Barbara Raber Case: Conspiracy, Conviction, and Appeal

The Barbara Raber case is the 2009 Ohio prosecution of a Millersburg woman convicted of aggravated murder for shooting Barbara Weaver, the wife of Raber’s longtime Amish lover, Eli Weaver. Raber was sentenced to 23 years to life and is held at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, with her first parole hearing set for April 2032.¹

Who Barbara Raber Is

Raber was raised by an adopted Amish family and left the faith after marrying, later joining a Mennonite church. She stayed close to the community by working as a paid driver for Amish residents who could not drive themselves, earning the nickname “the taxi lady.” She lived in Millersburg, Ohio, with her husband and three children.²

Eli Weaver was a member of the Andy Weaver Amish community in Wayne County and the father of five children with his wife, Barbara Weaver. He had a long history of infidelity, twice leaving the faith to pursue outside relationships before returning and being forgiven. He used a secret cell phone to run multiple affairs and kept a dating profile under the alias “Amish Stud.”³⁴

Raber met Eli when he became a frequent passenger in her taxi. Their relationship grew into an affair that lasted about six years. Crucially, the secret phone Eli used to run his affairs was registered on Raber’s personal service plan.⁵⁴

The Conspiracy to Kill Barbara Weaver

Eli wanted out of his marriage but feared the permanent shunning that divorce would trigger in his community. Over several weeks, he and Raber discussed ways to kill his wife. Text messages recovered later showed them weighing poisoning food, carbon monoxide, suffocation, and even blowing up the family home. Raber at one point handed Eli poison pills to give to Barbara Weaver, but he never used them.⁴⁶

Investigators later recovered more than 800 internet searches on Raber’s home computers related to poisons, toxic gases, and methods of killing. In November 2008, months before the murder, Raber bought a .410-gauge shotgun from Miller Gun Supplies. Prosecutors also told jurors that Raber had attempted to kill Barbara Weaver about three weeks before June 2 but backed out because she was scared.⁵

According to evidence presented at trial, Eli dismissed concerns about the safety of his five children during the planning, telling Raber it would be acceptable if they died because “they would go straight to heaven.”⁴

The Killing on June 2, 2009

Eli arranged a fishing trip to Lake Erie for the night of June 1 into June 2 to give himself an alibi. Before leaving, he deliberately left his basement door unlocked so Raber could enter. Raber had suggested June 2 as a “good day” precisely because he would be away.³⁶

Between roughly 3:00 and 3:30 a.m., texts flew between the two. Raber expressed fear; Eli told her to “take a light” and “not to leave anything behind.” Raber later told detectives she drove to the Weaver home on Harrison Road in Apple Creek around 4:30 a.m., entered through the basement, and went upstairs carrying the shotgun.⁶⁵

Barbara Weaver, 30, was killed by a single close-range shotgun blast to the chest while she lay in bed. The Wayne County coroner estimated the time of death between midnight and roughly 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. The couple’s five children were in the home but were not physically harmed. Later that morning, one of the young children found their mother unconscious and ran to a neighbor, who used a community emergency phone to call police.³⁵

How Investigators Identified Raber

Eli was still on his fishing trip when police first reached him, and he initially denied involvement. Investigators pushed into his personal life, and a break came from a former romantic interest of Eli’s, Dandi Heasley, who tipped off authorities about his secret phone number. Subpoenaed phone records showed the number was registered to Raber and held a trove of text messages laying out the plan.⁴

Raber tried to cover her tracks. The day after the killing, she asked an acquaintance named David Weaver to leave a threatening voicemail at a shanty near Eli’s home, seemingly to point suspicion elsewhere. She also texted Eli that afternoon warning him not to hand over his phone and urging that they change numbers.⁵⁶

Wayne County sheriff’s deputies arrested both Raber and Eli Weaver on June 10, 2009. During interrogation, Raber confessed to the shooting but insisted it was accidental, saying she had gone to the home only to scare Barbara Weaver and that the gun had fired unintentionally. She refused to give a written statement.⁶

