This story was updated at 6:27 p.m. on Aug. 27 to reflect information about criminal charges.
MINERAL CITY, Ohio — Two members of an Amish family from Holmes County, Ohio, are dead after a series of disturbing events unfolded in plain sight at Atwood Lake Park over the weekend.
Marcus J Miller, 45, of Winesburg, Ohio, was last seen in the early morning hours of Aug. 23, attempting a swim he believed would prove his devotion to God, according to Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell.
Later that morning, in the midst of what authorities called a mental health crisis, Miller’s wife, Ruth, threw their 4-year-old son, Vincen, into the water. She would later tell investigators she cast him into the lake “as an offering to God.”
Divers found the boy’s body about 10 feet from the dock around 6 p.m. Aug. 23. Marcus Miller’s body was found in the lake the following morning, on Aug. 24, about 53 yards away. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting autopsies to determine the cause of death.
Tuscarawas County Prosecutor Ryan Styer announced Aug. 27 that Ruth Miller has been charged in New Philadelphia Municipal Court with two counts of aggravated murder in the death of her 4-year-old son, as well as child endangerment involving a 15-year-old daughter and two counts of domestic violence involving two adult sons. Miller, who remains in a secure hospital, will be released to law enforcement once discharged for court hearings.
Campbell said the incident was the result of a severe mental health crisis that manifested as spiritual delusion.
A family intervention had taken place the day before the Millers arrived at the lake, spurred by concern over the couple’s misinterpretations of the Bible and fantasies of the coming end of the world, Campbell told Farm and Dairy. Family members who spoke to investigators never thought they were capable of harming their children.
“I don’t think they realized at all what the extent of it was. I think they realized that (Ruth) had some irrational beliefs, or had developed some irrational ideology, but they didn’t realize it was really like that at all,” Campbell said.
Troubling behavior
Authorities were initially called to an accident outside a restaurant at the busy Atwood Lake Park and Campground, which was filled with camper trailers and tents where weekend visitors were ready to make the most of the last days of summer. Instead, things took a dramatic turn when a 911 call came in at 10:39 a.m. Aug. 23 reporting that a golf cart carrying several people had slammed into a stone wall and plunged into the lake.
When first responders arrived, they found a frantic mother, Ruth Miller, 40, with her three teenage children — a 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old twin sons. The teens had managed to scramble onto the roof of the overturned cart while bystanders pulled their mother, who had been driving, from the water.
According to Campbell, witnesses said the cart had been traveling so fast it nearly flipped several times before the crash. Some had chased after it, shouting at the driver to hit the brakes because they thought it was careening out of control.
“It looked as though it could’ve been an unintentional event, that it could’ve just been an accident,” he said during an Aug. 25 press conference.
The first camper who rushed to the family’s side asked if Ruth needed help. She declined and instead asked them to pray for her. That was the first clue that something was deeply wrong, Campbell recalled.
When park rangers arrived, they too noticed troubling behavior.
“There was a pretty immediate statement made that she had given her son to the Lord,” Campbell said.
The moment she stepped out of the water, Ruth Miller started singing. Then she tried to flee, hiding briefly in nearby weeds before being brought back. Rangers escorted her and the children to the Atwood Welcome Center to get a handle on the situation they faced, as her statements grew increasingly disjointed.
By 11:41 a.m., deputies had gathered that Ruth Miller’s son, Vincen Miller, along with her husband, the boy’s father, Marcus J Miller, were missing. The family was at the lake to relax and celebrate Ruth’s birthday.
“We were hoping she’s just sick and that the father’s got this 4-year-old somewhere in the campground,” Campbell said.
But as investigators began their search, the prospects of finding them alive seemed to dim.
Based on Ruth Miller’s statements, divers scoured multiple sites at the lake, including the dock where the family kept a pontoon boat. They also searched around the Atwood Park kayak launch, where witnesses had earlier seen Ruth Miller and the teens huddled, their heads bowed and touching as they prayed so intently it scared some of the onlookers.
In an interview at the hospital, Ruth Miller told detectives that God had commanded her and her husband to prove their faith by carrying out a series of “tasks” in the water, from undertaking difficult swimming exercises to performing other acts only comprehensible to them.
Those rituals began around 1:15 a.m. Aug. 23, when the couple got a ride together to the dock from a neighbor. At one point, Ruth Miller told investigators, she stepped off the edge, believing she could walk on the water. When she immediately sank, she became distraught, convinced her failure to perform the miracle was the result of weak faith.
