November 21, 2025 • 20 mins
Two Florida cases, two sets of parents, and two stories that should’ve never been allowed to happen in the first place.
In the first case, six-year-old Anthony Rouse is found unresponsive in a bathtub. His parents claim he drowned… but the truth came out in text messages, a dog cage, and a sibling’s terrified confession.
The second case takes another turn. Nine children removed from a home full of locks, plywood, vinegar spray, and stories no child should ever tell. It looked like an airtight child-abuse prosecution ... until it wasn't.
Two cases and two endings no one saw coming.
And a reminder that sometimes the most dangerous people in a child’s life are the ones tucking them into bed.
Listen now to this Florida Man Friday.
**************************************
Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you’d like to hear about? Let me know with an email or a voice message: https://murderandlove.com/contact
Find the sources used in this episode and learn more about how to support Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide and gain access to even more cases, including bonus episodes, ad-free and intro-free cases, case files and more at: https://murderandlove.com
Music:
℗ lesfreemusic
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-and-murder-heartbreak-to-homicide--4348896/support.
In the first case, six-year-old Anthony Rouse is found unresponsive in a bathtub. His parents claim he drowned… but the truth came out in text messages, a dog cage, and a sibling’s terrified confession.
The second case takes another turn. Nine children removed from a home full of locks, plywood, vinegar spray, and stories no child should ever tell. It looked like an airtight child-abuse prosecution ... until it wasn't.
Two cases and two endings no one saw coming.
And a reminder that sometimes the most dangerous people in a child’s life are the ones tucking them into bed.
Listen now to this Florida Man Friday.
**************************************
Do you have thoughts about this case, or is there a specific true crime case you’d like to hear about? Let me know with an email or a voice message: https://murderandlove.com/contact
Find the sources used in this episode and learn more about how to support Love and Murder: Heartbreak to Homicide and gain access to even more cases, including bonus episodes, ad-free and intro-free cases, case files and more at: https://murderandlove.com
Music:
℗ lesfreemusic
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-and-murder-heartbreak-to-homicide--4348896/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today's episode covers two disturbing cases of child abuse, each
one hard to hear in, both with shocking.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Endings, and you'll want to wait around until the end
of the second case. The ending will make you want
to flip your table over.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Listener discretion is strongly advised. This episode contains details involving
harm to children. Welcome to Love and Murder, Heartbreak to
Homicide were Kai's AI co hosts bringing you your Florida
Man Friday case researched and written by Kai. Before we begin,
remember that Love and Murder is completely listener funded, So
(00:37):
if you want to help us keep sharing these stories
and giving victims a voice, join the lamfam at patreon
dot com Slash Love and Murder. You'll get ad free episodes,
bonus cases, and exclusive content while supporting a show that
speaks for those who can Patreon dot com Slash Love
and Murder.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now let's get into today's Florida Man Friday cases.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The nine one one call came in on the afternoon
of April the twenty second, twenty twenty three. Deputies with
the Polk County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a home
in Eagle Lake Florida for a child drowning. When first
responders walked into that bathroom, they found six year old
Anthony Rowse unresponsive in the tub. He was rushed to
(01:22):
Saint Joseph's Hospital in Tampa and put on life support,
but he showed no brain activity. Two days later, on
April twenty fourth, he was pronounced dead. His mother, Elise Seymour,
who also goes by Alie's Blancita Rivera, and her husband
Trey Seymour, said it was a suicide, a six year
old suicide. Anthony's foster mother, Casey Metzger, remembered him as
(01:49):
a really happy baby who loved swimming. His biological father,
Andre Rousse, a commercial fisherman, said Anthony was an energetic
person who loved fishing so much he wants pulled in
a twenty five pound stingray. He was offshore working when
Anthony died and learned what happened only when he got back.
Anthony had asked for a Nintendo switch and poor Patrol
(02:11):
games in the last conversation Andrea ever had with him.
Andre had raised him for most of the past four
years until losing custody because of a domestic violence incident.
With an ex girlfriend. Anthony was only five when he
was placed back with a Lee's She was twenty five
at the time, and Trey was twenty seven. Six other
children lived in the home with them. When investigators got
(02:34):
warrants for Ali's and Trey's phones, their text messages told
the whole story, and it was worse than anything anyone imagined.
