Just over a week ago, Polk County deputies say 17-year-old Collin Griffith stabbed his mom to death in his grandmother's Auburndale home.
Iowa law enforcement reports Collin also killed his dad in Oklahoma in February 2023. Records show Collin's violent tendencies did not end when he moved to Florida shortly after.
Attorney Shelley Levisay had known Cathy Griffith since elementary school. She said Cathy hired her to represent Collin after his father's death. Investigators were looking at charging the teenager with murder. Eventually, they decided they couldn't find enough evidence to disprove his claim of self-defense.
Sheriff Grady Judd in Polk County believes the events this month suggest an alternative idea.
"We're absolutely confident that he murdered his father in Oklahoma. It wasn't self-defense," Judd said.
Levisay said Cathy and her ex-husband had a violent marriage and less-than-amicable divorce. Collin went to live with his dad in December 2019. Reports say when Collin came out as gay, his dad basically secluded him from the world. Cathy Griffith went more than three years without seeing her son.
"That's all she wanted in this world, was to have her son home and to love him and protect him," Levisay said. "[She] wasn't even sure he was alive because she had no contact."
Levisay said she saw Collin shortly before he killed his dad.
"What was apparent when I met with him, and when deputies and everyone saw him, it was very apparent that he had not been around people for three years. He was very socially awkward, socially and emotionally immature, just very happy to do any simple thing. And so that was something that I don't think that could have been faked," she said. "He was skin and bones. He had welts and things on his back. He hadn't been getting glasses. So that was apparent to everyone that saw him that, OK, he has been left out here for, like, three years without seeing anyone."
After his dad's death and the prosecution's failure to file charges, Cathy brought Collin home to Port Charlotte. It wasn't even six months later when problems started again.
"He commits domestic violence, battery against his mother," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "He threatens her along the way that he might kill himself or her."
Charlotte County Sheriff's Office reports document Collin being Baker Acted three times for homicidal/suicidal threats. Before one of those commitments, deputies arrested the teenager to attacking his mother.
FGCU forensic studies professor David Thomas read through more than four dozen pages of records.
"I remember reading in one of the reports, [his mom said] his behavior was because we took away his things, not because of this mental health issue. Yeah. No, that is because his mental health issues. Cause if you have a child, and you discipline a child, you've taught them coping skills, and you have a healthy relationship, then that's part of the give and take," he said.
Looking at all the reports and the constant follow up from mental health professionals, Thomas believes law enforcement did everything they possible could.
One question many are asking is: why did Cathy allow Collin to return home time after time when he made threats of killing her?
"You had an environment where mom wanted him, and then she didn't, and then she wanted him, and then she didn't," Judd said. "While on one occasion she ran him out of the house because she was angry and afraid of him, she turned around and came to pick him up."
"There were no options," Levisay said. "At least from when she talked to DCF, without her getting in trouble for abandoning the child."
"You know, I don't mind being critical if I see big lapses in services, but I don't see that," Judd said
The sheriff has 50 years of experience.
In October 2023, both Collin and his mom told Charlotte County deputies things were improving in their Port Charlotte home. Unfortunately, Collin's threats of violence became reality on Sept. 8 when deputies say he stabbed his mom in the neck.
"Our mental health system has to change to address these issues because if it doesn't, we're up the creek without a paddle," Thomas said.
"Obviously, I'm not a psychologist," Levisay said. "But, I wonder if there was just too much done. It was too late, too late to fix anything if there was going to be any way to fix it."
"At the end of the day, this 17-year-old is just a red hot mess, a psychopath and a murderer," Judd said. "I submit to you, if he were let out today and then went to live with grandmother once she made him mad a few times, he would kill her as well."
Clinical assistant professor at FGCU, Ariella VanHara, said for any other families dealing with a child who has violent tendencies.
This is her advice:
"We've sometimes talked with parents about calling DCF on themselves about being afraid and advocating for themselves. To say, 'I'm afraid of my child, and I can't take care of them, and I can't have them in the home,' and really putting pressure on the system to take action," VanHara said. "There are some definite warning signs there."