“The most bizarre (thing) was that God told her to allow herself to be swallowed by a fish, as bizarre as that sounds,” Campbell said. “And I tell you that statement not to make fun, but I tell you that statement so you can have a picture of how difficult it was to communicate with her. It just wasn’t making a lot of sense.”
Sheriff Campbell told Farm and Dairy there was no indication at all of drug or alcohol involvement. While final toxicology results are pending, authorities do not suspect any substance use. The search warrant for the family’s RV recovered no evidence of drugs or alcohol, either.
According to Campbell, at 5:30 a.m., Marcus told his wife he was disappointed in himself because his faith wasn’t strong enough to complete the tasks. To atone, he announced he was going back to swim to a distant sandbar. He was last seen by a witness at the dock about an hour later.
His obituary, published online Aug. 26, said Marcus Miller died in “an accidental drowning at the Atwood Lake.” The obituary named him as part-owner of shed manufacturer Twin Oaks Barns in the Millersburg area and called him a hard worker; nothing, it said, was more important to him than his family.
By 8 a.m., Ruth was driving a golf cart erratically toward the dock with her 4-year-old son riding alongside. It was there, she later told investigators, that she had thrown her youngest son into the water.
She then returned for her teenage daughter, forcing her into the lake as well, before repeating the same with her twin sons. While the children were extremely confused, Campbell said they accepted their parents’ words as indisputable truth. When told to jump in the lake, they followed without question, treading water, swimming and maintaining different positions for specific durations of time as God asked of them, according to their mother.
Later, the teens could only say a few words at a time about what had happened before breaking down, crying so hard they couldn’t speak.
“At one point, according to the children, she made them all lie down on the dock with their hands (clasped) in the water to pray for their little brother and father because they had gone to heaven,” Campbell said.
A joint statement from the Old Order Amish Church and the extended family thanked law enforcement and rescue personnel for their efforts. It said, “The events of this past weekend do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness.”
The statement also noted that the couple had received professional help in the past and that the ministry and family had been “walking with them through their challenges.”
“The recent events do not reflect the loving and caring family they were always known to be,” the statement reads.
A double funeral service for Marcus and Vincen Miller is planned in Millersburg on Aug. 28. Vincen’s obituary said the youngster was “such a sweet-natured and innocent child that lit up the room wherever he went.” It continued, “He will be dearly missed by his sister and brothers, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts.”
After the chaos of the weekend, Atwood Park was eerily quiet and desolate on Aug. 25. An employee at the visitor center declined to speak to a reporter, directing all questions to the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office. A few boats and kayaks drifted intermittently on the water, moving about as fast as the pace of life in the park. The few left behind tried to go about business as usual.
Myke Stelzer, who was vacationing at the campground for the first time with a small group of friends, recounted the tension he felt as the search for Vincen and Marcus concentrated on the dock, which he could see from his cabin. The group had heard commotion nearby the night before but dismissed it. The following morning, seeing emergency vehicles and search boats scanning the lake, the gravity of the situation became clear.
“When you see the search and rescue boats, you know they’re not just looking for someone’s iPhone,” he said. “It was definitely more of a somber feeling than your typical weekend at camp. Because it was in the back of everybody’s mind.”
In the wake of the incident, Stelzer said he has sat in quiet, sometimes dark contemplation, wondering if they should have intervened, if they could have made any difference.
“It’s just that it really makes you think, is there something that we could’ve done?”
Longtime camper Rick, who has been visiting Atwood Lake since 1984, recalled the swirling rumors and confusion in the wake of the tragedy. Stories varied wildly — some claimed the mother had shot someone; others, he said, suggested the family members had intended to sacrifice themselves. A former Marine who often assists newcomers at the park, Rick reflected on the events of the weekend at the lake where he and his family had come to celebrate the third birthday of a young boy about Vincen’s age, now living under the supervision of his daughter, who works in children’s services. The reality of Vincen’s fate loomed in sharp contrast.
“Lord, I picked our little 3-year-old up, and I just loved him to death and kissed him. And I said, ‘Oh, my God. Please do not let anything happen to this little boy,’” he said.
Well written news account of a very difficult and tragic event…Paul Rowley really captures the confusion surrounding this tragedy and the gradual awareness of those who were in the vicinity… Nicely done.