They had a dog cage in the garage, a full
sized crate where they routinely locked Anthony for hours. They
even used it to hide him when people came over.
Nine days before Anthony died on March thirty, first, they
(02:56):
texted back and forth about how he got caught stealing
quote a handful of noodles for that, He was put
in the cage, escaped, and then was put right back inside.
The next night April first, Alize was furious. She wrote, bro,
I'm gonna end up killing this fat brett. My house
is getting freaking dirty cars of him, walls in the
(03:18):
garage turning freaking black, got marks and stuff like bro.
And then she sent Trey a video of Anthony locked
inside the cage, texting.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
He can stay in that freaking crap and rat.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
The abuse was NonStop on April second, she told Trey
he quote stayed up all night drunk torturing Anthony. On
April fourth and April seventh, she texted I hate him.
On April fifteenth, she said she didn't know if Anthony
had hurt himself because she was quote too busy with
the other kids I love and care about. The day
(03:52):
before he died April twenty first, she texted, I want
to put him up for adoption, and then, in one
of the most disturbing messages in this entire case, she
told Trey that if she ever killed Anthony, she would
do it to the song street Runner by Rod Wave.
Alize didn't just abuse Anthony herself, she got the other
(04:13):
kids involved. Investigators found that she'd made a reward system
with candy or food if the siblings helped beat him
or lock him in the cage. The signs of long
term abuse were everywhere. Hospital staff noticed scars, cigarette burns,
rectal bleeding, and injuries that had healed and was re injured.
(04:34):
In addition to all of this, their living conditions were horrible.
The kid's bedroom was piled with clothes soaked in urine
and feces. The room had no electricity, and the door
lock was installed backwards so the kids could be locked
in from the outside. Anthony had medication he needed, but
he wasn't getting it, and that brings us back to
(04:54):
April twenty second. Alisee told police she locked Anthony in
the bathroom and told him to take a bath because
he had urinated on himself. She claimed that she checked
on him twenty minutes later after scrolling through TikTok and
found that the door was locked. She had to pry
it open with a fork and that's when she found
him face down in the water. Then she changed her
(05:17):
story again and said she quote could not remember the
incident clearly because when she thinks about it, she gets anxiety.
Tray claimed that he found Anthony and started CPR, but
none of that was true. Detectives discovered that the breakers
to that bathroom had been cut, the room was deliberately
(05:37):
left completely dark, no electricity and no natural light. They
also learned that Anthony was forced to use that specific
bathroom because elise didn't trust him in the master bathroom
where everything actually worked. It wasn't until May third, when
one of the siblings finally broke down during a second
interview that the truth came out, he admitted he had
(05:59):
lied at first because Elize threatened him. She told him
if he told the truth, Trey would go to jail,
and if Tray went to jail, she would choke him.
The sibling told investigators that Anthony had gotten in trouble
for stealing food again, and in their house, going swimming
didn't mean playing in the water, It meant drowning. He
(06:20):
demonstrated to detectives how Tray held Anthony's head underwater. He
said Trey used a choke hold on all the boys
to make them sleep, and he watched Trey drown his brother.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That child carried that secret until he couldn't anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Then the autopsy came back and showed what everyone already suspected.
Anthony had suffered years of abuse. Once investigators had the messages,
the autopsy, the sibling interviews, and the conditions inside the house,
the story was clear. Anthony didn't drown in an accident.
He didn't drown alone. He wasn't suicidal. He was drowned
(06:57):
on purpose. Polk County investigators arrested Allies and Trey in
May twenty twenty three. All of the surviving children were
immediately removed and placed with the Department of Children and Families. Then,
on August thirty first, twenty twenty three, a grand jury
indicted both of them on charges of first degree murder,
(07:21):
aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, two additional
felony child abuse charges, and causing a miner to become
delinquent or dependent. On top of that, Alise was hit
with a charge for tampering with a witness in a
capital felony case because she threatened her own child into lying.
