Eli Weaver's Infidelity

Eli Weaver Photo: ODRC

"According to Barbara’s sister, Eli’s infidelity had been a huge problem throughout their entire marriage. In fact, it started back during Eli’s Rumspringa, back when they first started dating. Eli was much wilder than Barbara, always partying, seeing people outside of the Amish faith," Kristin Farley, a former reporter with WATE, told producers.

In fact, Eli had cheated on Barbara twice with women who weren't Amish and temporarily left the marriage, getting shunned from the Amish community and having to ask the elders to let him back in, the sister explained to investigators. Shortly before she was killed, Barbara had even been suspicious Eli was cheating on her again.

He just wanted to dabble in things that were forbidden. He seemed to have a real attraction to things that were forbidden," the Weavers' neighbor Mary Eicher told producers.

As a devoted Amish woman, Barbara didn't consider divorce an option, but she was deeply hurt by the infidelity, those who knew her said. She was also frightened by it.

"She told a friend she wasn't afraid of Eli, but she was afraid of Eli’s girlfriends and that somebody would be so jealous and wanting Eli so much they would harm Barbara," Rebecca Morris, author of "A Killing In Amish Country," told producers.

When questioned again by police, Eli insisted his cheating days were behind him. But while talking to members of the community, they learned there was a possible new woman in his life.

“In the days after Barbara's murder the police got a lot of tips indicating Eli was spending a lot of time with someone referred to as 'the taxi lady,'" Farley told producers.

Who is Barbara Raber?

Raber admitted to police she had an affair with Eli, but insisted it had ended six months earlier and she had been home with her husband at the time of the murder. Then, new incriminating information was uncovered.

But what also raised red flags for investigators was what Heasley had to say about Eli's attitude toward his wife. According to her, he was deeply unhappy in the marriage and made several comments alluding to wanting to know how to kill someone and getting rid of his wife permanently.

Other women soon reached out, revealing they, too, had had affairs with Eli and he had made strange comments to them about having his wife killed.

After getting a subpoena for the phone records, detectives discovered tons of messages between the two that made it clear they were still together. The messages also made it clear they wanted to get rid of Barbara badly.

Barbara And Eli Weaver’s Troubled Marriage

Public Domain The quiet Amish communities throughout the eastern United States are rarely home to murder.

By all appearances, Barbara and Eli Weaver had a good marriage. They had a good community of friends and neighbors.

“Barbara was a very friendly, sociable person. She was kind of laid back but super nice. A gentle soul,” neighbor Mary Eicher said in an interview with A&E True Crime. “Eli was very outgoing. He would often come over fairly late in the evening and ask for a ride, and he was very considerate, he would apologize for interrupting me. He had charm.”

Eicher was a Mennonite taxi driver, someone who would give rides to the Amish in her community to places they couldn’t reach by horse and buggy.

But in the later years of the Weavers’ marriage, they began having problems. Eli was having several affairs, and he was withholding money from Barbara.

Fannie Troyer, Barbara’s sister, said Eli wouldn’t even give her money to care for the children or buy groceries, according to the New York Post. Eli ran a gun store, and business was fine, she said. It wasn’t about the money — “it was about control.”

Barbara was struggling with their marital problems. She wrote in a letter to her counselor, “Where did my friend, love, trustworthy husband go to? He hates me to the core.”

Eli Weaver even left his family and the church twice to live as “English.” Both times, he was back within a few months, begging for forgiveness.

“Eli found that life outside was hard. He had to figure out how to make a living. I think he wasn’t mature enough to handle life and responsibilities and marriage,” Morris, who wrote the book A Killing in Amish Country: Sex, Betrayal, and a Cold-blooded Murder, said.

Wayne County Sheriff’s Department A shirtless selfie posted by Eli Weaver on an online dating account.

Eli weaver snapped

Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Eli Weaver confessed to conspiring with Barbara Raber to kill his wife in 2009.

From the outside, it may have seemed as if Barbara Weaver had a perfectly happy life as an Amish housewife. At 30 years old, she had been married to her husband Eli for 10 years, and they had five young children together in the picturesque, conservative community of Apple Creek, Ohio.

But on June 2, 2009, Barbara was found shot to death in her own home. And everything pointed to Eli Weaver as the culprit.

The Weavers belonged to a conservative subgroup of the Old Order Amish. Their religion didn’t allow them to have cell phones, Internet, or even to take photos of themselves. They traveled around town by horse and buggy.

But as investigators dug into the Weavers’ life, they found Eli didn’t exactly adhere to those rules.

“Who wants 2 do an Amish guy!” his profile read.