deadliest mass shooting at the time. After the horrific massacre at the Pulse nightclub and the murder of a national celebrity in the short span of just a few days, Orlando and the rest of the nation were already deeply hurting.

And just three days after that, on June 15th, 2016, that same darkness would fall upon the happiest place on Earth. On that evening, four-year-old Lance Graves was building sandcastles on the beach near Bay Lake with his parents, sitting close to the shore of nearby Seven Seas Lagoon, Disney's massive man-made lake. The family had chosen to build sandcastles and play on the beach that night, as the outdoor movie showing that they had planned on attending had been canceled due to inclement weather.

At one point, four-year-old Lane, who weighed only 30 pounds and stood only 37 inches tall, waded into the water to collect some water in a bucket so that he could continue building his sandcastle. Lane's father, Matt, was sitting only a few feet away with his wife, Melissa, and the couple's other child, Lane's four-year-old sister, Ella. The family had traveled down to Disney World from Nebraska, hoping to spend some quality family time together.

But sadly, their vacation would abruptly be cut short that evening. Matt was sitting on the beach with the rest of his family when he heard a splash from Lane's direction. At first, Matt thought that the splash was caused by a fish, but to his horror, when he looked over in the direction of the noise, he watched as an alligator erupted out of the water and bit down on his son's head. Immediately, Matt jumped into action and attacked the alligator, attempting to pry open its jaws to free his son.

But in only a matter of seconds, the alligator retreated back into the water with young Lane in its jaws and sank down into the murky depths. This incident was witnessed by dozens of families who had gathered at the beach that evening and Lane's entire family. Lane's body wouldn't be recovered for another 16 hours and an eventual report would state that the boy died from a traumatic neck injury and drowned.

Since Lane's death, Disney, under intense public scrutiny, has now closed off access to the beach with newly formed rock outcroppings and barriers. And they've also posted large, bright warning signs, warning families about the presence of alligators and snakes in the lake. Another accident involving the lakes at Disney occurred at the now defunct Walt Disney World water park, River Country.

River Country was Disney World's first water park and some historians even credit it as being the first themed water park to ever be built. Opened in 1976, River Country was a southern-themed water park with water slides, rope swings, and multiple swimming areas. The park was situated on the shore of nearby Bay Lake and it was meant to have a country feel.

Disney engineers actually figured out a way to use real lake water in some of the park's swimming areas. The water was pumped directly from the lake, filtered, and then fed back into one of the pools through the water slides. At first, River Country was a massive success and saw over 4,700 guests a day during its first few years of operation.

But as we've seen throughout this episode, darkness always seems to pay Disney a visit. In the year 1980, a young 11-year-old boy was swimming in the park's pool that utilized lake water and somehow got the water up his nose. Unbeknownst to him and his family, inside of this water was a deadly brain-eating amoeba that quickly infected the boy's nervous system and brain.

In just a few days after swimming at River Country, the boy died. After the child's death, the filters were upgraded, payouts were made, and people moved on.

But just two years later, in 1982, a 14-year-old boy would drown in the same lake water after riding one of the park's water slides. And just a few more years later, in 1989, a 13-year-old died at the park, once again, by drowning. It seemed like river country really was cursed. In the 90s, Walt Disney World banned all forms of swimming in its lakes due to a number of safety concerns. And then, it happened.

September 1st, 2001. River Country closed for the season for maintenance, and just a week and a half later came the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001.

After the terrorist attacks, tourist revenue in the United States plummeted, and Disney had to make the tough decision to limit the operating hours of its parks. And to save money, Disney also kept River Country permanently closed when it came time to open again for the 2002 summer season. And ever since that day, September 1st, 2001, River Country has remained closed, empty, and forgotten.

Images of the now abandoned water park captured by intrepid urban explorers are absolutely bone-chilling. The former pools are now filled with green, murky water and have become ecosystems of their own. The waterslides are crumbling, dirty, broken, and dry. There are souvenir cups littering the ground, deflated rafts hanging from trees, and picnic benches where families used to eat their meals flipped upside down.

It truly is a creepy, haunting sight. We're going to post some of the pictures of this abandoned area on our Instagram, once again, at Murder in America, so be sure to follow our account to see just how spooky this place really does look nowadays.

