[imagesource:facebook]

Police have confirmed that a 17-year-old boy stabbed his mother to death in Florida just one year after he shot and killed his father in Oklahoma.

Collin Griffith called 911 on Sunday, September 8, night and told a tall tale about how his mother was stabbed in the neck during a fight after she lunged at him with a knife and fell on it, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

“He said he and his mother had a very long fight and she fell on the knife and…she is bleeding from the neck,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd alleged at a press conference.

Police rushed to the home, where 39-year-old Catherine Griffith was pronounced dead.

According to the Sheriff, the pair resided in Charlotte County, but at the time, they were in Catherine’s mother’s home, though she wasn’t present. When authorities arrived, they found Collin eerily “calm, cool, and collected”—a stark contrast to the scene, with blood on him yet no sign of distress.

Deputies pressed Collin for details, but he turned “uncooperative,” insisting on a lawyer. It wasn’t long before investigators realised that the evidence at the scene painted a very different picture from the one the teen had spun over the phone.

Witnesses alleged that before the incident, they saw Collin grab his mother by her hair and drag her inside the home as she cried for him to stop, per the sheriff.

“He opens up the door and there’s a few arguments. Don’t know exactly what the words were because I was sitting on my front porch. Next thing I know, he grabs her and pulls her inside the house,” Nancy K. Jones, who lives across the street, told WFLA. “He just grabbed her — looked like he grabbed her by the hair.”

According to WFLA, Collin’s grandmother revealed to police that the teen had a history of physical and verbal confrontations with his mother on multiple occasions. The grandmother reportedly told Jones before that Collin “had problems.”

The autopsy from the medical examiner’s office revealed that Catherine Griffin suffered a fatal, deep knife wound to the neck—a wound that was quickly ruled out as being accidental.

The teenager is now an orphan as he allegedly killed his dad as well.

The sheriff alleged Collin was also a suspect in the fatal shooting of his father, Charles Robert Griffith, on Valentine’s Day in 2023 in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, but the charges against him were dropped a month later because police “could not disprove Collin’s assertion of self-defence”. It wasn’t immediately clear what other charges, in addition to murder, Collin was facing in connection with his father’s killing. He was 15 at the time.

Griffiths called 911 that day as well and “stated there had been an argument, and Charles had pulled a knife on him and chased him through the house,” according to the affidavit, per Inside Edition.

“The defendant stated he had been cornered in the bedroom by his father where he picked up a gun and shot Charles twice,” reads the affidavit.

Investigators soon questioned Griffth’s version of events after arriving at the scene and probing the matter, but attempts to interview the teen proved fruitless after he continually invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel, according to the affidavit.

Court records reveal that Collin’s mother later posted a $50,000 bail to secure his release from jail.

He was reunited with his mother exactly a year after he shot his father, through Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Apparently, he first threatened to kill Catherine at that time, before allegedly killing her on Sunday.

Local law enforcement arrested Griffith for the first time in November 2023 and charged him with domestic violence after he allegedly beat and stomped his mother, according to Judd.

Judd continued: “Collin made the statement that, ‘I don’t want to go home. I’ll use any force necessary to avoid it, including killing my mother.'”

The 17-year-old is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and violation of a no-contact order.

“Collin Griffith is a violent predator — he has now killed both his father and his mother,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “We will hold him accountable in Polk County — we will do everything we can to keep him separated from civil society.”

In addition to the ongoing investigation in Florida, Judd said that he hopes authorities in Oklahoma will reopen their investigation into Charles’ death.

[source:nypost]