A 'cannibal' teenager accused of stabbing a couple to death before eating part of the man's face has been charged with murder.
Student Austin Harrouff is accused of killing John Stevens, 59, and his wife Michelle Mishcon, 53, during a rampage outside their home in Florida in August.
The 19-year-old Florida State University pupil was in a coma for weeks after the alleged attack, after he ingested “caustic” chemicals in the couple’s garage.
Harrouff was unable to speak to investigators when he first woke up in late August, and his dad, Dr Wade Harrouff, said last month that his son has medical problems, including a failing liver and bleeding esophagus.
Experts initially speculated that the student, who bragged about having “superpowers” and being “immortal” days before the attack, could have been on drugs such as flakka or bath salts, the New York Daily News reports.
"When we see a case like this, when someone is biting off pieces of somebody's face, could it be flakka, the answer is it absolutely could be flakka case, we don't know," Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said at the time of the killing.
Flakka is a designer drug that can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed, and has been seen in a large number of cases of bizarre and uncontrollable behavior in Florida in the past year.
Harrouff was making "grunting and howling" animal noises in his underwear when he was found biting chunks off his victim's face .
Full toxicology results from the FBI have not yet been released, but preliminary tests show Harrouff wasn't on cocaine or methamphetamine.
He was transferred from hospital to jail yesterday afternoon.
In addition to the murder charges, Harrouff faces an attempted murder charge for also stabbing the couple's neighbour Jeff Fisher, who tried to help the other victims before calling police.
He could receive the death penalty if convicted.
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