Susan and John Griffin Charged in Death of Malnourished Two-Year-Old
In Towson, Maryland, Susan Griffin, 37, and John Griffin, 38, were arrested for first-degree child abuse after their two-year-old son, Andrew, died.
The boy only weighed 14 pounds, the weight of a normal three-month-old and the height of a normal eight-month-old.
When John took the boy to the emergency room, Andrew was cold to the touch and unresponsive. He was covered in cuts and bruises and his right eye was blackened and hemorrhaging. He had scabs and healed injuries that point to long term abuse.
Here’s what John Griffin told police:
1. He and his wife had administered CPR for about 20 minutes after noticing Andrew was unconscious after a nap. They were unsuccessful in reviving him, but delayed bringing Andrew to the hospital because they didn’t know what to do with their four other kids. I dunno, take them with you or call 911?
2. Andrew was injured when he fell into the family Christmas tree, and when he and his mother fell as she carried him down the stairs. Uh huh, sure.
3. Andrew was so skinny because he had not been able to hold down food after suffering a flu-like illness this past summer. John Griffin told police that the boy wasn’t taken to the doctor because of a prior billing issue. Geez they can afford a tree, but not a trip to the doctor?
John J. Griffin is a computer system engineer and Susan Griffin is a stay-at-home (bad) mother. Court records show that John Griffin filed for bankruptcy in 1999. Susan Griffin was on probation for depositing forged checks, and also faces charges for forging prescriptions for Vicodin and Adderall. WTF was going on in the Griffin household?
They were charged after police found blood on clothes, walls and the ceiling of the couple’s torture chamber bedroom. Bail for John Griffin has been set at $1.5 million, while bail for Susan Griffin was set at $1 million. Way to go Judge Steinburg! The other Griffin children ages 10, 9, 4 and 1 are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
December 29th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
14 POUNDS!!?? That’s what my baby weighed at his 6 month check up!!!!!! That poor little boy! I cannot believe that someone didn’t report this abuse sooner!!! A 14 pound 2 year old is not normal to say the least and he probably looked really bad!! This makes me so mad, this did not have to happen, someone knew about this abuse and did not report it!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad those other kids are in a safe place now and I hope they find a good family! Poor Andrew!!! Rest in peace baby boy no one can hurt you now!
December 29th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Sick and disgusting thats what I call it. Wonder what kind of abuse the other kids have suffered and if none why just this one? It’s always a constant wonder to me how God granted people like this the ability to procreate and yet some are left without the ability but very much the want and the need. I hope both the parents burn in hell and get stuck with the general population while they are incarcerated maybe the other inmates could help them “see” the error of thier ways. Personally I’d love to use them both for target practice.
December 29th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Andrew Griffin must’ve died because his stupid parents deliberately starved him to death! May he rest in peace. Those asshats don’t deserve the chance to procreate ever again! I hope the inmates at jail would beat them to death for purposely starving little Andrew!
December 29th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
These fucks must have hated their son. There is ABSOLUTELY no excuse for starving a child to death or not taking him to the doctor. I am so sorry that this poor little boy had shit for parents. I wish I could have been his mama.
December 29th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
AAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!! What the f*ck is wrong with these people. STOP HAVING CHILDREN!!! My son weighed 9lbs 6oz at bith!! This child weighed 5 pounds more than my NEWBORN!!! I say lock them up and forget to feed the A-holes. How that poor baby must have suffered. To bad it ended in tragedy but thank God he is free from those two pricks!
December 30th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
The part that bothers me the most about this is knowing with almost 100% certainty that dozens, if not hundreds of friends, neighbors, local store employees, and relatives had seen this poor child and the condition he was in. Not one of them ever spoke up and did something about it.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:36 am
It’s actually a well known phenomenon for parents to single out one child as the “bad” child, and for that child to get the brunt of the abuse. Why that happens, I have no idea.
In practice, I’ve noticed that it helps unite the rest of the family, if the parents are bad. The other kids think “If Bobby weren’t such a bad kid, Mom and Dad would be perfect parents.”