(07:42):
Both were held without bond At first, both of them
did exactly what people like them always do. They pleaded
not guilty. But you can only run from the evidence
for so long, and Trey broke first. On January twenty second,
he took a plea deal. Instead of going to trial
for first degree murder, he pled guilty to lesser charges
(08:05):
second degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child abuse,
and causing a minor to become delinquent or dependent. That
please saved him from the death penalty and from the
possibility of life without parole. Instead, he was sentenced to
thirty years in prison, and the biggest condition he had
to agree to testify against Alis at her trial. The
(08:29):
plan was to move forward with jury selection for Alis
on July twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. She was staring
down first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, child abuse, and the
witness tampering charge. But just moments before jury selection was
supposed to begin, Elise folded she signed a plea agreement
(08:50):
right there on the spot. She pled guilty to only
two counts of aggravated child abuse. That's it, not the
murder charge, not the manslaughter charge. She pled to the abuse,
and the rest was dropped as part of the agreement.
A judge sentenced her to twenty years in prison on
(09:10):
each count, to be served concurrently, and she avoided a
murder trial altogether. Trey gets thirty years, she gets twenty,
and Anthony gets a headstone. The thing that sticks with me,
beyond the messages, beyond the cage, beyond everything, is that
the final moments of Anthony's life were in a dark
(09:31):
bathroom with the breakers turned off, while the person who
was supposed to protect him held his head underwater. Anthony
was six. He would have been alive, asking for snacks,
still running around outside, still calling his dad, to talk
about what he caught that day. Instead, his life ended
in a bathroom with no light, and his killers, because
(09:52):
that's what they are, will eventually walk free again. Even
Sheriff Grady Judde said, quote, jail is too good for them,
and honestly, after going through the details of this case,
I agree with him wholeheartedly. And that's the end of
the first case. Let us know your thoughts on this
in the comments below or over in the Patreon patron
(10:14):
dot com slash love and Murder. The next case happened
on July third, twenty twenty five, when Columbia County Deputies
were asked by DCF to help with a court ordered
pickup of nine children from the home of Brian and
Jill Griffith in Fort White, Florida. The Griffiths weren't a
(10:34):
small household. Four adults lived there, Brian, who was forty seven, Jill,
who was forty one, and their adult children, twenty one
year old Dallen and nineteen year old Liberty. They were
raising nine minor children between the ages of seven and sixteen.
Five were their biological kids, and four were adopted privately
(10:54):
back in Arizona. All together, the family of thirteen moved
into a three bedroom, two bathroom mobile home when they
came to Fort White in twenty twenty four, and right
away people around them began noticing things that didn't feel right.
A few days before the state moved in, one of
the children showed up to a church camp with an
electronic stun gun. Brian tried to play it off, saying
(11:17):
it was a fake toy, but police later confirmed it
was real. That alone didn't trigger the investigation, but it
added to a growing stack of concerns. A church employee
contacted DCF saying that they were worried the adopted children,
mostly black children, were being treated differently from the biological kids.
(11:38):
It was described as the adopted kids being workers, not
family members, and when investigators visited the home, that's exactly
what they said they saw happening, the adopted kids doing
chores while the biological children played or watched TV. Even
basic information was off. Some of the children didn't know
(11:59):
their own birthday. During supervised conversations, the kids would look
at Jill for the answer, or she would pull out
her phone to check. Jill didn't want investigators talking to
the kids at all at first, which didn't help her case.
