So, join us, plug in, sit back and prepare for scares. In the days following her death, hebegan the grim task of sortingthrough his wifespossessions. Or, maybe she was none of them. Or, Lori Erika Kennedy? Lori Ruffs handwritten notes. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the mysterious Lori Erica Ruff. 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. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. Numerous theories regarding her identity can be found on various internet websites. Legal Statement. 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. In 2010, a woman in Texas named Lori Ruff parked her Tahoe in the driveway of the house where her estranged husband Blake had been living since he had walked out on her after their relationship had soured. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. One was for her daughter. Velling said hes determined to uncover Jane Doe's true identity because he suspects she may have used a so-called identity broker to pull off such a complex crime. "My God, that's Kimberly!," one Pennsylvania relative exclaimed, the Seattle Times reported. Within the next two years, she obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died with her two sisters in a house fire in 1971. Lori refused to allow anyone else to babysit her child. And, why had she changed her identity and hid her past from those closest to her? Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. She refused to let other people hold the child and was overly protective, even for a first-time mother. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Who was she? In the box, which she told her husband never to touch, were all the documents exposing her elaborate ruse the paperwork showing the name change and the application for a Social Security number, among other receipts. She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. DNA taken from the body might also help crack the case. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. or redistributed. There were no dates and the letter itself was a little vague. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne shed be leaving for good. The other was for Blake. 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. 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. In the days that followed, Blake tried to make sense of how things had gone so wrong. The tension between the Ruffs continued to grow as the new grandparents were rebuffed from visits. Within the next two years, she . We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. 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. He revealed that Lori considered it to be a personal item that must never be opened. In May 1988, McLean obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. 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. 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. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories. 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. Lori didnt take this at all well. She wanted to live in her little cocoon.. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. 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. After the birth of their daughter, Lori's behavior became increasingly strange. Eager to meet her, the family invited her to lunch. I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? 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. She also began sending harassing emails to the Ruffs, created a scene at a custody exchange, and stole a set of house keys from them. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. They tried several times to have a child, but she had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. I find her case fascinating, especially in a post-9/11 world where there are so many avenues for identifying individuals. [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. 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. 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. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. Given some of the comments she made or suggested, she didnt appear to realize why the marriage ended. In May of 2016, several commentators on the internet noticed similarities to Ruff's story and to the plot of a 1987 crime drama called Positive I.D., which was directed by a professor of film at UT Arlington. The letter failed to mention crucial details such what was her role and responsibilities. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Image: Social Security Administration. [1] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in-vitro fertilization in 2008. And, with the child, Lori's behavior became even more erratic. Blake's mom, Nancy Ruff, described facing a stone wall. The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. Perhaps Lori was creating parents for the benefit of Blake. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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 was never too keen to go into further detail. His letter contained pages of incoherent rambling. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. In 2010, he moved back in with his parents and filed for divorce. She also received breast implants during this time. 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. Erica Kelley is a native Tennessean exploring historical and contemporary true crime in the South. So, it was granted without question. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. Lori Erica Ruff. Lori attended the University of Texas regularly and graduated with a business administration degree in 1997. [1] Despite the questions Blake's family had about Lori, the couple married in January 2004. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. 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. Apparently, after Becky Sue Turner perished, a woman turned up and requested a copy of the birth certificate. After several miscarriages, the couple finally had a daughter in 2008. Until now, Lori Erica Ruff was known to authorities as Jane Doe a woman of mystery who jumped from state to state, taking on the identities of other people. Loris behavior was highly erratic in the timebetween theseparationand her death; she sent threatening emails to Blake and his family, and might have even attempted a break-in at Blakes parents home. Henceforth, Lori would be known as Lori Erica Ruff. Lori acquired Becky Turners birth certificate in 1988. Before she took her own life with a shotgun, Lori placed a pair of letters inside the car. They Walk Among Us is an award-winning weekly UK true crime podcast covering a broad range of cases from the sinister to the surreal. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. When Lori Erica Kennedy took her own life, she left behind evidence that she'd stolen another's identity. 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. Hosted on Acast. For years, it was nothing but a series of dead ends. This page was last modified on 5 May 2016, at 17:33. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. Others, including a private detective, tasked with finding out more about her, consider that an incident in her past concerned her sufficiently to create an entirely new identity. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Loris drivers license photo. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. Lori Erica Ruff Kept Her Past Locked Up in a Secret Safe Blake Ruff thought he had found someone special. