A Martin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman announced the decision Friday, less than a week after the Monday attack in which Austin Harrouff killed a couple and attacked a third man who came to try and stop the violence.
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19-year-old Austin Harrouff, a fraternity brother who attends Florida State University, is accused in the Monday night attack in a quiet neighborhood north of Jupiter that left 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon and John Stevens III 59, dead.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said deputies found Harrouff on top of Stevens, biting and removing pieces of the victim’s face with his teeth.
“The suspect in this case apparently was abnormally strong”. According to the Sheriff’s Office, 19-year-old Austin Harrouff stabbed and beat them to death. However, investigators suspect he may have been under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs such as flakka or bath salts.
He wouldn’t speculate on whether Harrouff was high on drugs.
Mina Harrouff called police to report her son was missing after he abruptly stormed off during dinner with family and friends at a restaurant following an argument with his father at around 8:30 p.m, authorities said. She told Jupiter Police Officer Luis Rocha that he had been acting strangely for about a week, claiming he had superpowers and that he was “here to protect people”. Stevens’ children said they want him to face execution.
She didn’t think her son would be a danger to himself or anyone else, but was very wrong. “I mean all he’s talking about is how he doesn’t do steroids, do steroids but there’s kind of a loopy dreamy approach to his narrative”, said Miller. His father lives one street away from where the attack occurred.
His mother called everyone Harrouff would have been going to see, but no one had seen him, according to the report.
“There are no words we can offer to give any real comfort for this tragic loss”, the statement says.
Harrouff is still hospitalized and the sheriff has suggested that he won’t be formally charged until his release.
Police said the couple had been beaten and stabbed in what appeared to be a “completely unprovoked and random attack” as they sat on a sofa in their open garage, which was covered in decorations and fairy lights.
Autopsies determined Mischon died of multiple blunt trauma and Stevens died of multiple injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
Attorney Robert Watson, who said he’s representing Harrouff, told TC Palm that the student’s parents saw “indications of odd and unusual behavior” in him recently, but he declined to elaborate on possible mental health issues. “We don’t know if anything is going to show up on toxicology or not”, she told the station.
Harrouff reportedly tested negative for a number of drugs, including methamphetamine. The additional testing that will sample Harrouff’s blood, hair and DNA to determine what drugs, if any, he may have been on.
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The condition can cause paranoia and hallucinations that can make the user violent and raise a person’s body temperature to unsafe levels.
