Man repeatedly poisoned wife so he could marry her daughter, cops say. He pleads guilty
A man spiked his wife’s drinks for several months with the intent of killing her so he could marry her daughter, according to Indiana deputies and news reports.
Now, the 71-year-old man from Wayne County is going to prison, court records show.
Alfred Ruf pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in July and was sentenced Aug. 26 in Wayne County Court, records show. He was originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
“Once the state changed the nature of the offense, he took responsibility for what he did wrong,” John Lawrence Tompkins, Ruf’s defense attorney, told USA Today. “That’s the appropriate thing to do.”
When Wayne County deputies arrested Ruf in January 2022, they said two other persons of interest were being investigated. No additional charges have been announced.
Ruf’s wife told authorities in January 2022 she had been hospitalized six times in several weeks “with unexplained headaches, drowsiness, diarrhea and more,” according to charging documents obtained by WXIN.
She tested positive for MDMA, cocaine and benzodiazepines, WXIN reported, but she told deputies she never knowingly took any of those drugs.
Ruf eventually confessed to his wife because he “felt bad” about poisoning her, according to the 2022 affidavit obtained by the Richmond Palladium-Item.
He told deputies he was in a sexual relationship with his wife’s 31-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, USA Today reported. The daughter, court documents state, gave Ruf a pill bottle with a “powdery substance” and told Ruf to put it in her mother’s drink.
The plot was initiated to get the wife “out of the picture,” WKRC reported. Ruf and his wife’s daughter hoped to use the wife’s life insurance money and also marry one another, the publication reported, citing court documents.
Ruf was accused of poisoning his wife’s Coca-Cola 12 times over a span of four months, USA Today reported. The drug cocktail would put his wife to sleep for “13 hours or so,” according to the court documents.
“During the initial investigation, Ruf admitted to giving Bishop an unknown substance knowing it would eventually kill her,” the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said.
The wife, according to WXIN, provided police with a Coca-Cola can that was discovered to have an “off-white residue” inside.
Ruf was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of probation, court documents show.
Wayne County is about a 65-mile drive east from Indianapolis.
This story was originally published August 28, 2024 at 6:22 AM with the headline "Man repeatedly poisoned wife so he could marry her daughter, cops say. He pleads guilty."