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NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio (WJW) — Authorities in Tuscarawas County said they believe it was a “spiritual delusion” that led to the deaths of a 4-year-old boy and his 45-year-old father, whose bodies were recovered in Atwood Lake over the weekend.

Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell told reporters on Monday the mother — who he said was “clearly in mental crisis” — told them she had “given her son to the Lord” by throwing him into the lake.

The father was believed to have swam far out into the lake on his own, as a test of faith, Campbell said.

Divers recovered the body of the 4-year-old, identified as Vincen Miller of Millersburg, on Saturday, and the body of the father, Marcus Miller, 45, of Millersburg, on Sunday.

Tuscarawas County Coroner Dr. Jeff Cameron on Monday said the cause and manner of death for both the boy and the father are still pending autopsies by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The family’s mother, a 40-year-old woman, is expected to be charged with aggravated murder on Tuesday, Campbell said. On Monday, she was in a locked mental health facility, he said. Her name has not been released, pending formal charges.

The initial call to 911

Investigators said the Holmes County family, part of the Old Order Amish Church, had visited Atwood Lake over the weekend.

Campbell said the mother at about 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23, deliberately drove a golf cart off a dock at Atwood Lake with her 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons on board. It was first called in to 911 as an accident.

“People were chasing her through the grass, yelling at her to hit the brakes because they thought it was careening out of control,” Campbell said. “We later found out that was not the case.”

The cart flipped off the edge of a stone wall and landed in the lake, almost entirely submerged. The woman’s daughter and twin sons were able to get out of the water on their own. But after talking with the mother and children, first responders grew concerned for the safety of the woman’s 4-year-old son and husband.

When witnesses to the crash asked if she needed help, she said she would rather they “pray for her” — the first hint that the incident was “more than an accident on the lake,” Campbell said. The woman also tried to flee the scene, but was escorted back, he said.

Her statements were irrational and “none of it was making a lot of sense,” Campbell said. She later told park system rangers she had “given her son to the Lord,” and later told authorities that God had told her to drive the cart into the lake, he said.

‘Prove their worthiness to God’

Deputies dispatched just before 11 a.m. started looking for the woman’s 4-year-old boy and 45-year-old husband, both of whom were missing.

“[The mother] began to express more that she had thrown the child into the water to give that child to God,” Campbell said. “We didn’t know where in the water. It’s a big lake.”

The mother was cooperative and truthful with investigators, and even drew up a map showing where they would find the child, he said.

The family that day had ridden a pontoon boat on the lake’s causeway. Just before the golf cart crashed into the lake, witnesses reported seeing them huddling together in prayer, with their heads touching. They were crying and emotional. The witnesses were “alarmed” — enough to call authorities, Campbell said.

When a sheriff’s deputy interviewed the mother later that afternoon, she said he and her husband went to a dock on the lake and jumped into the water. She claimed “God was speaking to them and telling them to do things — things to prove their worthiness to God,” Campbell said.

Her teen children were made to do swimming exercises. The woman also claimed God told her to “allow herself to be swallowed by a fish,” Campbell said Monday, in an attempt to illustrate the woman’s apparent mental state.

After believing to have failed his test, Marcus Miller returned to the lake, claiming he would swim to the lake’s sandbar on his own, Campbell said. Witnesses told police they spotted Marcus at one of the boat docks at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday, hours before the crash, wearing the clothes authorities found had been left behind on the family’s boat.

Marcus’ brother later told authorities his brother was not a strong swimmer, Campbell said. Divers found Marcus’ body on the bottom of the lake on Sunday morning, Campbell said.

Sometime after 8 a.m. on Saturday, witnesses saw the mother with the 4-year-old on a golf cart, driving “very erratically” near the family’s rented RV.

“Witnesses said she was driving dangerously, flipped the cart at one time, was seen on two wheels,” Campbell said.

Her children saw her leave with the boy, but she returned a short while later — alone, he said. She then took her 15-year-old daughter and twin 18-year-old sons and made them to jump in the lake. When they got out, she had them lie on the dock, with their hands in the water, to pray for the 4-year-old and their father, “because they were gone and had gone to heaven,” Campbell said.

‘Clearly in mental crisis’

Deputies served a search warrant at the family’s RV — though they “didn’t know what they were looking for,” Campbell said — and found nothing to suggest the mother had planned to harm the children. There were no weapons and investigators have no indication family members were under the influence of drugs, he said.

All they found was an open Bible, he said.

The teenage children did their best to answer investigators’ questions, but were “devastated,” Campbell said.

“The kids were extremely confused. Their mindset was that whatever their mother and father says — that was the way it is. They don’t question anything,” he said. “As a parent of great kids, that’s difficult for me to imagine. … But that’s how they were raised.”

In speaking with extended family members, investigators learned the family had long-planned the trip to Atwood Lake.

They also learned family members had staged a mental health intervention the Thursday prior. The mother had expressed beliefs that the end of the world was coming, he said.

“[Family members] believed [the parents] were misinterpreting passages of the Bible, but had never made statements of wanting to harm anyone,” Campbell said.

The Holmes County family was part of the Old Order Amish Church, a Christian faith. Church members and the victims’ extended family members said in a statement Monday that their faith’s teachings do not reflect the weekend’s tragic events:

The church and family want to thank the law enforcement and rescue personnel for all that was done during this tragic weekend.

The family involved are members of the Old Order Amish Church. As a church of Christian faith, we believe that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), and the events of this past weekend do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness.

The ministry and extended family had been walking with them through their challenges, and they had also received professional help in the past.

At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with the family directly affected. We stand beside them in their grief and ask that their privacy, as well as that of the broader community, be respected during this difficult time. We kindly ask that the public and the media honor this by allowing space for healing.

The extended family encourages anyone facing mental health challenges to seek professional help, as the recent events do not reflect the loving and caring family they were always known to be.

Campbell said Monday he expects prosecutors to file a charge of aggravated murder against the woman on Tuesday. It’s possible she could also face charges of child endangering, he said.

“She was clearly in mental crisis — no doubt about it,” Campbell said. “It just simply manifested itself in what we call a ‘spiritual delusion,'” he said.

The parents’ three other teen children are now in the care of county officials, he said.

“I think this was a husband very devoted to his wife. I think they were also devoted to the Bible and that just manifested itself incorrectly,” Campbell said.

“I don’t think there’s making a lot of common sense about it. I just don’t.”