[5], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? The investigation into her suicide hit dead end after dead end. Blake and Lori married in 2004the only witness to their marriage was the priest. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, And she may have even attempted to break into the family's home, according to the Seattle Times. They tried several times to have a child, but she had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The only person in attendance at their wedding ceremony, held in a church outside Dallas, was the officiating preacher. She didnt even allow the publication of the announcement of their nuptials in the local newspaper either. [3] The fact that Ruff was able to cover up her identity so well in a time before the Internet has led to speculation that she had visited an "identity broker".[3]. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. Review our. So, it was granted without question. So, join us, plug in, sit back and prepare for scares. The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. [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. Although she left notes for her husband and her daughter, they didn't provide any clues. Crimelines walks you through true crime events, pairing captivating tales with clear storytelling. Lori Erica Ruff went by many names. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. 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. 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. Investigators then began to search of hertrue identitya process that would take six years to complete. She must now fight to clear her name and figure out who betrayed her husband. Due to her off-putting[opinion][clarification needed], secretive[citation needed] behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. She left behind an 11-page suicide note but apparently no clue that she had lived a secret life. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Was she Lori Erica Ruff? 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. [1] After two years, Fitzpatrick finally identified Ruff when she discovered a third cousin match who was related to the Cassidys. One of television's most popular true-crime series adapted for your ears. He noticed the car and called the police. Watch 48 Hours Saturday 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+ and hear all new episodes every Sunday. 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. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. Image: Social Security Administration. The response? 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. NY Daily News Blake was caught in the middle, and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. [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. And why didn't she see any other option but to end her own life? "My God, that's Kimberly!," one Pennsylvania relative exclaimed, the Seattle Times reported. However, it was written on hotel stationery from Bangkok, Thailand. Within a few months of Blake moving out, Lori had completely deteriorated. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. In 2016, she was identified as. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. Anyone with credible tips on this case is urged to email this reporter at cristina.corbin@foxnews.com. 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. 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. If Lori was trying to escape her past, then it could explain her reluctance for publicity. 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. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. Lori would also spend time fidgeting and stare at the palms and back of her hands. Erica Kelley is a native Tennessean exploring historical and contemporary true crime in the South. [4] She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986,[5] because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. There were no dates and the letter itself was a little vague. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. She wasn't Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. There was a successful application for a new social security number. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. On December 24, 2010, the body of Lori Erica Ruff was found in her car parked in the driveway of the Ruff family's Texas home. 1,529 likes. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. At the time, a request of this nature was hardly unusual. It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. But all that he managed to discover was that Lori had something of a difficult upbringing. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. The other was for Blake. They then discovered the lock box in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. The family members identified the picture of the mystery woman as Kimberly Mclean. 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.. The house belonged to his parents and it was his father who discovered her [] The post Lori Erica Ruff 93 Generation Why appeared first on The Generation Why Podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. [6] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. She was sending unhinged, threatening emails to the Ruffs; she and her daughter were losing weight; she even possibly tried to break into the Ruffs' home. [7] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in vitro fertilisation in 2008. The grieving husbandrecognized the box. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. But this could have simply been a number picked for convenience purposes only. 2021 Emash Digital & Mike Ferguson, Mike Morford. Where is the Body of the Legendary King Gorm of Denmark. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. 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. "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. After several miscarriages, the couple finally had a daughter in 2008. Want more real-life mysteries? Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Who was she? Lori Ruffs handwritten notes. Years later, in the life she created with Ruff, tensions between the Verizon account manager and the wife he never really knew eventually reached a breaking point. He describes her as being incredibly secretive, particularly regarding her past. 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. Using DNA analysis from Ruff's daughter, investigators were able to trace Ruff's identity back to a family in Pennsylvania, whose teenage daughter had disappeared in 1986, per Mental Floss. Henceforth, Lori would be known as Lori Erica Ruff. 