Alfred Ruf (Wayne County Jail).
A husband in Indiana faces prison time after admitting years later to drugging his wife’s Coca-Cola drinks a dozen times and creating a “substantial risk of death” so she would fall asleep and their daughter and friend could “put on a show” for him.
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office said that after Alfred Ruf went to the 51-year-old victim’s home on January 3, 2022, where she said she was “poisoned by her husband,” he allegedly admitted to “administering an unknown substance to the victim, knowing full well that it would ultimately kill her.”
“(The victim) was hospitalized several times in 2021, presumably due to the poisoning,” authorities said, claiming that “two other persons of interest” were also involved in the conspiracy to commit murder at the time, without any death investigation being conducted.
Officials did not provide any information about who these “persons of interest” might be, but the victim’s daughter and her friend were prominently mentioned in 2022 reports about the hair-raising allegations against Ruf.
It was alleged that Ruf himself admitted to mixing a substance into his wife’s Coca-Cola drinks several times over a period of several months in 2021, and that both her daughter and the friend knew about it because they suggested it and “put on a show” for him when the victim fell asleep.
In the incident that was the final straw and led to Ruf’s arrest, his wife allegedly confessed to the poisoning attempts, the victim tested positive for cocaine, benzodiazepines and MDMA (also known as ecstasy and molly) at a hospital.
WXIN reported that Ruf admitted to “spiked” his wife’s drinks with an “unknown substance” given to him by their daughter. This happened about 12 times, and each time his stepdaughter and the boyfriend came to the victim’s house while she was sleeping.
He also allegedly admitted to having sex with the victim’s daughter, that she and the friend “put on a show,” that he paid for sex acts, and that the daughter suggested “getting the mother out of the way” to get life insurance money. He may also have believed that the victim’s daughter wanted to marry him after his wife died (as reported by WXIN, but other sources weren’t so sure which of the two women was being referred to in this detail).
Eventually, Ruf confessed the poisonings to his wife, “because he was feeling bad.”
However, no charges were apparently ever brought against any possible co-conspirators, and Ruf ultimately did not have to plead guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
A verdict and sentencing document in the case, obtained by Law&Crime, shows that Ruf instead pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for “knowingly or intentionally causing injury to a person that created a substantial risk of death.” For this crime, the 71-year-old faces four years in prison – five more years in prison will be suspended unless he misbehaves or violates the various terms of his probation.
Only some of these conditions were crossed out.
The documents show that Wayne County District Court Judge April Drake found both “aggravating” and “mitigating” circumstances in the case.
The judge cited as aggravating circumstances that Ruf “knew or should have known that the victim had a disability,” that he was married to her and “aware” of her “vulnerability,” and that there were simply “other non-violent ways” in which Ruf “could have freed himself from the turbulent relationship,” which he did not do.
On the other hand, the judge wrote that the attack “occurred due to circumstances that are not likely to be repeated,” that Ruf has “no history of offenses or criminal activity,” that he “is likely to respond favorably to probation or a short-term prison sentence,” and that he is “not likely to commit another offense,” and that his incarceration “would impose an undue hardship on the defendant for health reasons.”
In mitigating the charges, Drake added that Ruf “showed sincere remorse” and cooperated with authorities.
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