Authorities in Ohio are preparing to charge an Amish mother with murder following the weekend discovery of her 4-year-old son’s body in a Tuscarawas County lake.
The woman’s husband, Marcus Miller, was also found dead in Atwood Lake. However, officials state that his death was unrelated to that of their son, Vincen Miller, WOIO reported.
According to CrimeOnline, the events unfolded around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Deputies responded to Atwood Marina West, where the mother had driven a golf cart, along with two other children — a 15-year-old girl and twin 18-year-old boys — into the lake. The children managed to escape the water independently, while the mother was rescued by first responders.
Soon after, she began discussing “communicating with God,” claiming she placed her son in the water as an offering, Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell revealed at a news conference on Monday.
Sheriff Campbell explained that the family had been camping at the lake. He stated that around 1 a.m. on Saturday, the couple believed they were receiving divine instructions and jumped into the lake to carry out tasks to affirm their faith.
“She claims that she and her husband went to the dock and jumped in the water because they believed God was directing them to perform tasks,” Campbell shared, according to WKYC. “These tasks were meant to prove their devotion, and some included swimming exercises and more bizarre acts. The strangest involved a belief that she should allow herself to be swallowed by a fish.”
“I tell you that statement not to make fun, but I tell you that statement so you can have a picture of how difficult it was to communicate with her,” the sheriff said.
When they returned to their campsite, she told detectives, her husband said that he was disappointed in himself for failing the tests “because he didn’t have enough faith.” He said he was going back to the lake to swim to a sandbar a lengthy distance from the dock. He left at about 5:30 a.m., the mother said.
“For the longest time, we weren’t sure if that was true. We didn’t know if we could believe her statement,” said Campbell.
But a witness corroborated her statements, saying they saw the husband at the dock around an hour later. At about 8 a.m., witnesses say they saw the mother put the 4-year-old into a golf cart.
“Everybody that will comment or any witness that you encounter that saw her driving will tell you she was driving very dangerously,” Campbell said. “The children saw her leave with the 4-year-old, and then a while later she came back. 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.”
A short time later, she took the teenage children to the dock and had them do “ritualistic tasks.”
“They climb out of the lake and at one point, according to the children, she makes 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,” Campbell said.
Next, she put the teens in the golf cart and drove it off a stone wall into the lake.
“Then at some point, she decided that she had to drive them into the lake, and honestly, she flipped the golf cart in the lake, but it wasn’t deep enough,” the sheriff said. “The kids immediately got up.”
After speaking with the mother, investigators began looking for the missing boy and his father. The boy’s body was found at about 6 p.m. on Saturday. Divers had to stop searching for the father in the darkness, but located his body about 50 yards off a dock a about 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
The mother has been hospitalized for a mental health evaluation. The sheriff said that the couple’s family told them that both the mother and father struggled with mental health issues, particularly the mother.
“But there were never any discussions of harming anyone,” Campbell said. “They had some some, you know, religious beliefs. What we recognize is this. She was clearly in a mental crisis, no doubt about it. You talk to every witness or every first responder, she was in mental crisis, and it just simply manifests itself in what we call a spiritual delusion.”
The family issued a statement in conjunction with their church.
“The church and family want to thank the law enforcement and rescue personnel for all that was done during this tragic weekend,” the statement said. “The family involved are members of the Old Order Amish Church. As a church of Christian faith, we believe that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), and the events of this past weekend do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness.”
Campbell said that charges are expected to be filed on Tuesday.