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 . Such things have happened in other cases, and are often traumatic events. She was sending deranged emails to the Ruffs. Loris husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. Join Jim Clemente (former FBI profiler), Laura Richards (criminal behavioral analyst, former New Scotland Yard) and Lisa Zambetti (Casting director for CBS' Criminal Minds) as they profile behavior from real criminal cases. Mother and child spent a lot of time together, which is normal for such a doting mother. After marrying, the couple moved away from the senior Ruffs, who lived in eastern Texas, settling in Leonard, Texas, in the southwestern region. 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. 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. She began to lose weight and attended counseling sessions held at the local church. And she was aggressive about it, Velling said. A Net Inceptions project. Blake Ruff married the woman he had known asLori in2004. Any time she got around the family, they would ask her questions and it was uncomfortable for her. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a former nuclear physicist who created[citation needed] the field of forensic genealogy, learned of Lori Ruff in 2013 and began work on the case. In 2010, he moved back in with his parents and filed for divorce. Every day, stories unfold that have no resolution. He found a birth certificate for one person that wasn't her. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. A week later, she obtained a Social Security number, removing traces of her true identity. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. For years, it was nothing but a series of dead ends. I think she was born sometime between 1960 and 1968., Records gathered by Velling provide tantalizing clues. She then moved to Idaho and procured a drivers license using the deceased girls birth certificate. ", "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. 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. Lori attended the University of Texas regularly and graduated with a business administration degree in 1997. Or, Becky Sue Turner? Unresolved is an investigative and immersive look at those stories, as host Micheal Whelan tries to determine why these stories - unsolved crimes and other unexplained phenomena - have no ending. All rights reserved. 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. According to the Seattle Times , a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff's background began after the paper ran . She was eventually identified as a native. On Christmas Eve 2010, the body of 42-year-old Lori Erica Ruff was found in acar parked outside the Rufffamily home in Longview, Texas. She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. Blake's parents were suspicious of Lori right from the beginning. It's a big Universe full of wonders. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Four years filled with miscarriages and disappointments passed. Les currently resides in London and is a freelance writer with a long standing passion for the unexplained and paranormal. They looked for signs of gambling addiction and sex trafficking. 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. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. [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. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. Lori Erica Ruff. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. Or at least they should. 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. That created a lot of heartburn for the family.. [7] The couple eloped in January 2004 after Nancy Ruff, Blake's mother, inquired about placing a wedding announcement in the local newspaper. Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. Nothing. 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. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. Various identification cards of Lori Ruff (AKA: Kimberly McLean) retrieved from the Social Security Administration. In 2013, a nuclear-physicist-turned-forensic genealogist Collen Fitzpatrick worked on Ruffs case and new details emerged about her past. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. [1] He flew to Pennsylvania to meet the potential 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. After her death, her husband and his family found the evidence of her falsified identity in a lock box in her closet. All rights reserved. It must have been for some horrific reasoneither she was running away from a crime or an abusive family or relationship., She wanted a complete break from her past, said Velling. Using DNA analysis from Ruff's daughter, investigators were able to trace Ruff's identity back to a family in Pennsylvania, whose teenage daughter had disappeared in 1986, per Mental Floss. Before she took her own life with a shotgun, Lori placed a pair of letters inside the car. The Ruff family declined to comment on the story, which was first reported by the Seattle Times on Saturday. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. 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. Over time the pair grew closer and eventually, they eloped to Dallas. Yes! Pic credit: Family pic. Lori didnt take this at all well. She told them her parents were dead and that she had no living siblings or extended family. 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. Hair pulled from the woman's head had skin on it that helped forensic investigators learn she had one of the genes associated with coronary artery disease. She parked her car, left it running, and shot herself. 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. The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories. Legal Statement. She was never too keen to go into further detail. In addition, there were no matches for the woman in any existing fingerprint and facial recognition databases. Real Life is Horror. On the West Coast, we generally dont have a discernible accent, said Velling, a Seattle native. Everyone in Dallas has an accent and she did not. His letter contained pages of incoherent rambling. While the hotel was genuine and a favored haunt of numerous celebrities, there was no trace of the author. 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. ", "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? And, why had she changed her identity and hid her past from those closest to her?You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminologyAn Emash Digital productionLearn more about your ad choices. All of that work by the investigators traced several links back in the history of Lori Ruff's false identities, but they still didn't know who she really was. With each question she asked, Lori deflected, the Seattle Times reported. A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be very thin and that Lori would often ramble incoherently about her problems. