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An Amish woman who drowned her 4-year-old son in a lake last year has been declared not guilty due to insanity.
Last month, Ruth Miller chose to forego a jury trial, placing her fate in the hands of Judge Michael Ernest at the Tuscawaras County Common Pleas Court, according to a report from WOIO.
Judge Ernest’s verdict was informed by three mental health assessments and two police reports, all of which unanimously agreed on the same outcome.
“They all concluded that you suffered from some form of mental disease that prevented you from knowing the wrongfulness of your conduct,” the judge stated.
Authorities responded to the incident on August 24 when Ruth Miller reportedly drove a golf cart with her three other children—a 15-year-old daughter and two 18-year-old twin sons—into the lake, as reported by CrimeOnline. Fortunately, these children were unharmed and were able to exit the water on their own.
Miller was ultimately charged with aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, endangering children, and domestic violence. All the charges related to her children; she was not charged in connection with 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.