The only person in attendance was the preacher. Why had Lori begun behaving so erratically? Lori would also spend time fidgeting and stare at the palms and back of her hands. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six ye Lori Erica Ruff - Top podcast episodes Lori acquired Becky Turners birth certificate in 1988. [4] She also said her father was a failed stockbroker. 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. Erica Kelley is a native Tennessean exploring historical and contemporary true crime in the South. It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au. On Monday though, Lori. [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. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. They married and had a daughter together. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology, Learn more about your ad choices. Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. Where is Lori Ruff's Daughter Now? - The Cinemaholic 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. Lori Erica Ruff went by many names. With the help of investigator Joe Velling, he traced the DNA to a family in Pennsylvania. She left behind an 11-page suicide note but apparently no clue that she had lived a secret life. It is generally believed that a new identity was already being considered either for herself or others. She was sending deranged emails to the Ruffs. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. 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. About a month afterward, the certificate was used to obtain legal identification in Idaho. Related: The Strange Case of the Isdal Woman. The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. El Sorprendente Caso de Lori Erica Ruff -Documental - YouTube Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. 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.Join Mike and . Within a few months of Blake moving out, Lori had completely deteriorated. 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. On the West Coast, we generally dont have a discernible accent, said Velling, a Seattle native. 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. Who Was Lori Ruff: DNA Evidence Sheds Light on Texas Mystery Woman These secrets Lori Ruff had kept from even her husband, Blake Ruff, and his family. 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. Lori Erica Ruff - Top podcast episodes Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. Find a Grave For years, it was nothing but a series of dead ends. Synopsis We cover everything from big time serial killers (and those you may never have heard of), to hauntings, possessions, disturbing mysteries, bizarre whodunits and basically anything that tickles our creepy fancy. In 2013, a nuclear-physicist-turned-forensic genealogist Collen Fitzpatrick worked on Ruffs case and new details emerged about her past. [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]. Her student loan applications listed three references, one of whom was a former classmate she had briefly dated. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Crimelines walks you through true crime events, pairing captivating tales with clear storytelling. Her mothers remarriage didnt help either and she told her family she was going away. I think she was born sometime between 1960 and 1968., Records gathered by Velling provide tantalizing clues. [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. 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 Ruff | Unidentified Wiki | Fandom [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. [8] Other papers included the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner and a judge's ruling granting a name change to Lori Erica Kennedy. 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. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. Blake was caught in the middle, and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. [7] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in vitro fertilisation in 2008. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. Investigation Discovery's ' Where Murder Lies: The Girl in the Lockbox' chronicles the story behind Lori Ruff's past. [6], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter; as a result, the Ruffs began encouraging Blake to get out of the marriage. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. Such things have happened in other cases, and are often traumatic events. All rights reserved. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. There was a birth and death certificate in the box. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. 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. 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. [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. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, although the difference turned out to be less than a year. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. According to Deannes brother, Tom, Kimberly grew irate after her mother and father separated in the 1980s. 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. [1] She then traveled to Idaho, where she obtained a state ID card on June 16 using the girl's birth certificate.[2]. [7] The couple eloped in January 2004 after Nancy Ruff, Blake's mother, inquired about placing a wedding announcement in the local newspaper. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne shed be leaving for good. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. 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. Any time she got around the family, they would ask her questions and it was uncomfortable for her. Blake admitted knowledge of the box. Lori left behind two suicide notes, one of which was addressed to her husband and the other to her young daughter. She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. Henceforth, Lori would be known as Lori Erica Ruff. 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. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". Also found in the lockbox was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings. He filed for divorce a short time later. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Before she took her own life with a shotgun, Lori placed a pair of letters inside the car. This was very sophisticated, Velling said. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. 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. Days later, she applied for and received a Social Security number a move that effectively erased her past. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. The house belonged . There were no dates and the letter itself was a little vague. Les currently resides in London and is a freelance writer with a long standing passion for the unexplained and paranormal. 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. Perhaps Lori was creating parents for the benefit of Blake. She was much older than that, he said. After four years of attempts, miscarriages, and disappointments, the couple had a daughter. 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. (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.) Most of these discoveries came from talking to those that she had worked with previously. When a woman known as Lori Erica Ruff died in Texas three years ago, she left behind a mystery that has investigators baffled. At the time of this application, Lori quoted her age as 19. Southern charm is attempted but southern sass is bountiful. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. [6] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. The request was made in Bakersfield, California. Legal Statement. She arrived at this identity by way of a girl named Becky Sue Turner. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA Notice, This website uses cookies to improve your experience. She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. Interesting history topics are just a click away. According to the Seattle Times , a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff's background began after the paper ran . Market data provided by Factset. Due to her off-putting[opinion][clarification needed], secretive[citation needed] behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. The house was in total shambles. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. [1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? One of these had notes written and a collection of phone numbers and names. 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. 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. See acast.com/privacy for more information. And, with the child, Lori's behavior became even more erratic. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. ", "Texas woman's true identity baffles ex-husband, authorities years after her suicide", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. The woman used the birth certificate to obtain a valid Idaho identification card under the name Becky Sue Turner, issued on June 16, 1988, and bearing the photo of Jane Doe. 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. 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. 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. [3], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter. Was she Lori Erica Ruff? Among the various documents was a certificate indicating that Lori Kennedy had changed her name from Becky Sue Turner. Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. Hosted on Acast. The Varangians: Viking Conquerors turned Byzantium Honor Guard, The Secret Necropolis of Ancient Varna and the First Goldsmiths. The only person in attendance at their wedding ceremony, held in a church outside Dallas, was the officiating preacher. He revealed that Lori considered it to be a personal item that must never be opened. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. 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. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. The Ruff family declined to comment on the story, which was first reported by the Seattle Times on Saturday. But Blake was in love. The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theywalkamongus. After her death, her husband and his family found the evidence of her falsified identity in a lock box in her closet. 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. ruff in - Translation into Russian - examples English | Reverso Context 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. It's a big Universe full of wonders. Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Various identification cards of Lori Ruff (AKA: Kimberly McLean) retrieved from the Social Security Administration. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. 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). [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. Different cultures define matrimony in different ways and tie the knot for various reasons. Lori Erica Ruff - Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. One of television's most popular true-crime series adapted for your ears.