Related: Lady of the Dunes: Was the Unidentified Cape Cod Murder Victim an Extra in Jaws? Included among theitems was a sealed lockbox buried deep in Loriscloset. It's a big Universe full of wonders. And she may have even attempted to break into the family's home, according to the Seattle Times. She was overly protective, and she refused to let other people hold their daughter. One of television's most popular true-crime series adapted for your ears. [1], Fitzpatrick informed Joe Velling, who had in the meantime retired from the SSA. Late in 2015, Velling received a call from a former nuclear physicist and forensic genealogist named Colleen Fitzpatrick, who had been following the case online. And she did it all pre-InternetShe may have done this on her own, but its possible she sought out one of these identity brokers.. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. She then moved to Idaho and procured a drivers license using the deceased girls birth certificate. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Hersuicide cameafter Blake had filed fordivorce and moved back in with his parents. McLean, posing as Becky Sue Turner, then appeared before a judge in Dallas on July 5, 1988, and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. His recollection was that she was a dancer at a Dallas-area nightclub at the time [she was attending school], Velling said. Among the various documents was a certificate indicating that Lori Kennedy had changed her name from Becky Sue Turner. Hosted on Acast. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au. [2] She would also obsessively track the Ruffs' family history and try to find out their family recipes, but still refused to talk about her past. Lori acquired Turner's birth certificate in 1988, a time when you could just send a letter requesting a birth certificate with little resistance. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. About a month afterward, the certificate was used to obtain legal identification in Idaho. NY Daily News The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. Whilethe file on Lori Erica Ruff may be closed, her bizarre case continues to fascinate, and will forever raise thechillingquestion: Just how well do you know those closest to you? She enrolled in Dallas County Community College,[7] and in 1997 she graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in business administration. Henceforth, Lori would be known as Lori Erica Ruff. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. Everyone in Dallas has an accent and she did not. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. Blake Ruff has admitted that he isn't completely sure what drew him to Lori. But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. She must now fight to clear her name and figure out who betrayed her husband. Pic credit: Family pic. She would regularly be seen with her in some of her favorite tea shops. The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. He filed for divorce a short time later. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. The Ruff family declined to comment on the story, which was first reported by the Seattle Times on Saturday. Buried deep in the back of Lori's closet, Blake pulled out a sealed lockbox. [8] She would also obsessively track the Ruffs' family history and try to find out their family recipes, but she still refused to talk about her own past. "My God, that's Kimberly!," one Pennsylvania relative exclaimed, the Seattle Times reported. After several months living as Becky Sue Turner, she legally changed her name to Lori Kennedy. After several miscarriages, the couple finally had a daughter in 2008. After Lori Erica Ruff's death, Blake Ruff realized his wife was a complete stranger. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. Synopsis There were two other pieces of paper. All rights reserved. [3], Ruff was incredibly overprotective of her daughter, often refusing to let anyone else hold her, which angered her husband's family. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. He describes her as being incredibly secretive, particularly regarding her past. Papers belonging to Ruff, who had been married with a child, surfaced after her suicide indicating she had once been known as Lori Kennedy, and prior to that, as Becky Sue Turner, the name of a young girl who had died in a Washington state fire in 1971. Lori would also spend time fidgeting and stare at the palms and back of her hands. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. Market data provided by Factset. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. However, over time he began to get the impression that he was the only one trying to make their marriage work. The pair set up a home together and tried to start a family. The grieving husbandrecognized the box. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is "Jane Doe," a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her family's driveway after spending decades using stolen identities to erase a past that remains mired in mystery. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. Most of these discoveries came from talking to those that she had worked with previously. She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986, because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. The news of Kimberlys death saddened her mother deeply. During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Lori kept to herself, rarely speaking Finally, in 2008, the pair had a daughter, conceived with in vitro fertilization. