Officials suspect that the new drug “flakka” might be connected to the murders of a Florida couple found fatally stabbed on Monday. The 19-year-old suspect in the case was trying to eat one of the victims, it has been reported.
Austin Harrouff, a Florida State University fraternity brother, is named as the primary suspect in the murders of John Joseph Stevens III, 59, and his wife, Michelle Karen Mishcon, 53, in Tequesta, authorities said.
Harrouff, 19, was “abnormally strong” when he was apprehended, Sheriff William Snyder told reporters in a news conference, according to The Associated Press.
A former football player and wrestler, Harrouff was able to withstand stun gun shocks. Meanwhile, he was making “animal-like noises,” Snyder said.
His mother, Mina Harrouff, called police in Jupiter, Fla., three hours after he left a restaurant on Monday night following an argument. She said her son was acting strangely for around a week and said he had superpowers and was “here to protect people,” a police report said.
Toxicology results for Harrouff are pending, but Snyder said he wouldn’t be surprised if he was on flakka or possibly another type of drug known collectively as “bath salts,” the Palm Beach Post reported. One indicator of flakka use is a raised core-body temperature, which he didn’t have.
