Austin Harrouff, the Florida college student who has been dubbed the “cannibal killer” after he was arrested after being caught eating his victim’s face, was reportedly having psychotic delusions and in the midst of a manic episode when he killed two people and injured a third.
The Daily Mail reports that Harrouff’s legal team has hired a psychiatric expert who submitted a 38-page report detailing his profound level of mental illness which will aid them in their insanity defense. Harrouff’s legal team is hoping that in the November trial, they will be able to prove that their client is not criminally responsible for the deaths of Michelle Mishcon and John Stevens.
Dr. Phillip Resnick highlighted a series of issues that Harrouff was said to be suffering from for weeks before the attacks on Mishcon and Stevens, including delusions that he was Jesus, and had “superpowers within him.” Harrouff became fixated on religious and philosophical ideas including a preoccupation with the “Illuminati.”
Dr. Resnick says that Harrouff had been writing songs on YouTube under the name Austi Frosti with lyrics like: “there’s a new sheriff in town, he’s going to eat you and make you frown.”
Doctor: Austin Harrouff thought he was ‘half-dog, half-man’ in 2016 double homicide https://t.co/lvfWa4hsEp
— The Palm Beach Post (@pbpost) March 28, 2019
In another song, Harrouff talked about faces being yummy. Dr. Resnick says that the biggest indication that the Florida man was actively psychotic is the fact that Harrouff kept trying to eat the victim’s face, despite the fact that police officers were there trying to stop the attack.
“In the presence of police officers, despite threats of being shot, being tased and receiving multiple kicks to the head, suggests that Mr. Harrouff was actively psychotic.”
Dr. Resnick says that Harrouff’s family confirms that in the days before the attack, he claimed to be “half man and half dog,” and his sister said he was wandering in the bushes to be “one with the animals.”
The psychiatric report, which is based on six hours of interviews with the accused, says that at the time of the attack, Harrouff believed he was a dog in a “fearful and panicked state.”
“Mr. Harrouff has a vague recollection of picking up a ‘machete or something’ and stabbing the woman and biting her. He believed he was a dog at the time of biting her. He was unsure of the sequence of events in the garage.”
Psychologist says Austin Harrouff was deranged as he bit and killed Florida couple. https://t.co/arQrQWMMpo
— Radar Online (@radar_online) March 29, 2019
Dr. Wade Harrouff, the suspect’s father, told Dr. Phil that though his son seemed out of sorts the evening of the attack, he had no idea that Austin was suffering from psychosis, says The Inquisitr .
Austin Harrouff’s behavior was so peculiar that blood and hair samples were sent to the FBI lab to check for drugs like Flakka and Bath Salts, but the former Florida college student only had a small amount of marijuana in his system.
The trial of Austin Harrouff will start on November 4.
