Florida The mother who police say was stabbed to death by her 17-year-old son on Sunday posted the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s song “It’s Time to Go” online in a final message just hours before she was killed.
Katherine Griffith, 39, uploaded a photo of a remote footbridge leading to a forest, alongside the song’s lyrics, the day before she was killed in a brutal knife attack in Auburndale.
Witnesses say she and her son, who reportedly have a history Mental Health He got into an argument with his grandmother outside her home, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said. He then pulled her inside the home by the hair and she could be heard pleading with her son to “let me go.”
Katherine Griffith pictured with her son. (Instagram @cathygriffith1985)
Then Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Wednesday that the 17-year-old stabbed his mother in the neck “with such force that the knife went completely through her.” Judd described the teen as a “psychopath.” told the police She said she and her mother had gotten into a scuffle and she fell on the knife.
The teen has been charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and violating a no-contact order. Judd is pushing for him to be tried as an adult, but the local attorney general’s office told Fox News Digital it cannot comment on the case until next week.
The fatal incident occurred 19 months after the teen was charged with shooting his father in Oklahoma, though those charges were later dropped.
Griffith’s post indicates that he was not in good health before his death.
“That old familiar body ache, the pain from those little breaks in your soul,” reads the lyrics Taylor Swift posted. “You know when it’s time to let go… Sometimes, giving up is the strongest thing you can do.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Wednesday that Griffith is seeking to be tried as an adult. (Polk County Sheriff)
Griffith’s Instagram page is filled with photos of happy moments spent with her son, including a photo of her and her son cruising past the U.S. Capitol on July 4, both wearing academic robes to celebrate their graduation.
Another photo shows her sitting in front of a 2024 Volkswagen Jetta, which Griffith writes was a gift from her son ahead of his graduation.
But relations between the two were not always smooth.
The teen’s grandmother, who was not present during the fight, told WFLA The teenager had verbally and physically quarreled with his mother on several occasions.
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Judd said that when investigators “started peeling back the layers of this onion,” they “realized this was not a single incident.” Last year, the teen’s father also died at his hands.
“On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 2023, in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, (he) said his father pulled a knife on him, and he shot and killed his father,” Judd said. “He shot him once in the chest and once in the head, and he claimed self-defense.”
Judd said Oklahoma authorities dropped charges against the teen less than a month after the shooting because they could not prove his “self-defense claim” was false.
The teen’s mother paid $50,000 to get him out of jail. New York Post He then moved into her home in Charlotte County, Florida, and within a month, he was hospitalized for mental health reasons, according to the report.
Around this time, Judd said, he made a threatening statement: “I’m either going to kill myself, or I’m going to shoot or stab my mother to death.”
Judd said in November 2023, the teen “pushed his mother to the ground and … stomped on her” because she took away his rights to play video games. He was arrested and claimed self-defense again, but that time the argument failed and he remained behind bars, the sheriff said.
Katherine Griffiths is pictured with her son, who is accused of stabbing her to death. (Instagram @cathygriffith1985)
After another argument with his mother in February of this year, the teen fled to his grandmother’s home in Auburndale. Judd said the teen’s mother and grandmother both contacted the sheriff’s office at that time and said they felt unsafe around him, and at that time, the teen was turned over to family services.
But despite more death threats against his mother, the teen was eventually reunited with his parents. His family Judd said just two weeks later, he threatened to kill her mother again.
According to the sheriff, the teen “got into an argument about household chores” which caused him to “run away from his mother’s house to his grandmother’s house” on Sept. 6. The suspect’s mother went to his grandmother’s house the following day, where she and the teen got into an argument that led to his death.
The teen initially told 911 dispatchers that his mother was “injured with a knife” after a “very long fight” Sunday, Judd said.
Judd said police officers who arrived at The Hamptons (a community of people 55 and older in Auburndale, about 50 miles east of Tampa, where the teen’s grandmother lives) found him “calm, steady and composed — and he had blood on his body.”
murder weapon. (Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
The 17-year-old reportedly became “uncooperative”, showed “zero remorse” and felt no urgency regarding his severely injured mother.
“He looked the deputy in the eye and said, ‘I know my rights, I want an attorney,’” Judd said.
Judd said that despite the teen’s claim that he had a lengthy argument with his mother before her death, the house “was clean and there was no evidence of any type of prolonged argument.”
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“When you look at him, you see a kid,” Judd said. “When I look at him, I see a psychopath. I see totally erratic behavior, even insane at 17, shot his father to death and he ran out and stabbed his mother in the neck so hard that the knife went completely through.”
“He’s now killed two people and he’s killed his mother and father, and I can assure you — beyond every reasonable doubt and putting him out there — based on his conduct, if he had gone to live with his grandmother after this incident, and she had resisted him, the next murder would have been his,” Judd said.
Judd said he would share with Oklahoma authorities any information his department’s investigation uncovers that could lead to criminal charges against the teen in his father’s death.
