Florida Man Eats A Person

WEBVTT

1
00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:43.719
On August fifteenth, twenty sixteen,
a man in Florida was just about to

2
00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:48.399
head to bed when he heard a
terrible scream from across the street. Jeff

3
00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:53.200
Fisher then stopped in his tracks.
He knew that the couple across the streets,

4
00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:58.039
Joseph and Michelle Stevens, often watched
TV in their garage in the evenings

5
00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:02.200
to try to escape to Florida,
and that they would usually leave the garage

6
00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:06.120
door open while they did that.
Everyone in their neighborhood knew it too.

7
00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:10.959
Joseph and Michelle were well liked and
often invited neighbors to come and sit with

8
00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.680
them, or just waved hello as
they were passing by the garage door.

9
00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.439
But Jeff had never heard anyone scream
like that, and maybe most importantly for

10
00:01:19.480 --> 00:01:25.280
this case, he had never heard
Michelle scream like that before either. He

11
00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:29.319
immediately knew that something was wrong,
and, wanting to be a good neighbor,

12
00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:33.120
Jeff headed across the street to see
if he could help. There he

13
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.280
found Michelle lying on the floor in
a pool of blood. It looked like

14
00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:42.159
she had been attacked and brutally killed
in her own home. Jeff was shocked

15
00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:47.200
and desperately tried to help Michelle,
but quickly found himself a victim of an

16
00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:53.439
attack. A young man pounced on
Jeff and in his hand was a knife.

17
00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:57.640
Jeff was then left in the impossible
situation of trying to help Michelle while

18
00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:02.719
also defending himself, and ended up
running through Michelle and Joseph's house to get

19
00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:07.360
away from the attacker. He could
hear the young man close behind him as

20
00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.199
he first ran through the house and
then around it to get back to the

21
00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:15.879
safety of his own Before he was
able to take stock of the situation,

22
00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:20.159
Jeff then called the police, and
it was only while he was on the

23
00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:25.039
phone with the dispatchers that Jeff realized
that he had been stabbed himself multiple times

24
00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:30.080
as well. The situation was grim, but somehow it managed to get even

25
00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:36.080
grimmer. By the time the first
responders made it to the scene. Michelle

26
00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:39.479
was still lying silent and motionless where
Jeff had last seen her, but now

27
00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:44.840
her husband Joseph was with her too. It looked like he had also been

28
00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:49.000
stabbed. But most shocking of all, the young man who had attacked them

29
00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.400
was wrapped around Joseph, tearing chunks
of Joseph's face and chest away with his

30
00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:59.479
teeth. Joseph cried out as the
young man bit into him, meaning that

31
00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:02.599
despite the chaos and carnage unfolding in
front of them, there was still a

32
00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:07.759
chance for first responders to save him. The police officer on the scene tried

33
00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:12.360
to pride the young man off of
Joseph, but the attacker was strong,

34
00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.800
far too strong for one policeman to
handle alone. The officer called for backup

35
00:03:16.919 --> 00:03:22.560
and pulled his service weapon, only
for the attacker to ignore him and continue

36
00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:27.719
biting Joseph. The officer threatened to
shoot, but he couldn't actually risk catching

37
00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:31.319
Joseph and the crossfire, so he
had to wait for backup. More police

38
00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:36.879
officers arrived and tried to wrestle the
young man away. They tased him several

39
00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:40.599
times and deployed a canine unit,
but every time they managed to get Joseph

40
00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:45.479
free, the young man would break
away and get right back to it.

41
00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.800
He snarled and growled like an animal
and ignored the canine, biting his own

42
00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:54.599
arm. Eventually, it took four
officers to get the scene under control,

43
00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:01.080
and by then both Michelle and Joseph
had unfortunately passed, leaving their neighbor Jeff

44
00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:06.560
to be the only surviving victim that
day. The Florida streets were stunned into

45
00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:13.080
silence after this brutal and gruesome attack, an attack that at first glance seemed

46
00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:17.319
to be the horrible result of drug
taking gone terribly wrong. But the tests

47
00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:23.360
on the young man all came back
negative, excluding small trace amounts of marijuana,

48
00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:27.759
and once the investigators were able to
track down the identity of this maniac

49
00:04:27.839 --> 00:04:33.920
killer, the case only grew more
tragic. Austin Harriff was born in December

50
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:39.600
nineteen ninety six and was now a
nineteen year old boy studying at Florida State

51
00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:44.160
University. Growing up, he wrestled, played football, and now that he

52
00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:47.079
was in college, he was in
the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He worked

53
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:51.040
out and wanted to be a bodybuilder, and always seemed to be trying to

54
00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:57.079
better himself, but maybe he had
his reasons for wanting to do so.

55
00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:01.199
After talking with Austin's parents, instigators
were able to catch a glimpse of what

56
00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:05.720
was going on with Austin below the
surface. As a teenager, he had

57
00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:10.839
often suffered from bouts of depression,
and now that he was a young adult,

58
00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:15.360
the situation only seemed to be getting
worse now. Austin suffered from massive

59
00:05:15.399 --> 00:05:20.720
mood swings. He would get depressed
and withdrawn, only to suddenly burst into

60
00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:26.199
a rapid bout of energy, during
which he claimed to see and hear things

61
00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.839
that others did not. During the
weeks leading up to the attack, Austin

62
00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:34.319
told others that he had started to
feel like he was Jesus and would later

63
00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:40.360
be worshiped. He claimed that he
had superpowers and he was invincible, and

64
00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:44.720
to prove it, he started walking
into the streets to show people that passing

65
00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:48.519
cars wouldn't hit him. At home, he felt like he was in danger.