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the mysterious Lori Erica Ruff. 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. During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. The truth of Ruff's deception only came to light after she committed suicide, and some determined investigators began looking into . 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 . With the help of investigator Joe Velling, he traced the DNA to a family in Pennsylvania. Becky was born in one state and died in another, making it much less likely that a fraudulent use of her identity would be noticed. 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. At some point in the past, Lori had been a dancer at an exclusive gentlemans club, and a post-mortem examination revealed that Lori, not Becky, had received breast implants. She had stolen the identity of deceased Becky Sue Turner in May 1988 before legally changing her name to "Lori Erica Kennedy ." Following her marriage in 2001, she assumed the surname "Ruff." Lori began to complain to Blake about his parents whenever she was even mildly inconvenienced. 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.After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Be the first to contribute! In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Other commentators noted that Ruff briefly attended UT Arlington and may have become familiar with the film prior to changing her identity. 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. or redistributed. 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. After the birth of their daughter, Lori's behavior became increasingly strange. Market data provided by Factset. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. 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. Related: Girl in the Green Mac: The Baffling, Unsolved Disappearance of Sheila Fox. The Bat Bombs of WWII: Presidentially Approved, Totally Anna Anderson: Imposter of Duchess Anastasia, End of the World Predictions that Never Happened. Perhaps because of these miscarriages, Lori was ultra-protective of her daughter. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theywalkamongus. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. Given some of the comments she made or suggested, she didnt appear to realize why the marriage ended. [9][6], After Lori's funeral, some of the Ruffs drove to Leonard to see if they could find out more about her in her house. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. There was a birth and death certificate in the box. But, it didn't happen easily and it took the hard work of a number of people and a little Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. 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. It had the instructions to open on her 18th birthday. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. The tension between the Ruffs continued to grow as the new grandparents were rebuffed from visits. The house was in total shambles. Lori Erica Ruff - identity SOLVED? By changing her name, she created a clean identity a person with no past.. And, with the child, Lori's behavior became even more erratic. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? Blake did learn that Lori was born somewhere in Arizona. See acast.com/privacy for more information. "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. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. Different cultures define matrimony in different ways and tie the knot for various reasons. She wasnt Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. The new Mrs. Ruff was an unusually private person, particularly around her in-laws, according to Velling, special agent in charge of the Social Security Office of the Inspector General in Seattle, Wash. When people made small talk with her like asking where she went to high school she would say, 'Its none of your business.' Trophy Wife: Dirigido por Christian Sesma. [3], In 2003, she met Blake Ruff, the son of a well-established family in East Texas,[2][3] in a Bible study class. Who was she? Perhaps Lori was creating parents for the benefit of Blake. Nancy said it was like that all afternoon she asked questions, and Lori provided evasive answers. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, although the difference turned out to be less than a year. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010), was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. True Crime. DNA taken from the body might also help crack the case. Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. 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. However, the Mclean family now has a granddaughter who offers a glimpse of their beloved Kimberly. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. [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. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. A 2013 Seattle Times feature article about the case was published in news outlets around the world and created enormous interest in the online "websleuth" community. She then received a Texas driver license in 1989, and the next year qualified for a GED[2] then enrolled in Dallas County Community College. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. Now, as he opened it, he understood why it was forbidden territory. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Included among theitems was a sealed lockbox buried deep in Loriscloset. They married and had a daughter together. Days later, she applied for and received a Social Security number a move that effectively erased her past. Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Days later, she applied for and received a Social Security number - a. 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. After several months living as Becky Sue Turner, she legally changed her name to Lori Kennedy. [1] Despite the questions Blake's family had about Lori, the couple married in January 2004. 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. She also began sending harassing e-mails to the Ruffs, created a scene at a custody hearing, and stole a set of house keys from them. In the days following her death, hebegan the grim task of sortingthrough his wifespossessions. RedHanded the podcast jumps head first into all manner of macabre madness. However, over time he began to get the impression that he was the only one trying to make their marriage work.
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