An Amish mother in Ohio who authorities say threw her 4-year-old son in a lake did so as part of a series of tests to "prove their worthiness" to God, police said.
The 4-year-old, Vicen Miller, ended up drowning in the lake, as did the woman's 45-year-old husband, Marcus. Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, divers found the young boy's body at the bottom of the lake near a dock. The father was pulled from the water at around 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, WKCY reported.
Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell detailed in a briefing the events that led up to the deaths and the increasingly extreme behavior of the woman and her husband.
Campbell said the events began to unfold at 1:15 a.m. Saturday morning, when the woman and her husband jumped in the lake to perform a number of tasks for God.
"Things to prove their worthiness to God, to show their faith is complete. And they didn't do very well in those. Some of them were bizarre, some of them were just swimming exercises. The most bizarre was that God told her to allow herself to be swallowed by a fish, as bizarre as that sounds," Campbell said. "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."
Campbell said the couple returned to their RV, but that the husband was disappointed in their performance. Around 5:30 a.m., the husband left, saying he planned to swim from the dock to a sandbar that was a considerable distance away.
Campbell said this story was corroborated by a witness who saw Miller alone at the dock around 6:30 a.m. Campbell noted the fact that the man had not slept, would have been tired, and that the swim he intended to try was considerable. The man ended up drowning.
Later, around 8 a.m., Campbell said that the woman was seen with the 4-year-old in the golf cart.
"The children saw her leave with the 4-year-old, and then a while later she came back. She states that she went to the dock and that she threw the 4-year-old in because that's what she needed to do as an offering to God," Campbell said.
Later, the woman took her 15-year-old daughter and two 18-year-old sons and had them all get in the lake. They survived and got out, and "she makes them all lie down on the dock with their hands in the water to pray for their little brother and father because they were gone and had gone to heaven," Campbell said.
At about 10:39 a.m., Campbell said the woman was seen erratically driving a golf cart with the three teenagers as passengers toward the lake. He said witnesses assumed it was out of control and chased after her, telling her to brake. The golf cart crashed into the lake, but the three teenagers were able to safely reach land and police were called.
WKCY said that Campbell said the children were physcially unharmed by traumatized.
"She made the other kids go through some ritualistic type stuff," said Campbell. "Then at some point, she decided that she had to drive them into the lake, and honestly, she flipped the golf cart in the lake, but it wasn't deep enough. The kids immediately got up."
The woman has been hospitalized and is undergoing a mental health evaluation.
WKCY said that the family and church released a statement through the sheriff's office:
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 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.
