[2], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. 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. Over time the pair grew closer and eventually, they eloped to Dallas. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting true crime stories. The only person in attendance was the preacher. Where is the Body of the Legendary King Gorm of Denmark. Also found in the lockbox was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings. Prior to marrying Blake, Loriwas known as Lori Erica Kennedy. In 2010, he moved back across the state to live with his parents. In the days following her death, hebegan the grim task of sortingthrough his wifespossessions. It's a big Universe full of wonders. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. However, it was written on hotel stationery from Bangkok, Thailand. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. The woman received breast implants in 1991 and claimed to have suffered from bulimia in 1990. And why didn't she see any other option but to end her own life? As far as the authorities were concerned, once Blake called them in, she was an identity thief now given the name "Jane Doe.". He noticed the car and called the police. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. And when he asked her to marry him in 2004, she said yes, but insisted on no announcement in the newspaper, and wanted a wedding where only the minister was present. It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. Lori Erica Ruff went by many names. The two moved to Leonard, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas and roughly 125 miles from Ruffs parents in Longview. Lori's behavior caused immense tensions between Lori and the Ruffs, even keeping the new grandparents from visiting their granddaughter. Lori refused to allow anyone else to babysit her child. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. Investigators then began to search of hertrue identitya process that would take six years to complete. 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 . Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. 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). 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. He describes her as being incredibly secretive, particularly regarding her past. It was either she or his family, and he chose his family, Velling said. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. 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. But Lori tragically died by suicide just before Christmas in 2010. 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. A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be undernourished and that Lori would often ramble incoherently to herself while pacing back and forth outside. 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. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. It was in 2010 when events finally took their toll on her. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. However, the Mclean family now has a granddaughter who offers a glimpse of their beloved Kimberly. It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. [3], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter. 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. 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 Morf as they discuss the mysterious Lori Erica Ruff. Blake Ruff married the woman he had known asLori in2004.
The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. 1,529 likes. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. The letter failed to mention crucial details such what was her role and responsibilities. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. Her student loan applications listed three references, one of whom was a former classmate she had briefly dated. 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.
Strange life of identity thief Lori Ruff, aka Kimberly McLean During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Due to her off-putting[opinion][clarification needed], secretive[citation needed] behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. Lori acquired Becky Turners birth certificate in 1988. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. 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 she did it all pre-InternetShe may have done this on her own, but its possible she sought out one of these identity brokers.. [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. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. 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. [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. However, Perkins has no memory of the woman, and there were no matches for the woman in fingerprint and facial recognition databases. 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. Everyone in Dallas has an accent and she did not. 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. [6], After getting married, the Ruffs moved to Leonard, Texas. 2021 Wondery LLC. Fitzpatrick found matching DNA records using saliva samples of Blake and Loris daughter. A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be very thin and that Lori would often ramble incoherently about her problems. She suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Loris drivers license photo. 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. Watch 48 Hours Saturday 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+ and hear all new episodes every Sunday. [1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. Additionally, she displayed many asocial behaviors, such as leaving social gatherings to take naps. Lori kept to herself, rarely speaking Finally, in 2008, the pair had a daughter, conceived with in vitro fertilization. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". According to Deannes brother, Tom, Kimberly grew irate after her mother and father separated in the 1980s. They tried several times to have a child, but had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. 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. 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. It is one thing to suspect Lori Erica Ruff of being a simple identity thief, but it is another thing to understand why. Or, maybe she was none of them. Her mothers remarriage didnt help either and she told her family she was going away. 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. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. Numerous theories regarding her identity can be found on various internet websites. As with the birth certificate, it was relatively straight forward to acquire a new social security number. There were two other pieces of paper. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. See acast.com/privacy for more information. With each question she asked, Lori deflected, the Seattle Times reported. After the birth of their daughter, Lori's behavior became increasingly strange. 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. Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. 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. 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. The Bizarre Truth About Lori Ruff, The Woman Without An Identity. [6] 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 enlisted the services of a so-called identity broker.[6]. He revealed that Lori considered it to be a personal item that must never be opened. One was for her daughter. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight 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. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. 2021 Emash Digital & Mike Ferguson, Mike Morford. [4] She also said her father was a failed stockbroker. She must now fight to clear her name and figure out who betrayed her husband. Related: Girl in the Green Mac: The Baffling, Unsolved Disappearance of Sheila Fox. She would regularly be seen with her in some of her favorite tea shops. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person.
Lori Erica Ruff (Podcast Episode 2021) - Plot Summary - IMDb Blake Ruff thought he had found someone special. But who she really was is still a mystery. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. While the hotel was genuine and a favored haunt of numerous celebrities, there was no trace of the author.