An elderly man has been jailed after he admitted spiking his wife’s drinks with cocaine in the hope she would die, and he could run off with his stepdaughter.
Alfred W Ruf, from Indiana, was sentenced to four years in prison at Wayne County Court after pleading guilty to aggravated battery posing a risk of death.
According to court documents, another charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed as part of a plea deal.
The 71-year-old confessed to his wife “because he felt bad”, according to a sworn statement by Ruf.
Authorities in Indiana began investigating the case in 2022 after Ruf’s wife, Lisa Bishop, told police she had been treated several times in hospital and believed Ruf was trying to kill her.
She gave officers a pill bottle containing a white powdery substance and told officers her husband had been putting the drugs into her drinks.
She reportedly became suspicious after discovering white powder at the bottom of a Coke can she had drunk from.
Police took her to the hospital, where she tested positive for cocaine, MDMA and the depressant, benzodiazepine – but she denied using drugs.
An attorney for Ruf said the pair had a volatile marriage, were known to officers because of domestic violence issues, and that Ms Bishop had run over her husband with a car about a year before his arrest.
Attorney John L Tompkins said: “It was a mutually destructive relationship and it’s just unfortunate. And what she did to him doesn’t excuse what he did.”
Wife found white powder in drink
Court documents also state that Ruf allegedly told detectives that his wife’s daughter from a previous relationship would give him a white powdery substance to put in Ms Bishop’s drink.
Ruf told investigators he was in a sexual relationship with the daughter and a friend, but Mr Tompkins said that wasn’t true and the daughter has denied being involved in the attempted poisoning.
Ruf told authorities he had given his wife the powdery substance about 12 times from the beginning of September 2021 to the end of December 2021.
During that time she needed hospital treatment about six times.
He had sex while wife was passed out
Ms Bishop told police she had been suffering from headaches, drowsiness, and feeling light-headed and – after finding white powder in her Coke can – confronted Ruf who admitted to drugging her.
A statement by Ruf – describing how he laced his wife’s drinks – said: “He would state that he knew it would kill his wife.”
“But then Alfred would explain that he would give his wife the substance just to make her pass out so the other two females would come over so he could have sex with them.”
Ruf also claimed that the daughter wanted to get married to him after they “took care of” his wife.
Ruf was sentenced to four years in prison followed by five years of probation.
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