An Amish mother who allegedly drowned her 4-year-old son at Atwood Lake last month has been indicted on a murder charge.
Ruth Miller, 40, was indicted on the following charges:
- Murder
- Felonious assault
- Child endangering
- Domestic violence
Miller is currently at the Tuscarawas County Jail.
She is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.
If convicted, she faces a life sentence.
What happened?
Last month, the Miller family took a trip to Atwood Lake, during which Ruth Miller and her husband, 45-year-old Marcus Miller, according to authorities, believed that God was speaking to them, telling the Amish couple to jump in the lake and perform different "tasks."
After returning to their RV, Marcus Miller immediately went back to the lake because he felt he had not done well with his tasks, said Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell. He decided to swim from the dock to the sandbar. Campbell said that was the last time Ruth Miller saw her husband.
Hours later, Miller put her 4-year-old son in a golf cart and began driving erratically. Campbell said that during interviews with law enforcement, she said she had "thrown the child into the water."
"There was a pretty immediate statement that she had given her son to the Lord," Campbell said.
After she allegedly threw her son into the water, she went back to the RV multiple times to pick up her other three children, a 15-year-old daughter and two 18-year-old twin sons, and made them get into the lake and perform tasks similar to the ones Miller had done with her husband, Campbell said.
The sheriff recounts what his department believes happened:
After they got out of the water, the mother made the teens lie on the dock with their hands in the water and pray for the 4-year-old and their father, Campbell said. Witnesses also saw the mother and the teens huddled together near the kayak launch, being emotional and praying together.
Around 10:30 a.m., Miller was driving erratically in the golf cart with the three teens just before she sped into the water, with the golf cart flipping off the edge of a stone wall, Campbell said.
The teens were able to get out of the cart safely from the water while witnesses helped the mother out of the water, Campbell said.
After first responders had conversations with Miller and the teens, they became worried about the safety of the 4-year-old boy and Marcus Miller, who could not be found, the sheriff's office said in a statement over the weekend. The sheriff said that Ruth Miller tried to flee and hide but was easily located.
Miller was transported to a nearby hospital, and the teens were given over to family members, Campbell said.
The body of the 4-year-old boy was located at the bottom of the lake, Campbell said. Marcus Miller's body was also recovered from the bottom of the lake.
