Sixteen-year-old “Stephen Lee Rodda wasn’t just a great kid,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. “He was an outstanding kid.”
An 11th-grader at Frostproof High School, Rodda was scheduled to begin working at Burger King this week, so he could earn enough money to buy a car. In the meantime, he was attending high school full time, studying to become an electrician, said Judd.
When Rodda’a grandmother was injured and placed in a rehabilitation center, Stephen Rodda, who had been living with his mother in Lake Wales, volunteered to temporarily move in with his grandfather, Thomas Rodda, 65, to help out until his grandmother returned home.
“That’s the kind of kid Stephen Rodda was,” Judd said.
Thomas Rodda’s son and Stephen Rodda’s father, Stephen Thomas Rodda, 37, was basically out of the picture. Addicted to methamphetamine since high school, Stephen Thomas Rodda had spent years traveling around the country, living in Washington, D.C., Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Ohio, where he’d racked up a lengthy history of arrests, said Judd.
About a month ago, Stephen Thomas Rodda unexpectedly showed up on the doorstep of his father’s mobile home on Old Bartow Road, seeking temporary refuge before resuming his vagrant lifestyle.
On Monday around 8 a.m., Thomas Rodda left the home to visit his wife in rehab.
“When he returned home about 11 o’clock, he was met outside by the suspect, Stephen Rodda,” said Judd. He went out to meet his father before Thomas Rodda could enter the mobile home.
“And his quote was, ‘I wouldn’t go in there if I was you. I killed someone. You may need to call the police,'” said Judd. “Thomas Rodda told us that it was not uncommon for his son, Stephen Rodd, to talk bizzare” and have psychotic episodes, so Thomas Rodda ignored his son’s warning and went inside.
There, he found his 16-year-old grandson dead near the kitchen table, killed by an angle grinder, a versatile power tool for metal and masonry work.
By the time sheriff’s deputies arrived, Stephen Thomas Rodda has fled the scene.
“We caught him about a mile west of here on State Road 60,” Judd said. “He was leaving the area. But our deputies found him quickly and took him into custody.”
Judd said the teen’s mother and grandparents are in “total shock.”
“It breaks our heart. There aren’t adequate words to explain how horrific this event is,” Judd said. “He was just a stand-up, stellar young man. They’re devastated; they’re heartbroken; and they don’t understand. These things are beyond explanation. This is not rational conduct. To have this worthless individual murder his son is inexplicable.”
Judd said it’s still early in the investigation, and detectives don’t know if Stephen Thomas Rodda has spent time in mental hospitals under the Baker act or if he had any mental health evaluations.
“You think, well, he must have had a mental health issue. Of course, he did,” Judd said. “People don’t murder people unless they’re nutso. Anybody that murders somebody has a hitch in their giddy-up. That doesn’t mean they’re criminally insane. We don’t know why he did what he did today other than he’s a nasty, nasty, evil person. Was he on drugs today? We don’t know. That’s part of the investigation.”
But if anyone deserves to be permanently taken off the streets, Judd said it’s Stephen Thomas Rodda.
“This guy has been nothing but a problem to society for a very long time. This guy apparently has criminal histories all around the United States. Our prayers are with the family,” Judd said. “The world lost a great young man today.”
Stephen Thomas Rodda was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with first-degree murder.
The teen’s death comes just eight days after a mother was accused of killing her 10-year-old son, her 19-year-old daughter and then herself, said Judd.
“I’ve been in law enforcement all my life and I can’t remember this ever happening twice in eight days in my entire career,” he said.
On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 27, 43-year-old Brandy Hutchins of Lake Wales shot her 10-year-old son and her 19-year-old daughter before taking her own life.
According to Judd, Hutchins received a court order to turn her son over to the Polk sheriff’s office by Friday at 6 p.m. so his father, who lives in Maine, could take custody of the boy.
When the mother didn’t show up with the boy, deputies went to her mobile home in the Waverly area of Lake Wales around 12:30 p.m. Sunday and found the mother and two children dead from gunshot wounds.
“I can’t imagine a more horrific set of circumstances,” Judd said. “My heart breaks for all of the family. We are devastated for this 10-year-old child, all because mom did not want to turn the child over to the rightful father pursuant to a court order.”