Mother who drowned son committed to behavior healthcare facility
NEW PHILADELPHIA – The Holmes County mother who drowned her son in Atwood Lake in August will be leaving the Tuscarawas County Jail soon and heading to a mental health care facility.
Two weeks after ruling 40-year-old Ruth Miller not guilty by reason of insanity, Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Ernest on Friday committed Miller to Heartland Behavioral Healthcare in Massillon where she will be confined for an undetermined period of treatment.
“It is a secured hospital from which individuals cannot just come and go as they please. It is a facility from which you will be confined there,” Ernest said.
Miller will remain in the Tuscarawas County Jail for now until a room opens up. Ernest says Miller will return to the courtroom in six months for a review and then every two years to help determine how long she will be committed.
“As to what will happen at those review hearings, we’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know,” Ernest said.
Miller’s attorney Ian Friedman has said she should be allowed to return to her home as soon as possible. Doctors who testified on Miller’s mental health predicted it would take at least a year to determine if she was responding appropriately to treatment and medication.
Miller was charged with aggravated murder and four other crimes for her actions on August 23rd when she threw her 4-year-old son into the lake, claiming it was a gift to God, then drove a golf cart with her other children into the lake. Three evaluations determined Miller was experiencing some form of mental illness.