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Find a Grave Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. And, why had she changed her identity and hid her past from those closest to her? She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986, because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy. [4] She also said her father was a failed stockbroker. Blake was caught in the middle, and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. The nature of these scribblings led some followers of the case to believe that Ruff was trying to avoid prison time, due to the references to police, a possible jail-term length, and the name of Ben Perkins, a Los Angeles attorney. This page was last modified on 5 May 2016, at 17:33. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. She received a Texas driver license in 1989 and qualified for a GED[8] the following year. Little Beckywas just two years old when she diedin a house fire outside of Seattle, Washington in 1971. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne shed be leaving for good. [7] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in vitro fertilisation in 2008. Perhaps because of these miscarriages, Lori was ultra-protective of her daughter. Authorities inspected both letters, which they described asramblings from a clearly disturbed person.They contained no reference toLoris life as an identity thief, nor a confession of her trueidentity. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. [1] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in-vitro fertilization in 2008. She and her young daughter had visibly lost weight. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Ordinary people who do unthinkable thingsThe Minds of Madness is a True Crime Podcast that examines the most disturbing criminal minds and the impact violent crimes have on survivors of homicide. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. In the box a number of documents were discovered which revealed that Ruff had stolen the identity of Becky Sue Turner, a 2-year-old girl killed in a fire in 1971 in Fife, Washington, in 1988, and then changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Erica Kelley is a native Tennessean exploring historical and contemporary true crime in the South. Interesting history topics are just a click away. On Christmas Eve 2010, the body of 42-year-old Lori Erica Ruff was found in a car parked outside the Ruff family home in Longview, Texas. Mother and child spent a lot of time together, which is normal for such a doting mother. Although plenty of questions about the case still have not been answered, Lori Ruff's name was removed from the federal government's database of missing and unidentified persons. Blake and Lori married in 2004the only witness to their marriage was the priest. Was she Lori Erica Ruff? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theywalkamongus. Review our. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. She arrived at this identity by way of a girl named Becky Sue Turner. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. Lori Erica Ruff The Generation Why Podcast. Due to her off-putting[opinion][clarification needed], secretive[citation needed] behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. The Bizarre Truth About Lori Ruff, The Woman Without An Identity. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. Investigators then began to search of hertrue identitya process that would take six years to complete. Authorities believe she initially traveled to the home with the intent of harming the family.[6]. The woman received breast implants in 1991 and claimed to have suffered from bulimia in 1990. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. A week later, she obtained a Social Security number, removing traces of her true identity. Lori Erica Ruff was as evasive as she had always been but did reveal that both of her parents had passed away and that she had no living relatives. Trophy Wife: Dirigido por Christian Sesma. Also found in the lock box was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings.[6]. Within the next two years, she obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a 2-year-old girl who had died with her two sisters in a house fire in 1971. Many of these sessions tended to feature increasingly strange behavior on her part. [8] Other papers included the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner and a judge's ruling granting a name change to Lori Erica Kennedy. Legal Statement. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. Related: The Strange Case of the Isdal Woman. (Perkins, who was black and who marketed his legal services to LA's African-American community, had never taken on a white client during his career.) Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. The house was discovered in disarray, with piles of dirty dishes, laundry, and trash stacked up around the house, as well as shredded documents and papers with incoherent scribblings on them. [2] The writings on the paper found in the lockbox included the scribblings "North Hollywood police", "402 months", and "Ben Perkins", who turned out to be an attorney. The mystery surrounding Jane Does identity begins in May 1988, when the unknown woman requested the Bakersfield, Calif., birth certificate of a 2-year-old girl, Becky Sue Turner, who died in a 1971 house fire in Fife, Wash., Velling said. In the days following her death, hebegan the grim task of sortingthrough his wifespossessions. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? After her death, her husband and his family found the evidence of her falsified identity in a lock box in her closet. So, it was granted without question. [6], Ruff was "extremely protective" of her daughter, often refusing to let anyone else hold her and even taking the baby with her to use the bathroom. Velling agreed to help identify her as a case of identify theft. They separated, but on Christmas Eve, 2010, the woman everyone knew as Lori Erica Ruff pulled into the driveway of the Ruff family home and shot herself. [3], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter. The following people have been ruled out as possible identities for Ruff:[5], Ruff was a white female, who was approximately 41 to 50 years old when she committed suicide. And, as he flipped through multiple IDs with pictures of his wife at different ages, he realized they all had different names printed on them, according to the Daily Mail. [1] After two years, Fitzpatrick finally identified Ruff when she discovered a third cousin match who was related to the Cassidys. After marrying, the couple moved away from the senior Ruffs, who lived in eastern Texas, settling in Leonard, Texas, in the southwestern region. