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It’s now been a week since Florida State University student Austin Harrouff was arrested for allegedly killing John Stevens and Michelle Mishcon as they sat in their garage, and investigators are still trying to learn what may have set the 19-year-old off to murder two innocent strangers. Initial drug testing ruled out the presence of cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, and marijuana in Harrouff’s system. However, toxicology results will determine whether or not the teen may have been under the influence of flakka or bath salts.
In a strange new development, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder now says that it’s possible that Harrouff may have ingested dangerous chemicals at the scene of the murder.
“It’s a typical garage, so there were solvents,” he said. “There were things he could have consumed and that first night at the hospital, the hospital speculated based on what they were seeing in his body fluids, that perhaps he had ingested something caustic from the garage.”
“I think that will provide a big piece of the unknown is exactly what (was) in the blood of our suspect,” Snyder said.
Investigators are also starting to piece together what may have occurred between the time Harrouff stormed out of the restaurant where he had been having dinner with his father, and when he arrived at the victims’ home. A crew member for CBS 12 in West Palm Beach found a pair of red shorts on the ground about a mile from where the murders took place that looked similar to the ones Harrouff was wearing when he left the restaurant. Likewise, a neighbor, Gunther Eichhorn, found a trail of blood on his sidewalk just a half mile from the crime scene.
It is believed the teen walked nearly 3 miles, possibly cutting himself along the way which would explain the blood trail in front of the Eichhorn’s home. He also stripped down to his underwear before violently attacking three people inside the quiet upscale neighborhood.
Harrouff’s suffered damage to his hands. They are reportedly marred with cuts that could have been potentially self-inflicted way before investigators say he arrived at the Stevens’ home and attacked them.
If and when Harrouff is released from the hospital this week, he will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
(Via Palm Beach Post, CBS 12)