An Ohio woman who told authorities she was testing her faith when she drowned her 4-year-old son has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder, officials said Wednesday.
Ruth Miller, 40, of Millersburg, reportedly told investigators she believed she was following divine instructions when she threw her son, Vincen, into Atwood Lake early Saturday morning. According to Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Capt. Adam Fisher, Miller stated repeatedly during interviews that she “gave her son to God” by throwing him from a dock into the water.
“It did not appear that the gravity of the situation had sunk in,” Fisher said.
The incident occurred just hours after Miller’s husband, Marcus J. Miller, 45, drowned while attempting to swim to a sandbar in what authorities described as another “test of faith.” Sheriff Orvis Campbell revealed that the Millers had instructed their other children—an 18-year-old pair of twin boys and a 15-year-old girl—to participate in similar water-based trials. All three survived.
Court documents also show Ruth Miller faces charges of domestic violence and child endangerment related to those surviving children. She is currently receiving treatment at a secure mental health facility and had not been formally arrested as of Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators believe Miller was suffering from a “spiritual delusion” at the time of the events. She reportedly told police she believed she could walk on water but fell into the lake when she attempted it.
Family members and the Millers’ church released a joint statement describing the deaths as stemming from mental illness rather than religious belief: “These tragedies 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.”
Authorities were first alerted Saturday morning after receiving a report of a golf cart crashing into a stone wall at the lake. Ruth Miller had apparently driven the cart at high speed with the three older children on board. All survived the crash. When a rescuer attempted to help Miller out of the water, she reportedly told them to “just pray for her.”
Park rangers became concerned after hearing troubling statements from Miller and soon discovered that her husband and youngest son were missing. Search teams focused on the area near the dock, where the couple had allegedly tried to walk on water the night before. Vincen’s body was found on the lake bed about 10 feet from the dock around 6 p.m. Saturday. Marcus Miller’s body was recovered early Sunday, roughly 53 yards from the same location.
Sheriff Campbell described the surviving children as “extremely confused” and emotionally shaken. “Their mindset was that whatever their mother and father say is the way it is. They don’t question anything. So when they were told to jump in the lake, they jumped in the lake,” he said.
The Millers lived in Holmes County, Ohio, home to a large Amish population. They had arrived at Atwood Lake on Friday—Ruth Miller’s birthday—for a family getaway in a recreational vehicle.