Amish Stud: The Eli Weaver Story

About the movie

On the morning of June 2 while he is out fishing with his Mennonite friend Jeremiah Peters, Amish Eli Weaver receives a message via a call to Jeremiah's cell phone that Eli's wife, twenty-nine year old Barbara Weaver, has just been found shot dead in their bed. While the Amish elders want to deal with the issue solely within their community, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department is forced to investigate in the murder having taken place in their jurisdiction, the two investigators being Detectives Bruce London and Mike Maxwell. What is subsequently shown is the current investigation interspersed with flashbacks of Eli and Barbara's life, which Eli admits to the investigators was not always perfect. Those flashbacks show that Barbara, prior to marriage, was wanting to marry for romantic love which is not the Amish way, with Eli seemingly wanting the same, he being the black sheep of his family in not always adhering to Amish strictures. London and Maxwell have their theories of who the murderer is, namely Eli in not reacting as a typical grieving husband and father would, but know they will have problems finding evidence in this current day with Eli, as Amish, having no digital footprint, and the only telephone in the community being a public one for emergencies which anyone could use. They hope that the unofficial traditional Amish communication network, i.e. rampant gossip, will provide some clues. They will find that some talk will emerge in the form of a collection of women not in the community who were a part of Eli's secret life as the Amish Stud.—Huggo