There had also been a tenth foster child, another girl
who lived with them in twenty twenty four. She wasn't
(12:20):
there anymore because she'd called her mother in Arizona, crying
and begging to be taken home. Afterward, that Arizona mother
told investigators that at least one adult in the house
had sexually assaulted at least one child. The documents were
heavily redacted, but the allegation was there. Once the July
third pickup happened and the nine children were removed, child
(12:43):
Protection Team investigators began interviewing them, That's where the real
picture came out. One of the boys, fourteen years old,
said he was locked under the bottom bunk of a
three tier bed most of the day and night. The
adults used plywood to seal him in and a green
drill to screw it down because, according to them, he
had a tendency to steal. He was only let out
(13:05):
for lunch, dinner, or when the other boys asked at
night if he had to use the bathroom. He said
he had to hold it until morning. Two younger children,
ages nine and seven, backed up his story, and it
wasn't just confinement. The kids described physical punishments too. Brian
was accused of beating the adopted children with a cane,
(13:26):
but being careful not to leave a mark. Jill had
her own system. According to a boy who lived it,
she would force him to lie on the floor, put
a sheet of plywood over his body, and pressed down
hard enough that he got splinters and scars. He told
investigators that she once unscrewed the plywood to take it off,
pressed it on to him again, then screwed it back
(13:47):
in place so he couldn't get out. Another child said
they were sprayed in the face with vinegar. A fourteen
year old girl said Jill would spray her before bed,
and the vinegar burned her eyes, making her cry herself
to sleep. None of the kids described a home where
they felt safe. They said they were given medications that
(14:09):
weren't prescribed to them. Some said their doors were locked
at night. Others said they were instructed to lie to investigators,
and when it came to education, the story didn't get
any better. One girl said she couldn't read, didn't know
her grade level, and hadn't been to school in six
or seven years. Meanwhile, the biological kids had cell phones
(14:30):
and the foster or adopted kids did not. Jill told
one of the girls she would get a phone when
she learned to read. With those interviews, the state moved forward.
On July twenty second, twenty twenty five, all four adults, Brian, Jill, Daln,
and Liberty were arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse.
(14:52):
They were taken to the Columbia County Detention Center. Bond
was set at five hundred thousand dollars for each of
them at first. Later documents showed Jill's bond listed at
one point five million dollars. Dallen and Liberty eventually had
their bond lowered. From the outside, it looked like the
start of a major child abuse prosecution, one that had
(15:14):
multiple victims, detailed statements, and physical descriptions that matched what
investigators reportedly saw inside that home. But this case was
about to take a hard left turn. By the time
investigators finished removing the children and filing charges, it looked
like the state had an air tight case. Nine kids
telling similar stories. A tenth child in Arizona who had
(15:37):
begged to leave, descriptions of cage's plywood, vinegar canes and
constant chores, while the biological kids played. Anyone watching this
unfold would have assumed the next step was a trial
that would take months, but instead everything flipped almost overnight.
By late October, prosecutors made a move nobody expected. They
(15:59):
dropped every single charge against Brian, Jill Dalen, and Liberty.
They said they were dismissing the case in the interest
of justice, which is usually code for we can't prove
this in court, so we're backing out. And when the
dismissal paperwork became public on November third, it became clear
(16:19):
the prosecution had changed how they viewed almost every allegation.
Most of that reversal centred on one child, the same
child who had described being locked under the bunk bed.
According to the dismissal, the defense brought forward what prosecutors
called copious evidence about that child's history of violence toward
(16:41):
other kids, adults, and even animals, and said he had
been removed from the home because of his behavior. That
new information, they argued, would make a jury see the
family not as abusers, but as overwhelmed parents, addressing the
situation in a manner they deem a pro ropriate while
(17:01):
trying to protect the other children in a very small house.
The prosecutors wrote that they cannot refute such an argument,
and that wasn't the only thing that suddenly got reinterpreted.
The vinegar, which multiple kids described being sprayed directly into
their eyes, was reframed as a diluted, homemade version of
(17:22):
something called sassy spray, which the state described as a
modern version of soap in the mouth. The prosecution even
said some of the original allegations came from what they
now called sellacious gossip, and they criticized DCF investigators for
what they called incredulous statements that got the case started
in the first place. And just like that, after weeks
(17:44):
of graphic allegations and a mountain of interviews, everything collapsed.
No trial, no jury, no verdict, no sentencing. On October
thirty first, twoenty twenty five, every charge was droped, the
Griffiths walked away without a criminal record from this case,
and the state closed the file. The ending didn't match
(18:08):
the beginning at all. What started as a horrific picture
painted by nine children, a foster child who fled back
to Arizona, and a mandatory reporter terrified about what was
happening inside that house, ended with prosecutors defending the parents'
actions and calling the original complaints gossip. And that's where
the story ends, not with a courtroom showdown or a verdict,
(18:31):
but with a legal system deciding it didn't have the
evidence to move forward. Whether that was the right call
depends entirely on who you believe, and that's where we're
ending today's Florida Man Friday episode. Two cases that never
should have been allowed happened, two children who deserved so
much better, and a reminder that the danger isn't always
(18:54):
from strangers, it's often from those right inside their home.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
If you suspect child abuse, call the child Help National
Child Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred for a child
or one eight hundred four two two four four five three,
or go to Childhelp dot org. All calls are toll
free and confidential. The hotline is available twenty four to
seven in more than one hundred seventy languages.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What did you think of these cases? Let us know
in the comments below or over in the Patreon patreon
dot com slash Love and Murder. Kai always wants to
hear your thoughts and if you want extras like exclusive
bonus episodes, case is too sensitive to put out to
the public, case extras and more. Then join the lamfam
(19:42):
on Patreon at patreon dot com Slash Love and Murder.
