An Ohio woman is facing serious charges following a tragic weekend at a local lake.
Ruth R. Miller, a 40-year-old Amish woman from Millersburg, Ohio, has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the death of her 4-year-old son, Vincen.
The charges were officially filed on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.
On the morning of Saturday, August 23, 2025, authorities received a call about a golf cart that had plunged into Atwood Lake.
When rescuers arrived, they found Ruth Miller and her three older children—a 15-year-old girl and twin 18-year-old boys—in the water.
The children had managed to survive by standing on the partially submerged cart.
While a rescuer tried to help Ruth Miller from the water, she told them that she had "given her son to the Lord."
It was at this point that detectives discovered that her young son, Vincen, and her husband, Marcus J. Miller, 45, were missing.
According to the Tuscarawas County Sheriff's Office investigators believe that hours before the golf cart incident, late on Friday night or very early Saturday, Ruth and Marcus Miller went to a dock on the lake.
Sheriff Campbell said that the then couple “jumped in the water because God was speaking to them and telling them to do things, things to prove their worthiness to God.”
He said that Marcus Miller apparently attempted to swim to a distant sandbar, to further test his faith but tragically drowned.
It was after this that the situation escalated further.
Ruth Miller allegedly told police she then threw her young son, Vincen, into the lake as an "offering to God," as reported by PEOPLE.
Captain Adam Fisher, the lead investigator, noted that during subsequent interviews, Ruth Miller “repeatedly said… she threw the boy off the dock and into the water to give him to God"
After this revelation, divers started searching efforts near the dock and around 6 p.m. on Saturday, a diver found Vincen’s body on the lake bed not far from the end of the dock.
Early the next morning, divers found Marcus Miller’s body 53 yards away.
The couple’s three older children are now in the care of extended family.
Sheriff Campbell said the children were “extremely confused” and upset.
He explained that they were used to doing whatever their parents told them without question, “so when their mother and father told them to jump into the lake, they did,” he said.
In an official statement, the Miller family’s church and relatives stressed that the incident “does not represent our teachings or beliefs, but stems from mental illness.”
They added that both the ministry and extended family had been supporting the family through their struggles and that the Millers had also sought professional help in the past.
Ruth Miller was also charged with two counts of domestic violence and one count of child endangerment related to the older children involved in the golf cart incident.
Authorities confirmed she is currently receiving treatment at a secure mental health facility, as reported by AP News.
The coroner’s office will still conduct autopsies to determine the official manner of death for both Marcus and Vincen Miller as the investigation continues.
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