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Austin Harrouff Update: Florida Cannibal Case Heads To Grand Jury

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 07:26 PST, Oct 12, 2016

Florida is the home of one of the strangest cases of the year, as Florida State student Austin Harrouff will now face a grand jury as the district attorney seeks to indict the man who raged in a cannibalistic attack on two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and one count of resisting arrest. Austin Harrouff is being held without bail.

Austin Harrouff was discharged from St. Mary’s Hospital in order to be formally charged at a bail hearing, where the judge denied bail, the Inquisitr previously reported. Authorities are still awaiting drug test results from the FBI to see whether Harrouff was under the influence of Flakka or bath salts when he murdered two people and was found eating the face and abdomen of the male victim when police arrived on the scene in Jupiter, Florida. Harrouff’s family claims he had been acting erratically in the days before the attacks.

The State Attorney’s Office says that Austin Harrouff will face the grand jury as they seek to indict him going forward. Assistant State Attorney Nita Denton says that there is “no time constraint” for the grand jury to indict Harrouff in a case that has made headlines around the world, according to the Palm Beach Post.

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Harrouff was in the hospital from August 15, when the crime was committed, through October 4, when he was finally released to face charges. Officials say that Harrouff killed Michelle Mischon and John Stevens in an extremely bizarre attack. Harrouff reportedly didn’t know either of his victims.

“Harrouff bit Stevens’ face and stomach and stabbed a neighbor who tried to intervene. It took a Taser, a police dog and multiple deputies to pull Harrouff — a former wrestler and football player at Suncoast High — off Stevens.”

Austin Harrouff’s father, Dr. Wade Harrouff, went on The Dr. Phil Show and indicated that his son might suffer from mental illness.

Harrouff is being represented by attorney Robert Watson, who stated that the cannibalistic case hints at mental illness that allegedly runs in the Harrouff family, says the Palm Beach Post.

“There does appear to have been an onset of mental illness,” he said. “Whether that mental illness was also coupled with other behavior, I don’t know.”

Watson says that Harrouff has been responding to treatment, but he would not name the disorder or the treatment that Harrouff is undergoing.

“There are only a limited number of narratives that could apply here and the evidence will take us where it takes us. But right now, nobody knows what the evidence is.”

At the time of his arrest, Austin Harrouff allegedly challenged the police to test him, insisting that he had not taken drugs. Harrouff’s father said that he knows Austin’s mental state in not Flakka-induced and that schizophrenia runs in his family.

But police aren’t so sure that Flakka was not involved, as Austin Harrouff was said to seem “abnormally strong” at the time of his arrest. Harrouff was making animal noises and was able to throw off several officers before they managed to cuff him and take him to the hospital.

The full toxicology report is pending at the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, and it is testing for designer drugs that most hospitals can’t detect.

Do you think that the Florida grand jury will indict Austin Harrouff, or do you think that Harrouff’s lawyer will seek an insanity defense?

[Featured Image by Ken Ruinard/AP Images]

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