If you one in, it's cheap, starting at three dollars
or five dollars, depending on what bonuses you're looking for.
Patreon dot com Slash Love and Murder. The link is
also in the show notes below. Thank you for listening
all the way to the end. Thank you for your support,
(20:02):
and we'll see you in the next episode.
Today's episode covers two disturbing cases of child abuse, each
one hard to hear in, both with shocking.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Endings, and you'll want to wait around until the end
of the second case. The ending will make you want
to flip your table over.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Listener discretion is strongly advised. This episode contains details involving
harm to children. Welcome to Love and Murder, Heartbreak to
Homicide were Kai's AI co hosts bringing you your Florida
Man Friday case researched and written by Kai. Before we begin,
remember that Love and Murder is completely listener funded, So
(00:37):
if you want to help us keep sharing these stories
and giving victims a voice, join the lamfam at patreon
dot com Slash Love and Murder. You'll get ad free episodes,
bonus cases, and exclusive content while supporting a show that
speaks for those who can Patreon dot com Slash Love
and Murder.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now let's get into today's Florida Man Friday cases.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
The nine one one call came in on the afternoon
of April the twenty second, twenty twenty three. Deputies with
the Polk County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a home
in Eagle Lake Florida for a child drowning. When first
responders walked into that bathroom, they found six year old
Anthony Rowse unresponsive in the tub. He was rushed to
(01:22):
Saint Joseph's Hospital in Tampa and put on life support,
but he showed no brain activity. Two days later, on
April twenty fourth, he was pronounced dead. His mother, Elise Seymour,
who also goes by Alie's Blancita Rivera, and her husband
Trey Seymour, said it was a suicide, a six year
old suicide. Anthony's foster mother, Casey Metzger, remembered him as
(01:49):
a really happy baby who loved swimming. His biological father,
Andre Rousse, a commercial fisherman, said Anthony was an energetic
person who loved fishing so much he wants pulled in
a twenty five pound stingray. He was offshore working when
Anthony died and learned what happened only when he got back.
Anthony had asked for a Nintendo switch and poor Patrol
(02:11):
games in the last conversation Andrea ever had with him.
Andre had raised him for most of the past four
years until losing custody because of a domestic violence incident.
With an ex girlfriend. Anthony was only five when he
was placed back with a Lee's She was twenty five
at the time, and Trey was twenty seven. Six other
children lived in the home with them. When investigators got
(02:34):
warrants for Ali's and Trey's phones, their text messages told
the whole story, and it was worse than anything anyone imagined.
They had a dog cage in the garage, a full
sized crate where they routinely locked Anthony for hours. They
even used it to hide him when people came over.
Nine days before Anthony died on March thirty, first, they
(02:56):
texted back and forth about how he got caught stealing
quote a handful of noodles for that, He was put
in the cage, escaped, and then was put right back inside.
The next night April first, Alize was furious. She wrote, bro,
I'm gonna end up killing this fat brett. My house
is getting freaking dirty cars of him, walls in the
(03:18):
garage turning freaking black, got marks and stuff like bro.
And then she sent Trey a video of Anthony locked
inside the cage, texting.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
He can stay in that freaking crap and rat.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
The abuse was NonStop on April second, she told Trey
he quote stayed up all night drunk torturing Anthony. On
April fourth and April seventh, she texted I hate him.
On April fifteenth, she said she didn't know if Anthony
had hurt himself because she was quote too busy with
the other kids I love and care about. The day
(03:52):
before he died April twenty first, she texted, I want
to put him up for adoption, and then, in one
of the most disturbing messages in this entire case, she
told Trey that if she ever killed Anthony, she would
do it to the song street Runner by Rod Wave.
