An Indiana man has admitted he tried to kill his wife by poisoning her Coca-Cola with cocaine, MDMA and benzodiazepines so he could marry her daughter, authorities said.
Alfred W. Ruf, 71, copped to lacing his spouse’s drink roughly a dozen times in Richmond in late 2021 as part of the twisted plan to run off with his stepdaughter, Fox 59 reported.
Ruf, who pleaded guilty in Wayne County Court on Monday, told cops his stepdaughter and one of her friends had allegedly convinced him to go ahead with the plot and provided him with the drugs to sprinkle in his wife’s drinks.
He claimed his wife’s daughter wanted to “get mom out of the picture” so they could cash in on her life insurance policy — and she had promised to marry him after they “took care of” the wife, according to court documents.
The husband admitted to poisoning his wife’s drink about 12 different times between September and December 2021.
“Ruf stated that he knew the substance would eventually kill his wife … and that it was [the] ultimate goal to kill her,” the court papers said.
Each time, the concoction of substances would knock the wife out for roughly 13 hours, court filings charge.
Ruf told cops that his stepdaughter and her friend would then allegedly come to the home while the wife was under the influence to have sex with him.
He was eventually nabbed after the wife contacted police in early 2022 to say she’d been hospitalized six times in a matter of weeks and tested positive for drugs she hadn’t taken.
She had gone to the hospital after experiencing unexplained headaches, drowsiness, diarrhea and other symptoms.
Subsequent tests showed traces of cocaine, MDMA and the anti-depressants in her system.
She was able to provide cops with one of the Coke cans she had drunk from that had traces of an off-white residue inside.
When cops took Ruf into custody, they said, they were probing the allegations leveled against the stepdaughter and her friend but no arrests have been made.
Ruf, meanwhile, was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated battery posing a risk of death.
A conspiracy to commit murder charge was dropped as part of the plea deal.
