Teenager arrested for knife attack on his mother – one year after shockingly similar crime

A Florida teenager was “calm, composed and collected” when he told police his mother died when she fell on a knife – a year after he shot his father.

A month after Collin Griffith shot his father Charles in the head and chest, the murder charges against him were dropped because the 17-year-old claimed it was in self-defense.

On Sunday evening, he called 911 and claimed that his mother, Catherine, had been stabbed during an argument at his grandmother's house in Auburndale.

But witnesses reported that they had seen him dragging the 39-year-old out of the house by her hair two hours earlier. A forensic pathologist determined that she had suffered two stab wounds to the neck.

“When you look at this, you see a child,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference Wednesday. “When I look at him, I see a psychopath.”

Mother Catherine Griffith had paid a $50,000 bail to secure her son's release, but he had warned officials that he would kill her if he forced her to live with her.

“Anyone who should be special to him in his life is dead if they get in his way.”

Griffith claimed his 43-year-old father pulled a knife on him before chasing and cornering him on the remote farm in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, on Valentine's Day 2023.

But prosecutors “could not refute Colin's claim of self-defense,” and his mother paid a $50,000 bail to get him out of jail.

Six months later, he was again incarcerated under Florida's Baker Act after threatening to commit suicide by stabbing or shooting his mother.

In November last year, he was arrested for domestic violence after kicking his mother to the ground when she tried to stop him from playing video games.

He again tried to claim self-defense, but his grandmother had seen the attack and confirmed Catherine's account.

In February 2024, he ran away from his mother's house in Charlotte County and moved in with his grandmother.

He told officers he would “rather kill his mother” than be reunited with her, but they turned him over to the Florida Department of Children and Families, which returned him to his parents' home in Charlotte County one year to the day after his father's death.

Police yesterday released a series of harrowing text messages Catherine sent in the hours before her death, begging a neighbour for help.

The 39-year-old was a popular teacher at the Florida Virtual School

Police released Catherine's terrifying text exchange with a friend in the hours before her death

“Please don't let Collin or the police in my house. I'm not opening my door,” she wrote in one. “Collin just hates me and I'm sick of this crap.”

“Where are you and how can I stop him?” the neighbor replied.

“Don't give them the keys,” Catherine replied. “I'm at home in my room.”

On the day of her death, she told her neighbor, “I'm meeting with his parole officer on Monday morning if he doesn't come home by ten today. He knows the time and the deadline.”

“He chooses not to do so and hides at my mother's house in Polk County, which is also a violation.”

In her last text message, she wrote, “He's not listening to me. I'm driving to pick him up and if he doesn't get in the car, Polk County can take care of him.”

Griffith's grandmother was not home when his mother arrived at 4 p.m. on Sunday, and the two began arguing.

At 6:30 p.m., police were on the scene after Griffith called to say his mother had injured herself and showed “no remorse whatsoever” when officers arrived.

“He looked the congressman in the eye and said, 'I know my rights, I want a lawyer,'” Judd told reporters.

“He claimed that during this argument his mother attacked him with a knife and fell on him, resulting in a deep stab wound to her neck.

“The coroner said it was neither plausible nor understandable that she died in the manner he claimed. That simply did not happen.”

“When you look at this, you see a child,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference Wednesday. “When I look at him, I see a psychopath.”

A month after Collin Griffith shot his father Charles in the head and chest, the murder charges against him were dropped because the 17-year-old claimed it was in self-defense.

Griffith was arrested for murder and the Polk County Sheriff's Office is asking the prosecutor to charge him as an adult.

And a spokesman for the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office said they are currently considering whether to refile charges against him in connection with his father's death.

“If Oklahoma had been able to act, Catherine would be alive and well today,” Judd said.

“But because she took him in and tried to do what a mother should do and take care of him, she is now dead.”

“He had already shot his father at the age of 17 and got away with it, and stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went right through.”

“Now he's killed two people, as well as his mother and father. And based on his behavior, I can assure you that if he had ended up moving in with his grandmother and she had gotten in his way, she would have been next.”