Basically, it creates a scapegoat for all of the parent’s shortcomings. And usually the abused child gets so used to being the “bad” one that they internalize the behavior.
I know a girl who was labeled the “bad” child in her family. Her father regularly locked her in a closet, and threw her down the stairs. Her sisters might have been smacked every now and again, but nothing compared to what she got.
The tragic thing is, the sisters still think of her as the “bad” one, despite the fact that this girl got straight A’s, graduated from college with a 4.0, and has never even drank, and neither sister is anywhere near as successful. Both partied in high school and neither went to college. The sisters reason? ” ‘Bad girl’ has a negative attitude, and she never participates in family events.”
This might not be what is going on in this family, but just because the parents abuse one child doesn’t mean they abuse them all.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:41 am
Yoshi, it is possible that neighbors, etc, did not see what was going on with this toddler. The news report said that the younger children were not see outside, but the older children played outside a lot. Nobody but the immediate family may have known what kind of shape the 2-year old was in. And what are a 10 or a 9 year old going to do? Other family members may not have known, either, if they were not a close family, or if the grandparents were not living.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:26 am
I am sure a 10 and 9 year old know right from wrong they had to of known what ” mom and dad” were doing was not right and the neighbors should have been suspicious of not seeing the younger children. Hell I go two days without letting my kids go out side and my neighbors come over to see if everything is ok. Maybe I am just lucky to have good neighbors. I just cant believe that nobody knew or did anything.
December 31st, 2007 at 10:33 am
sees4, a 10 and a 9 year old may know right from wrong, but they also have the same parents as the 2 year old. Like Kitty said, maybe they labeled him as the “bad kid”, maybe they were just afraid to say anything for fear that they would be next for that treatment. It doesn’t say how long they were living in that neighborhood, but the news article does say the neighbors said that the younger children did not go outside. Apparently the neighbors were used to not seeing any but the older children.
December 31st, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Even if the younger children didn’t play outside, i doubt they were left in the house when the parents went to get groceries, houseware items, etc.
The next time you go to your local grocery store, start counting when you get out of your car in the parking lot and finish when you get back in afterward. Count the total number of people you come within 10 feet of while shopping. It’ll surprise you.
January 1st, 2008 at 6:41 am
Good point, Yoshi. I hadn’t thought about that. I just have this horrid mental image of the poor little boy, hidden away from the eyes of all possible rescue. Abused and starved until rescue is no longer possible. It haunts me. The poor little guy. I hope his parents get life in prison, if not the death penalty.
January 1st, 2008 at 7:32 am
If I did mapquest right…
You know what makes this all the worse? It looks like these people lived only 1/4 mile from St Joseph Medical center. : http://www.sjmcmd.org/Default.aspx
How hard could it have been for anyone, one of the other kids even the family dog to have brought this boy to get medical care before this last fatal event?
January 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Robot B9,I don’t even think that it was in their minds to bring this boy to the doctor, otherwise they would have. People like this are just plain sick, they are selfish and uncaring, ignorant etc. Any normal human parent with half a brain would not let their child starve like this. To supposedly try reviving him after most of the damage was done?? What is that? The time that passed as he withered away must have been so painful for him, how his parents could just stand their is mind boggling. The older kids may have seen some of it but to them, it was their lifestyle and who knows if the parents threatened or beat them if they would say anything. I don’t think they would have brought him to the doctor if it was next door. It just wasn’t an option to them. So sad.
January 2nd, 2008 at 4:10 am
You just KNOW this two miserable wastes of flesh are going to bring up as their defense (or at least PART of their defense) how EXPENSIVE medical insurance is and that they couldn’t afford it and that if it was just more affordable they’d have taken their child to the doctor and he’d be alive today. Some slick defense attorney is going to run with that I’m SURE.
