Police said Austin Harrouff, 19, attacked two people inside their Florida home Monday night, stabbing both of them to death.
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Authorities say 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon and 59-year-old John Stevens died and their neighbor was injured trying to fend off the attacker.
She called police to report him missing, but she didn’t know that 45 minutes after he left he had been arrested by Martin County Sheriff’s deputies.
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.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said Austin Harrouff may have been under the influence of Flakka, a designer drug often associated with freakish and uncontrollable behavior that has been associated with a string of violent incidents in recent years.
The Martin County Sheriff announced Friday that Harrouff will be charged with first-degree murder, meaning he would face the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.
Michelle Mishcon and John Stevens III were murdered at their Florida home on Monday.
Authorities say Harrouff beat, stabbed and killed her father.
A neighbor, Jeff Fisher, was stabbed several times when he tried to intervene.
Mina also told police her son did not have a history of mental problems and was not a heavy drug user; the mother as well as Harrouff’s sister told police he was a “nice young man who would not hurt himself or anyone else”.
“It’s just beyond me why that would happen”, Maddox said.
Harrouff was making grunting, growling “animal-like noises” at the scene and later gave investigators a false name, Snyder said. “I hope he makes a full recovery so he can be put through the justice system”, she said. Stevens’ children said they want him to face execution.
“Somebody not feeling pain, not responding to a dog bite, repeated stuns from a taser, taking three to four deputies and officer dog to get him off-that’s somebody with a lot more strength than you would normally encounter”, Snyder told CBS12.
Attorney Robert Watson, who said he’s representing Harrouff, told TC Palm (http://bit.ly/2b3AAkH) 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.
A routine drug screening showed no trace of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or other common drug, causing investigators to turn to hallucinogenics including flakka or “bath salts”.
Fisher was released from prison Thursday. “When I told him he was going to have a granddaughter he was just super excited”. “It’s terrible”, Stevens says he is grateful for his father’s friends who have come forward and offered to help with the children but “there is no real replacement for a grandfather”. “It does look, as inexplicably as it sounds, like a completely unprovoked and random attack”.
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The neighbor, whose father identified as Jeff Fisher, 47, was rushed to Good Samaritan hospital, and is in surgery. However, he says the the sheriff’s office won’t get involved until Harrouff is in better condition, so taxpayers don’t have to pay for his hospital stay.
