A 17-year-old from Florida has been charged with murdering his mother, just a year after being arrested for allegedly shooting his father. Collin Griffith was taken into custody by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday following the death of his mother in Auburndale, Florida.
Deputies responded to Griffith’s home around 6 p.m. after he called 911, claiming that he and his mother had argued and that she lunged at him with a knife, falling onto the blade and sustaining a fatal stab wound to the neck. However, investigators noted inconsistencies between his account and the evidence gathered at the scene.
Witnesses reported seeing Griffith and his mother arguing earlier that day, with the teenager grabbing her by the hair and dragging her into the home. The mother was heard pleading, “let me go.” Griffith’s grandmother also confirmed prior confrontations between the pair.
According to the grandmother, Griffith was arrested in February 2023 for the shooting death of his father in Oklahoma, though the charges were later dropped for unclear reasons. He had also been arrested in November on a domestic battery charge, with his mother as the alleged victim.
Griffith now faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and violation of a contact order. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd stated, “Collin Griffith is a violent predator—he has now killed both his father and his mother. We will hold him accountable in Polk County—we will do everything we can to keep him separated from civil society.”
