On August 16, 2016, 19-year-old Austin Harrouff’s life changed completely. He went from a normal college frat boy to a murderer.
The Harrouff family was out for lunch on that fateful day, while waiting for their food Austin was acting rather strangely. He was fidgety and restless before getting up and leaving the restaurant to walk back to his parent's home. In the months leading up to that August day, Austin’s behavior changed significantly, he told his parents that their house was haunted and was especially afraid of a demon called Daniel. Which frankly is an odd name for a demon.
Since Austin had been acting strangely his mother worried for his safety and called the Juniper, Florida Police Department, as well as the fraternity he was a part of to help her find him. When speaking with the police about Austin, his mother told them that he wasn’t dangerous to himself or others but that she had a bad feeling about the situation.
As he walked the almost 3 miles home Austin began to feel a deep sense of fear, like Daniel was looming over him. He began to strip his clothes off until he was nearly naked, trying to escape a feeling he could not explain.
John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon were a married couple who lived close to the Harrouff house. They would take a portable television out to watch tv in their driveway. John was in the house finishing up a project and Michelle went inside to refill her lemonade when Austin walked past their driveway and saw their open garage door. He went inside the garage and took a bottle of an unknown liquid and drank from it, feeling it burn his throat.
Michelle came back into the garage and was startled to find a mostly naked boy in her garage. She screamed, which startled Austin, so he beat her until she lay lifelessly on the floor. He then took a machete from the wall and swung it at her multiple times. Austin turned around and saw John standing in the doorway. John tried to flee into the house, but Austin was faster and caught him, beat him, and stabbed him with a pocketknife he carried. Jeff Fisher, a neighbor, heard the commotion and came over to investigate. Austin charged him and managed to stab him 3 times. Jeff escaped and got to his home where he called 911.
When the police arrived, they found Austin atop John’s body gnawing on the side of his face while making animalistic noises. The Officers ordered Austin to get off John, but he refused. They used a stun gun on him that did nothing. They were finally able to restrain him after releasing police dogs on him. While restrained, he yelled, “Fucking kill me, fucking kill me! Shoot me now! I deserve it!”
Austin was arrested and taken to the sheriff’s station, where detectives interviewed him. While not denying anything, he was not able to explain why he committed the crime. He then told them that his throat was burning. The police took him to the emergency room where he was examined. They found his throat was burned from the chemical he drank and human flesh and hair in his teeth. Austin ended up slipping into a coma for 11 days.
Austin ended up having an interview with Dr. Phil over skype that was never released. Austin expressed remorse for what he had done though not knowing why he had done it. A piece of the puzzle that still confuses is a letter he wrote to himself in 2016.
“The way I see myself may or may not be different from the way others see me. I view myself as happy, shy, nice, positive, and I never give up. I view myself as happy because usually I have view things to feel sad or depressed about. One of the main things I dislike about myself is that I am shy. I want to be confident and assertive. I am not that shy around close friends because after I get to know someone, I’ll start to open up more toward them. I also see myself as nice because I will go out of my way to help people.”
He was formally arrested after being discharged from the hospital. His trial was set to start in June 2019 but seems to have been moved to November 2022. Prosecutors and lawyers agreed to a non-jury trial.
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