Where Is Eli Weaver Now? How the ‘Amish Stud’ Convinced His Mistress to Kill His Wife and When He Might Go Free

It has been 16 years since Eli Weaver shocked his tight-knit Amish com­mu­ni­ty by plot­ting the cold-blood­ed mur­der of his wife, Bar­bara Weaver.

To out­siders, the couple’s life seemed idyl­lic — a devot­ed Amish fam­i­ly rais­ing five chil­dren in rur­al Ohio. But beneath the sur­face, Eli was hid­ing a dark dou­ble life. Despite his community’s strict rules against mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy, he secret­ly acquired a cell­phone and began meet­ing women online.

Accord­ing to A Killing in Amish Coun­try: Sex, Betray­al and a Cold-blood­ed Mur­der, Eli used the alias “Amish Stud” and engaged in mul­ti­ple affairs with women out­side the Amish faith. Although Bar­bara was aware of his infi­deli­ty, divorce was not an option in their world. She chose to remain with him, tend­ing to their home and rais­ing their chil­dren.

But Eli want­ed out — and he decid­ed mur­der was the solu­tion.

Who Is Eli Weaver?

Born in 1979, Eli was raised in Ohio as a mem­ber of the con­ser­v­a­tive Andy Weaver Amish sub­group, known for its strict restric­tions on tech­nol­o­gy and mod­ern con­ve­niences. In the late 1990s, he began court­ing Bar­bara Miller, a young Amish woman from his com­mu­ni­ty. They mar­ried in 1999 and went on to have five chil­dren: three boys and two girls.

Eli oper­at­ed a sport­ing goods store where he sold firearms and out­door equip­ment. Despite the appear­ance of sta­bil­i­ty, he led a secret life online, seek­ing out women through the social plat­form Moco­Space under the name “Amish Stud.”

He left the Amish com­mu­ni­ty twice to live “Eng­lish” — the term for non-Amish life — and pur­sue his affairs, but each time he even­tu­al­ly repent­ed and returned.

Who Was Barbara Raber?

Bar­bara “Barb” Raber had been adopt­ed by an Amish fam­i­ly as a child but left the com­mu­ni­ty in adult­hood to join a Men­non­ite church. Although she no longer fol­lowed Amish tra­di­tions, she remained con­nect­ed by work­ing as a taxi dri­ver for Amish clients who could not dri­ve them­selves.

Eli was one of her reg­u­lar pas­sen­gers. Their friend­ship turned into an affair, and by 2009, the rela­tion­ship had become intense and destruc­tive.

Why Did Eli Weaver Want His Wife Dead?

Inves­ti­ga­tors lat­er learned that Eli felt trapped — unwill­ing to face the shame of divorce and excom­mu­ni­ca­tion but des­per­ate to con­tin­ue his affair. Accord­ing to Snapped: Killer Cou­ples, Raber told police that Eli con­vinced her there was “no oth­er way” for them to be togeth­er. Eli, how­ev­er, would lat­er claim that the idea came from Raber.

The Murder of Barbara Weaver

On June 2, 2009, Eli left home ear­ly for a fish­ing trip at Lake Erie. Before he depart­ed, Bar­bara report­ed­ly woke up to say good­bye — the last time she was seen alive.

Accord­ing to inves­ti­ga­tors, Eli left a door unlocked for Raber, who arrived at the house armed with her husband’s shot­gun. In her con­fes­sion, Raber claimed she intend­ed only to scare Bar­bara but that the gun “acci­den­tal­ly fired,” killing her.

One of the Weaver chil­dren dis­cov­ered Barbara’s body that morn­ing and ran to a neighbor’s house for help. When emer­gency respon­ders arrived, Bar­bara was already dead.

The Investigation

Police quick­ly ruled out rob­bery: noth­ing was tak­en, and there were no signs of forced entry. Sus­pi­cion soon turned to Eli after rel­a­tives told inves­ti­ga­tors about his affairs.

Detec­tives uncov­ered his secret cell­phone — reg­is­tered under Raber’s plan — and text mes­sages between the two plot­ting Barbara’s mur­der. They had dis­cussed using poi­son, explo­sives, and oth­er meth­ods before ulti­mate­ly set­tling on the shoot­ing.

Both were arrest­ed on June 10, 2009.

The Trials and Sentencing

Eli ini­tial­ly denied involve­ment but lat­er accept­ed a plea deal, agree­ing to tes­ti­fy against Raber in exchange for a reduced sen­tence. He plead­ed guilty to con­spir­a­cy to com­mit mur­der.

Raber reject­ed her plea offer and went to tri­al in Sep­tem­ber 2009. She claimed the shoot­ing was acci­den­tal, but pros­e­cu­tors pre­sent­ed the damn­ing text mes­sages as evi­dence.

After a three-day tri­al, Raber was con­vict­ed of aggra­vat­ed mur­der and sen­tenced to life in prison. Eli was sen­tenced to 15 years to life for com­plic­i­ty to com­mit mur­der.

Where Is Eli Weaver Now?

Eli Weaver remains incar­cer­at­ed at the Grafton Cor­rec­tion­al Insti­tu­tion in Ohio. Though he became eli­gi­ble for parole in 2024, he remains behind bars and will not be eli­gi­ble again until April 1, 2032.

Accord­ing to A&E, prison records show that Eli has worked sev­er­al jobs dur­ing his sen­tence, includ­ing food ser­vice, plumb­ing, main­te­nance, and recep­tion duties.

Once known as the “Amish Stud,” Eli Weaver now lives out his days far removed from the world he betrayed — serv­ing time for orches­trat­ing one of the most shock­ing crimes in Amish his­to­ry.