Alize didn't just abuse Anthony herself, she got the other
(04:13):
kids involved. Investigators found that she'd made a reward system
with candy or food if the siblings helped beat him
or lock him in the cage. The signs of long
term abuse were everywhere. Hospital staff noticed scars, cigarette burns,
rectal bleeding, and injuries that had healed and was re injured.
(04:34):
In addition to all of this, their living conditions were horrible.
The kid's bedroom was piled with clothes soaked in urine
and feces. The room had no electricity, and the door
lock was installed backwards so the kids could be locked
in from the outside. Anthony had medication he needed, but
he wasn't getting it, and that brings us back to
(04:54):
April twenty second. Alisee told police she locked Anthony in
the bathroom and told him to take a bath because
he had urinated on himself. She claimed that she checked
on him twenty minutes later after scrolling through TikTok and
found that the door was locked. She had to pry
it open with a fork and that's when she found
him face down in the water. Then she changed her
(05:17):
story again and said she quote could not remember the
incident clearly because when she thinks about it, she gets anxiety.
Tray claimed that he found Anthony and started CPR, but
none of that was true. Detectives discovered that the breakers
to that bathroom had been cut, the room was deliberately
(05:37):
left completely dark, no electricity and no natural light. They
also learned that Anthony was forced to use that specific
bathroom because elise didn't trust him in the master bathroom
where everything actually worked. It wasn't until May third, when
one of the siblings finally broke down during a second
interview that the truth came out, he admitted he had
(05:59):
lied at first because Elize threatened him. She told him
if he told the truth, Trey would go to jail,
and if Tray went to jail, she would choke him.
The sibling told investigators that Anthony had gotten in trouble
for stealing food again, and in their house, going swimming
didn't mean playing in the water, It meant drowning. He
(06:20):
demonstrated to detectives how Tray held Anthony's head underwater. He
said Trey used a choke hold on all the boys
to make them sleep, and he watched Trey drown his brother.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
That child carried that secret until he couldn't anymore.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Then the autopsy came back and showed what everyone already suspected.
Anthony had suffered years of abuse. Once investigators had the messages,
the autopsy, the sibling interviews, and the conditions inside the house,
the story was clear. Anthony didn't drown in an accident.
He didn't drown alone. He wasn't suicidal. He was drowned
(06:57):
on purpose. Polk County investigators arrested Allies and Trey in
May twenty twenty three. All of the surviving children were
immediately removed and placed with the Department of Children and Families. Then,
on August thirty first, twenty twenty three, a grand jury
indicted both of them on charges of first degree murder,
(07:21):
aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child, two additional
felony child abuse charges, and causing a miner to become
delinquent or dependent. On top of that, Alise was hit
with a charge for tampering with a witness in a
capital felony case because she threatened her own child into lying.
(07:42):
Both were held without bond At first, both of them
did exactly what people like them always do. They pleaded
not guilty. But you can only run from the evidence
for so long, and Trey broke first. On January twenty second,
he took a plea deal. Instead of going to trial
for first degree murder, he pled guilty to lesser charges
(08:05):
second degree murder, aggravated manslaughter of a child, child abuse,
and causing a minor to become delinquent or dependent. That
please saved him from the death penalty and from the
possibility of life without parole. Instead, he was sentenced to
thirty years in prison, and the biggest condition he had
to agree to testify against Alis at her trial. The
(08:29):
plan was to move forward with jury selection for Alis
on July twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. She was staring
down first degree murder, aggravated manslaughter, child abuse, and the
witness tampering charge. But just moments before jury selection was
supposed to begin, Elise folded she signed a plea agreement
(08:50):
right there on the spot. She pled guilty to only
two counts of aggravated child abuse. That's it, not the
murder charge, not the manslaughter charge. She pled to the abuse,
and the rest was dropped as part of the agreement.
