Inset: Ruth Miller (Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The boat dock at Atwood Lake in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where a woman allegedly drowned her 4-year-old son after causing her husband’s death, cops say (WKYC/YouTube).
An Ohio mother accused of commanding her husband and 4-year-old son to “jump” in a lake as part of an alleged “spiritual delusion” — resulting in both of their deaths — has been released from a mental health facility and booked into jail, with her first court appearance set for Friday.
Ruth Miller, 40, of Millersburg, was originally scheduled to appear at a bail hearing on Tuesday morning, but the proceeding was continued until Friday, according to local radio station WTNS. She is now scheduled to appear for a bond and preliminary hearing that morning at 9 a.m., local NBC affiliate WKYC reports.
The Tuscarawas County Clerk of Courts told Law&Crime on Wednesday it was still waiting on Miller’s arrest affidavit and charging documents. The prosecutor’s office did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment.
The judge overseeing her case reportedly ordered Miller on Tuesday to have no contact “with protected persons,” though it’s unclear who those protected people are. She was previously being held at a secure hospital for a mental health evaluation before being booked into the Tuscarawas County Jail on Monday and charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of domestic violence and one count of endangering children. Miller was at the mental health facility from Aug. 23 to Sept. 1.
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The woman — who is reportedly a member of an Amish church — is accused of ordering her husband, Marcus Miller, 45, and 4-year-old son Vincen Miller into Atwood Lake in east central Ohio “because God was speaking to them” and wanted the pair to “prove their worthiness,” cops say.
“[Miller] was supposedly hearing voices that she believed were God,” Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said at a press conference last week, which was streamed by NBC affiliate WKYC.
“That led her and her husband to go out and jump in the lake first,” Campbell said.
Police officials have also accused Miller, who has allegedly confessed, of crashing a golf cart into the water with her three other children inside.
According to Miller, she first commanded Marcus Miller to get into the lake — where he drowned — as part of a “test” from God, according to cops. Miller initially believed he had failed the test “because he didn’t have enough faith,” per police. She then allegedly demanded that Vincen, who also drowned in the lake, to go in afterward as punishment.
“She believed that she and her husband had to pass these tests to show their faith, and when they didn’t, then Vincen became the price to pay for that,” Campbell told reporters. “What she says is that she and her husband went to this dock, and they jumped in the water because God was speaking to them and telling them to do things, things to prove their worthiness to God, to show their faith is complete. And they didn’t do very well in those.”
According to the sheriff, some of the tasks Marcus Miller was given were “bizarre,” with many of them being “swimming exercises.” Ruth Miller allegedly told investigators that God asked her at one point to be “swallowed by a fish,” per Campbell.
Marcus Miller’s final alleged test, according to Ruth, was swimming to a nearby sandbar.
Ruth told police that they allegedly went home to their RV after the failed tests before returning to the lake at around 5:30 a.m. to keep trying.
Marcus Miller was last seen at the Atwood Lake dock at around 6:30 a.m., according to witnesses. His wife was allegedly spotted at around 8 a.m. driving “very dangerously” with Vincen in the area of the dock before he drowned.
“She states that she went to the dock and that she threw the 4-year-old in because that’s what she needed to do as an offering to God,” Campbell told reporters. The woman was then allegedly seen picking up her 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons, whom she also allegedly made perform religious tasks.
The children told cops that at one point, she allegedly made them “all lay 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.” She allegedly crashed the golf cart with them inside shortly after, Campbell said.
“[Miller] heard the voice again telling her to drive into the lake,” Campbell told reporters.
After the crash, a witness offered help, but Miller allegedly refused.
“She suggested … not to help her, to just pray,” Campbell said. “That was the first statement that suggested this was more than an accident at that lake. There was a pretty immediate statement made that she had given her son to the Lord.”
Police have described the Millers as members of the Old Order Amish Church and living in Holmes County. They were reportedly visiting Atwood Lake as part of a weekend trip, which Campbell says began like any vacation.
“I do not think it was a plan,” the sheriff concluded. “I believe that based off detailed conversations with the family, that they were just going to the lake.”
