Indiana man poisoned wife's Coca-Cola so he could marry her daughter: prosecutors

RICHMOND, Ind. (WXIN) — An Indiana man who conspired to poison his wife's Coca-Cola with various drugs, kill her and marry her daughter has been sentenced after entering a guilty plea.

Alfred W. Ruf, 71, pleaded guilty Monday in Wayne County Court to aggravated battery posing a risk of death — a level 3 felony. A conspiracy to commit murder charge originally filed against Ruf was dismissed. He was sentenced to four years in prison and five years of probation.

The charges against Ruf stem from several incidents in 2021 where his wife was hospitalized and tested positive for illegal drugs that she said she did not willingly take. Ruf admitted to police that he was poisoning her in an attempt to kill her and marry her daughter, prosecutors said.

Ruf's wife first contacted police in January 2022 after her husband reportedly told her that he had been trying to kill her with poison. She said she had been hospitalized six times over the past weeks with unexplained headaches, drowsiness, diarrhea and more.

The woman said that she tested positive for MDMA, cocaine and benzodiazepines at the hospital. However, she denied using the drugs that were found in her system.

When police responded to Ruf and his wife's home, officers reportedly heard Ruf say that he had indeed been "spiking" his wife's drink with an "unknown substance" given to him by his wife's daughter. The wife gave police a pill bottle full of the powdery substance and a Coca-Cola can with an off-white residue on it.

The wife was transported to a hospital for a blood and urine screening, while Ruf was taken to the sheriff's department for an interview, where confessed to the crime, authorities said.

According to court documents, Ruf told police that his wife's daughter from a previous marriage had given him a pill bottle with a white powder inside of it about three months ago. The daughter — who Ruf admitted he had been having sex with — told him to put the powder into his wife's drink.

"Ruf stated that the substance would then make [his wife] go to sleep for approximately 13 hours or so," the documents state. "He stated that he would do this to eventually kill her."

Police said Ruf explained how the daughter and a friend had told him to sprinkle the powder into the wife's Coke can and wait for her to fall asleep. The daughter and friend would then come to his house and "put on a show," Ruf said.

Ruf explained that while he was having intercourse with one of the two women, the other woman would usually go through the house and steal his wife's personal items. He would then reportedly pay the woman for the sex acts.

The daughter told Ruf that they should "get mom out of the picture" and inherit the life insurance policy, the documents stated. Ruf also claimed that the daughter would want to get married to him after they "took care of" his wife.

Ruf told officers from the beginning of September 2021 to the end of December 2021 he poisoned his wife's drink approximately 12 times. Every time, he said 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," police wrote.

Ruf reportedly admitted to his wife that he had been poisoning her on Jan. 3 "because he felt bad." However, the wife told officers that she confronted Ruf after becoming suspicious and that he admitted to "drugging" her so that he could sleep with the daughter and friend.

According to court documents, Ruf's wife had made several reports with local police about missing personal items in the months leading up to her husband's arrest. She had also previously reported to Indiana State Police that she thought she was being drugged.

At the time of Ruf's arrest in Jan. 2022, local police said that they were still investigating two other suspects connected to the case. However, no arrests have been made.

Nexstar's WXIN is not naming the daughter or friend reportedly involved in the case as no charges have been filed against them.