Teen Accused and Absolved of Fatally Shooting Dad in 2023 Is Now Accused of Stabbing Mom to Death: Police

Mar. 15, 2025

Auburndale, Fla., home where Catherine Griffith was killed (left); and Collin Griffith, 17.Photo:NBC2 News/Youtube; Polk County Sheriff’s Office

NBC2 News/Youtube; Polk County Sheriff’s Office

A Florida teen was arrested in connection to the fatal stabbing of his mother — more than a year after he was accused of killing his father in Oklahoma. (The previous charge has since been dropped).

Catherine Griffith, 39, was allegedly killed following a stabbing in a Auburndale, Fla., home on Sunday, Sep. 8, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in astatement.

Officials from the sheriff’s office and the Polk County Fire unit responded to the home after the victim’s son, 17-year-old Collin Griffith called 911, allegedly claiming that his mother died after falling on a knife during an argument between the two, the sheriff’s office statement said.

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

Collin allegedly claimed that his mother tried to attack him with the knife before she fell on it, per the sheriff’s office. The two lived in Charlotte County, Judd said, but were in the home of Catherine’s mother, who was not in the residence at the time.

Collin Griffith.Polk County Sheriff’s Office

Polk County Sheriff’s Office

The Medical Examiner’s office determined that Collin’s account was inconsistent with the way Catherine died, he said.

“His mother repeatedly pled with Collin to ‘let me go,’ ” the sheriff’s office’s statement alleged, citing witness accounts.

Port Charlotte teen accused of killing mother a year after father’s murder

Judd alleged Collin was also a suspect in the fatal shooting of his father in February 2023 in Lincoln County, Okla., and the charges against him were dropped a month later because police “could not disprove Collin’s assertion of self-defense.” (It wasn’t immediately clear what other charges, in addition to murder, Collin was facing in connection with his father’s killing).

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Judd said they have contacted prosecutors in Oklahoma who said they don’t have any sufficient evidence in their case but might consider reopening the case if Florida authorities generate enough information through their investigation.

Collin’s plea and attorney information in connection with his mother’s killing were not immediately available.

source: people.com