Cannibal frat boy’s dad apologises to victims’ family and reveals how his son guzzled cooking oil and said he had superpowers on night of attack
THE father of "cannibal" Austin Harrouff says his life has become a "nightmare" since his son was accused of murdering two people and eating their flesh.
Fighting back tears, a distraught Dr Wade Harrouff said his son was suffering from mental illness and was acting "manic"; on the night of the double murder.
Police found Harrouff, 19, "making animal noises" and using his teeth to tear chunks of flesh off John Stevens' body.
John's wife, Michelle Mishcon, 53, lay dead next to him. The pair had been stabbed and bludgeoned to death in their garage in Tequesta, near Palm Beach, Florida.
Asked what he would say to the couple's families, Dr Harrouf told : "This is the worst thing I could ever think of. This is the biggest nightmare I could ever dream of.
"I am deeply sorry for what my son did to those people and I apologise for him because my son would have never done anything like that.
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"He's such a good person. He'd never knowingly do something like that. I'm truly sorry."
The 14st six-footer was studying exercise science at Florida State University and was a keen wrestler and American footballer.
Police suspect the synthetic drug known as "flakka" could have been factor in his manic "cannibalism" behaviour.
The shocking crime occurred on the evening of August 15 after Harrouff had stormed out of dinner with his father and sister in a rage.
He then walked to his mother's home, where he guzzled vegetable oil and parmesan cheese before leaving again. It was then he is alleged to have attacked the couple in their garage.
Police say Harrouff also drank chemicals in the garage during his frenzy - he is now in hospital with his organs malfunctioning as a result.
Wade told the that Harrouff is in a critical but stable condition, but has a malfunctioning liver, fluid in his lungs and a bleeding esophagus.
Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said Harrouff will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder upon his release.
The attempted first-degree murder charges stems from the injuries inflicted on the couple's neighbour, Jeff Fisher, 47, who suffered stab wounds trying to intervene.
The FBI is running tests to determine whether Harrouff, who had finished his first year at Florida State University and was home for the summer, was under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.
Substances such as flakka or bath salts have both been linked to violent outbursts - including cases of cannibalism.
But Snyder said there were no traces of common street drugs including cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine in Harrouff's system.
The toxicology reports will provide "a big piece of the unknown," Snyder said.
Snyder also has said that investigators "know the who, the what, the when, the where and the how" of the attack, but the why remains a mystery.
Solving that mystery doesn't matter so much to Stevens' son and daughter. They say they want him to face execution.
"It is not super important to me what his mindset was," John Stevens IV told the .
"I just want to see the prosecutor ask for the death penalty. I want him to go through that process and to pay for what he did."
Ivy Stevens agreed: "I hope he makes a full recovery so he can be put through the justice system."
Harrouff's parents, Wade and Mina Harrouff, issued a statement expressing their condolences to the Stevens family and their apologies to Fisher "for the pain and suffering caused by Austin."
"There are no words we can offer to give any real comfort for this tragic loss," the statement says. "We love our son and know that he is not the person some are making him out to be."
Meanwhile, newly released cop radio transmissions have revealed deputies confronted chaos at the scene of the double killing.
When a dispatcher asks the first Martin County deputy on the scene if she has the suspect controlled, she responds, "No sir, I have this guy wrapped around him and he is biting him."
Sheriff Snyder has said it took numerous deputies, jolts from a stun gun and a dog to pry Harrouff off of John.
At one point during the struggle, a garbled transmission that sounds like "oh no" can be heard.
After Harrouff is finally subdued, the first deputy let out a plaintive sigh and then told dispatchers, "possible two sevens," the agency's code for dead people.
Another deputy then asks for paramedics and crime scene technicians, adding "we need them in here now."
They also directed that an ambulance be sent across the street to the home of Jeff Fisher.
South Florida has been hit by an epidemic of abuse of the Chinese-made designer drug which has caused disturbing behaviour and mental breakdown in many users.
One user, with what police called "superhuman strength", was recently found kicking in the hurricane doors at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Officials said Harrouff's parents were so worried by his behaviour after he stormed out of the restaurant that they called police and members of his college fraternity in a futile attempt to find him before the attack.
John Stevens ran a lawn business and his wife was the daughter of former North Miami Beach mayor Jeffrey Mishcon.
Neighbour Amy Lourie said the couple would often 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 also drive around the neighbourhood in their golf buggy with the dog sitting with them. "It was the cutest thing" she said.
The gory double murder echoes the infamous "zombie" face-eater case in Miami in 2012.
Rudy Eugene, the "causeway face attacker", chomped a homeless man's face in a random attack while high on cannabis.
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