[3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. 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. 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. 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. To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies. Anyone with credible tips on this case is urged to email this reporter at cristina.corbin@foxnews.com. 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. El Caso de Lori Erica Ruff -Documental Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/HypnosMorfeoPaginaoficial/?fref=ts Sigueme en Twitter: https://twitter.com/hypnosmo. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. She suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. [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. All rights reserved. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. [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]. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. 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. 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. After marrying, the couple moved away from the senior Ruffs, who lived in eastern Texas, settling in Leonard, Texas, in the southwestern region. Whomever she was, the woman Blake knew as Lori Ruff was not who she claimed to be. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. 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.' It was signed by a man called Roger Steinbeck. She told them her parents were dead and that she had no living siblings or extended family. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. I find her case fascinating, especially in a post-9/11 world where there are so many avenues for identifying individuals. 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).
After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. Four years filled with miscarriages and disappointments passed. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. [3], After getting married, the Ruffs moved to Leonard, Texas. The tension between the Ruffs continued to grow as the new grandparents were rebuffed from visits. But Lori tragically died by suicide just before Christmas in 2010. It was in 2010 when events finally took their toll on her. [1] She then traveled to Idaho, where she obtained a state ID card on June 16 using the girl's birth certificate.[2]. This was very sophisticated, Velling said. 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. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Her student loan applications listed three references, one of whom was a former classmate she had briefly dated. [1], Fitzpatrick informed Joe Velling, who had in the meantime retired from the SSA. Blake and Lori married in 2004the only witness to their marriage was the priest. Marriage is a sacred act between two people that care deeply for one another. 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. She and her young daughter had visibly lost weight. At the time of this application, Lori quoted her age as 19. Or, maybe she was none of them. 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.
Lori Erica Ruff Criminology podcast Unfortunately, it looks like Lori took all of her secrets to the grave. Or at least they should. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. 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. She arrived at this identity by way of a girl named Becky Sue Turner. She died by suicide in the driveway of her former in-laws' home in Longview, Texas, on Christmas Eve 2010. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. She was overly protective, and she refused to let other people hold their daughter. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. When Lori Erica Kennedy took her own life, she left behind evidence that she'd stolen another's identity. They then discovered the lock box in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. 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. 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. The two moved to Leonard, about 60 miles northeast of Dallas and roughly 125 miles from Ruffs parents in Longview. Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. [1] Velling approached a relative, who immediately identified the deceased Lori Ruff as Kimberly McLean.[1]. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. Now, as he opened it, he understood why it was forbidden territory. The house belonged . The investigation into her suicide hit dead end after dead end. 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 Market data provided by Factset. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions.
"Criminology" Lori Erica Ruff (Podcast Episode 2021) - IMDb ", "Mystery of the woman with two names: Investigator tries to discover true identity of mother who committed suicide three years ago after husband finds evidence of a double life hidden in a lock box", List of unidentified decedents in the United States, List of unidentified decedents in California, List of unidentified murder victims in the United States, List of unidentified murder victims in California, List of unidentified murder victims in Texas, List of unidentified murder victims in New York, List of unidentified murder victims in Florida, List of unidentified murder victims in Michigan, List of unidentified murder victims in Pennsylvania, National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Lori_Erica_Ruff&oldid=718811075, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, About Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core.
Lori Erica Ruff: The Perplexing Mystery of the Woman - The Lineup 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 . Every day, stories unfold that have no resolution. 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. 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. [1] He flew to Pennsylvania to meet the potential family. But who she really was is still a mystery. She was never too keen to go into further detail. 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. Blake Ruff thought he had found someone special. 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 writings on the paper found in the lock box included the scribblings "North Hollywood police," "402 months," and "Ben Perkins." Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it.