The Trial

A Wayne County grand jury indicted Raber on June 12, 2009, on one count of aggravated murder with a firearm specification. The case was tried in Wayne County Common Pleas Court before Judge Robert J. Brown. Assistant Prosecutor Edna Boyle represented the state; Assistant Public Defender John J. Leonard represented Raber.⁶⁷

Eli Weaver had already pleaded guilty to complicity to commit murder on August 17, 2009, and agreed to testify against Raber. He told jurors that when he complained about his marriage, Raber responded with specific suggestions for how to kill his wife, including pills, poison, and suffocation.⁵⁶

Leonard argued Raber had been manipulated by Eli. He told jurors her talk of killing had been in a “joking manner to see how far he would go” and that she never believed he was serious. The defense offered an alternative theory: that Eli killed his wife himself and steered events to make Raber take the fall because of her devotion to him. Leonard pointed to inconsistencies in Raber’s confession, including her uncertainty about her location in the house and the timeline, as evidence she was not the shooter. Raber had also told detectives that Eli begged her to carry out the killing and offered $10,000 toward legal costs if she were caught.⁵

Prosecutors answered with evidence of planning: the texts weighing poison, sedatives, and destruction of the home; 841 poison-related search entries recovered from Raber’s computers by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation; and the earlier aborted attempt. Dena Unangst, a jailhouse informant who had shared a cell with Raber in the Wayne County Jail, testified that Raber admitted buying the .410-gauge shotgun and said she was familiar with firearms. Unangst also said Raber told her Eli had suggested burning down the house with his wife inside and had claimed the children would “go to heaven because they were innocent.”⁵

After a three-day trial in late September 2009, the jury found Raber guilty of aggravated murder and found that she had committed the murder with a firearm.⁶

Sentence

On September 30, 2009, Judge Brown imposed a mandatory three years on the firearm specification and 20 years to life on the aggravated murder count, for a combined sentence of 23 years to life. Prosecutors had asked for life without parole; the court declined. Raber entered the Ohio Reformatory for Women on October 1, 2009.⁸¹

Eli Weaver had been sentenced days earlier, on September 24, 2009, to 15 years to life for complicity to commit murder. He was sent to the Grafton Correctional Institution.⁹

The Appeal

Raber appealed to the Ninth Judicial District Court of Appeals, raising four grounds: that her oral confession should have been suppressed because she asked for a lawyer during interrogation; that admission of text messages and computer evidence violated Ohio’s wiretapping statute; and that the conviction was against the manifest weight of the evidence.⁶

The appellate court rejected all four claims on August 30, 2010. It found that Raber’s question during interrogation, “Can I have an attorney?”, was ambiguous because she coupled it with questions about her children, and that she plainly knew how to make an unequivocal request, as she did the next day when she said “Give me a lawyer” and questioning stopped. The court found no error in admitting the text messages or computer data and held the evidence, including Eli’s testimony and the corroborating digital records, supported the verdict.⁶

Where Raber Is Now

Raber remains at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. She has not had a parole hearing yet; her first is scheduled for April 2032, with a parole eligibility date of June 4, 2032.¹⁰ Eli Weaver remains at Grafton Correctional Institution. He became eligible for parole in 2024 and was denied; his next hearing is set for February 2032, with an eligibility date of April 1, 2032.¹¹

1
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Offender Details: Barbara A. Raber (W076483)
2
People. Where Is Barbara Raber Now
3
People. Where Is Eli Weaver Now
4
Oxygen. Eli Weaver Amish Man Murders Wife With Barbara Raber
5
The Daily Record. Raber on Trial: Millersburg Woman
6
Supreme Court of Ohio. State v. Raber, 189 Ohio App.3d 396 (2010)
7
Times-Gazette. Millersburg Woman Heads to Prison
8
The Daily Record. Raber: 23 to Life
9
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Offender Details: Eli D. Weaver (A573154)
10
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Offender Details Print: Barbara A. Raber (W076483)
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Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Offender Details Print: Eli D. Weaver (A573154)