‘Spiritual delusion’: Authorities share new details in deaths of Amish father, son as charges loom for mother

TUSCARAWAS COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - New information was released Monday about the Amish family involved in two drownings in Ohio over the weekend.

Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said “spiritual delusion” was a factor in the deaths of a father and his 4-year-old son.

The two were identified as 45-year-old Marcus J. Miller and 4-year-old Vincen Miller.

The man’s wife and child’s mother, a 40-year-old woman, has been hospitalized for mental health treatment.

Campbell said she is expected to be formally charged Tuesday with aggravated murder.

The situation occurred over the course of the weekend while the family camped at Atwood Lake.

Campbell said officials learned during the investigation that at around 1 a.m. on Saturday, the husband and wife, who believed God was speaking to them, went to the dock and jumped in the water.

The sheriff said they believed they were carrying out tasks to try and prove their faith to God.

Once they returned to the campgrounds, Marcus Miller reportedly told his wife he was going back to the lake.

According to Campbell, a witness spotted him along the dock at 6:30 a.m. Crews later recovered his body nearby.

A short time later, at around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Campbell said the mother placed 4-year-old Vincen on a golf cart and began to drive recklessly.

That’s when Campbell said she returned to the dock and drowned her son, which she later admitted to deputies.

The mother is then accused of forcing her remaining children in the lake at different times.

At around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Campbell said she drove into the lake on a golf cart carrying her three other children, described as a 15-year-old daughter and 18-year-old twin sons.

The teen girl and twins got out of the water on their own and were not injured.

Campbell said it was the golf cart crash that prompted a response by rangers and deputies, and ultimately, uncovered the deaths.

When first responders began to treat the mother, she was allegedly making concerning statements.

As deputies questioned her, Campbell said the mother spoke about placing her son in the water “to give him to God.”

She also attempted to run from deputies and hide in a bush. It was at that time that officials learned Vincen and Marcus Miller were missing.

Crews searched numerous locations on Saturday for the two.

Vincen’s body was located at around 6 p.m.

Marcus Miller’s body was found in the same area at around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Campbell said the Miller family, who are Amish and from Holmes County, were visiting the lake for the weekend.

The teen daughter and twins are now being cared for by other family members.

The Miller family’s relatives and church released a statement after news of the deaths, which said, in part, “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,” church and family members also said in the statement.

The Tuscarawas County coroner will conduct autopsies to determine how they died.

“The recent events do not reflect the loving and caring family they were always known to be,” individuals who knew the victims added.