Walt Disney World also, unsurprisingly, has a pedophile problem. In 2014, reporters from the news network CNN published their report after a six-month long investigation, which discovered that at least 35 Disney employees had been arrested for possession of child pornography

sex crimes against children, or attempting to meet minors for sex from 2008 to 2014. And the details of some of these crimes are downright disturbing. One man named Robert Kingsolver, a repairman who worked on the theme park rides, was caught red-handed at a sting house, a la "Catch a Predator," after setting up a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl.

Apparently in his chat logs, he had used his connection to Disney as a way to attempt to build trust with the victim. Another man, Alan Traister, who was a concierge at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Resort, told who he thought was a 14-year-old boy that he wanted to, quote, "...fulfill a fantasy of being a big teddy bear for a younger chaser."

Here is some audio from CNN's report on Disney predators. We begin, though, with a report that you won't see anywhere else. It's where every child's dream comes true, where you're supposed to feel safe and kids can be kids. As parents, you're going to want to pay close attention to our next story. It's an investigation involving child sex predators

in some of the most famous theme parks in this country. As you're getting ready to pack the family van and head to Central Florida's Disney World, Universal Studios, or even SeaWorld, you want to see what we found in our six-month investigation. We're talking about a pattern of theme park employees arrested in sex stings after work hours. Here's CNN investigative correspondent Kira Phillips. They are people you would least expect.

Some are married with children. I've been on Craigslist looking for a friend. Others have been working with children for years. I work around kids all the time at Disney. This man even admits to having sex with an underage teen before getting caught. I didn't talk to kids. All of them employees at Florida's Walt Disney World, known as the happiest place on earth. All of them arrested.

A CNN investigation found since 2006 at least 35 Disney employees have been arrested for sex crimes against children trying to meet minors for sex or for possession of child pornography. Do you think that it was wrong to come here to meet a 14-year-old? Yes.

This is 40-year-old Alan Treister, who police say advertised himself online as Big Teddy Bear for Younger Chaser. He was a concierge at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, previously working the Toy Story ride.

This is Treister getting arrested after police say he showed up to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old boy, hoping, according to his text messages, to fulfill a fantasy. Treister was actually communicating with an undercover detective. He has pled not guilty.

However, listen to what he tells detectives during his interrogation. He actually confesses to having sex with a teenage boy just three and a half weeks before this Polk County sting. You still went there for that, to have sex with him, knowing that he was 15 years old. Was that another fantasy? I mean, I was, again, a younger age, so...

That's right. Treister admits he drove to Georgia to have sex with a 15-year-old boy he met online. My life is ruined. My family's life is ruined. 49-year-old Robert Kingsolver was a maintenance supervisor at Disney's Magic Kingdom, monitoring and fixing rides like teacups, Winnie the Pooh, and It's a Small World.

He says he loved his job, especially the children. To see the look on the children's faces, you know, when they get to see, you know, Prince Charming or maybe running into Mickey. That was the best part is just seeing kids glow and seeing their heroes.

That all ended in February when Kingsolver pulled into this driveway, not knowing that he was walking into a sting operation. Within seconds, he is caught and arrested for trying to seduce and lure a 14-year-old child to have sex. Take a look at the graphic text messages between Kingsolver and the undercover detective who was posing as an underage girl. Kingsolver says...

He's a cuddling and snuggling kind of guy who enjoys giving oral sex. The bottom line is, obviously, you were talking to an undercover law enforcement officer. You weren't talking to a 14-year-old girl, okay? The bottom line boils down to is that conversations that you had maybe with the girl later on, what sexual nature was it, not? Yes, it was. Okay.

Even though he admits to police he wrote the messages, he tells us he was just trying to protect the girl. He has pled not guilty and says his family is standing by him. My kids know me and they know how much I care for kids. They know how much I love them, all four of my kids. And they know that their dad is not somebody that would go out and hurt a young child.

They know their dad is somebody that would go out and protect a young child at any cost. And the arrests are continuing. Four Disney employees were caught in sting operations in just the last five weeks.

Our investigation reveals year after year Walt Disney World employees are getting arrested for child porn and in sex stings set up by Florida police agencies. And it's not just maintenance workers like Robert Kingsolver. It's security guards, a performer, a costume maker, even a pastor.

This is 50-year-old Cedric Cuthbert, a former custodial manager at Disney World's Port Orleans Resort and also a pastor.

Police say he was downloading child pornography and soliciting a child for sex online while on the clock at Disney. And at the same time, writing a sermon for his church. Cuthbert pled no contest and was sentenced to six years in prison. I have never done this. I have no battery. I can't live with my kids.

