Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. Early on Christmas Eve, Lori drove over to the Ruff house. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. 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. Different cultures define matrimony in different ways and tie the knot for various reasons. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson guide you through the most interesting true crime stories. She refused to let other people hold the child and was overly protective, even for a first-time mother. However, it was written on hotel stationery from Bangkok, Thailand. She arrived at this identity by way of a girl named Becky Sue Turner. It was either she or his family, and he chose his family, Velling said. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. The pair set up a home together and tried to start a family. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. Mother and child spent a lot of time together, which is normal for such a doting mother. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. She would regularly be seen with her in some of her favorite tea shops. She was eventually identified as a native. They believed she fled because she did not like her mothers new husband. 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. [1] Velling approached a relative, who immediately identified the deceased Lori Ruff as Kimberly McLean.[1]. Buried deep in the back of Lori's closet, Blake pulled out a sealed lockbox. [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. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. She was much older than that, he said. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. 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. Upon opening the container, Blakediscovered why: Inside was a birth certificate and IDs belonging to several different people. 2021 Wondery LLC. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. 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. During all of this, Blake continued in his efforts to pry more details from the mother of his baby. Nothing. 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. Lori Erica Ruff went by many names. And she was aggressive about it, Velling said. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. 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. Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Related: A Killer Calls: The Unsolved Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott. 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. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. 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. Lori acquired Turner's birth certificate in 1988, a time when you could just send a letter requesting a birth certificate with little resistance. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. 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. And, why had she changed her identity and hid her past from those closest to her? 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. Although Blakes family was suspicious of Lori from the beginning, Blake himself was very much in love. 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. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology, Learn more about your ad choices. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. Legal Statement. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Interesting history topics are just a click away. However, Perkins has no memory of the woman, and there were no matches for the woman in fingerprint and facial recognition databases. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. 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. In a matter of months, Lori completely deteriorated. 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. Market data provided by Factset. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. The writings on the paper found in the lock box included the scribblings "North Hollywood police," "402 months," and "Ben Perkins." In 2016, she was identified as. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. She died by suicide in the driveway of her former in-laws' home in Longview, Texas, on Christmas Eve 2010. Blake did learn that Lori was born somewhere in Arizona. Shewas an accomplished identity thief. Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher. In life, Lori hadwarnedhimto stay away from it. There were no dates and the letter itself was a little vague. Photo Credit: Alchetron. To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies. Review our. The Ruff family declined to comment on the story, which was first reported by the Seattle Times on Saturday. 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. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. [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]. At the time, a request of this nature was hardly unusual. Sign up for The Lineup's newsletter, and receive our eeriest cases delivered straight to your inbox. When contacted, however, Perkins stated that he had never heard of Becky Sue Turner or Lori Kennedy. Within a few months of Blake moving out, Lori had completely deteriorated. Lori Erica Ruff - identity SOLVED? 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. [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. When asked about her background,Lori was guarded and evasive; she claimed her parents were dead and she had no siblings. [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. 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. Lori would also spend time fidgeting and stare at the palms and back of her hands. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. She was never too keen to go into further detail. Lori Ruffs handwritten notes. [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]. As far as the authorities were concerned, once Blake called them in, she was an identity thief now given the name "Jane Doe.". Southern charm is attempted but southern sass is bountiful. Yes! The Bizarre Truth About Lori Ruff, The Woman Without An Identity. Most of these discoveries came from talking to those that she had worked with previously. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. [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. It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. [1], Fitzpatrick informed Joe Velling, who had in the meantime retired from the SSA.

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