Meanwhile, I say the only appropriate punishment for these two is to wire their jaws shut and then sit them down in front of a feast every day until they slowly starve to death too. Oh and throw in a dozen or so daily whacks with a baseball bat while they’re sitting there.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:24 am
Yes, Ihavekidstoo, medical insurance is expensive. But this guy appears to have had a good job, he may have had some sort of insurance. And while it appears they had a problem with money at a private Dr. office they always had the local (and very close) emergency room. Most ER’s are chock full of people with no insurance, they don’t turn many away.
Of course maybe the real problem was that these parents knew they would have been caught (and jailed) if they showed up at an ER with a child in such bad shape. So they decided to do nothing and lost everything.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
ihavekidstoo, I love your idea.
January 4th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Coming from the “bad” kid point of view the older kids may not have known it was wrong. Who knows how long this abuse had been going on. If it had been going on since birth well maybe the older kids thought “Well all families have a bad kid and this is ours.” Hell even the parents could have said “Andrew is a bad boy and we need to punish him.” My mother singled me out as the “bad” kid because out of 5 children I was the only healthy one and not to mention she hates my dad and I look just like him. Whatever their disgusting reason was for this it is a tragety. Child abusers don’t last long in the pen.
I want to send kudos to the Judge. 1 million dollar bail….finally a judge who sees that children are humans to. How many child abuse cases have you all read where the parents get a slap on the wrist, get their kids back and then end up killing or abusing their other kids?
I have a 2 year old and he has gone into this stage of “I don’t want to eat.” It bothered me so bad to the point that I took him to the doctor and he told me not to worry about it. He had not lost any weight and he was right on track. As long as I was offering him food I was not doing anything wrong. He suggested that I find something that he does like to eat (in his case chicken nuggets) and offer it to him as much as possible so at least he is eating something.
I am not a perfect mom by any means but, I just wish that all moms could have and understand the love I have for my children and the compassion I have for all children.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I have decided a form of corporal punishment for people who intentionally kill their children. If murderers were killed by the firing squad or a single shot to the head, I bet a whole lot of people would start treating their children better. I don’t consider myself a violent person, but to kill a child is the most unthinkable, uforgivable act. Letting your child starve to death is ridiculous. I refuse to believe any of these murderers excuses. Not giving medical treatment to your child is murder. I would do everything possible to make sure my child is taken care of. It is a law that public hospitals give you medical care even if you cannot afford it or don’t have insurance. I’m sorry to see that another small angel has went to heaven.
January 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
a loving mother – I could not agree with you more! To starve a child to death is just CRUEL!!! I wouldn’t starve an animal to death. Being able to have a child is a gift. These people she be “put down” in the same inhumane manner that they imposed on that precious child. I say starve them to death. To shoot them is too easy.
January 4th, 2008 at 11:49 am
“It is a law that public hospitals give you medical care even if you cannot afford it or don’t have insurance. ”
Not quite. It used to be a law that hospitals had to provide EMERGENCY services if you were uninsured, though if you have a previous overdue bill with that hospital, they can and often will transfer you or simply tell you to go to another hospital. As of 11/10/03 there are now several loopholes hospitals can use to prevent patients without insurance or overdue bills from getting medical care. Patients can still sue if they feel they were denied emergency care, but they’re now less likely to win.
I’m not saying the parents were right, they should have TRIED anyway, even if they were turned away. The ongoing malnutrition would NOT have qualified as an emergency need though, and they’d have been referred to their family physician during normal business hours. However, they COULD have likely gotten insurance coverage through state agencies, regardless of income, due to medical disability which usually covers drug addiction. Combine good job+no savings+prescription fraud=pill addict 9 times out of 10. It’s amazing how much money drug addicts can spend. I know a guy who went from beer to vodka to speed to coke to crack and in 3 months spent over $15,000 on drugs. He lost his Jeep, his house, his wife and 2 children. When i asked him how he could spend that much, how he could let his life get out of control that badly, he summed up addiction better than i ever could. His reply:
“I probably could have stopped if i wanted to. The thing about drugs is they don’t give you a reason to want to stop. They just help you pass time.”
January 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I know that at my local hospitals, it is clearly posted that you cannot be turned away for inability to pay or lack of insurance.