This is 32-year-old Patrick Holgerson, a Disney street performer and VIP tour guide in training. He's seen here in photo after photo posted on his Facebook page. He tried to run from police when they say he showed up to have sex with a 13-year-old boy. It was a sting.

Holgerson had engaged in graphic sexual chat, even sending a picture of himself with Mickey Mouse. And it got more explicit from there. Holgerson has pled not guilty. He, too, told police he was just looking out for the child. I was going to see if he was really doing this. And I felt it was wrong. And I was going to actually call it in once he left here.

Disney declined our request for an on-camera interview. We go after these predators with a vengeance.

In recent years, loads of Disney employees have been connected and charged with sex crimes or attempted sex crimes against children. And many of these predators get roasted online and have their images and the details of their crimes blasted out to the world by one renegade sheriff.

His name is Grady Judd, and he's the sheriff of Polk County, Florida, a county adjacent to Orange County, where most of Disney World is located. Sheriff Grady Judd frequently holds press conferences to announce the results of sting operations, and he's brutal towards criminals when speaking to the press. Here are a few clips from times where he and his department have captured and exposed Disney employees seeking out kids for sex. - These aren't traditional criminals.

Nine of the 12 of these folks don't have a criminal history. Did you hear what I said? Nine of the 12 don't have a criminal history. But what they are doing, these evil people are lurking online and grooming children online to engage them in sexual conduct. Well, listen, ladies and gentlemen, what would an Operation B be?

either a pornography investigation or a predator operation or human trafficking operation without a Disney employee. We always have a Disney employee, sometimes more. This is Zachary, Zachary Hudson. That's right, he's a bus driver for Disney. He did not travel, but he sent nude and lewd pictures of himself. He thought it was to a 15-year-old girl.

And he said to her while grooming her, what we said could get us all in trouble. And he said how he would like to wrap his arms around and feel her small, tiny body. He said, then he said, are you ready for this? You can't make this stuff up. I don't want to sound creepy. Well, you just sounded creepy. He reiterated to what he thought was this little girl that she needed to keep it quiet. It has to be our secret.

because he said, you know, I could go to jail. He said, but I'd risk it for spending some time with you. I'd risk going to jail. Well, when we arrested him, he confessed, oh, newsflash, this will make Disney extra happy. He was doing this while he was on the clock for Disney. So if your bus was running late at Disney, he was busy taking pictures of himself and talking trash to what he thought was a little girl. And then there's Roger Cronkite.

He's 53. It's reported to us by him that he makes a six-figure salary. He's been employed 22 years by Disney. He's a costume manager for Disney. His children of preference are as young as three years of age, and he had 24 counts of child pornography. And he's confessed to being in possession of that child pornography. Then there's Donald Merrick.

Donald Merrick is 69. What's interesting about Donald is he taught school for 30 years in Maricopa County in Arizona. We've charged him with 16 counts of child porn. And he said he retired here because he loves Disney World and he goes to the theme park two or three days a week. Well, he's not at the theme park. He's home with child pornography. And he taught in the school systems for 30 years.

Be interesting to know what kind of conduct he might have had in Arizona. But now that we've explored the darkness behind the Disney parks, the suicides, the ghosts, the murders, and the accidents, let's deep dive into a recent family annihilation case that took place in Disney's utopian community on the outskirts of Disney World.

buckle your seatbelt. It's about to get gruesome. Now a word from our sponsor, BetterHelp. So obviously we've been talking about this a lot lately. Mental health is extremely, extremely important. And you got to think of it like your car. Like if you've got one car to use for your entire life, you would take care of that car, wouldn't you? You wouldn't be spilling soda everywhere, letting it rot into the carpets and not fix the steering wheel if it's broken. But that's the same way that you should think about your

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Celebration is a community located in an extremely close proximity to Disney World, which was originally planned, developed, and constructed by the Walt Disney Company in the late 1990s. Celebration was planned by Disney to be the perfect town where crime was non-existent, neighbors knew each other, and a sense of community was important.

In fact, Disney's CEO was a key part of the town's development because he wanted to make history and create a town that extended Walt Disney's vision of what he called an "experimental prototype community of tomorrow." So essentially, Celebration was some sort of experiment.

From the very beginning, Celebration, Florida has been an odd place. All of the downtown buildings, architecturally planned by famous architects from around the world, are almost too picture perfect. They're painted in vibrant pastels and look like a set from a Disney movie, not like your average Floridian small town.

