Ohio Amish Woman Charged With Murder After Lake ‘Faith Test’ Kills Son and Husband

Ohio authorities have charged Ruth R. Miller, a 40-year-old Amish woman from Millersburg, with two counts of aggravated murder after what investigators say was a fatal "test of faith" at Atwood Lake that killed her 4-year-old son and 45-year-old husband. Capt. Adam Fisher of the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office said Miller told detectives she believed God instructed her to throw her son, Vincen, from a dock early Saturday. Hours earlier, her husband, Marcus J. Miller, had drowned while attempting to swim to an offshore sandbar under similar religious prompting. A 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons were also directed to enter the water but survived. Miller has additionally been accused of domestic violence and child endangerment involving the three surviving children. She is undergoing treatment at a secure mental-health facility and had not been taken into custody as of late Wednesday, according to court records filed in New Philadelphia Municipal Court. Sheriff Orvis Campbell said divers recovered the child’s body Saturday evening and the husband’s body early Sunday. Investigators allege Miller later drove a golf cart carrying her children into a stone wall along the lakeshore. The case remains under investigation, and prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they will seek the death penalty.