An Old Order Amish mother in Ohio accused of fatally throwing her 4-year-old son into a lake as an offering to God was found not guilty by reason of insanity March 3.
The Repository of Canton reported Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Ernest made the ruling about Ruth R. Miller based on three mental health assessments that she was not capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of her actions at Atwood Lake on Aug. 23, 2025.
Miller, of Millersburg, was arrested and hospitalized for mental health concerns after park rangers responded to a report that she crashed a golf cart with her three older children into the lake. Her husband, Marcus J. Miller, drowned while swimming in the lake the same weekend.
Investigators say the couple believed God wanted them to pass tests of faith, and at one point she told responders at the scene that God had asked her to be swallowed by a fish. The judge ruled in a placement hearing that she will be confined to a behavioral health hospital with periodic review hearings.
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