At the very beginning of the town's history, a city ordinance was passed that banned all franchises like Burger King or McDonald's from opening locations within city limits and also banned billboards While this may be a novel idea to consider, residents of the community have complained that it gives the town an almost sterilized, artificial feel Then there's the notorious Homeowners Association

First of all, there is a laundry list of rules that the 7,000+ residents of the small town must obey. No two neighboring houses can be built in an architecturally similar fashion. Lawns must be kept perfectly. You cannot have more than two cars parked in front of your house at any time. And any changes you want to make to the landscaping of your own house have to be approved by the HOA or you face a hefty fine.

Residents of Celebration have even reported being fined by the HOA for removing their Christmas decorations a day late.

Because, yes, of course there's a deadline for removing your Christmas decorations in town. At the beginning of Celebration's history, the rules were even stricter, with residents only being allowed to use certain colored curtains in their homes and garbage bins had to be hidden and out of sight at all times, amongst other things. The creepiness that some people have felt while either living in or visiting Celebration was a result of Disney's plans, in a way.

When the town was being constructed, only six types of houses were allowed to be built, each practically being a carbon copy of the other, and homes were only allowed to be painted white, yellow, pink, tan, or blue.

At the beginning of the community's history, Disney also installed a number of bizarre features throughout town that added to the artificial feel. Mall-style shopping music was piped out in common town areas from speakers hidden in palm trees. Bird noises were played from other hidden speakers that were concealed within trees in residential areas. Fake snow was placed on rooftops during the winter months. And Disney even had a full-on ice rink installed near city center, which featured fake snow falling from trees.

Residents and visitors have compared the feeling of being in Celebration to the movies The Truman Show and The Stepford Wives. It's almost too perfect. Something has to be wrong here. And of course, there's plenty wrong with Celebration Florida.

In recent years, their public schools have been failing, losing students by the dozens, probably because they don't assign homework, grades, or even books, according to some reports. There are also segregation issues in the town and some of the condominiums are rapidly deteriorating.

In fact, in 2016, the residents of Town Center Condominiums sued the town's new owners, a private firm named Lexan Capital, because their staircases were closed off. The condos had also suffered leaks and black mold, and on occasion, the buildings would literally sway beneath the residents' feet. Then there are the swingers.

On multiple occasions, residents of Celebration speaking anonymously have told members of the press that the town is full of those who choose to lead a quote, alternative lifestyle. Orgies are very regular behind the closed doors in Celebration and sex is a commodity.

The Death Pond is one of Celebration's darkest features. When you drive into the town, you're most likely going to be coming right off the highway, from a ramp that leads to a road that gets you into town. But when Celebration was first established, this road that led you to town from the highway was straight and then suddenly ended. There were no warnings that the road was about to abruptly end, and just beyond the intersection, through which you were supposed to make a turn, lies a deep, dark pond.

which has now been nicknamed the Death Pond.

There have been a number of cars that missed the turn and ended up submerged in this pond over the years, before additional safety measures were installed. But the most infamous incident occurred in the year 1998, when three friends named Scott Renquin, Dan Nelson, and Roger DeVernis disappeared near the Walt Disney World Resort. At the time, in 1998, nobody had any idea what had happened to the three friends. It seemed like they had just vanished into thin air.

But nine months later, the world would discover just what had happened to them when their car was discovered upside down beneath the murky depths of the pond's surface.

When authorities located the vehicle and towed it out of the water, the badly decomposed bodies of all three friends were found inside. They had crashed their vehicle into the water and drowned. Another girl also died in the year 1998 after driving her car into the pond's waters. And from that point on, the area has been colloquially known as the Death Pond.

Some say that the area is haunted, and I've actually been there in person and can confidently say that indeed, the death pond is creepy. But nowadays, they've got a massive sign in front of the pond that's illuminated 24/7 to deter people from making the same fatal mistake that so many others made over the years. The first murder in celebration occurred in 2010, and it was brutal.

In November of that year, a man named Mateo Patrick Giovendito, a resident of Celebration and former teacher and lifelong Disney fan, was found slain inside of his home. He had been attacked with an axe and then strangled to death with a shoelace. The culprit?

a 30-year-old homeless man named David Israel Zenon Murillo. While on the surface this may seem like a completely random act of violence, a home invasion gone wrong, the story was much deeper and darker than one could imagine. David Israel, after his arrest, would claim that the victim, Mateo, had offered him money to wash his car and later invited him into his home and gave him beer.

