An Indiana man who admitted to spiking his wife’s Coca-Cola with cocaine and other drugs with the hopes of murdering her and fleeing with his stepdaughter has been sentenced to four years in prison, according to court documents.
Alfred W. Ruf, 71, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated violence with a danger of death. According to court documents, a charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Authorities began investigating the case in 2022, when Ruf’s wife, Lisa Bishop, told police doing a welfare check at their Richmond home that she had been hospitalized many times and felt Ruf was attempting to kill her, according to a probable cause document.
Ruf confessed to his wife “because he felt bad,” according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Bishop handed officers a pill bottle containing a white powdered substance and told them that Ruf had been putting the powder in her drinks without her knowing. Bishop also provided officers with a Coke can that she drank from and cut open. According to the affidavit, a powdery material was found at the bottom.
Bishop was brought to a hospital and tested positive for cocaine, MDMA (also known as molly or ecstasy), and benzodiazepine, a type of depressive drug, according to the affidavit. She denied using narcotics.
An attorney for Ruf stated that the couple had a turbulent marriage and that Bishop had driven Ruf over with a car and “beaten him bloody” approximately a year before his arrest.
According to the probable cause affidavit, cops knew Bishop and Ruf, and police were routinely summoned to their home for domestic violence issues.
“She was not prosecuted. “Perhaps none of this would have occurred if some prosecutorial action had been taken when she did those things,” attorney John L. Tompkins said Wednesday. “It was a mutually disastrous relationship, and it is simply tragic. And what she did to him does not justify what he did.
According to the complaint, Ruf informed officers that his wife’s daughter from a prior relationship would send him a white powdery material to put in Bishop’s drink.
“Alfred stated that the substance would then make Lisa go to sleep for approximately thirteen hours or so,” according to this report. “Alfred stated that he would do this to eventually kill Lisa.”
According to the affidavit, the daughter and her friend “would call him and tell him to give the substance to Lisa.” The daughter and her companion would then visit the residence and offer Bishop “more of an unknown substance.”
According to the affidavit, Ruf admitted to investigators that he was having sexual contact with the daughter and friend. However, Tompkins claimed that was false.
Ruf said that the daughter cited Bishop’s life insurance policy and directed him to “get mom out of the picture,” according to the affidavit. The daughter’s friend is said to have mentioned wanting to marry him “after they took care of Lisa.”
According to Tompkins, the daughter denied any involvement in the attempted poisoning.
Ruf informed investigators that he supplied Bishop with the powdery drug around 12 times between the beginning of September 2021 and the end of December 2021. According to the affidavit, Ruf admitted to taking his wife to the hospital six times due to medication reactions.
According to the affidavit, Bishop informed officers she was experiencing headaches, drowsiness, and lightheadedness but had no idea what was wrong with her. Bishop described one event in which she believed she was about to pass out and cut open a can of Coke she had drunk.
When she noticed a powdery material at the bottom, she questioned Ruf, who acknowledged drugging her, according to the complaint.
“Alfred kept going back and forth about what his intentions were for giving his wife the substance,” said one source. “He would say that he was aware that it would kill his wife… But then Alfred would explain that he would give his wife the substance to have her pass out so that the other two females would come over and he could have sex with them.
Ruf was sentenced to four years in prison, followed by five years on probation.
When Ruf was arrested in 2022, police said they were still looking after two other suspects, according to Indianapolis-based WXIN-TV. The daughter and her companion were not arrested or charged.
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