DailyMail.com can reveal the dark family history of a teen boy who stabbed his mother to death a year after he killed his father in a shocking crime spree that has stunned Florida detectives.
Collin Griffith, 17, is accused of killing his loving mother Catherine, 39, by stabbing her in the neck several times. He claimed she ‘fell’ onto the knife as she lunged at him, but neighbors told police they had seen the teen dragging her by the hair as she repeatedly said, ‘Let me go.’
Catherine’s killing was the last act of violence in the family’s troubled past, which includes repeated threats of murder, alleged domestic abuse and a nasty divorce battle that concluded with the killing of Collin’s father Charles, 41, last year.
The teen’s parents were engaged in a legal battle over Collin when Charles, who had full custody of the teen, was fatally shot in the chest and head.
The former couple divorced in May, 2020, after 20 years of marriage, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com where Catherine accused Charles of decades of abuse.
Catherine’s killing was the last act of violence in the family’s dark history, which includes a nasty custody battle that concluded with the murder of Collin’s father. The couple also shared Christopher, 24
Collin Griffith is accused of killing his loving mother Catherine by stabbing her in the neck several times
Collin has an older brother, Christopher, who was born in 2000 and already an adult when his parents divorced.
In August 2022, Catherine asked for sole custody of Collin, claiming Charles had not allowed ‘any contact with’ the boy since December 31, 2019 ‘ after a phone call where he ‘begged his Mother to come get him.’
Catherine accused Charles of alienating Collin from her ‘by telling him negative things and by monitoring and stalking her social media in an attempt to find anything to make her look bad.’
The online school teacher claimed Charles had harassed and stalked her, causing her to suffer from chronic PTSD as she asked the court for a no-contact order.
The mother later said Collin’s father would not let him leave the house, even to go to school, after Collin told him he was gay.
Catherine had also asked the court to order Charles to take Collin to child therapy, saying ‘This child may already be suffering emotional irreparable harm by [the father’s] parental alienation and emotional abuse of the minor child.’
Charles responded with claims that Collin did not wish to his mother, saying Catherine had been ‘mentally and emotionally unstable’ and had abused drugs and alcohol during this time.
The college freshman was arrested on Sunday after he called 911 claiming Catherine fell on a knife as she lunched at him while holding the weapon, pictured. Police say the deepness of the wound points to murder, not an accident
Collin was arrested for murder of his father Charles, pictured left, and freed after Catherine, right, paid his $50,000 bail. The case was later dropped
Collin killed his father Charles Griffith in the pictured Oklahoma house on Valentine’s Day 2023
The father said he stopped letting Collin communicate with Catherine after she texted the teen a hand-written suicide note in May 2020. He also accused Catherine of only calking when she was ‘manic’ and posing as an adult male on Discord to contact Collin and encourage him to run away.
The case was resolved when Catherine was given sole custody of Collin in February 2023, days after the teen shot Charles dead.
Collin shot and killed his father in Oklahoma on Valentine’s Day 2023. The then-15-year-old was also the one to call 911 then, arguing he was acting in self defense after his father cornered him in a room and threatened him with a knife.
An affidavit for the boy’s arrest said there was ‘probable cause to believe the defendant, the youth, committed first degree murder.’ An agent noted the boy’s claim of having been cornered by his father did not match the evidence at the scene.
The mother and son’s time together was troubled from the start, but Catherine kept it private, gushing about her son on social media, sharing their trips together
Catherine was an avid social media user and often shared images of her travels
Catherine Griffith, 39, shared haunting posts online in the days leading up to her murder allegedly at the hands of her son Collin (pictured together)
Collin was arrested for murder and freed after Catherine paid his $50,000 bail. However, the case was dropped when prosecutors could not rule out self-defense.
‘A violent predator— he has now killed both his father and his mother,’ said Sheriff Grady Judd. ‘We will hold him accountable in Polk County— we will do everything we can to keep him separated from civil society.’
Catherine had only recently been reunited with Collin, as he moved to Oklahoma with his father when his parents first separated in 2019.
The mother and son’s time together was troubled from the start, but Catherine kept it private, gushing about her son on social media, sharing their trips together and the new car she bought him as a graduation gift.
Griffith was a recent graduate of The Academy, an alternative high school located in Port Charlotte
Collin had threatened to kill his mother several times, according to police
Catherine had only recently been reunited with Collin, as he moved to Oklahoma with his father when his parents first separated in 2019
Just months after his father’s killing, in September 2023 a school officer called police to do a mental check because Collin had said his mother pulled a gun on him during an argument.
Collin claimed Catherine said she would kill him and threatened to kill herself. She denied the claims to a Sheriff’s officer, insisting Collin was upset because she took his phone and AirPods he was failing classes.
Catherine added that Collin had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and PTSD after he had been ‘held captive’ by his father for 1,041 days without human contact.
Collin was then put in protective custody for a mental health evaluation under the Baker Act. He was going to be released after eight days but was kept in the facility after he threatened to kill his mother if he was returned to her custody.
Catherine bought Collin a new car earlier this year as a graduation gift
Catherine claimed Collin’s father would not let him leave the house, even to go to school, after Collin told him he was gay
He reportedly told staff: ‘I will kill myself or my mom…. throw them out of the car, shoot or stab them, I’ve done it before, to my dad, I know I can do it again.’
Catherine then placed the teen in a long-term facility near Jupiter, where he spent several months before returning to live with her.
Then on November, 2023, Collin charged with domestic violence battery against his mother after he attacked her, pulling her hair and kneeing her in the groin. He told officers at the time he would kill his mother if he was released and had to get into a car with her.
‘He was very well-spoken and very smart, but you can pick up that he was kind of controlling and manipulative. You can’t pick up that he’s basically a murdering psychopath,” Catherine’s attorney Eric Reyes told NBC2.
Collin is in jail awaiting his next court appearance and is facing a first-degree murder charge.
