John Tiffin

Introduction

John Tiffin, a 31-year-old Tulsa man, is charged with second-degree murder after Tulsa police say he put his mother’s borrowed car in reverse and hit the gas during a driveway confrontation, striking and mortally injuring his 69-year-old mother, Karen Curthoys, when she came to take the car back, and hitting his brother with the car door in the process. Tiffin was booked into the Tulsa County Jail on November 11, 2026 on complaints of second-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless driving and obstructing an officer — a case that began, per court documents, with a borrowed silver car he never returned, and that ended with his arrest at a home where officers say he was found in a bedroom holding two knives and trying to cut his own throat. The charges are complaints at the booking stage, not convictions; Tiffin has not been publicly heard from since his arrest.

Background Information

Public reporting has surfaced little about Tiffin’s life beyond the case itself: he is identified in Tulsa Police Department releases and local coverage as a 31-year-old Tulsa resident, and the case file describes him borrowing his mother’s silver car on October 7, 2026 “to run errands” and never bringing it back. His mother, Karen Curthoys, 69, was the car’s owner; when Tiffin failed to return it, she contacted another family member — Tiffin’s brother — who agreed to help her recover it, and police said the pair located the vehicle with an AirTag attached to Curthoys’ dog’s collar, the dog having been left with Tiffin. Nothing in the public record suggests prior violence between mother and son; the confrontation that killed her began as a dispute over the return of her own car.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged with second-degree murder. Tulsa police and court documents allege Tiffin struck his mother with her own car during a confrontation over its return, pinning her between vehicles; she died of her injuries five days later. He faces complaints of second-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless driving and obstructing an officer. These are charges, not convictions — the case has not been presented to a grand jury, and Tiffin has made no public statement.

Per court documents summarized by KTUL, Curthoys and Tiffin’s brother tracked the car to a driveway on the evening of October 8, 2026 — Tulsa police said they responded to a crash outside a home near 38th Street and Mingo Road around 8:45 p.m. that night — where the three confronted one another. Curthoys “stood in the driveway between the car she arrived in and the car Tiffin hadn’t returned,” the department said, and when her other son opened the car door to confront Tiffin and a brother of his inside the vehicle, Tiffin allegedly shifted the car into reverse and hit the accelerator — striking the brother with the open door and pinning Curthoys between the two cars. Curthoys was rushed to a hospital, where she died from her injuries on October 12, five days after she was pinned.

Tiffin was initially questioned and released as detectives continued the investigation, and a judge signed an arrest warrant on Tuesday, November 10. That night around 8:15 p.m., officers from the Tulsa Police Department’s Fugitive Warrants Unit and a K-9 officer returned to the home where Tiffin was staying; police said he refused to come out when ordered, and the K-9 eventually located him in a bedroom — holding two knives and, per police, trying to cut his own neck. After officers gave several commands, he dropped the knives and was taken into custody, cleared at a hospital for jail, and booked into the Tulsa County Jail the next day. His booking photo, distributed by police and published by the NY Post, shows him with blood on his face and neck and a visible cut.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case drew coverage across Tulsa’s local outlets and a national write-up from the NY Post, which framed it with the police department’s own summary: a mother killed trying to get her borrowed car back. News on 6 noted the unusual detail that became the story’s signature — that mother and brother found the car through an AirTag riding on the dog’s collar — and KTUL’s court-document account carries the same detail, with the dog having been left in Tiffin’s care. No public statement from Tiffin, a defense attorney, or his family has been reported in any of the coverage; the police department’s releases are the case’s only public account so far. The charges carry weight beyond the homicide count: the assault-and-battery complaint covers the brother who was struck by the car door, meaning one driveway confrontation produced alleged victims on both sides of Tiffin’s own family.

Current Status

Tiffin remains in custody at the Tulsa County Jail, booked on complaints of second-degree murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless driving and obstructing an officer. The charges are complaints at the booking stage; formal charging decisions, an initial court appearance and any defense response remain ahead, and no trial date or attorney information has been made public. Every account of the incident to date originates with the Tulsa Police Department and court documents summarized by local reporters — Tiffin himself has not publicly responded to the allegations.

Impact on Their Career/Life

A family dispute over a borrowed car has left a 69-year-old mother dead, her other son allegedly injured by the same maneuver, and a 31-year-old man facing a second-degree murder complaint that will define the rest of his life if it holds. For Tiffin the practical consequences have already begun — jail custody since November 11, a bloodied booking photo circulating in national coverage, and the self-inflicted neck wound officers say he was making when they came for him — while the legal consequences, from formal charges to a potential sentence measured in decades if convicted, remain entirely ahead of him. The case’s public record is, for now, the police department’s narrative and the court documents that support it; nothing Tiffin or his family might say in response has yet appeared.

Sources

• NY Post, “Son ran over and killed mom when she tried to get her car back: cops,” Nov 13, 2026 — source
• KTUL, “Second-degree murder charge filed against Tulsa man in death of mother, police say,” Nov 12, 2026 — source
• KOKH Fox 25, “Police: Oklahoma man arrested for murder after hitting mother with own car,” Nov 12, 2026 — source
• News on 6, “Tulsa man charged with murder accused of hitting mother with vehicle,” Nov 11, 2026 — source
• NY Post trigger tweet, Nov 13, 2026 — source