An Ohio mother is in custody after authorities say she drowned her 4-year-old son and then tried to kill her three older children by driving a golf cart into a lake. Ruth Miller, 40, was released from a hospital where she’d been receiving mental health treatment and booked into the Tuscarawas County Jail on September 1.
Miller is charged with two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of domestic violence, and one count of child endangerment in connection with the August 23 tragedy at Atwood Lake. She is accused of deliberately drowning her young son, Vincen, before attempting to drown her 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old twin boys.
Authorities say Miller confessed, telling deputies she acted on instructions from God. Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said she told officers she believed she needed “to allow herself to be swallowed by a fish to prove her worthiness.” Campbell described her state of mind as a “spiritual delusion.”
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The incident came just hours after Miller’s husband Marcus, 45, drowned while trying to swim to a sandbar in the same lake. According to investigators, Miller told them that Marcus wanted to prove his faith by completing tasks he believed God commanded. When he failed to return, she took their youngest child to the water at dawn and left him to drown, saying she was “giving him to God.”
She later brought her other children to the lake and instructed them to perform similar tasks. Vacationers nearby eventually noticed Miller crying with the three teens before she drove them in a golf cart at full speed into a stone wall and then into the lake. Witnesses said the teens escaped by climbing onto the cart while Miller refused to leave the water. Deputies said she ran into bushes and later told them she could walk on water before falling back into the lake.
The surviving children were placed with relatives while Miller was taken to the hospital for treatment. The bodies of Marcus and Vincen were recovered from the bottom of the lake nearly 24 hours later after an extensive search.
Miller is scheduled for a court appearance on Friday, September 5, though PEOPLE reports the hearing may be delayed as a grand jury is expected to return a formal indictment.
Her attorney, Ian N. Friedman, said her mental state will be central to the case. “It is immediately apparent that Ruth, at the time of the tragic incident, suffered from a severe mental ailment that unequivocally prevented her from appreciating the wrongfulness of her conduct,” he told PEOPLE. He added, “I expect that this case will center around whether Ruth should be found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. We are confident that she will be.”
For now, Miller remains behind bars while her surviving children continue to recover with extended family. The community around Atwood Lake is still reeling from the events that unfolded over the course of a single day.