Florida mom shared eerie final photo before she was allegedly stabbed to death by son, 17, a year after he killed his dad
The Florida mom allegedly stabbed in the neck by her knife-wielding teenage son over the weekend posted a haunting final message on Instagram the day before her gruesome murder.
Catherine “Cathy” Griffith, 39, was found dead in her Auburndale home by police officers who were called by her son, Collin.
Cops arrived to find her dead, with a knife wound to her neck, and the 17-year-old covered in her blood standing in front of the house.
“That old familiar body ache, the snaps from the same little breaks in your soul. You know when it’s time to go…Sometimes, givin’ up is the strong thing,” Catherine Griffith eerily captioned an Instagram post with lyrics from Taylor Swift’s “It’s Time to Go” with an image of a remote footbridge leading into a forest.
Happy times with Collin are seen in many posts on his mom’s feed, including one from May 5, where he is pictured in front of a bow-clad car.
“Happy early graduation present!!! Congratulations Collin on your brand new 2024 VW Jetta!!! I love you and am so proud of you!!!”
A series of posts from the Fourth of July weekend shows the smiling mother and son galivanting around Washington, DC, where they took in the fireworks on the National Mall and even toured the White House.
In many photos, the pair pose in the same position: Cathy in front, Collin right behind her, squinting through chunky plastic black-frame glasses.
“I’ve learned some of the hardest lessons in my 30’s but I’m vowing that my 39th year will be a year of living life to its fullest,” she wrote on Sept. 5, the day after her 39th birthday.
Deputies arriving Sunday said Collin showed “zero emotion” after allegedly killing his mother.
Neighbors say they saw him grab Cathy by the hair and pull her into the house as she repeatedly pleaded, “Let me go” before her body was discovered.
Collin told police that he and his mother were in the midst of a long physical fight, which resulted in her falling on the knife — fatally lacerating her throat.
However, he quickly asked for a lawyer when investigators pressed him on the incongruities of his story with the evidence at the scene.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described the scene as “cold-blooded murder.”
Collin had a history of abusing his mother, attacking her multiple times — including “stomping” on her — which resulted in the teen being held for mental health concerns.
Upon release from that stint in the state’s care, Collin allegedly threatened to kill himself or Cathy.
Cathy’s death comes roughly a year and a half after Collin was charged with fatally shooting his father, Charles, in their Lincoln County, Okla., home on Feb. 14, 2023.
No one else was home at the time. The then-15-year-old told police that his father had cornered him in the house and, in an act of self-defense, he had shot him once in the chest and once in the head.
The murder charge was dropped after Oklahoma authorities could not find evidence that disputed Collin’s claim of self-defense, Judd said.
Cathy Griffith shared a compilation of photos of her and Collin with Charles — including a shot of his headstone on Aug. 25.
“We broke the pattern but the pattern still broke us all into pieces. I still don’t regret leaving. I regret not leaving sooner,” a caption over the photos read.
Collin is being charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and violation of a no-contact order. The sheriff’s office requested he be tried as an adult.
With Post wires
