In a case that has shocked the small community of Richmond, Indiana, Alfred W. Ruf, 71, was sentenced on Monday, August 26, 2024 to four years in prison for poisoning his wife, Lisa Bishop, in a calculated plot to marry her daughter. The sentencing, handed down in Wayne County Court, also includes five years of probation.
The twisted plan began unraveling in 2022 when Bishop, 51, started experiencing unexplained health issues, including persistent headaches, drowsiness, and gastrointestinal distress. Suspecting that something was amiss, Bishop took her concerns to the police. Subsequent tests confirmed that her soft drinks had been laced with a dangerous combination of drugs, including cocaine, MDMA, and benzodiazepines—substances she insisted she had never knowingly ingested.
Court documents reveal that Ruf, who had been married to Bishop for several years, admitted to tampering with her beverages. According to a local media source, Ruf’s ultimate goal was to kill Bishop. The arrest affidavit, as reported by NBC News, indicates that Ruf eventually confessed due to feelings of guilt.
Ruf allegedly informed police that his wife’s daughter from a previous marriage had provided him with a pill bottle containing a white powder about three months prior. According to Ruf, he had been in a sexual relationship with the daughter, who instructed him to add the powder to his wife’s drink.
Ruf claimed that the powder would cause his wife to sleep for around 13 hours, with the ultimate intention of killing her. Police documents indicate that the daughter and a friend advised Ruf to sprinkle the powder into his wife’s Coke and wait for her to fall asleep, after which they would come to Ruf’s house and “put on a show.”
The daughter’s role in the plot, if any, is still under investigation, and no formal charges against her have been confirmed.
Initially charged with conspiracy to commit murder, Ruf later pled guilty to aggravated battery posing a risk of death—a level 3 felony—as part of a plea agreement. The conspiracy charge was dismissed under this agreement, allowing Ruf to avoid a potentially much longer prison term.
An attorney representing Ruf stated that he and Bishop had a tumultuous marriage, noting that about a year before his arrest, Bishop had run Ruf over with a car and severely assaulted him. According to the probable cause affidavit, both Bishop and Ruf were familiar to the law enforcement community due to frequent domestic violence incidents at their home.
The attorney, John L. Tompkins, remarked that Bishop was never prosecuted for her actions and suggested that the situation might have been different if legal action had been taken against her. He emphasized that the couple’s relationship was mutually destructive but acknowledged that Bishop’s actions did not justify Ruf’s behavior.
As the legal proceedings concluded, many in Richmond expressed relief that justice had been served, yet concerns remain about the involvement of others in Ruf’s plot. The investigation into the full scope of the conspiracy is ongoing, and authorities have not ruled out additional charges in the future.