I don’t think that it was an eating problem with the child anyway. It was just that the parents clearly abused this poor child.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Most hospitals will not turn away anyone with a life threatening condition. I thought that they were bound by law to treat anyone that was in that situation regardless of financial responsibility. Near my home is a very nice hospital that used to be more “upscale” as far the people that went there for emergency care. Everytime I walk i nthere now, it looks very ghetto. There are people that have been in fights, stabbed, whatever. The problem that we are seeing in California is that they are closing all of the medical facilities that were in the “lower rent” areas because of lack of funding. My guess – Too many people forgot to pay their bills.
Anyhow – I agree with a loving mother. This is not a case of a child that would not eat. This is simply a matter of asshole parents that abused an innocent child until he lost his precious little life. No matter what their financial situation, they could have gone to a low cost clinic and gotten treatment. They didn’t want to. They knew that the minute a doctor saw their child they would be up shit creek. Well guess what?? They are up shit creek and I hope they drown in it.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
And remember, we are talking about a sick child, not an adult. There are other laws about child abuse that may cover this situation: Show up at a hospital with an abused child, the child will get treatment and you will go directly to jail!
January 4th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Just mt two pennies here but, I have a good friend from home who is a doctor and I had an issue last winter (I was also 6 months pregeant). I got a very bad bug and when I walked into the hospital they immediatly took me back into triage and then to a room. The doctor refused to see me because I did not have a co-pay of $150.00. At that time I did not even have my i.d. on me.
I spoke to my friend and he informed me that if a hospital is PRIVATE owned then they can and most likely will turn you away if you do not have insurance or a co-pay. If the hospital is government funded it is against the law for them to not treat you based on no insurance or lack of co-pay.
I am not sure if this varies from state to state but, I also do not know any doctor who would turn away a child in any abusive condition or one who really needed the medical attention.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Its just so sad. I love children so much and I can’t help but get emotional over these things. There are so many people out there who want kids and dont have them that could have done a way better job raising this boy and would have loved him way betta but he ended up with these assholes.
January 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
This may surprise some of you, but my mother was actually one of the nurses who attempted to resuscitate poor little Andrew on that horrible day. I remember her coming home, with a terribly sad expression on her face that I had never seen before. She told my family and I how in her 23 years of being a registered nurse, she had never seen anything as heartbreaking as what she had witnessed that day.
She told us that Mr. Griffin had come into the emergency room with no emotion whatsoever, holding little Andrew completely bundled up in a blanket. (You would think if your child wasn’t breathing you would be causing JUST A LITTLE BIT of a scene.) After a while, my mother heard a loud scream from her co-worker, who was rushing to show my mother Andrew’s lifeless body in her arms. My mom told us he didn’t even look like a child, he looked more like an alien. She and her fellow nurses tried their best to miraculously bring him back to life, but it was too late.
They immediately called the police, who began to question Mr. Griffin (or as I like to call “WORTHLESS SCUMBAG”). He continued to lack any sort of emotion for what had just happened to his own child, and was very vague in his responses to the authorities and his story just didn’t make any sense. He had said that Andrew would often run around and bump into things, causing his bruises. When my mother and the other nurses examined him, they found something unique about his legs, indicating that he had never WALKED, let alone run around. Scumbag, do you really think we’re that STUPID?! It was clear that this child had been abused for a long time.
Because it is true that often only one child is singled out as the abuse-target, doctors are currently requesting a paternity test to see if Andrew was John Griffin’s biological child. If not, this could explain why this poor soul was the victim of such a brutal and inhumane act of violence.
I pray with all my heart that justice will be served to the fullest extent to these two DISGUSTING PEOPLE. Andrew was the innocent one, and he was taken from this world way too soon.
May you find peace in Heaven, Precious Little Andrew.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Andrew i am so sorry! You were a sweet little boy and because what your parents did to you now Kaitlyn, Douglas, Thomas and Lindsay have to suffer along with you. I hope you will rest in peace now little one, and always remember Joshua loves you. Im sorry he couldnt be there for you.
