A Florida mom who police say was fatally stabbed by her 17-year-old son on Sunday posted lyrics on-line taken from Taylor Swift’s tune “It’s Time to Go” in a haunting remaining message simply hours earlier than she was killed.
Catherine Griffith, 39, uploaded a picture of a distant footbridge main right into a forest captioned with the lyrics to the tune the day earlier than she was killed within the vicious knife assault in Auburndale.
Witnesses say she and her son, who reportedly has a historical past of psychological well being points, had gotten into an argument outdoors his grandmother’s dwelling. He then dragged her by the hair into the residence, and she or he could possibly be heard pleading along with her son to “let me go,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned.
Catherine Griffith pictured along with her son. (Instagram @cathygriffith1985)
That’s when Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd mentioned at a Wednesday press convention that the 17-year-old “stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went all the way through.” Judd went on to label the teenager as a “psychopath.” The teenager informed police that he and his mom had gotten right into a bodily battle and that she fell on the knife.
The teenager has been charged with first-degree homicide, kidnapping and violation of a no-contact order. Judd is pushing for him to be tried as an grownup, however the native lawyer common’s workplace tells Fox Information Digital that it can not touch upon the matter till subsequent week.
The lethal incident got here 19 months after the teenager was charged with taking pictures his father in Oklahoma, though these prices had been later dropped.
Griffith’s submit might have advised that she was not in place within the lead as much as her demise.
“That old familiar body ache, the snaps from the same little breaks in your soul,” the posted Taylor Swift lyrics learn. “You know when it’s time to go … Sometimes, givin’ up is the strong thing.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is pushing for Griffith to be tried as an grownup, he mentioned at a Wednesday press convention. (Polk County Sheriff )
Griffith’s Instagram web page is crammed with photographs of happier instances along with her son, together with the 2 of them on a cruise, in entrance of the U.S. Capitol on July 4 and an image of them collectively along with her son wearing educational regalia for his commencement.
One other picture exhibits him sitting on the entrance of a 2024 Volkswagen Jetta, which Griffith writes was an early commencement current for her son.
However the relationship between the pair was apparently not all the time clean crusing.
The teenager’s grandmother, who was not current through the altercation, informed WFLA that the teenager had been verbally and bodily confrontational along with his mom on a number of events.
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Judd mentioned that as investigators began “to peel back the layer of this onion,” they “[found] out that this is not just a singular event.” Final yr, the teenager’s father additionally died by his hand.
“On Feb. 14, 2023, Valentine’s Day, in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, [he] said his dad pulled a knife on him, and he shot and killed his dad,” Judd mentioned. “He shot him once in the chest and once in the head, and he claimed self-defense.”
Oklahoma authorities dropped prices towards the teenager lower than a month after the taking pictures as a result of they may not disprove his “assertion of self-defense,” Judd mentioned.
The teenager’s mom paid $50,000 to bail him out of jail, the New York Publish reported. Then he moved into her Charlotte County, Florida, dwelling and was involuntarily dedicated to a hospital for psychological well being causes inside a month.
Round this time, Judd mentioned, he made a threatening assertion: “I’ll kill myself, or I’ll kill my mother by shooting or stabbing her.”
In November 2023, the teenager “pushed [his mother] to the ground and … stomped on her” after she took away his online game privileges, Judd mentioned. He was arrested and claimed self-defense once more, however the argument failed that point, and he frolicked behind bars, the sheriff mentioned.
Catherine Griffith pictured along with her son who’s accused of stabbing her to demise. (Instagram @cathygriffith1985)
After one other argument along with his mom in February of this yr, the teenager fled to his grandmother’s home in Auburndale. The teenager’s mom and grandmother each contacted the sheriff’s workplace round that point and mentioned they felt unsafe round him, Judd mentioned, and at that time, the teenager was turned over to household providers.
However regardless of making extra threats to kill his mom, the teenager was finally reunited with his household regardless of making threats to kill his mom once more simply two weeks later, Judd mentioned.
In keeping with the sheriff, the teenager received into “an argument about home chores” that led him to “flee from his mother’s house and [go to] his grandmother’s house” on Sept. 6. The suspect’s mom drove to the grandmother’s home the subsequent day, which is when she and {the teenager} received into the altercation that price her life.
The teenager initially informed 911 dispatchers that his mom “fell into a knife” after a “very long fight” on Sunday, Judd mentioned.
Deputies who arrived at The Hamptons – a 55-and-older group in Auburndale about 50 miles east of Tampa, the place the teenager’s grandmother is a resident – discovered him “calm, cool, collected – and he had blood on him,” Judd mentioned.
The homicide weapon. (Polk County Sheriff’s Workplace)
The 17-year-old reportedly grew to become “uncooperative,” confirmed “zero remorse” and had no sense of urgency about his gravely wounded mother.
“He looked the deputy in the eye and said, ‘I know my rights, I want an attorney,'” Judd mentioned.
Regardless of the teenager’s claims of a protracted battle along with his mom earlier than her demise, the house was “neat and clean [with] no evidence of any kind of long fight,” Judd mentioned.
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“When you look at this, you see a kid,” Judd mentioned. “When I look at him, I see a psychopath. I see totally erratic behavior to the point that he’s already, at 17 years of age, shot and killed his father and got away with it and stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went all the way through.”
“Now he’s killed two people and killed his mother and father, and I can assure you – beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt – based upon his conduct, had he gone to live with his grandmother at the end of this, and she crossed him, she would be next,” Judd added.
Judd mentioned he’ll share any info uncovered in his division’s investigation that would incriminate the teenager in his father’s demise with authorities in Oklahoma.