Strange life of identity thief Lori Ruff, aka Kimberly McLean Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. Photo Credit: Alchetron. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. According to the Seattle Times , a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff's background began after the paper ran . 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. [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]. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. But it wasn't until Lori ended her life on Christmas Eve that the Ruffs would get answers. She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America, Velling told FoxNews.com. [6] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. According to the man, whom Velling did not name, Jane Doe had more problems than he could deal with.. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. [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. Legal Statement. 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 . 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. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting true crime stories. "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. After several miscarriages, the couple finally had a daughter in 2008. With the help of investigator Joe Velling, he traced the DNA to a family in Pennsylvania. Blake's parents were suspicious of Lori right from the beginning. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, 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. 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." She was much older than that, he said. She didnt even allow the publication of the announcement of their nuptials in the local newspaper either. Related: Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. If Lori was trying to escape her past, then it could explain her reluctance for publicity. See acast.com/privacy for more information. But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories. In 2013, a nuclear-physicist-turned-forensic genealogist Collen Fitzpatrick worked on Ruffs case and new details emerged about her past. It is one thing to suspect Lori Erica Ruff of being a simple identity thief, but it is another thing to understand why. Upon opening the container, Blakediscovered why: Inside was a birth certificate and IDs belonging to several different people.
Lori Erica Ruff and Her Various Identities - Historic Mysteries Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. By the time Blake Ruff's wife died, he realized he didn't know her at all. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. In a matter of months, Lori completely deteriorated. She was above average height at 5feet 10inches (1.78m) tall, and weighed 160 pounds (73kg). Interesting history topics are just a click away. Review our. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer.
True identity of Lori Ruff revealed six years after she committed Velling agreed to help identify her as a case of identify theft. [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. [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. Whatever the motivation behind one man entering wedlock to one woman, both parties usually do know each other intimately. She received a Texas driver license in 1989 and qualified for a GED[8] the following year. Some people can explain all of this with nothing more sinister than the Witness Protection Program. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. Apparently, after Becky Sue Turner perished, a woman turned up and requested a copy of the birth certificate. Lori Erica Ruff's true identity was Kimberly McLean. The contents of this safe put into sharp focus everything that Blake thought he knew about 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. However, several weeks after getting the new identification, Becky legally changed her identity to Lori Erica Kennedy in Dallas. 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. 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 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. He found a birth certificate for one person that wasn't her. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. 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. According to Deannes brother, Tom, Kimberly grew irate after her mother and father separated in the 1980s. There was a successful application for a new social security number. 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. Nancy said it was like that all afternoon she asked questions, and Lori provided evasive answers. [1] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in-vitro fertilization in 2008. Blake had enough with her inability to get along with his family.
Lori Erica Ruff - Wikipedia That created a lot of heartburn for the family..
Little Beckywas just two years old when she diedin a house fire outside of Seattle, Washington in 1971. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy.
The Bizarre Truth About Lori Ruff, The Woman Without An Identity Lori would also spend time fidgeting and stare at the palms and back of her hands.
Trophy Wife: Dirigido por Christian Sesma. To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. Most of these discoveries came from talking to those that she had worked with previously. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. Eager to meet her, the family invited her to lunch. It's a big Universe full of wonders. Image: Social Security Administration. She wanted to live in her little cocoon.. 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. She was sending deranged emails to the Ruffs. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. 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. But Blake was in love. | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | DMCA Notice, This website uses cookies to improve your experience. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Sources 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. Blake Ruff married the woman he had known asLori in2004. All rights reserved. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. As Blake began the daunting task of sorting through his wife's possessions, he knew that he would have to deal with one thing that Lori had always told him he was to never touch. She obtained a Texas drivers license in 1989, listing her age as 19. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. And she may have even attempted to break into the family's home, according to the Seattle Times. She then moved to Idaho and procured a drivers license using the deceased girls birth certificate. Also found in the lockbox was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings.
She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. The only person in attendance was the preacher. 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. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. But, it didn't happen easily and it took the hard work of a number of people and a little [3], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter. Lori Ruffs handwritten notes. Want more real-life mysteries? Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. [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. Find a Grave His wifewas not who she claimed to be. Lori didnt take this at all well.
Criminology: Lori Erica Ruff on Apple Podcasts Hersuicide cameafter Blake had filed fordivorce and moved back in with his parents. Hosted on Acast. It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. In 2016, she was identified as. Blake's mom, Nancy Ruff, described facing a stone wall. Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au.