Before Austin Harrouff allegedly randomly stabbed to death a Martin County couple in their garage and started biting the man's face, the college sophomore spoke to his mother of his super powers and how he was immortal, a Jupiter police report revealed Wednesday.
The Florida State student and fraternity member told her "he was here to protect people." And his friends also noticed Harrouff's delusional behavior, Jupiter police stated in the report.
So when Harrouff, 19, stormed out of Duffy's Sports Grill during dinner Monday night after arguing with his father, the family alerted police and had friends in the area look for him. His mother, Mina Harrouff, told Jupiter police she didn't feel her son was a danger to himself or anyone.
She was wrong.
What would make a mild-mannered college student with no criminal record turn into a gruesome murder suspect remained unanswered Wednesday, but his behavior points to more than just a psychotic break. Medical professionals said Wednesday it appeared to be one exacerbated by a drug in the class known as bath salts — possibly one nicknamed N-Bomb that has been said to be the deadliest designer drug to date.
Deborah Mash, a professor and director of the Excited Delirium Education, Research and Information Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said Harrouff appeared to suffer from an acute psychotic episode that was fueled by some kind of psycho-stimulant or hallucinogen. The next round of drug tests on Harrouff will look for signs of flakka, a sister drug to bath salts, the Martin County Sheriff Department said Wednesday.
“They get this stuff through the internet. These new designer drugs are made in China, and they think they are taking LSD,” Mash said. “These are very potent drugs with other contaminants. These kids don’t know and they get this stuff and it is just dangerous and deadly crap.”
Harrouff’s statements of grandiosity about having super powers is a sign of a coming psychotic break indicative of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, the latter often manifesting itself initially in later teen years, Mash said. Add a dangerous designer drug and a stressful dinner with the parents, and the horrific results speak for themselves.
And while Harrouff's Facebook page was taken down, his social media presence remained. He went by the name AustiFrosti and his apparent YouTube page states, "I have a normal side and a psycho side." The channel contains body-building tips, covers of Elvis Presley songs and apparently his own rap with the logo "Devil in Disguise."
Harrouff also might have been a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. His mother told police he might have been wearing a red “Make America Great Again” baseball hat when she reported him missing.
>>Report: Suspect in stabbings, face-biting claimed he had ‘super powers’
The attack unfolds
After storming out of Duffy's restaurant, Harrouff walked about 4 miles while his family, his friends and even police looked for him. He ended up on Southeast Kokomo Lane near his father's home in southern Martin County. John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon were lounging in their garage, the television on and the door open, as was their habit.
Harrouff, who carried a pocket knife, stabbed both of them to death, according to deputies. A neighbor, Jeff Fisher, tried to intervene to save the couple but ended up stabbed five times, retreating to his home to call police. Deputies came upon Harrouff, hunched over Stevens, biting his victim’s face to the point that it left substantial damage, according to Martin County Sheriff William Snyder.
A deputy tried to subdue Harrouff with a Taser, but it didn’t faze him. Eventually, two deputies physically subdued the muscular teenager, whom Snyder described as “abnormally strong.” The 6-foot, 200-pound Harrouff had played football and wrestled for Suncoast High School.
As of Wednesday, no formal charges were filed against Harrouff for the deaths of Stevens and Mishcon, although the deaths have been ruled homicides, the Martin County Sheriff's Office said. Harrouff is also expected to be charged in the attack against Fisher, who was recovering from his wounds at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Harrouff underwent surgery at the same hospital Wednesday to repair damage to his hand when he was taken into custody. He is conscious and stable but unable to speak due to a breathing tube. His family had retained attorney Michelle Suskauer, but she said late Wednesday she no longer represented Harrouff and that the family had not retained another lawyer.
>>Couple killed by flesh-biting suspect two weeks before meeting grandchild
‘N-Bomb’ at work?
His blood, DNA and hair are now in the hands Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further testing, and expedited results have been requested. Mash, however, said these designer bath salts can go undetected by labs.
That was the case with Rudy Eugene, who in May 2012 attacked a homeless man in Miami for 18 minutes, beating him unconscious and then chewing off most of his upper face. Police shot Eugene dead after he refused to heed their warning to stop biting the victim.
The N-Bomb bath salt — its name derived from its chemical acronym 2C-I-NBOMe — hit the market in 2010, and unlike other bath salts, it works on both of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, Mash said. Neurotransmitters communicate information between the brain and the body.
“High concentrations of serotonin has been shown in tests with lab rats to induce this type of gnawing,” she said.
While other drugs, such as crack cocaine, have been linked to excited delirium — a type of violent psychosis — Mash said what appears to have occurred with Harrouff is a different kind of toxic reaction.
“Excited delirium people don’t bite,” she said. “It is only recently that we are hearing of this because of these new designer bath salts.”
Dr. Scott McFarland, director of the emergency room at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, also said signs point to designer drugs.
“It is the sort of hallucinogenic stimulus that causes them to be profoundly agitated, delirious and exhibit extraordinary strength,” he said. “Who knows what kind of demons or dragons this guy was seeing?”
One girl on bath salts tried to claw off the face of a police officer because she thought he was a monster, McFarland said.
“It’s like a Disney nightmare,” he said.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said Harrouff’s body temperature was not elevated as is often seen with suspects on flakka or bath salts. McFarland said that could be because he had expended the heat in the attack on the couple or because of the time Harrouff’s temperature was taken.
“I cannot typify this as being an emotional disturbance. This is a drug-induced disorder,” McFarland said. He warned parents to keep an eye on who their children are hanging around as the best preventive for drug experimentation.
>>What is flakka and what does it do to you?
Bath salts potent
Hannah Gross knows first-hand the type of hallucinations that come with bath salts, seeing demons to the point that she convinced herself she had died and gone to hell. She could even write backward, telling the voices in her head to stop tormenting her.
Gross, who lives in California, was the subject of television reports on the dangers of bath salts.
“At first, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, and then it just kind of takes over,” she said. “Right now, it’s kind of like water under the bridge.”
Another mystery surrounding the slayings is if Harrouff’s fraternity brothers have any information. Alpha Delta Phi said it is cooperating with authorities, saying the homicides had nothing to do with a fraternity event.
Lucca B. Machado, vice president of the fraternity chapter at FSU, lives in Jupiter. His father, Sergio Machado, answered the phone Wednesday and said his son did not know Harrouff well.
“My son was totally shocked that Austin was capable of doing such a thing,” Sergio Machado said. “If there was any sign of Austin being involved with drugs, he would have been kicked out of the frat.”
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