Shortly after drinking the beer, David Israel fell asleep and later woke up to Mateo on top of his unconscious body, attempting to sexually assault him. This allegedly caused David Israel to flip out

He then found a weapon inside of the home and killed Mateo. Now, this story may seem ridiculous, but after Mateo's murder, a number of his former students came forward and claimed that he had sexually assaulted them over the years while he was their teacher.

A really good article about this from the Daily Beast, which features interviews from victims of Mateo's, alleges that he would let the young male students sleep over at his house. He would take them to amusement parks and then he would touch them inappropriately. One former student even claimed that on one occasion he had injured his hand and Mateo offered to help him masturbate.

While the truth behind these allegations may never be known, it definitely makes this murder even more disturbing. The same week that Mateo was murdered in celebration, another violent crime rocked the city. Just a few days after the brutal murder, a 52-year-old man named Craig Fushi, the owner of a failed security company, decided that he had had enough.

He barricaded himself in his home and began opening fire at people. The police quickly arrived at his residence and this began a 14-hour long standoff between Craig and the authorities, during which he would open fire on officers multiple times from within his house. But eventually, after deploying tear gas into the home and breaking down the front door, authorities would find Craig dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The next murders in celebration took place nine years later in 2019, when an 84-year-old man and his 83-year-old wife were found dead from an apparent murder-suicide in their own home. But this brings us to the Tote family murders, which happened at the end of that same year. The family was a perfect family from the outside looking in. There was 44-year-old husband, Anthony, who was a family member.

42 year old wife Megan, and their three children, 13 year old Alec, 11 year old Tyler, and four year old Zoe. And they were all your definition of all American.

The family had moved from Connecticut to Celebration, Florida in the years before December of 2019. And from what we could find, it seemed like they were really enjoying their life. Anthony was a manager of his own physical therapy clinic and Megan, a former yoga instructor who at one point worked with her husband at the clinic.

She was now a stay-at-home mother though, dedicated to raising her children right. Anthony himself frequently volunteered in his former community, and he spent his time working with disabled children, and he even coached youth soccer. But after moving to Celebration, this would all change.

In 2017, Megan contracted Lyme disease from a bug bite supposedly during a trip to Walt Disney World. After her diagnosis, she allegedly became reserved, depressed, and isolated herself as much as she could in their new home in Celebration. Anthony, dealing with his wife's new illness and busy running a business thousands of miles away back in Connecticut, began gaining weight rapidly and was diagnosed with diabetes. And he also became depressed.

Neighbors in Celebration barely knew the Totes as they never attempted to socialize, rarely attended community events, and kept themselves and their children sheltered inside of their home. There was trouble brewing. Soon after the family moved to Celebration, authorities back in Connecticut discovered that Anthony had been committing insurance fraud, charging patients of his for care and procedures that they had never received.

The money that Anthony had collected from this fraud was being used to pay for trips to Disney World, the home and celebration, and day-to-day expenses

Before long, Anthony was over $100,000 in debt, the subject of lawsuits from two different financial firms and being investigated by authorities. It's widely believed that Megan and the Totes' children had no idea of Anthony's fraudulent ways, debt, and trouble with the law, as he was the sole member of the family involved with a business which still remained back in Connecticut.

Eventually, all of these financial woes reached a boiling point, and in late 2019, Anthony was informed that he and his family would soon be evicted from their celebration home. And this, along with the building fraud charges and immense level of debt, seemed to be Anthony's breaking point. It was the end of December of 2019. Suddenly, Anthony and Megan stop answering phone calls from relatives. No one can reach them.

On December 31st, a deputy from the local sheriff's department stops by to leave an eviction notice on their door. Weeks pass and no one hears from Anthony, Megan, or the kids. Relatives back in Connecticut call the local sheriff's department a number of times begging them to do a wellness check or to see if they can find a single member of the family.

Deputies would visit the house in celebration a total of four times in January of 2020. They looked for the family, knocking on doors, peeking through windows, but no one ever answered. Agents were also looking for Anthony because they finally had a warrant for his arrest on the aforementioned insurance fraud charges.

On January 13th, after weeks of searching, federal agents who were surveilling the house witnessed Anthony walking around on the outside of the home. He was visibly shaking when he entered through the front door. Immediately, agents approached the door and knocked, but they received no response.

What followed next was something straight out of a nightmare. Once agents gained access to the home and walked through the front door, they noticed Anthony standing on the stairs. There was a foul odor in the air, and Anthony, shaking violently, told the authorities that he had recently tried to kill himself with Benadryl and that his wife was sleeping upstairs. They swiftly placed Anthony under arrest and began their search of the home. What they saw next would haunt them forever.

