An Amish mother, who tragically drowned her 4-year-old son in a lake last year, has been acquitted of the charges due to insanity.
Ruth Miller opted to forgo her right to a jury trial last month, entrusting her case to the judgment of Judge Michael Ernest at the Tuscawaras County Common Pleas Court, as reported by WOIO.
The judge’s decision was influenced by three separate mental health assessments and two police investigations, all of which reached the same conclusion regarding Miller’s mental state.
“They all determined that you were suffering from a mental illness that impaired your ability to understand the wrongfulness of your actions,” Judge Ernest stated.
Authorities were alerted on August 24 when Ruth Miller allegedly drove a golf cart, carrying her other children— a 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons—into the lake, according to CrimeOnline. Fortunately, these children were unharmed and managed to walk out of the water on their own.
Miller faced several charges including aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, child endangerment, and domestic violence, all pertaining to her children. However, no charges were filed concerning the death of her husband, Marcus Miller, who also drowned at the lake.
Police said the saga began at about 1 a.m. on August 23, when the husband and wife went to a dock and jumped into the lake, believing that God was talking to them and giving them tasks to carry out to prove their faith.
When they returned to their campsite, Ruth Miller 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., Ruth Miller told investigators.
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 boy, Vincen, into a golf cart. She told investigators that she threw the boy into the lake to “give him to God.”
After speaking with Ruth Miller after the golf cart crash involving the teens, investigators began looking for the missing boy and his father. The boy’s body was found at about 6 p.m. on August 23.
Divers had to stop searching for Marcus Miller in the darkness but located his body about 50 yards off a dock at about 8:30 a.m. the next morning.
Miller will be sent to a psychiatric facility at a placement hearing on March 13, WOIO said. Her defense attorneys said they hope she’ll be able to return to her family at some point; she will be evaluated every three years.
Miller’s family and church issued a statement saying the family were members of the Old Order Amish Church.
