Woman accused of killing her son by throwing him into a lake during test of faith

An Amish woman who told authorities she was testing her faith when she threw her four-year-old son into an Ohio lake was charged Wednesday with two counts of aggravated murder in the boy’s death.

Authorities said Ruth R. Miller, 40, of Millersburg, Ohio, told investigators she believed she was acting at the direction of God when she allegedly killed her son Vincen at Atwood Lake early Saturday.

The lead investigator with the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office, Capt. Adam Fisher, said Wednesday that Ruth Miller repeatedly said in interviews with police that she threw the boy off the dock and into the water to give him to God.

“It did not appear that the gravity of the situation had sunk in,” Fisher said.

The woman’s husband, Marcus J. Miller, 45, had apparently drowned while attempting to swim to an offshore sandbank hours earlier in another test of faith, Sheriff Orvis Campbell told reporters at a news conference Monday. Their other children, a 15-year-old girl and twin 18-year-old boys, were also directed to perform water-based trials of their belief but survived, Campbell said.

New Philadelphia Municipal Court online records indicate Ruth Miller was also charged with domestic violence and child endangerment regarding the older children. Authorities said Ruth Miller was receiving treatment at a secure mental health facility and had not been arrested by late Wednesday afternoon. A message seeking comment was left for her attorney, Scott Fromson.

Family members and the Millers’ church said in a statement that the deaths “do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness. The ministry and extended family had been walking with them through their challenges, and they had also received professional help in the past.”

Campbell said Ruth Miller told investigators she believed she could walk on water but when she tried doing so off the end of the dock, she simply fell into the water.

Marcus and Vincen Miller were apparently both dead when authorities were called Saturday morning for a report of a golf cart having gone into the lake. Campbell said Ruth Miller had driven it at a high rate of speed into a stone wall on the lake shore with the three older children on board. They all survived, and when a rescuer tried to get Ruth Miller out of the water, she told them to “just pray for her,” Campbell said.

Park rangers heard “concerning type statements” from Ruth Miller, the sheriff said: “There was a pretty immediate statement made that she had given her son to the Lord.” Authorities soon realized her husband and 4-year-old son were missing.

“She began to express more that she had thrown the child in the water to give that child to God,” Campbell said. “But we didn’t know where in the water — it’s a big lake.” He said Ruth Miller was in mental crisis.

Searchers focused near the dock where authorities said the Millers had apparently tried to walk on water the night before. Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, a diver found Vincen on the lake bed, about 10 feet (3 meters) off the end of the dock. With additional information from Ruth Miller, divers found Marcus Miller’s body early Sunday morning, 53 yards (48 meters) from the dock.

The coroner said autopsies and an investigation will determine the manner of the two deaths.

The couple’s surviving children were “extremely confused” and upset, Campbell said. “Their mindset was that whatever their mother and father says is the way it is. They don’t question anything. So when they were told to jump in the lake, they jump in the lake,” he said.

Amish are part of a Christian movement professing non-violence although they have their cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Advocates for abuse victims among the Amish say that although church leaders have acknowledged the problem, they need to do more to respond to abuse as a crime to be reported to civil authorities, not just as a matter of church discipline.

Amish communities have recognized the seriousness of mental health issues to varying degrees, though victims’ advocates say the communities don’t always turn to licensed professionals, sometimes relying on lay counselors and unlicensed religious treatment centers.

The family lived in Holmes County, Ohio, which has a large Amish community. They had gone to Atwood Lake, about 82 miles (132 kilometers) south of Cleveland, in a recreational vehicle as a getaway, arriving Friday, Ruth Miller’s birthday.