POLK COUNTY, Fla. — In a little over a week, three children in Polk County have lost their lives at the hands of the very people who were supposed to protect them.
“There are very, very, very few people that would murder their child, but anyone that would murder their child is too many,” said Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff.
According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Stephen Thomas Rodda killed his 16-year-old son Monday morning in Lake Wales.
On Aug. 27, a Lake Wales mother, Brandy Hutchins, shot and killed her 10-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter before turning the gun on herself.
"It’s a shattering event for all of us because children are supposed to live forever. Children aren't supposed to die, and parents are supposed to protect them and take all efforts to do that,” Judd said.
Sheriff Judd said Hutchins was involved in a custody dispute with her ex-husband. A judge ordered Hutchins to turn the boy over to the father, who lives in Maine.
According to investigators, no evidence suggested that she might engage in violence.
Considering these recent tragedies, ABC Action News went straight to a legal expert to determine what families can do to protect children at risk of parental harm.
“We have seen this in a number of cases, where the parent who has an attachment or custody of the child, says if I can't have this child, you can’t have this child. And they literally kill their children rather than let the other parent have any visitation or control over the child,” said Jeffrey Swartz, Professor of Law at Cooley Law School.
Swartz said not much can be done unless there’s a history of violence.
"Either parent can go to domestic violence courts and seek injunctions against an offending parent. That is to say that there have either been threats, stalking, or repeated efforts or actions that endanger the child,” said Swartz. “Or they go back to the judge who handled the divorce in the first place asking for a modification of that child sharing order that was entered,” he said.
A new state law called “Greyson’s Law,” passed earlier this year, makes it easier for a judge to remove a child from a parent or guardian if there are concerns about threats or abuse to the child and the other parent.
“They can take into consideration threats by one parent against another. Threats by a parent or actions which actually are harmful to the child as to whether a parent should be denied, either any child sharing or have only child sharing which is supervised,” said Swartz.
The law is named after 4-year-old Greyson Kessler, who was killed by his father in a murder-suicide in Broward County.