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Although questions about the case remain, Lori Ruff's name has now been removed from the federal government's database for missing and unidentified persons. Sources Velling, a seasoned government sleuth, has been stumped in figuring out the true name and background of this Jane Doe, who took on aliases with spy-like sophistication. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. In September 2011 the Ruff family, with the help of a congressional aide, sought the help of Joe Velling, an investigator for the Social Security Administration (SSA). Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. Related: The Strange Case of the Isdal Woman. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer. The contents of this safe put into sharp focus everything that Blake thought he knew about Lori Kennedy. It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. She received a Texas driver license in 1989 and qualified for a GED[8] the following year. McLean also asked them not to come after her. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. In 2010, he moved back across the state to live with his parents. It's a big Universe full of wonders. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. He filed for divorce a short time later. 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. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. His wifewas not who she claimed to be. [3], In 2003, she met Blake Ruff, the son of a well-established family in East Texas,[2][3] in a Bible study class. Within a few months of Blake moving out, Lori had completely deteriorated. Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. Nancy said it was like that all afternoon she asked questions, and Lori provided evasive answers. Or, Becky Sue Turner? She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America, Velling told FoxNews.com. After several months living as Becky Sue Turner, she legally changed her name to Lori Kennedy and moved to the Dallas area, where she met Blake Ruff. According to the Seattle Times , a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff's background began after the paper ran . However, Perkins has no memory of the woman, and there were no matches for the woman in fingerprint and facial recognition databases. Many of these sessions tended to feature increasingly strange behavior on her part. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. It was in 2010 when events finally took their toll on her. In the days following her death, he began the grim task of sorting . Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. 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. On Christmas Eve in 2010, Lori Erica Ruff sat in her car outside her in-laws' Longview, Texas home, and ended her life with a gunshot to the head. Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. Lori left behind two suicide notes, one of which was addressed to her husband and the other to her young daughter. It is one thing to suspect Lori Erica Ruff of being a simple identity thief, but it is another thing to understand why. [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. [6], On December 24, 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. Interesting history topics are just a click away. Anyone with credible tips on this case is urged to email this reporter at cristina.corbin@foxnews.com. One of these had notes written and a collection of phone numbers and names. All rights reserved. [7] The couple eloped in January 2004 after Nancy Ruff, Blake's mother, inquired about placing a wedding announcement in the local newspaper. Lori Erica Ruff The Generation Why Podcast. [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. They then discovered the lock box in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. However, according to records, Becky Sue Turner asphyxiated in a house fire when she was just 2 years old. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. In 1986, Kimberly McLean ran away from her home at the age of 18. 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. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is "Jane Doe," a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her famil. Fitzpatrick found matching DNA records using saliva samples of Blake and Loris daughter. Lori Erica Ruff - identity SOLVED? Yes! But, it didn't happen easily and it took the hard work of a number of people and a little bit of luck to learn the truth. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. But all that he managed to discover was that Lori had something of a difficult upbringing. The two moved to Leonard, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas and roughly 125 miles from Ruffs parents in Longview. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. "True identity of Lori Ruff revealed six years after she committed suicide", "After 30 Years, Lori Ruff's True Identity Finally Revealed", "5 Creepy-As-Hell Stories Of Real People With No Identity", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. However, the Mclean family now has a granddaughter who offers a glimpse of their beloved Kimberly. But, it didn't happen easily and it took the hard work of a number of people and a little For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. Ruff's true origins remained a mystery until 2016, when her identity was confirmed using a combination of public records and direct-to-consumer autosomal SNP analysis of her husband's and daughter's DNA, leading back to the McLeanCassidy family on Philadelphia's Main Line. 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. The grieving husbandrecognized the box. 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. 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 . During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. ", "Texas woman's true identity baffles ex-husband, authorities years after her suicide", "Live chat with investigator, reporter about Jane Doe case", "Mystery woman: After 30 years and a suicide, Lori Ruff's real identity emerges", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lori_Erica_Ruff&oldid=1125479355, Articles with minor POV problems from October 2022, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from October 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 December 2022, at 06:14. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 18, in the fall of 1986, because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. One of television's most popular true-crime series adapted for your ears. Blake had enough with her inability to get along with his family. 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. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. There was a birth and death certificate in the box. All rights reserved. Southern charm is attempted but southern sass is bountiful. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 December 24, 2010), was an American identity thief[3] whose true identity remained unknown for nearly six years after her death. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. Les currently resides in London and is a freelance writer with a long standing passion for the unexplained and paranormal. Find a Grave We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. They believed she fled because she did not like her mothers new husband. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, 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. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. Legal Statement. Ruffs apparent identity theft pulled in former Social Security Administration investigator Joe Velling, who hoped that publicity from the Times piece would urge amateur sleuths to provide some leads.
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