TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Homes across Florida are being stolen, many without the knowledge of the homeowner.

Criminals are committing fraud by changing property titles, even if someone already lives in the home. A recent LexisNexis study found mortgage scams were up 51% last year.

Matt Cox served 12 years in federal prison after he stole titles and used fake identities to take mortgages on property in Florida and other states. He stole tens of millions of dollars from more than 100 victims.

“I knew nobody was going to be notified and I knew that was difficult to find me after the crime had occurred,” Cox said. “I believe the FBI said it’s one of the fastest-growing property crimes out there.”

Florida politics:

Counties in Florida are trying to prevent this crime by offering a title alert program.

“Hopefully this will encourage even more people to sign up for these owner alerts in order for us to combat fraud,” Florida Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, (D) Parkland, said.

Hunschofsky said this new law is all about protecting consumers.

“We want to make sure you’re protected, to make sure nothing is happening to your property or title that could take away property from you,” Hunschofsky said.

Lawmakers considered other proposals to fight title fraud, but they died during the last legislative session. Cox said more needs to be done to prevent the crime.

“You being notified allows you to notify law enforcement and they can look for me. But even if they find me they are not going to fix the title to your home,” Cox said.

It’s hard to track title fraud because often criminals are charged with other crimes like mortgage fraud.

Residents can contact their local property appraiser to check if they have a monitoring service that notifies people of any changes to their home title.

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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 galavanting 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 at the scene Sunday said that Collin showed “zero emotion” after allegedly killing his mother.

Neighbors say that 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 onto 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 then told police that his father had cornered him in the house and, in an act of self-defense, he 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 PCSO requested he be tried as an adult.

With Post wires

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — A school district in northeast Florida must put back in libraries three dozen books as part of a settlement reached Thursday with students and parents who sued over what they said was an unlawful decision to limit access to dozens of titles containing LGBTQ+ content.

Under the agreement the School Board of Nassau County must restore access to three dozen titles including “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s picture book based on a true story about two male penguins that raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson were plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the district, which is about 35 miles (about 60 kilometers) northeast of Jacksonville along the Georgia border.

The suit was one of several challenges to book bans since state lawmakers last year passed, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law, legislation making it easier to challenge educational materials that opponents consider pornographic and obscene. Last month six major publishers and several well-known authors filed a federal lawsuit in Orlando arguing that some provisions of the law violate the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students.

“Fighting unconstitutional legislation in Florida and across the country is an urgent priority,” Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Sourcebooks said in a statement.

Among the books removed in Nassau County were titles by Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jodi Picoult and Alice Sebold.

Under the settlement the school district agreed that “And Tango Makes Three” is not obscene, is appropriate for students of all ages and has value related to teaching.

“Students will once again have access to books from well-known and highly-lauded authors representing a broad range of viewpoints and ideas,” Lauren Zimmerman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement.

Brett Steger, an attorney for the school district, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.