Fla. Man Arrested 3 Years After Being Accused of Shooting Woman and Leaving Her 1-Year-Old to Die in Hot Car

Doujon Duwayne Griffiths has been wanted since 2021 in connection with the alleged murders of Massania Malcolm and her 1-year-old daughter, police said

Orange County Sheriff's Office, Florida/Facebook

Massania Malcolm (left); Massania Malcom's 1-year-old daughter Jordania Malcolm

Three years after a Florida mother was fatally shot and her 1-year-old daughter was left for dead in a hot car, a murder suspect has been captured by authorities.

Doujon Duwayne Griffiths, 23, who has been wanted since 2021 in connection with the alleged murders of 20-year-old Massania Malcolm and her 1-year-old daughter Jordania, was arrested after a traffic stop in Linden, N.J., the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to PEOPLE.

Then, they learned of his outstanding first-degree murder warrants out of Orange County, Fla., per the OCSO’s statement. Authorities said Griffiths will be extradited to Orange County.

He also faces an attempted murder charge for the shooting of Massania’s boyfriend, who is the father of Jordania, the sheriff’s office said. It’s unclear if Griffiths has entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.

On Sept. 7, 2021, at about 5 a.m. local time, deputies responded to an apartment in Pine Castle, Fla., on a report of a shooting. There, they found a man in his 20s — whose name hasn’t been publicly released — with multiple gunshot wounds.

“He was only able to tell deputies that he was shot by a ‘friend’ before he was transported to the hospital and rushed into surgery,” the sheriff’s office said. He survived his injuries.

Two days later, on Sept. 9, 2021, a relative of the shooting victim told authorities that they had been unable to reach the man’s girlfriend and infant daughter, per the OSCO’s statement. Deputies went back to the couple’s apartment but there was no one home and no signs of foul play, they said.

Once the shooting victim regained consciousness, he reportedly told authorities that his friend, Griffiths, allegedly shot him from the back seat of the vehicle as he was driving, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during a 2021 press conference.

The man said he believed his girlfriend, Massania, may have been shot as well and drove off in the family car with her and the couple's daughter, Jordania, according to Mina.

Orange County Sheriff's Office, Florida/Facebook

Doujon Duwayne Griffiths

Shortly after, OCSO auto theft detectives found the vehicle in a parking lot less than a mile away from where the family lived, with the bodies of Massania and Jordania inside, the sheriff told reporters.

Mina said at the time that Massania had been fatally shot, while the 1-year-old likely died as a result of the heat inside the car. He added that they had probably been dead for “a couple days.”

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According to local NBC affiliate WESH, investigators said tension built between the family and Griffiths due to his alleged “lack of contribution to the household for the amount of time he had stayed there.” Authorities also told the outlet that the Sept. 7 shooting occurred after Massania and her boyfriend dropped Griffiths off at a bus stop.

As Griffiths now awaits extradition to Fla., the OCSO said in its statement, “No matter how many years have passed, we never forget our victims, and we hope this arrest brings some sense of peace and closure to our community and the two families shattered by this horribly tragic case.”

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