Two Killed, Another Injured at Martin County Home Where Man Found Eating Victim's FaceA disturbing scene in south Florida has left a couple dead, their neighbor in the hospital and a man under arrest after allegedly committing the crimes and eating part of a victim’s face.
Police responded to a home in Martin County near the border of Palm Beach County and the city of Tequesta on Monday night and found a man later identified as 19-year-old Austin Harrouff on top of another man using his teeth to bite and remove pieces of his face, officials said.
That victim, 59-year old John Joseph Stevens III, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police would later find the body of 53-year-old Michelle Karen Mishcon inside the garage. She is the daughter of the former mayor of North Miami Beach.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office officials said a female deputy arrived and found Harrouff on top of Stevens attempting to eat his face.
"When she got there she realized that the offender was actually biting the victim in the face and causing what turned out to be some substantial trauma to his face from bite marks," Sheriff William Snyder said.
Deputies were initially unsuccessful in getting Harrouff off of the victim with a stun gun and K-9 dog, officials said. Eventually, four deputies were able to pry him off and arrest him.
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A neighbor who initially came to the home to try and help was also stabbed by the suspect and taken to a nearby hospital for surgery. The neighbor, 47-year-old Jeff Fisher, is expected to survive.
"He's recovering. He's got multiple stable wounds in the left side of his head and in his back," father Steve Fisher said.
Harrouff was also taken to a hospital for treatment after the incident. Officials said he was in life-threatening condition and it's unknown if he'll survive.
Harrouff was reportedly a good student at Florida State University and has no criminal record.
Snyder told reporters that a motive is not yet known, but has not ruled out the influence of a drug such as flakka. Authorities are running tests for multiple substances, Snyder said.
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"We will be doing sampling of his blood to see if there was flakka or bath salts, which are known to cause what we call the excited delirium, and he did have some indications that we might be working with that," Snyder said.
Snyder added the couple did not know Harrouff and that the Florida State University student gave a false name when first arrested, slowing the investigation.
The sheriff said Harrouff had joined his family for dinner at a restaurant a short distance away when he stormed off, apparently agitated about slow service. His parents were so worried by his behavior that they called police and some of his fraternity brothers in a futile attempt to find him before the attack.
About 45 minutes later, he apparently targeted the couple at random, the sheriff said.
"It's inexplicable," Snyder said. "One of the first things we try to do at a crime scene is try to understand the motive of the offender, because it is the motive of the offender that gets us going in the right direction. In this case, we can't establish a motive. It's 'I don't know.'"
A sophomore majoring in exercise science, Harrouff is muscular - rosters from Suncoast Community High School in nearby Riviera Beach listed him at 6-feet-tall and 200 pounds. Football teammates said coaches wanted him to be more aggressive.
"The coaches would always try to get him mad and play angry, and he never had it in him. I didn't think he would hurt a fly," quarterback Matt Dame told The Palm Beach Post. Dame now plays at Columbia University.
Stevens owned a lawn service and the couple enjoyed boating, neighbors said.
"John and Michelle were the nicest people," neighbor Amy Lourie said. She said they would sit in the garage with the door open while watching television and wave and talk to passersby while their Labrador retriever played in the yard. She said they would drive around the neighborhood in their golf cart with the dog sitting with them.
"It was the cutest thing," Lourie said.
She said it isn't surprising Fisher would try to rescue them, saying he and the couple were close friends.
Dr. Wade Harrouff, a dentist, declined to comment about his son's arrest. It is unknown if Austin Harrouff has an attorney.
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