Richmond, Indiana — An Indiana man who conspired to poison his wife’s Coca-Cola with several medications, kill her, and marry her daughter has been sentenced after pleading guilty.
Alfred W. Ruf, 71, pled guilty Monday in Wayne County Court to aggravated violence with a risk of death, a category 3 felony. Ruf was originally charged with conspiracy to commit murder, which was dismissed. He was sentenced to four years in prison and five years on probation.
Ruf faces allegations stemming from three occurrences in 2021 in which his wife was hospitalized and tested positive for illegal narcotics she denied taking. Ruf confessed to police that he poisoned her to kill her and marry her daughter, according to prosecutors.
Ruf’s wife first contacted police in January 2022, after her husband allegedly told her that he was attempting to kill her with poison. She claimed to have been hospitalized six times in recent weeks due to unexplained headaches, sleepiness, diarrhea, and other symptoms.
The woman said that she tested positive for MDMA, cocaine, and benzodiazepines at the hospital. However, she denied utilizing the medications discovered in her system.
When police arrived at Ruf and his wife’s home, they allegedly overheard Ruf admitting to “spiking” his wife’s drink with an “unknown substance” supplied to him by his wife’s daughter. The wife handed the police a pill bottle with the powdery material and a Coca-Cola can with an off-white residue on it.
The wife was sent to a hospital for a blood and urine test, while Ruf was taken to the sheriff’s station for an interrogation, during which he admitted to the crime, investigators said.
According to court documents, Ruf informed police that his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage gave him a pill bottle containing a white substance about three months ago. Ruf’s daughter, with whom he acknowledged having sex, urged him to put the powder in his wife’s drink.
“Ruf stated that the substance would then make [his wife] go to sleep for approximately 13 hours or so,” according to the transcripts. “He stated that he would do this to eventually kill her.”
Ruf told police that the daughter and a friend had urged him to sprinkle the powder into his wife’s Coke can and wait for her to fall asleep. Ruf explained that the daughter and friend would come to his residence and “put on a show.”
Ruf claimed that while he was having sexual relations with one of the two ladies, the other lady would normally go through the house and steal his wife’s personal belongings. He would then allegedly compensate the woman for the sex acts.
According to the records, the daughter instructed Ruf to “get mom out of the picture” and receive the life insurance coverage. Ruf also said that when they “took care of” his wife, his daughter would want to marry him.
Ruf told officers that between the beginning of September 2021 and the end of December 2021, he poisoned his wife’s drink about 12 times. He always maintained that 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,” according to police reports.
Ruf allegedly confessed to his wife that he had started poisoning her on January 3 “because he felt bad.” However, the wife told authorities that she confronted Ruf after becoming suspicious, and he acknowledged to “drugging” her so that he could sleep with the daughter and a friend.
According to court documents, Ruf’s wife filed many reports with local police about missing personal things in the months preceding her husband’s arrest. She had previously complained to Indiana State Police that she believed she was being drugged.
Ruf was arrested in January 2022, and local police stated they were still investigating two other suspects in the case. However, no arrests have occurred.
