Murder in the Graveyard – Florida’s Darkest Family Crime Exposed

“I guess I strangled her.” – Ian Anselmo to police

“I left so I could have a life and not be stuck in a bubble. I wanted kids, and a family, and to get to have a job, and save money, and buy my own house. Part of me wants to think you are proud of me, but I don’t truly know. The biggest reason why I left though was because my dad was sexually abusing me, and it went on for the duration of two years off and on. – Dejah-Thoris Waite in the letter to her mother

“I can’t tell you if you’re telling the truth. Ian told me he wants to skin me alive and cut out my intestines and strangle me with them He said he has no problem telling me he hates me I don’t know what to believe.” – Sue-Ellen Anselmo in conversation to John Anselmo

“Is there anybody here who thinks brainwashing is voodoo, or fake or made up or stuff that defense attorneys like me kind of raise in cases?” – Defense attorney Richard Hornsby to prospective jurors

“Is this like Alice in Wonderland where up is down and down is up? Is this like the inmates’ jail where we have an extreme patriarch relationship where everybody else is subservient to the patriarch? Is this a cult? – Defense attorney Richard Hornsbyto jurors

“…he got up there and pounded his fists and said very loudly, ‘crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy’ because he can’t argue from the actual jury instruction about insanity.” — Prosecutor Nick Camuccio on Richard Hornsby’s defense of Ian

“This family was brought up on violence. And they carried out violence. They preached loving and kindness, but they practiced hate. I agree with that. I agree that John Anselmo was where all of that started. But that’s not insanity. – Prosecutor Nick Camuccio in his closing statement to jurors

“The sheer brutality of this murder takes my breath away, and that Ian could have possibly done this. This was not a quick death or a reaction like shooting a gun. To strangle someone to the point of death, you slowly watch their life fade away. – Sue-Ellen Anselmo’s daughter, Dejah-Thoris Waite in her victim impact statement

“Sue-Ellen loved Ian. In the last text on her phone, she and Ian said ‘I love you’ to each other. I can’t imagine the betrayal that she must have felt when he was killing her the same afternoon that he texted that he loved her. – Sue-Ellen Anselmo’s mother, Cindy Miller in her victim impact statement