Upstairs, inside one of the bedrooms, the authorities found four badly decomposed corpses The bodies of Megan, Tyler, Alec, and Zoe At first, the deputies couldn't find four-year-old Zoe because her body had already decomposed so badly But eventually, they located her corpse wrapped in a blanket at the foot of the bed, in front of her dead mother

Eventually, the authorities also found the family dog, Breezy, lying dead in another part of the home. Anthony had killed his entire family, and while his story has changed many times over the two years since the murders, here is what essentially happened. At one point in late 2019 or early 2020, Anthony somehow gave his wife and children a toxic dose of Benadryl.

an anti-allergy drug that is known to make people drowsy. Either before or after each member fell asleep that evening, Anthony then smothered them to death with a pillow, one by one. Allegedly, he sat on his daughter's bed with her for hours before he decided to kill her.

One of Anthony's sons had awoken while he was being smothered and fought back against his father, clawing at his skin and giving him scratches and bruises. Seeing no other option as a son fought against him, Anthony then grabbed a knife and stabbed his own child in the stomach which ultimately led to his death. He then went through the house and stabbed his wife and other son in the stomach to make sure they were dead.

Afterwards, he wrapped up all of the bodies in blankets and placed them in the master bedroom. Judging by the state of decomposition that the bodies were in at the time that they were discovered, it was determined that Anthony had been living in the house with his dead family for weeks. When deputies made the gruesome discovery, they noted that the house was permeated with a foul odor. This makes the case all the more disturbing.

After the murders, Anthony would change his story about what happened many times. At first, he claimed he wasn't home when the murders happened and that his wife had killed the kids, then attempted to kill herself.

Then, later, he stated that he and his wife had mutually decided to kill their family in fear of the oncoming apocalypse. Yes, you heard that right. Tote told interrogators that he believed that everybody needed to die in order to pass over to the other side together. And he even claimed that he and his wife had sat the kids down, told them that they needed to die, and informed them that we want to die with you. When Anthony was asked about the murder of his four-year-old daughter Zoe, he stated, quote,

During his videotaped confession, Anthony even told detectives that he wanted to join his family on the other side, stating, After a lengthy trial, Anthony Tote was recently convicted of all four murders and sentenced to life in prison.

Nobody bought his story about his wife being involved in the slayings. In the eyes of the jury, this was an act carried out by Anthony and by Anthony alone. During his sentencing, the judge called Anthony a "destroyer of worlds" and thus ended the sordid case of the Celebration family annihilation. Walt Disney World. A place of magic, a place of wonder, the happiest place on earth. But is it really that happy?

With such a macabre history lying just beneath the surface, it seems that even Disney World is not immune to the dark ways of the real world. Disney World is supposed to be a place where you go to escape the troubles of everyday life and fade away into a playful, family-friendly fantasy. But what happens when that dream is suddenly turned into a nightmare? There's a lot of darkness at Disney World, if you know where to look.

And it seems like the happiest place on earth sometimes might not be that happy after all. Hey, everybody, it's Colin here. I am so sorry that we had to ruin everyone's childhood with this episode. You know, I love Disney, but I've always been intrigued by how there's such a dark side to Walt Disney World. Like I said, I visited the death pond. I visited some...

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locations within the park a couple years ago that these accidents and incidents occurred at and it's very strange to think of such a happy place having such a dark history but i wrote this episode it was a passion project of mine i want to shout out our new patrons this week brandy johnson vanessa deharo megan swanson jackie todd martinez lauren brown megan hurley connor malone brett fletchall reese bailey hayley ash victoria hutchinson hope sherman elizabeth osment

I'm sorry if I slaughtered your last name, Bianca, but holy crap, everybody. Every week, our Patreon list grows so much longer. If you want to access...

Bye.

Yeah, Courtney and I are so unbelievably thankful for everybody out there. Go follow us on Instagram at Murder in America. If you don't already, we want to grow our Instagram following. And you got to see these pictures from this episode. Truly, there's some exciting stuff to share from this story. And once again, if you haven't left us a review on Apple Podcasts, please go leave us a five-star review. It really helps us out and helps us get ranked. And we love hearing from you guys. So, yeah.

Yeah, I guess that's all that we have for this week. And we will be back next week with another story. Everybody stay safe out there. Enjoy the weekend. We love you. And we'll catch you on the next one.

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