An Indiana man is looking at time behind bars for drugging his wife so he could sleep with her daughter.
Alfred Ruf, 71, confessed to poisoning his wife’s Coca-Cola with drugs multiple times so her daughter and friend to “put on a show” for him.
Authorities from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office were called to the 51-year-old victim’s home on January 3, 2022, when she reported being poisoned by her husband.
The victim had been hospitalized multiple times in 2021, believed to be due to the poisoning, according to the police.
There were also “two other persons of interest,” likely her daughter and the friend, in the conspiracy to commit murder that did not result in death.
Indiana man admitted to wife that he was drugging her
Ruf allegedly confessed to giving his wife an unknown substance that knocked her out for 13 hours at a time, which he knew would “eventually kill her.”
He admitted to putting a substance in his wife’s Coke a dozen times over several months in 2021.
Ruf alleged that both her daughter and the friend were complicit in the crime.
He claimed it was the two women who came up with the plan and “put on a show” for him after his wife fell unconscious.
Ruf might have gotten away with his crime, but fessed up to his wife that he had been poisoning her, “because he felt bad.”
At the hospital, the his wife tested positive for cocaine, benzodiazepines, and MDMA.
According to the affidavit, the wife told police she had to be hospitalized several times for symptoms including severe headaches, drowsiness, diarrhea, light-headedness.
After her husband told her he had been drugging her, she cut open one of her used Coke cans and discovered a powdery substance at the bottom.
She was also able to find a pill bottle that had an off-white powdery substance inside, which she handed over to police.
Indiana man arrested for poisoning wife
Ruf was arrested and told officers that he spiked his wife’s drinks with an “unknown substance” a dozen times with a drug cocktail his stepdaughter gave to him.
On every occasion, the duplicitous daughter and her accomplice friend allegedly pranced over and performed for him in negligees after his wife passed out.
Ruf told police that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with his stepdaughter and her friend, who he paid for the act.
The horrible husband said that while he had sex with one of the women, the other one would steal his wife’s belongings.
Prior to his arrest, the wife had made multiple police reports about her missing possessions and one report about believing that she was being drugged.
He also confessed that she was the one who wanted to kill her own mother to collect on a life insurance policy.
According to at least one report, Ruf was under the impression that the daughter’s friend wanted to marry him after killing his wife off.
Another report mentioned it was the stepdaughter who wanted to get hitched after they “took care of” his wife.
Stepdaughter and friend not charged with poisoning
Despite his implicating the daughter and her friend in the scheme, Ruf was the only one who was charged with a crime.
He was able to plead down from conspiracy to commit murder to a lesser charge of aggravated battery.
Ruff received a felony judgement for “knowingly or intentionally inflict[ing] injury on a person that creates a substantial risk of death.”
In his sentencing documents, the judge lambasted him for committing a crime instead of finding “other non-violent ways” that he “could have extracted himself from the turbulent relationship.”
Ruff will be sentenced to four years in prison, and an additional five years that will be suspended if he does not violate the terms of his probation.