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. How had their marriage fallen apart? McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy. Lori Erica Ruff, a Texan who committed suicide in 2010 and left behind a series of puzzling documents hinting that she wasnt who her family thought she was, has now been identified. On the West Coast, we generally dont have a discernible accent, said Velling, a Seattle native. Photo Credit: Alchetron. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. It is one thing to suspect Lori Erica Ruff of being a simple identity thief, but it is another thing to understand why. At the time, a request of this nature was hardly unusual. Now, as he opened it, he understood why it was forbidden territory. The Varangians: Viking Conquerors turned Byzantium Honor Guard, The Secret Necropolis of Ancient Varna and the First Goldsmiths. After following numerous leads he was stumped, and sought the help of the general public to identify her through an article published June 22, 2013, in The Seattle Times. The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories. Four years filled with miscarriages and disappointments passed. [1][10] Fitzpatrick had Ruff's husband and daughter tested by a direct-to-consumer testing company, through which she was able to obtain Ruff's DNA results using genetic genealogy phasing techniques, which essentially subtracted Blake Ruff's DNA from Lori's. It was either she or his family, and he chose his family, Velling said. The house belonged . But it wasn't until Lori ended her life on Christmas Eve that the Ruffs would get answers. She began to lose weight and attended counseling sessions held at the local church. Follow along with 48 Hours every week as award-winning CBS News correspondents investigate the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience. By the time Blake Ruff's wife died, he realized he didn't know her at all. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Related: A Killer Calls: The Unsolved Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott. Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. On Monday though, Lori. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. In 2016, she was identified as. McLean used the child's birth certificate to obtain an Idaho state identification card, then moved to Texas and had her name legally changed to Lori Erica Kennedy . Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. Real Life is Horror. Her mothers remarriage didnt help either and she told her family she was going away. For years, it was nothing but a series of dead ends. When problems became too difficult for him to continue, Blake finally accepted that their marriage wasnt working and subsequently moved out of the home they shared. Or at least they should. She became distressed due to her parents divorce. When Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff took her own life on Christmas Eve, 2010 in Longview, Texas, she took with her all of the secrets of her true identity. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. Lori Erica Ruff. Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. They tried several times to have a child, but had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. In the car were two suicide notes: One 11page note addressed to "my wonderful husband" and another addressed to her daughter, to be opened on her 18th birthday. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. See acast.com/privacy for more information. After some failed marriage therapy sessions, Blake Ruff moved back to his parents' house in Longview and filed for divorce, leaving Lori with their daughter in Leonard. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. She also received breast implants during this time. [6] The Ruffs opened and read the letter, but it contained only "ramblings from a clearly disturbed person" and no details about Lori's past. It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Loris drivers license photo. Ruff's earliest known activity dates back to May 1988, when she requested the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who was killed, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. Lori Erica Ruff (2021 Podcast Episode) Plot Showing all 0 items Jump to: Summaries It looks like we don't have any Plot Summaries for this title yet. She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. And why didn't she see any other option but to end her own life? Lori and Blake tried to have a child almost immediately after they were married, but found themselves experiencing fertility issues. But this could have simply been a number picked for convenience purposes only. There was a birth and death certificate in the box. She enrolled at Dallas County Community College in the fall of 1990 and eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a business administration degree in 1997. Although Blakes family was suspicious of Lori from the beginning, Blake himself was very much in love. At the time of this application, Lori quoted her age as 19. He found a birth certificate for one person that wasn't her. For several years, nobody suspected anything. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Blake had enough with her inability to get along with his family. If Lori was trying to escape her past, then it could explain her reluctance for publicity. Using a DNA analysis from Ruffs daughter, investigators were able to trace Ruffs identity back to a family in Pennsylvania, whose daughter had disappeared in 1986, when she was 17. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, that she had had an unhappy childhood, and that she had no siblings; she also said her father had been a failed stockbroker. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. By the time she married Jon Blakely Blake Ruff, of Longview, Texas, in January 2004, her phony identification was as solid as her real past was distant. If you can never get enough true crime Congratulations, youve found your people. She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. [1] Despite the questions Blake's family had about Lori, the couple married in January 2004. It's not exactly clear why Kimberly McLean fled (most family accounts suggest it was due to a dislike of her new stepfather), but extended family immediately recognized the woman in the investigator's photo. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. She was never too keen to go into further detail. She wanted to live in her little cocoon.. "My God, thats Kimberly! The family member confirmed Ruff was actually Kimberly McLean, daughter of Deanne Cassidy and James McLean, who had run away from home in Pennsylvania at the age of 18. Such things have happened in other cases, and are often traumatic events. Sources After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. The investigation into her suicide hit dead end after dead end. Les currently resides in London and is a freelance writer with a long standing passion for the unexplained and paranormal. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. Loris husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, [citation needed], After Lori's funeral, some of the Ruffs drove to Leonard to see if they could find out more about her in her house. She was sending deranged emails to the Ruffs. Lori began to complain to Blake about his parents whenever she was even mildly inconvenienced. Related: Girl in the Green Mac: The Baffling, Unsolved Disappearance of Sheila Fox. Follows Toni, who has a complete breakdown and ends up in a mental facility after the unexpected news that her husband was murdered, and even she is a suspect. The tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. She wasnt Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Lori Erica Ruff (born Kimberly McLean, October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010) was a woman who took her own life while living in Longview, Texas. However, it was written on hotel stationery from Bangkok, Thailand. [6] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. After obtaining the driver's license, Ruff went before a judge in Dallas on July 5 1988 and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy; a week later she obtained a social security number, effectively erasing her past. In 1986, Kimberly McLean ran away from her home at the age of 18. With each question she asked, Lori deflected, the Seattle Times reported. Last spring, we brought you 8 Mysterious People Without a Past, a list of individuals who seemed to have had much of their early existence wiped from history. The nature of these scribblings has led some to believe that Ruff was trying to avoid prison time, due to the references to police, a possible jail term length, and the name of an attorney. I find her case fascinating, especially in a post-9/11 world where there are so many avenues for identifying individuals. Jane Doe had a simple narrative and stuck to it: She was the only child of a failed stockbroker and his wife, who both died. It wasnt until the Ruffs found a safebox hidden inside their daughter-in-laws bedroom closet that showed the woman wasnt who she had claimed to be. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. But Blake was in love. McLean assumed a series of aliases before marrying Blake Ruff in 2004 and settling downleaving no trace of Kimberly McLean, at least until Fitzpatrick began researching her family tree. It did. Lori Ruff & The Dark Secret She Hid From Everyone 864,142 views Feb 5, 2019 13K Dislike Share Save Weird History 3.81M subscribers Few stories have fascinated the Internet quite like the one of. Additionally, she displayed many asocial behaviors, such as leaving social gatherings to take naps. They looked for signs of gambling addiction and sex trafficking. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. Her Idaho identification card listed her as 5 feet, 6 inches tall and her Dallas drivers license had her at 5 feet, 10 inches, but she was really somewhere in-between, Velling said. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. [1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. In 2003 McLean met Jon Blakely "Blake" Ruff, the son of a socially prominent family in East Texas,[8][6] in a Bible study class. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer. or redistributed. A Net Inceptions project. Any time she got around the family, they would ask her questions and it was uncomfortable for her. The other was for Blake. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. After some failed marriage therapy meetings, Blake Ruff moved back to his parents' house in Longview and filed for divorce, leaving Lori with their daughter in Leonard. The tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. As with the birth certificate, it was relatively straight forward to acquire a new social security number. In 2010, he moved back in with his parents and filed for divorce. It's clear that even at this time, Lori knew what she was doingBecky had been born in one state and died in another, making it far less likely that the fraudulent use of her identity would be discovered.
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