A judge sentenced her to twenty years in prison on
(09:10):
each count, to be served concurrently, and she avoided a
murder trial altogether. Trey gets thirty years, she gets twenty,
and Anthony gets a headstone. The thing that sticks with me,
beyond the messages, beyond the cage, beyond everything, is that
the final moments of Anthony's life were in a dark
(09:31):
bathroom with the breakers turned off, while the person who
was supposed to protect him held his head underwater. Anthony
was six. He would have been alive, asking for snacks,
still running around outside, still calling his dad, to talk
about what he caught that day. Instead, his life ended
in a bathroom with no light, and his killers, because
(09:52):
that's what they are, will eventually walk free again. Even
Sheriff Grady Judde said, quote, jail is too good for them,
and honestly, after going through the details of this case,
I agree with him wholeheartedly. And that's the end of
the first case. Let us know your thoughts on this
in the comments below or over in the Patreon patron
(10:14):
dot com slash love and Murder. The next case happened
on July third, twenty twenty five, when Columbia County Deputies
were asked by DCF to help with a court ordered
pickup of nine children from the home of Brian and
Jill Griffith in Fort White, Florida. The Griffiths weren't a
(10:34):
small household. Four adults lived there, Brian, who was forty seven, Jill,
who was forty one, and their adult children, twenty one
year old Dallen and nineteen year old Liberty. They were
raising nine minor children between the ages of seven and sixteen.
Five were their biological kids, and four were adopted privately
(10:54):
back in Arizona. All together, the family of thirteen moved
into a three bedroom, two bathroom mobile home when they
came to Fort White in twenty twenty four, and right
away people around them began noticing things that didn't feel right.
A few days before the state moved in, one of
the children showed up to a church camp with an
electronic stun gun. Brian tried to play it off, saying
(11:17):
it was a fake toy, but police later confirmed it
was real. That alone didn't trigger the investigation, but it
added to a growing stack of concerns. A church employee
contacted DCF saying that they were worried the adopted children,
mostly black children, were being treated differently from the biological kids.
(11:38):
It was described as the adopted kids being workers, not
family members, and when investigators visited the home, that's exactly
what they said they saw happening, the adopted kids doing
chores while the biological children played or watched TV. Even
basic information was off. Some of the children didn't know
(11:59):
their own birthday. During supervised conversations, the kids would look
at Jill for the answer, or she would pull out
her phone to check. Jill didn't want investigators talking to
the kids at all at first, which didn't help her case.
There had also been a tenth foster child, another girl
who lived with them in twenty twenty four. She wasn't
(12:20):
there anymore because she'd called her mother in Arizona, crying
and begging to be taken home. Afterward, that Arizona mother
told investigators that at least one adult in the house
had sexually assaulted at least one child. The documents were
heavily redacted, but the allegation was there. Once the July
third pickup happened and the nine children were removed, child
(12:43):
Protection Team investigators began interviewing them, That's where the real
picture came out. One of the boys, fourteen years old,
said he was locked under the bottom bunk of a
three tier bed most of the day and night. The
adults used plywood to seal him in and a green
drill to screw it down because, according to them, he
had a tendency to steal. He was only let out
(13:05):
for lunch, dinner, or when the other boys asked at
night if he had to use the bathroom. He said
he had to hold it until morning. Two younger children,
ages nine and seven, backed up his story, and it
wasn't just confinement. The kids described physical punishments too. Brian
was accused of beating the adopted children with a cane,
(13:26):
but being careful not to leave a mark. Jill had
her own system. According to a boy who lived it,
she would force him to lie on the floor, put
a sheet of plywood over his body, and pressed down
hard enough that he got splinters and scars. He told
investigators that she once unscrewed the plywood to take it off,
pressed it on to him again, then screwed it back
(13:47):
in place so he couldn't get out. Another child said
they were sprayed in the face with vinegar. A fourteen
year old girl said Jill would spray her before bed,
and the vinegar burned her eyes, making her cry herself
to sleep. None of the kids described a home where
they felt safe. They said they were given medications that
(14:09):
weren't prescribed to them. Some said their doors were locked
at night. Others said they were instructed to lie to investigators,
and when it came to education, the story didn't get
any better. One girl said she couldn't read, didn't know
her grade level, and hadn't been to school in six
or seven years. Meanwhile, the biological kids had cell phones
(14:30):
and the foster or adopted kids did not. Jill told
one of the girls she would get a phone when
she learned to read. With those interviews, the state moved forward.