66
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:54.160
He kept the family dog with him
at night for protection, and then

67
00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:59.160
began patrolling the halls, banging on
bedroom doors to tell the people inside that

68
00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.240
he was there and he would keep
protecting them all the way through the night.

69
00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:08.279
He told family and friends that he
was seeing evil figures all dressed in

70
00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:12.720
black with white faces, and yet
most of the people around him believed that

71
00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:17.279
Austin was simply going through something and
would eventually come out the other side.

72
00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:21.800
Austin was left alone to do his
own research on his situation, most of

73
00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:28.399
which was done on his phone and
computer and involved searches like must I sleep,

74
00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:32.519
I think I'm going crazy? Am
I? And what am I?

75
00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:38.959
The day before the attack, Wade
Harroff took his son to a gun show

76
00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:45.240
where he bought Austin a switchblade let
me say that again. The day before

77
00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.040
the attack, after suffering all of
these mental problems leading up to it,

78
00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:55.319
Wade Harraf took his son to a
gun show where he bought Austin a switchblade

79
00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:00.360
knife. The next day, Austin
and Wade got into a fight when Austin

80
00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.079
wanted to leave the house in the
car. Wade refused to give Austin the

81
00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:09.079
keys until he'd taken a xanax,
and in protest, Austin climbed on top

82
00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.199
of Wade's car and jumped up and
down on the roof until Wade gave him

83
00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:17.079
the keys. Austin then disappeared for
a while and met up with his friends.

84
00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:21.480
He then met up with his father, his father's girlfriend, and Austin's

85
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:27.480
sister at a local restaurant. Austin
appeared to be agitated as soon as he

86
00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:30.680
arrived. He stayed for a while, argued with his family, and then

87
00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.959
left the restaurant without saying where he
was going. He went to his mother's

88
00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:39.680
house, which was about two miles
away. He said that he was thirsty,

89
00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:45.279
and then drank a whole bottle of
cooking oil before disappearing again. He

90
00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:49.160
went back to dinner, argued with
his family again, and then left again.

91
00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:55.519
It was shortly after that that he
began stalking the streets. He claimed

92
00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.759
to have seen a dark figure following
him and talking to him, a dark

93
00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:03.639
fig figure he called Daniel. He
also saw a witch screaming at him from

94
00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:09.079
one of the houses he was passing
by, and after that the rest kind

95
00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.560
of went blank. It was during
this blackout that Austin attacked Michelle. He

96
00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:18.040
stabbed her with his new switchblade,
before finding other objects around the garage that

97
00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.160
he could also use as a weapon
to attack her. He then chased and

98
00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:26.160
stabbed the neighbor Jeff when he came
by, and it was believed that Joseph

99
00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:31.079
had been out walking the dog,
only to come home to find Austin attacking

100
00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:35.960
Michelle. It was then that Austin
moved on to Joseph and did what he

101
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:41.080
did. When first responders managed to
get Austin to the hospital, they found

102
00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:46.240
that he had extensive internal injuries from
drinking what they believed to be bleach,

103
00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.639
and they were unsure whether he was
even going to survive, let alone go

104
00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:56.759
to trial, but he did.
Both psychiatric evaluators from both the prosecution and

105
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:01.440
the defense found that Austin had not
been sane at the time of the attacks.

106
00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:07.759
He was later diagnosed as bipolar with
psychotic features. He was acquitted by

107
00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:13.080
reasons of insanity, but has been
involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Joseph

108
00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:18.480
and Michelle's families say that they are
deeply hurt by the court's findings and believed

109
00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:22.639
that Austin should have been punished to
the full extent of the law. In

110
00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:26.600
later interviews, Austin cries and shows
remorse for his actions. He claims to

111
00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:31.960
have no idea what happened during the
attacks and that coming back to reality was

112
00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.799
like walking into a nightmare. He
told both his sister and friends that day

113
00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:54.639
he believed he was a centaur and
that he was a half dog. That's

114
00:09:54.679 --> 00:10:01.039
ten minute Murder for today, brief
and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe,

115
00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:03.639
I'm the host, and thank you
so much for taking the time to listen

116
00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:07.639
to ten minute Murder. If you're
a brand new listener, hit subscribe where

117
00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:11.080
you're listening right now, wherever that
happens to be. If you listen to

118
00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:16.120
multiple places, subscribe there as well. While you've got your thumbs doing some

119
00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:20.080
exercise, go to any place that
you use social media. That's Facebook,

120
00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:24.960
Instagram, TikTok, places like that. Find and follow ten Minute Murder there

121
00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.799
as well. If you'd like to
send me an email, let me know

122
00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:31.279
about a case you'd like me to
cover, ask me any question on the

123
00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.879
sunch, or just say some nice
words. I like nice words too.

124
00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:39.519
Joe at ten minute murder dot com
and of course the website is ten minute

125
00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:43.320
murder dot com. That's it.
That's your episode for today. Thank you

126
00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:43.519
so much for listening.