RICHMOND, Ind. — An Indiana man who conspired to poison his wife’s Coca-Cola with various drugs, kill her and marry her daughter has been sentenced after entering a guilty plea.
Alfred W. Ruf, 71, pled guilty Monday in Wayne County Court to aggravated battery posing a risk of death — a level 3 felony. A conspiracy to commit murder charge originally filed against Ruf was dismissed and he was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of probation.
The charges against Ruf stem from several 2021 incidents where his wife was hospitalized and tested positive for several illegal drugs she said she did not take. Ruf reportedly admitted to police he was poisoning her in an attempt to kill her and marry her daughter.
Ruf’s wife first contacted police in Jan. 2022 after her husband reportedly told her he had been trying to kill her with poison. She said she’d been hospitalized six times over the past weeks with unexplained headaches, drowsiness, diarrhea and more.
The woman said that, at the hospital, she tested positive for MDMA, cocaine and benzodiazepines. However, she denied ever having used the drugs that were found in her system.
While responding to Ruf and his wife’s home, police reportedly heard Ruf say had indeed been “spiking” his wife’s drink with an “unknown substance” given to him by his wife’s daughter. The wife was able to provide police with a pill bottle full of the off-white powdery substance and a Coca-Cola can with an off-white residue.
While the wife was again taken to the hospital for a blood and urine screening, Ruf was taken to the sheriff’s department for an interview. After saying he understood his Miranda Rights, Ruf reportedly confessed to the crime.
Ruf allegedly told police how his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage had given him a pill bottle with a white powder inside around three months ago. The daughter — who Ruf admitted he had been having sex with — reportedly told him to put the powder into his wife’s drink.
“Ruf stated that the substance would then make [his wife] go to sleep for approximately 13 hours or so,” court docs read. “He stated that he would do this to eventually kill her.”
Police said Ruf explained how the daughter and a friend had told him to sprinkle the powder into the wife’s Coke can and wait for her to fall asleep. The daughter and friend would then reportedly come to Ruf’s house and “put on a show,” Ruf said.
Ruf reportedly explained that while he was having intercourse with one of the two women, the other woman would usually go through the house and steal his wife’s personal items. He would then reportedly pay the woman for the sex acts.
The daughter reportedly told Ruf that they should “get mom out of the picture” and inherit the life insurance policy. Ruf also claimed that the daughter would want to get married to him after they “took care of” his wife.
Ruf told officers from the beginning of September 2021 to the end of December 2021 he poisoned his wife’s drink approximately 12 times. Every time, he said the daughter and her friend would come over once the wife was asleep.
“Ruf stated that he knew the substance would eventually kill his wife… and that it was [their] ultimate goal to kill her,” police wrote.
Ruf reportedly admitted to his wife that he had been poisoning her on Jan. 3 “because he felt bad.” However, the wife told officers that she confronted Ruf after becoming suspicious and that he admitted to “drugging” her so that he could sleep with the daughter and friend.
According to court records, Ruf’s wife had made several reports with local police about missing personal items in the months leading up to her husband’s arrest. She had also previously reported to Indiana State Police that she thought she was being drugged.
At the time of Ruf’s arrest in Jan. 2022, local police said that they were still investigating two other suspects connected to the case. However, no arrests have been made.
FOX59/CBS4 is not naming the daughter or friend reportedly involved in the case as no charges have been filed against them.