The crime at the center of today’s story is considered one of the most disturbing and heinous of all time.Story name, preview & link to original YouTube video:#1 -- "Clinical Lycanthropy" -- One of the most heinous crimes ever committed in the USA (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRzgmZiZn6U)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is Clinical Lycanthropy?
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Lamont Jones is shattered when his cousin dies just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. Wondery presents Death County PA, a chilling true story of corruption and cover-ups. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Chapter 2: Who was Austin Harroff?
Austin Harroff was born on December 21st, 1996 to a dentist and a pharmacist. They lived in a beautiful home in Palm Beach County, Florida, which is not only one of the nicest and wealthiest places to live in Florida, but it is one of the nicest and wealthiest places to live in all of America. And that's why, as of 2021, there are 44 billionaires that call this paradise their home.
In 2010, when Austin was 13 years old, his parents suddenly got divorced, and within the same calendar year, both of his parents had new girlfriends and boyfriends. Now, of course, this was a shock to Austin and to his one-year younger sister Haley, but they both relatively quickly adjusted to their new normal. And that was in large part because the kids didn't move out.
They stayed in the family home with their mom, and their father, he did move out, but he moved into a home that was very close by. About a year after the divorce, Austin began high school and immediately he excelled. He was placed into all advanced classes and within these advanced classes Austin was consistently at the top of his class. Austin was also a big athletic guy.
He was about six feet tall and weighed about 200 pounds and so naturally he played football for all four years he was in high school and for one year, his sophomore year, he also wrestled. But despite his size and willingness to play these very rough physical sports, Austin was not an aggressive guy. In fact, his football coaches actually used to criticize him for not being aggressive enough.
And on game days, they would try to make him mad in hopes that would inspire him to go out there and smash some people. But it really didn't work because Austin was Austin. He was just kind of a laid back guy who was actually much more interested in helping people than smashing them.
In fact, towards the end of high school, Austin became obsessed with trying to identify a career that would allow him to help the most people. And he was so passionate about this that when he spoke about it, a huge smile would kind of involuntarily appear on his face.
And so because of this, and because of Austin's generally happy disposition, his father very lovingly began referring to him as the happy boy. Shortly before Austin's graduation in 2015, he received a letter in the mail from Florida State University, and it was informing him he had been accepted into their four-year pre-med program.
Austin had settled on medicine as being his intended career path to help the most people, and so being accepted into this very prestigious program was like a best-case scenario. And so Austin and his family were elated. And that summer that followed his high school graduation was totally charmed. Austin was on cloud nine. He spent a lot of time with his family and his friends.
And then finally, at the end of the summer, his family packed all of his stuff into the car, and they drove six hours north to Tallahassee, where the Florida State campus was. They helped move him into his dorm, and then afterwards they gave him a big hug, said good luck, and they left. And I'm sure on their ride back, the family members thought to themselves, Austin is doing so great.
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Chapter 3: What led to Austin's mental health crisis?
And so when they confronted him about his drug use, he would admit that he was taking drugs, lots of different drugs, psychedelics, stimulants, you name it, he's taking all these drugs. And so naturally, his family latched on to his drug use as being the root cause of his very strange behavior. And so they focused their efforts almost exclusively on getting Austin clean again.
But towards the end of the summer, Austin said he wasn't taking any drugs, but Austin was still acting totally crazy and unhinged. And so around mid-August, the family decided they had to utilize something called the Baker Act. Under the Baker Act, individuals in Florida who are suspected of severe mental illness can be detained for up to 72 hours at the behest of their loved ones.
And during these 72 hours, this individual is thoroughly assessed to see what's going on with them. And then at the end of those 72 hours, they are given a treatment plan that their family is supposed to help them enact. But before the family could utilize the Baker Act, something horrific happened.
On the morning of August 15th, one of Austin's very close friends who he had known since second grade said Austin just showed up at his house without calling ahead of time or letting him know, which was very uncharacteristic. And when this friend opened the door to see what Austin wanted, Austin just asked him, what year was I born? And so the friend says, 1996.
And as soon as Austin heard this, he didn't give a reaction to it. He just turned around and he left. And so this longtime friend is looking at Austin walking away, wondering, you know, like, what's going on with this guy? Is he high on drugs? Is he drunk? Like, what was that? So the friend goes back inside his house and he's thinking to himself, you know, like, what should I do?
And so after a couple of minutes, he decides, you know what, I got to call Austin and make sure he's OK. So he calls Austin, Austin picks up, and it's unclear what they talked about on the phone, but the friend convinced Austin to come back to his house and to just spend the day with him. But really, the friend just wanted to make sure Austin was okay.
And so Austin comes back to the friend's house, and then the two of them actually would leave the house and meet up with some of their other friends that were in town that summer, as well as meet up with Austin's sister. And so the group, they decide they're gonna go to the beach for the day.
And on their walk to the beach, Austin tells the group that he just needs to get something at his house and that he will meet them down at the water. And so at this point, the group believes Austin is just fine. So they say, okay, yep, we'll meet you down there. So Austin breaks off, he goes to his house.
And when he goes back to the beach and meets up with his group of friends again, he's changed his outfit. He was now wearing this very thick, large football jersey. He was wearing long sweatpants that were also very thick. He had on two wristwatches and he had on sunglasses. And so as he walks down onto the beach, his friends look up at him and it's super hot out and they're at the beach.
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Chapter 4: What happened on August 15th?
And so she watched him get out of the car and she watched him go through the front door and then she drove off. And so about 30 minutes after he left that second time, Austin walks through the front doors of the restaurant. He's got a different shirt on, different hat on. And he just walks to the back of the restaurant where his sister, his friend, his father and his father's girlfriend are.
