Background: The boat dock at Atwood Lake in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where a woman allegedly drowned her 4-year-old son after causing her husband’s death, police state (WKYC/YouTube). Inset: Remnants of the golf cart that Ohio authorities found after Vincen Miller’s mother allegedly crashed it with her three teenage children onboard following Vincen’s drowning death, police report (Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office).
An Ohio mother is accused of compelling her husband and 4-year-old son to “jump” into a lake as part of an alleged “spiritual delusion” that resulted in their deaths. The woman — a member of an Amish church — instructed them to enter the water “because God was communicating with them” and asked the pair to “prove their worthiness,” according to police reports.
“[The woman] claimed to be hearing voices that she believed were God,” Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell stated at a press conference on Monday, which was broadcast by NBC affiliate WKYC.
“That led her and her husband to go out and jump in the lake first,” Campbell said.
Police officials have identified the victims as Marcus Miller, 45, and Vincen Miller, their young son. They plan to publicly name the woman after formal charges are filed, Campbell noted. She is also accused of crashing a golf cart into Atwood Lake carrying her three other children.
The suspect has reportedly confessed to authorities. She informed them that she instructed Marcus Miller to enter the lake — where he drowned — as part of a “test” from God. Miller initially thought he failed the test “due to insufficient faith,” stated Campbell. The woman allegedly commanded Vincen, who also drowned, to follow as a consequence.
“She believed that she and her husband must pass these tests to demonstrate their faith, and when they failed, Vincen became the sacrifice,” Campbell explained to reporters, according to WKYC. “What she narrates is that she and her husband went to this dock, and they entered the water because God was speaking to them and directing them to prove their faith’s completeness. They did not succeed in these tests.”
According to the sheriff, some of the tasks Marcus Miller was given were “bizarre,” with many of them being “swimming exercises.” The woman allegedly told investigators that God asked her at one point to be “swallowed by a fish,” per Campbell.
Marcus Miller’s final test was swimming to a nearby sandbar, according to police. His wife claimed that they had gone home to their RV after the failed tests before returning to the lake at around 5:30 a.m. to keep trying.
Campbell said Marcus Miller “hasn’t been asleep” after the failed tests.
Marcus Miller was last seen at the Atwood Lake dock at around 6:30 a.m., according to witnesses. His wife was allegedly spotted at around 8 a.m. driving “very dangerously” with Vincen in the area of the dock.
“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,” Campbell told reporters. The woman was then allegedly seen picking up her 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons, whom she also made perform religious lake tasks.
The children told cops that at one point, she made 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,” according to Campbell. She allegedly crashed the golf cart with them inside shortly after, Campbell said.
“She then heard the voice again telling her to drive into the lake,” Campbell told reporters.
After the crash, a witness offered help, but the woman refused. “She suggested … not to help her, to just pray,” Campbell explained, according to WKYC. “That was the first statement that suggested this was more than an accident at that lake. There was a pretty immediate statement made that she had given her son to the Lord.”
Police have described the Millers as members of the Old Order Amish Church and living in Holmes County. They were reportedly visiting Atwood Lake as part of a weekend trip, which Campbell says began like any vacation.
“I do not think it was a plan,” the sheriff concluded. “I believe that based off detailed conversations with the family, that they were just going to the lake.”
