Case File: Eli Weaver

Eli grew up in the Andy Weaver Amish community in Wayne County, Ohio, one of the more conservative branches of the Old Order Amish. In 1999, he married Barbara Miller, and the couple settled near Apple Creek, Ohio, where they raised five children. Eli operated a sporting goods business, while Barbara cared for their children and managed the household. To neighbors, they appeared to embody a traditional Amish family centered on faith, hard work and community.

Behind that image, however, their marriage began to unravel. According to investigators and later court testimony, Eli became increasingly dissatisfied with both his marriage and Amish life. On two occasions, he left Barbara and their children to live among the "English"—the Amish term for the non-Amish world—but returned each time after failing to establish a new life outside the community.

Barbara struggled with her husband's repeated departures and growing emotional distance. Friends later said she confided in them about the marriage and sought guidance from a counselor, hoping to repair the relationship rather than end it.

While Barbara tried to save their marriage, Eli was leading a secret life. Despite his church's restrictions on technology, he secretly owned a cell phone and used computers to communicate with women through dating websites and online chat rooms, where he adopted the nickname "Amish Stud." One of those relationships developed into an affair with Raber, a married Mennonite woman who operated a transportation service for Amish residents.

According to prosecutors, Eli wanted a future with Raber but believed divorce would lead to his excommunication from the Amish church and separation from his family. Rather than end the marriage, investigators alleged, the couple began plotting Barbara's death.

By early 2009, Eli and Raber's affair had evolved into a murder conspiracy. Over several months, the pair exchanged hundreds of text messages discussing ways to kill Barbara while making her death appear accidental. According to prosecutors, they considered poisoning her food, lacing soft drinks with rat poison, using carbon monoxide and staging an accident before ultimately deciding that a shooting offered the best chance of success.

As Barbara continued trying to save her marriage, Eli and Raber moved closer to carrying out the plan. They selected a morning when Eli would be away on an early fishing trip with friends, providing what prosecutors later described as a carefully planned alibi. The night before the murder, they exchanged text messages discussing final details, including when Raber should arrive and how the crime should unfold. Before sunrise on June 2, 2009, Eli left for the fishing trip. A short time later, Raber drove to the Weaver home carrying a .410-gauge shotgun.

Barbara was asleep in bed when Raber entered the house and shot her once in the chest at close range. The couple's children discovered their mother mortally wounded and ran to a nearby neighbor's home for help. Emergency responders pronounced Barbara dead at the scene. Because there were no signs of forced entry or robbery, investigators quickly suspected the killer had been someone Barbara knew.

From the beginning, investigators questioned whether Barbara had been the victim of a random attack. No valuables had been stolen, and nothing suggested a robbery had gone wrong. Instead, detectives focused on those closest to the victim.

Eli told investigators he left home before sunrise to go fishing with friends. Detectives confirmed he had been on the trip when the shooting occurred, but interviews with family members and members of the Amish community revealed that his marriage had been troubled for years. They also learned that, despite belonging to a conservative Amish church, Eli secretly owned a cell phone and maintained relationships with women outside the community.

The investigation took a significant turn when another woman who had communicated with Eli through an online dating site contacted authorities after learning of Barbara's death. She told detectives that he used the nickname "Amish Stud" and helped them identify his hidden cell phone, which became one of the most important pieces of evidence in the case.

Search warrants for phone records and electronic communications uncovered hundreds of text messages exchanged between Eli and Raber. The messages documented not only their affair but months of planning Barbara's murder. Investigators also recovered communications exchanged the night before the killing about Eli's fishing trip, Raber's arrival at the house and deleting evidence afterward.

The investigation uncovered additional evidence that prosecutors said demonstrated the extent of the planning. Detectives found a notebook in Raber's home listing several poisons, supporting testimony that the pair had considered multiple methods of killing Barbara before settling on a shooting. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Raber had access to two .410-gauge shotguns, including one she purchased several months before the murder.

Investigators further alleged that Raber attempted to divert suspicion after the killing. According to testimony, she persuaded a friend to leave a message on the Amish community emergency phone suggesting Barbara had been shot during an attempt to kill Eli. Prosecutors argued the false message was intended to mislead investigators into believing Eli, not Barbara, had been the intended target.

Just eight days after the shooting, on June 10, 2009, investigators arrested both Eli and Raber. By then, detectives had pieced together a case built on text messages, witness testimony and other evidence that transformed what initially appeared to be an unexplained homicide into a carefully orchestrated murder conspiracy.

A Wayne County grand jury indicted Raber on one count of aggravated murder. Eli was indicted separately on one count of complicity to commit murder for helping plan the killing.

As the case moved toward trial, Eli reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. On September 2, 2009, he pleaded guilty to complicity to commit murder and agreed to testify against Raber. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the aggravated murder charge against him, sparing him the possibility of a much harsher sentence if convicted at trial.

Raber's trial began on September 16, 2009. Eli became the prosecution's key witness, admitting he and Raber spent months planning Barbara's murder and that he deliberately arranged to be away on an early morning fishing trip while she carried out the shooting.

Raber acknowledged shooting Barbara but denied that the killing had been premeditated. She testified that she intended only to confront Barbara and persuade her to leave Eli, claiming the shotgun discharged accidentally during a struggle. Prosecutors argued that months of text messages, internet searches and other evidence overwhelmingly contradicted that account.

On September 30, after deliberating for less than a day, the jury found Raber guilty of aggravated murder. The following day, she was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison. Eli was sentenced to 15 years to life under the terms of his plea agreement.

In the years following the trial, both Raber and Eli challenged their convictions through the Ohio courts, arguing that legal errors had occurred during their cases. Their appeals were ultimately unsuccessful, and both convictions and sentences were upheld.

Barbara Weaver's death left five children without their mother and profoundly affected the close-knit Andy Weaver Amish community, where homicides are exceptionally rare. Relatives stepped in to help raise the children, while neighbors struggled to reconcile the crime with the values of a community built on faith, family and mutual trust.

Raber remains incarcerated in the Ohio prison system. Eli became eligible for parole after serving 15 years but was denied release by the Ohio Parole Board in 2024 because of the seriousness of the offense. His next parole hearing is scheduled for 2032, the same year Raber first becomes eligible for parole.

The Weaver case attracted national attention because it challenged popular assumptions about Amish life. Investigators revealed that Eli secretly used modern technology to conduct multiple affairs, demonstrating how cell phones and the internet had quietly reached even some of the most traditional Amish communities.

The case also renewed discussion about how crimes have historically been handled within Amish communities. For generations, the Amish emphasis on forgiveness, reconciliation and resolving disputes within the church meant that some offenses—particularly domestic violence and sexual abuse—were addressed internally or went unreported to law enforcement. Although many Amish communities have worked more closely with police in recent decades, the Weaver investigation became one of the most visible examples of a major criminal case prosecuted through the public justice system.

The murder has since been examined in books, documentaries and television programs, including the Lifetime film Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story. More than 15 years later, it remains one of the best-known crimes involving an Amish community, remembered for exposing how deception, secrecy and calculated violence can exist even within one of America's most insular religious societies.