A woman crashing a golf cart in an Ohio lake alongside three of her teenage children led authorities to uncover the bodies of her husband and 4-year-old son.
Marcus J. Miller, 45, and Vincen Miller, 4, were found dead over the weekend in Atwood Lake. Tuscarawas County Sheriff Orvis Campbell said he believes Marcus Miller accidentally drowned trying to swim to a sandbar.
The child’s mother allegedly told authorities that she had thrown Vincen in the water “to give that child to God,” Campbell said at a Monday news conference.
Campbell said that “spiritual delusion” was a factor in the deaths.
“We’re aware of some issues, especially the mother, but also the father. But there were never any discussions of harming anyone. They had some religious beliefs. What we recognize is this: she was clearly in a mental crisis,” he said. “And it just simply manifested itself in what we call a spiritual delusion.”
As of Monday night, the mother remained hospitalized for a mental health evaluation. Authorities intend to charge her with aggravated murder in connection with the 4-year-old’s death.
The mother’s identity was not released because she has not been formally charged.
The bodies were discovered after deputies received a 911 call Saturday about a woman who crashed a golf cart near Atwood Marina West, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Campbell said that witnesses were chasing the golf cart through the grass and yelling for the woman to hit the brakes because they thought “it was careening out of control.”
The golf cart then flipped over the edge of a stone wall and landed in the lake, he said. Three teenage children, a 15-year-old girl and twin 18-year-old boys, were riding in the golf cart with the woman. The children were able to get out of the water safely, the sheriff said.
Witnesses helped the woman get out of the lake, Campbell said.
“The first witness that arrives to help is asking the woman does she need help up, and he tries to help, and she suggests to him not to help her, to just pray for her,” the sheriff said. “That was the first statement to suggest that this was more than just an accident at that lake.”
Responding rangers also heard concerning statements from the woman who told them that “she had given her son to the Lord,” Campbell said. He said the woman “was not rational” and attempted to flee and hide from rangers.
The sheriff’s office said that it became evident that the golf cart crash was intentional. Investigators also learned that the woman’s husband and 4-year-old son were missing.
The woman allegedly told deputies that she jumped into the lake with her husband early Saturday morning “because God was speaking to them and telling them to do things, things to prove their worthiness to God.”
The woman said she and her husband got out of the water and went back to the family’s RV. The woman told investigators that her husband was “disappointed in himself because he didn’t do very good in his task,” so he went back to the lake to swim to a sandbar, according to the sheriff.
The father never returned to the RV, the sheriff said.
Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, witnesses said they saw the mother putting the 4-year-old in the golf cart, “and taking off very erratically,” the sheriff said. When she came back to the RV, she was alone.
Campbell said the mother told deputies 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.”
“She believed that she and her husband had to pass these tests to show their faith, and when they didn’t, then Vincen became the price to pay for that,” he said.
The tasks the mother said she was directed to do included walking on water and swimming challenges, the sheriff said.
Vincen Miller was found Saturday night near a boat dock in the lake, authorities said. Marcus Miller was found on Sunday morning in the same area.
The sheriff said the mother made her teenage children do tasks in the water and told them to pray for Marcus and Vincen Miller because they “had gone to Heaven.”
Witnesses told deputies that before the golf cart crash, they saw the woman and teenage children huddled together and praying next to the water, Campbell told reporters.
“It actually scared some witnesses,” he said. “They thought they were crying they were emotional, and they didn’t know what was going on.”
According to the sheriff, the mother said that the teenage children had passed their tests, but she heard a voice telling her to put them all in the golf cart and drive into the lake.
The teenage children are now in the care of their families.
Authorities said the Miller family, who are Amish and live in Holmes County, was at the lake for a weekend trip. They are members of the Old Order Amish Church.
Relatives could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. The family and church said in a statement that “the events of this past weekend do not reflect our teachings or beliefs but are instead a result of a mental illness,” NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland reported.