On July twenty second, twenty twenty five, all four adults, Brian, Jill, Daln,
and Liberty were arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse.
(14:52):
They were taken to the Columbia County Detention Center. Bond
was set at five hundred thousand dollars for each of
them at first. Later documents showed Jill's bond listed at
one point five million dollars. Dallen and Liberty eventually had
their bond lowered. From the outside, it looked like the
start of a major child abuse prosecution, one that had
(15:14):
multiple victims, detailed statements, and physical descriptions that matched what
investigators reportedly saw inside that home. But this case was
about to take a hard left turn. By the time
investigators finished removing the children and filing charges, it looked
like the state had an air tight case. Nine kids
telling similar stories. A tenth child in Arizona who had
(15:37):
begged to leave, descriptions of cage's plywood, vinegar canes and
constant chores, while the biological kids played. Anyone watching this
unfold would have assumed the next step was a trial
that would take months, but instead everything flipped almost overnight.
By late October, prosecutors made a move nobody expected. They
(15:59):
dropped every single charge against Brian, Jill Dalen, and Liberty.
They said they were dismissing the case in the interest
of justice, which is usually code for we can't prove
this in court, so we're backing out. And when the
dismissal paperwork became public on November third, it became clear
(16:19):
the prosecution had changed how they viewed almost every allegation.
Most of that reversal centred on one child, the same
child who had described being locked under the bunk bed.
According to the dismissal, the defense brought forward what prosecutors
called copious evidence about that child's history of violence toward
(16:41):
other kids, adults, and even animals, and said he had
been removed from the home because of his behavior. That
new information, they argued, would make a jury see the
family not as abusers, but as overwhelmed parents, addressing the
situation in a manner they deem a pro ropriate while
(17:01):
trying to protect the other children in a very small house.
The prosecutors wrote that they cannot refute such an argument,
and that wasn't the only thing that suddenly got reinterpreted.
The vinegar, which multiple kids described being sprayed directly into
their eyes, was reframed as a diluted, homemade version of
(17:22):
something called sassy spray, which the state described as a
modern version of soap in the mouth. The prosecution even
said some of the original allegations came from what they
now called sellacious gossip, and they criticized DCF investigators for
what they called incredulous statements that got the case started
in the first place. And just like that, after weeks
(17:44):
of graphic allegations and a mountain of interviews, everything collapsed.
No trial, no jury, no verdict, no sentencing. On October
thirty first, twoenty twenty five, every charge was droped, the
Griffiths walked away without a criminal record from this case,
and the state closed the file. The ending didn't match
(18:08):
the beginning at all. What started as a horrific picture
painted by nine children, a foster child who fled back
to Arizona, and a mandatory reporter terrified about what was
happening inside that house, ended with prosecutors defending the parents'
actions and calling the original complaints gossip. And that's where
the story ends, not with a courtroom showdown or a verdict,
(18:31):
but with a legal system deciding it didn't have the
evidence to move forward. Whether that was the right call
depends entirely on who you believe, and that's where we're
ending today's Florida Man Friday episode. Two cases that never
should have been allowed happened, two children who deserved so
much better, and a reminder that the danger isn't always
(18:54):
from strangers, it's often from those right inside their home.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
If you suspect child abuse, call the child Help National
Child Abuse Hotline at one eight hundred for a child
or one eight hundred four two two four four five three,
or go to Childhelp dot org. All calls are toll
free and confidential. The hotline is available twenty four to
seven in more than one hundred seventy languages.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
What did you think of these cases? Let us know
in the comments below or over in the Patreon patreon
dot com slash Love and Murder. Kai always wants to
hear your thoughts and if you want extras like exclusive
bonus episodes, case is too sensitive to put out to
the public, case extras and more. Then join the lamfam
(19:42):
on Patreon at patreon dot com Slash Love and Murder.
If you one in, it's cheap, starting at three dollars
or five dollars, depending on what bonuses you're looking for.
Patreon dot com Slash Love and Murder. The link is
also in the show notes below. Thank you for listening
all the way to the end. Thank you for your support,
(20:02):
and we'll see you in the next episode.
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