I knew Andrew and his family. I have known them for 2 years now. I always knew something was fishy about them. I dated his older brother, he is not mentioned in the article. It will be amazing if all of those kids make it out of their childhood alive.
February 16th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
BlondeAphrodite, did the paternity results come back?
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 am
[...] Behaving Bady originally posted about the Griffins last December. Five months later, an autopsy has been done, the parents are still in jail, and [...]
October 30th, 2008 at 10:43 am
[...] Husband and Wife abuse and subsequently kill their 2-year old [...]
February 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Is there any way to get in contact with pinknblackstarz? I (unfortunately) knew Susan and I remember Joshua as a baby. I hope he is well.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-te.md.co.griffin26feb26,0,4097966.story
Parents found guilty!! It should be 1st degree murder, but nonetheless… they’re going to jail for a long time!
February 28th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
mary, joshua is also in jail. he was put in harford county detention center 12/08 and they just found him guilty for assult and theft hes got 10 years.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Thank you for responding to my comment pinknblackstarz!! I didn’t know Joshua but remember holding him when he was a newborn. I guess after hearing about the tragedy I couldn’t help but wonder about him. I always knew his mom was a bit crazy so it’s no wonder he’s in jail. It makes me sad! Like he never had a chance? I still think of him as a baby. Anyway, thanks again for the reply!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:04 am
we were together for 2 years and it was a constant screaming and physical battle, so i couldnt blame him because i knew the apple didnt fall very far from the tree. i just feel horrible for the 5 other young children. i heard some of them were put into foster homes and 2 went to johns mother.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Was Joshua close to his siblings? From what I’ve read in the news, he didn’t live with the Griffin’s. Did he notice how frail and tiny Andrew had become? I know John Griffin wasn’t Josh’s biological dad, but did they have a good relationship? Sorry if it’s too many questions. Hope you have moved on and are doing well!! Thanks for chatting with me.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:22 pm
he was close with the older two, kaitlyn and douglas. he did not live at home he lived in bel air. he didnt get another with john because that wasnt his biological father, john kinda looked down on him. and susan and josh didnt have a great relationship. one minute they loved each other the next screaming at each other. he didnt notice how frail he had gotten. i saw the kids more then he did because i went to college down there. and i didnt notice it either because i would have done something about it. i am doing well thank you, it took some time and healing but i know i cant blame joshua 100% for how he treated me.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Did Joshua know his biological father?
April 17th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Well, they both got 25 years in jail with 2 years of probation following their sentence! Still not enough for the show those two put on. I sat through a lot of the trial, including the verdict and sentencing today. The judge was appalled that there was no voice present to speak for Andrew! Judge Martin spoke a lot of how he truly felt and that was admirable. It was nice to see him call them out on their bullcrap. It made me want to cheer. It really was a shame that not the grandmother, uncle, aunts…no one spoke on Andrew’s behalf as they were all concerned about John going to prison. Who cares? That’s where he deserves to be. Judge Martin said with no voice, Andrew was a nobody. That’s so sad. Since he couldn’t walk, I bet they left him home when they went to the store and stuff. He wasn’t even able to pull himself up in the BASSINET the 34 mo old slept in! His body had begun to consume his muscles, fat and organs in an attempt to keep him alive. He had begun to grow hair on his back in his body’s effort to keep him warm as his circulation wasn’t doing the job any longer. His brain had begun to shrink. The autopsy photos were horrific! I hope they rot in hell!
April 19th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
[...] of the firmer bloggers here at PBB previously blogged about John and Susan Griffin here and [...]
July 31st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
John1460, why don’t you just go pervert somewhere else? If you don’t stop doing those meaningless spam attacks, then you’d better wait until Trench will finally close down this thread. You want that? You really have nothing valuable to add. You are one vile, disgusting creature.
*wonders when we’d finally gone too far and when Trench Reynolds would finally close down this thread due to this current spam attack posted by John1460*
August 4th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
josh did not know his biological father. Hardly saw his mom and did not get along with his step dad. His grandmother and gradnfather basically raised him. When his grandmother passes his mother said it was Josh’s fault for her death…