Colt Gray Update: Georgia School Shooting Suspect Mother Indicted for Elder Abuse

Marcee Gray, the mother of Colt Gray, the suspected Apalachee High School shooter, was indicted on Monday for elder abuse after she was accused of tying her mother to a chair and leaving her there for almost 24 hours, according to court documents shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Newsweek has not seen the court documents but has contacted the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office via email for the report.

Colt Gray, 14, is accused of fatally shooting two students and two teachers on September 4 at the Georgia school. He has been charged with murder and will be tried as an adult.

Meanwhile, Marcee Gray’s 73-year-old mother Deborah Polhamus was found after one of Marcee’s sisters, who lives in Florida, was unable to contact her mother in November 2023, and asked a friend to check on her at her home.

There, Polhamus was found taped by the wrists and ankles to a chair and was freed by the family friend.

Authorities believed that the incident occurred after Marcee Gray was angry that Polhamus refused to help her confront her ex-husband Colin Gray, who Marcee reportedly said she was “going to kill,” Law & Crime reported.

It was also alleged in the authorities report that Marcee Gray threw her elderly mother up against the wall, which cut her left wrist, before she proceeded to strap her to the chair and take away her phone.

According to WSB-TV, a local news station in Atlanta, Marcee Gray had reportedly said to her mother that she would call her father after she left the house for him to free her.

Marcee Gray was reported to have broken her mother’s iPhone alongside a bathroom mirror and backdoor, according to Law & Crime.

She was later arrested in Barrow County and has been charged with exploitation and intimidation of a disabled adult or elderly person, false imprisonment, criminal damage to property in the second degree, and theft, according to WSB-TV. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison.

She was brought back to Ben Hill County in December 2023 and granted $5,300 bond and released in April.

Marcee Gray also reportedly has a long criminal history dating back to March 2007 with five vehicle-related misdemeanors, including reckless driving, improper right turn, and DUI, according to The Independent.

Gray’s ex-husband and Colt’s father was also arrested after the September 4 shooting, after he was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. It was also alleged that he had given his son the rifle used in the school shooting as a Christmas gift.

According to Law & Crime, on the day of the shooting, Colt had reportedly sent his parents the message, “I’m sorry,” prompting his mother to contact school officials to warn them.

After the shooting, Marcee Gray released a letter to the victims’ families claiming she is “sorry from the bottom of [her] heart.”

“We are all in a living nightmare right now, and I will personally never forgive myself for what has happened,” she wrote, adding that her son is “not a monster.”

Update 9/23/24, 9:44 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

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