Ruth Miller: Amish woman faces murder charges after husband and four-year-old drown in bizarre ritualistic act
An Amish woman, believed to be suffering from “spiritual delusion”, has been charged with aggravated murder after allegedly leading her family through a series of bizarre ritualistic acts that ended in the deaths of her husband and youngest son.
According to police, Ms Miller claimed that God was commanding her family to undergo faith-based tests to provide their spiritual “worthiness” while they were camping at Atwood Lake in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, on Saturday.
Ms Miller allegedly told police that her husband, Marcus Miller, “didn’t have enough faith”, before she ordered him into the water.
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“She has indicated every time she has been spoken to that she put the four-year-old in the water to give to God,” Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said during a Monday press conference.
“She made the other kids go through some ritualistic type stuff,” he said.
Shortly after the drownings, Ms Miller allegedly subjected her three other children — a 15-year-old daughter and two 18-year-old twin sons — to additional unsettling rituals.
According to local news station WKYC, the children told police that their mother instructed them to lie down on the dock with their hands in the water to pray “for their little brother and father because they were gone and had gone to heaven.”
Ms Miller then allegedly drove a golf cart with the three children inside into the lake, claiming she once again heard God’s voice.
“She then heard the voice again telling her to drive into the lake,” Mr Campbell said.
Fortunately, the older children managed to escape from the submerged cart and were found physically unharmed.
A search was immediately launched for Mr Miller and Vincen, who were reported missing following the golf cart incident, which stunned fellow campers.
Vincen’s body was recovered near a dock later that day, while Mr Miller’s remains were found in the lake on Sunday morning.
Mr Campbell said Ms Miller told investigators that both she and her husband had entered the lake because “God was speaking to them” and they believed they needed to demonstrate their “worthiness” to him.