And he sits down like nothing had ever happened. At first, it looks like everyone at the table is just silent. But then, Austin's father very clearly said something to Austin, and it seems kind of hostile. And it would turn out, Austin's father, who loved his son, was just totally at a loss for what to do with him. And he said to Austin when he sat back down, "'What is wrong with you?'
And at this, Austin just stands up and presses his father's face back up against his seat, kind of pinning him there. And then at some point he just lets go. He leaves the booth and he walks right out of the restaurant for a third time. Austin's friend who was eating with them, he got up and kind of chased after Austin, but he was about 30 seconds behind him.
And so by the time he got outside, he didn't know where Austin went. And so he quickly came back in the restaurant. He told the rest of the group he didn't know where Austin was. And so at this point, Austin's father's girlfriend would actually call the police and report Austin missing.
They knew he was totally unhinged and they didn't know where he was going to go, if he was a threat to himself or someone else. And so they figured they should just tell the police and have the police go find him. About four miles away from this restaurant, 53-year-old Michelle Mishkon was sitting in her garage watching TV.
Normally, she would be joined by her husband, 59-year-old John Stevens, but he was out walking their dog. So for the time being, Michelle was alone. The couple had been married for roughly 20 years, they had three kids together from previous marriages, and they were just totally in love with each other. That garage was like their happy place. That was basically like their living room.
They loved having the door wide open so they could wave to neighbors and flag people down to have a drink with them or just chat with them. They were just known to be a very happy, loving couple that were fun to be around. And according to their kids, they had both recently retired. John retired from his landscaping company that he owned, and Michelle retired from her financial advisory job.
And the two of them were apparently both just really excited about retirement life. They were excited to spend more time together and go out with their friends and go out fishing on their boat with their dog, and then also spend as much time as they could just lounging back in their garage. John and Michelle's neighbor across the street was a middle-aged man named Jeff Fisher.
Jeff was fairly close with the couple. He would usually watch their dogs anytime they went away and he would often go in their garage and have a drink and just kind of hang out with them. And so this particular night, he was over in his house and he was going to bed early.
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Chapter 5: How did the situation escalate with Michelle and John?
Or this town, everybody started laughing uncontrollably that lasted for months. I mean, the list goes on. And these are not urban legends. These are real mysteries that we dive into that have left doctors and scientists baffled, sometimes for years. And so that's why I created Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, a totally separate show all about these wild mysteries of the human body.
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Lamont Jones's world is shattered when his cousin dies in custody just weeks after entering prison. The official report says natural causes, but bruises and missing teeth tell a different story. From Wondery comes Death County, PA, a chilling true story of corruption and coverups that begins as one man's search for answers, but soon reveals a disturbing pattern.
Lamont's cousin's death is just one of many, and powerful forces are working to keep the truth buried. With never-before-heard interviews and shocking revelations, Death County PA pulls back the curtain on one of America's darkest institutional secrets. This isn't just another true crime story. It's happening right now. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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The following narrative is the account of the second responding officer, who we'll just call Dan, and the first responding officer we'll just call Kristen. And so Dan, he comes flying down the street, he's got his sirens on, and he pulls in right behind Kristen's cop car, which is parked right out in front of John and Michelle's property.
Kristen is already running up the driveway, her gun is out, she's getting ready to engage somebody at the top of the driveway. And so Dan, he hops out of his car, he's got his hand on his gun, and as he turns to run up the driveway, his view is obscured.
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Chapter 6: What was the outcome of the confrontation?
And so he pulled out his knife and he attacked her. And then after she fell to the ground, Austin said he drank a bottle of alcohol or something, which we now know was most likely very poisonous lawn chemicals that was just in the garage. After he drinks that bottle, he turns around and now he's looking out of the garage towards the street.
And he said he saw this other figure in the doorway with a dog next to him. And then Austin said his mind just went blank.
It's believed the figure he saw in the doorway was John Stevens returning from his walk, but we don't know for sure, and frankly, this story is pretty incoherent to begin with, because it doesn't account for the fact that before John came back, Austin had been grappling with Jeff Fisher and stabbing Jeff Fisher, the neighbor.
But Austin would say he has no recollection of encountering Jeff Fisher, he has no recollection of John or what he looked like, and he certainly doesn't remember biting John's face, and he had no memory of any interactions with police. He said that basically he turned around, he sees this figure, this dog, and then his mind went blank and then he woke up about two weeks later in the hospital.
Now, when his story went public, a lot of people just were not willing to accept that story. They said he was making it up so he could plead insanity at his trial and get a lesser sentence.
But a world-renowned forensic psychologist named Philip Resnick, who had worked on many high-profile cases before, he did a lengthy assessment of Austin, and he came to a very different conclusion than the public.
In his 38-page report, Resnick points out the fact that Austin continued to bite John's face even when he was being openly threatened with being shot by the police officer standing right over him. He continued to bite John's face after he was tased. He continued to bite John's face after he was kicked in the head repeatedly. He continued to bite John's face after a dog repeatedly bit him.
This all suggests that Austin was truly in a psychotic state when this attack occurred. A sane person, even under the influence of drugs, will retain a basic survival instinct. They will try to protect themselves. So when their guns pointed at them, or they're being physically harmed, or there's threats of violence, they'll do things to protect themselves. But Austin didn't.
It was like he had no idea about anything else except John's face. Resnick specified that the type of psychotic episode that Austin was suffering from on the night of the attack is something called clinical lycanthropy delusions.
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