A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be very thin and that Lori would often ramble incoherently about her problems. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. The news of Kimberlys death saddened her mother deeply. 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. 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. He noticed the car and called the police. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. 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. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. 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. 1,529 likes. Blake had enough with her inability to get along with his family. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne shed be leaving for good. Due to her off-putting[opinion][clarification needed], secretive[citation needed] behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. She would regularly be seen with her in some of her favorite tea shops. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. In the days that followed, Blake tried to make sense of how things had gone so wrong. On Christmas Eve 2010, the body of 42-year-old Lori Erica Ruff was found in a car parked outside the Ruff family home in Longview, Texas. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. 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 was eventually identified as a native. 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. "My God, that's Kimberly!," one Pennsylvania relative exclaimed, the Seattle Times reported. The tension between the Ruffs continued to grow as the new grandparents were rebuffed from visits. 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. Mother and child spent a lot of time together, which is normal for such a doting mother. 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. 2021 Emash Digital & Mike Ferguson, Mike Morford. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. [3], Ruff was incredibly overprotective of her daughter, often refusing to let anyone else hold her, which angered her husband's family. Her father-in-law discovered her body inside Blakes car. [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. The request was made in Bakersfield, California. 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. [5], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. "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. Fitzpatrick found matching DNA records using saliva samples of Blake and Loris daughter. 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. The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. Blake's mom, Nancy Ruff, described facing a stone wall. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Loris drivers license photo. 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. Blake was caught in the middle, and eventually he couldn't take it anymore. Years later, in the life she created with Ruff, tensions between the Verizon account manager and the wife he never really knew eventually reached a breaking point. In the days following her death, hebegan the grim task of sortingthrough his wifespossessions. It took hard work on the part of investigators and some unique forensic genealogy for the truth to come out. The local police department began a routine investigation and quickly found a safe at the bottom of a closet. By changing her name, she created a clean identity a person with no past.. Days later, she applied for and received a Social Security number - a. 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." In addition, there were no matches for the woman in any existing fingerprint and facial recognition databases. All rights reserved. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. It's a big Universe full of wonders. The pair set up a home together and tried to start a family. There were two other pieces of paper. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. 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. 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. Lori Erica Ruff was a secretive person. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is "Jane Doe," a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her famil. 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. [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. Interesting history topics are just a click away. It wasnt until the Ruffs found a safebox hidden inside their daughter-in-laws bedroom closet that showed the woman wasnt who she had claimed to be. After Lori Erica Ruff's death, Blake Ruff realized his wife was a complete stranger. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. [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]. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. The tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. Based on her own research, and a DNA sample the Ruff family submitted that indicated Lori had a first cousin named Michael Cassidy, Fitzpatrick suggested Velling contact the Cassidy family in Philadelphia. 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. And she had no accent, leading Velling to believe she originally came from the Pacific Northwest or West Coast. 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. [8] Other papers included the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner and a judge's ruling granting a name change to Lori Erica Kennedy. The investigation into her suicide hit dead end after dead end. See acast.com/privacy for more information. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. Nothing. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. 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. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. Lori Erica Ruff Kept Her Past Locked Up in a Secret Safe Blake Ruff thought he had found someone special. Lori met her future husband, Blake, in 2003. About a month afterward, the certificate was used to obtain legal identification in Idaho. Accept Read More, Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. 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. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, and that she had no siblings. Blake and Lori married in 2004the only witness to their marriage was the priest. [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.