US Man, Who Poisoned Wife To Marry Stepdaughter, Jailed For Four Years

A US man pleaded guilty in Wayne County Court on Monday of trying to poison his wife’s Coca-Cola with drugs with the intent of killing her and marrying the daughter. Alfred W. Ruf (71) from Indiana was prosecuted for aggravated battery that could result in death- a level 3 felony. While a conspiracy to commit murder charge was dropped against him, he was sentenced to four years of imprisonment and an additional five years’ probation.

Ruf informed police in January 2022 that he had been “spiking” his wife’s drinks with a substance given by his wife’s daughter, a probable cause affidavit USA TODAY reviewed stated.

Ruf’s wife, Lisa Bishop, handed a pill bottle that contained the unidentified powdery substance to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, the affidavit states. Bishop also gave officers a Coke can she drank out of and cut open. At the bottom was the powdery substance, according to the document.

She reported being hospitalised six times in recent weeks with symptoms like headaches, drowsiness, and diarrhoea. Bishop was taken to a hospital where she tested positive for cocaine, MDMA, also known as molly or ecstasy, and benzodiazepine, a type of depressant, however, she vehemently denied using drugs.

An attorney for Ruf said that the couple had a history of violent disputes and claimed that Bishop had attempted to murder Ruf a year before the arrest by running him over with a car and beating him severely, as NBC News reported.

According to lawyer John L. Tompkins, Ruf’s defence attorney, their relationship was “mutually destructive”. “Once the state changed the nature of the offence, he took responsibility for what he did wrong. That’s the appropriate thing to do,” Tompkins told USA TODAY.

In January 2022, Ruf admitted to being in a sexual relationship with the daughter from her previous marriage. He confessed that the daughter provided him with the drugs in September 2021, the document stated.

Only Ruf was arrested and taken to court in connection to the crime.

Ruf added that he placed the drugs in the drink to “eventually kill her.”