The mother of the man suspected of viciously killing two people in Martin County says her son believed he had super powers, according to an investigation released by Jupiter Police.
A Jupiter police officer spoke with Mina Harrouff on Monday, August 15, 2016. She told the officer that her son, 19-year-old Austin Harrouff, abruptly left dinner with friends and family at Duffy's restaurant on Indiantown Road in Jupiter that evening after getting in an argument with his father.
According to the incident report, she told the officer that Austin had been acting strangely for the last week or so. She said he would say things like he had super powers, that he was here to protect people, and other odd remarks.
Mina told police that she did not believe him to be a danger to himself or anyone else, and that he had no history of mental problems or drug use.
Later that evening, the Martin County Sheriff's office says Austin Harrouff killed a married couple during a random, violent and unprovoked attack in the garage of their Martin County home. Harrouff is also accused of injuring one of their neighbors who attempted to help them.
MCSO says the first deputy to arrive at the scene of the killings found Harrouff on top of the male victim, biting and removing pieces of the victim's face with his teeth.
“We had to get the flesh out of his teeth," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.
According to the initial autopsy report completed Wednesday, both John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon Stevens suffered severe blunt trauma as well as stab wounds and lacerations that were not survivable.
With a suspect in custody, Sheriff Snyder says his investigation moves into what he calls the “victimology” phase; the study of the victims and the suspect. “So we’ll be looking at the suspect’s friends, relatives, neighbors. We’ll look at social media. We want to know everything we can about our suspect."
The sheriff said investigators want to determine exactly what was in the victim's blood and what type of medications or drugs he was on at the time of the offense.
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