Lori and Blake tried to have a child almost immediately after they were married, but found themselves experiencing fertility issues. Find a Grave After Lori Erica Ruff's death, Blake Ruff realized his wife was a complete stranger. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. 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. "My God, that's Kimberly!," one Pennsylvania relative exclaimed, the Seattle Times reported. 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. On Monday though, Lori. 2021 Emash Digital & Mike Ferguson, Mike Morford. 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. 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. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is "Jane Doe," a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her famil. 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. Unfortunately, it looks like Lori took all of her secrets to the grave. Pic credit: Family pic. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Every day, stories unfold that have no resolution. 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. While the hotel was genuine and a favored haunt of numerous celebrities, there was no trace of the author. Although Blakes family was suspicious of Lori from the beginning, Blake himself was very much in love. 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. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Before 1988, Lori Erica Kennedy simply did not exist. Want more real-life mysteries? Loris husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. 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. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Hersuicide cameafter Blake had filed fordivorce and moved back in with his parents. He found a birth certificate for one person that wasn't her. 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. The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. 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. 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. [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. Nothing. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. Apparently, after Becky Sue Turner perished, a woman turned up and requested a copy of the birth certificate. Before she took her own life with a shotgun, Lori placed a pair of letters inside the car. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting true crime stories. But all that he managed to discover was that Lori had something of a difficult upbringing. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. However, the Mclean family now has a granddaughter who offers a glimpse of their beloved Kimberly. She had brown hair and hazel eyes. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. Perhaps because of these miscarriages, Lori was ultra-protective of her daughter. 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. Buried deep in the back of Lori's closet, Blake pulled out a sealed lockbox. 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. For two years, Social Security investigator Joseph Velling has been working to uncover the real identity of Lori Erica Ruff, who was Lori Erica Kennedy before marrying into an East Texas family in 2004. 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 was for her daughter. 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. With the help of investigator Joe Velling, he traced the DNA to a family in Pennsylvania. This was very sophisticated, Velling said. [7] The couple eloped in January 2004 after Nancy Ruff, Blake's mother, inquired about placing a wedding announcement in the local newspaper. Blake, who was close with his parents, couldn't take it anymore. Image: Social Security Administration. 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. [6], After getting married, the Ruffs moved to Leonard, Texas. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. However, over time he began to get the impression that he was the only one trying to make their marriage work. 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. [2], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. So, it was granted without question. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, although the difference turned out to be less than a year. Prior to marrying Blake, Loriwas known as Lori Erica Kennedy. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. The house was in total shambles. Lori kept to herself, rarely speaking Finally, in 2008, the pair had a daughter, conceived with in vitro fertilization. [3], Eventually, Ruff did not want her in-laws to have any contact with her daughter. Perhaps Lori was creating parents for the benefit of Blake. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. 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. Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. Blake's parents were suspicious of Lori right from the beginning. Now, as he opened it, he understood why it was forbidden territory. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. Although she left notes for her husband and her daughter, they didn't provide any clues. Additionally, she displayed many asocial behaviors, such as leaving social gatherings to take naps. Interesting history topics are just a click away. It's a big Universe full of wonders. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. 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. The family members identified the picture of the mystery woman as Kimberly Mclean. These secrets Lori Ruff had kept from even her husband, Blake Ruff, and his family. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. Lori Erica Ruff The Generation Why Podcast. Many of these sessions tended to feature increasingly strange behavior on her part. 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. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. She and her young daughter had visibly lost weight. 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. With little to no clues about who shemight actually be, the woman once known as Lori Erica Ruffwas registered in the federal governments database of missing and unidentified persons as a Jane Doe. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. ", "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 suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. And, why had she changed her identity and hid her past from those closest to her? Also found in the lock box was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings.[6]. Trophy Wife: Dirigido por Christian Sesma. For several years, nobody suspected anything. 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.' When contacted, however, Perkins stated that he had never heard of Becky Sue Turner or Lori 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. 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 this could have simply been a number picked for convenience purposes only. 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. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Last spring, we brought you 8 Mysterious People Without a Past, a list of individuals who seemed to have had much of their early existence wiped from history. DNA taken from the body might also help crack the case. According to the man, whom Velling did not name, Jane Doe had more problems than he could deal with.. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology, Learn more about your ad choices. It is generally believed that a new identity was already being considered either for herself or others. The pair set up a home together and tried to start a family. Whilethe file on Lori Erica Ruff may be closed, her bizarre case continues to fascinate, and will forever raise thechillingquestion: Just how well do you know those closest to you? [1] After two years, Fitzpatrick finally identified Ruff when she discovered a third cousin match who was related to the Cassidys. After several months living as Becky Sue Turner, she legally changed her name to Lori Kennedy. Yes! Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. 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. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. 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. 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. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Whomever she was, the woman Blake knew as Lori Ruff was not who she claimed to be. 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 . It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. Be the first to contribute! Market data provided by Factset. In 2013, a nuclear-physicist-turned-forensic genealogist Collen Fitzpatrick worked on Ruffs case and new details emerged about her past. Days later, she applied for and received a Social Security number a move that effectively erased her past. [1] He flew to Pennsylvania to meet the potential family. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. Anyone with credible tips on this case is urged to email this reporter at cristina.corbin@foxnews.com. She began to lose weight and attended counseling sessions held at the local church. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. 2021 Wondery LLC. She wasn't Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. Blake did learn that Lori was born somewhere in Arizona. Or, Lori Erika Kennedy? Within a few months of Blake moving out, Lori had completely deteriorated. [1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. Lori's behavior caused immense tensions between Lori and the Ruffs, even keeping the new grandparents from visiting their granddaughter. McLean, posing as Becky Sue Turner, then appeared before a judge in Dallas on July 5, 1988, and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. 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. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. All rights reserved. Fitzpatrick found matching DNA records using saliva samples of Blake and Loris daughter. 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 Where is the Body of the Legendary King Gorm of Denmark. She must now fight to clear her name and figure out who betrayed her husband. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Nancy said it was like that all afternoon she asked questions, and Lori provided evasive answers. For example, Lori would often ramble to the minister on a variety of topics; mainly her perceived flaws, problems, and the failure of her marriage. 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. (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.) In 2010, he moved back in with his parents and filed for divorce. She also received breast implants during this time. However, according to records, Becky Sue Turner asphyxiated in a house fire when she was just 2 years old. She was sending deranged emails to the Ruffs.