According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruff’s background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. She also began sending harassing emails to the Ruffs, created a scene at a custody exchange, and stole a set of house keys from them. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a former nuclear physicist who created the field of forensic genealogy, learned of Lori Ruff in 2013 and began work on the case. They then discovered the lock box in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. 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. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. [4] The Ruffs opened and read the letter, but it contained only "ramblings from a clearly disturbed person" and no details about Lori's past. 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. El Dorado Jane Doe was a young woman who used several aliases, including Kelly Karr (or Carr) and Shannon/Sharon Wiley. Things had been rough going up until the divorce, with tensions especially high … 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. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. In the car were two suicide notes: One 11‑page note addressed to "my wonderful husband" and another addressed to her daughter, to be opened on her 18th birthday. Galveston Police Department. It did. According to those who knew her, Kennedy was a very private person who always refused to answer any questions about her past. Who … [1], Fitzpatrick informed Joe Velling, who had in the meantime retired from the SSA. ... After his death, he was rarely mentioned in conversation within the royal family. Who was she? The only person in attendance at their wedding ceremony, held in a church outside Dallas, was the officiating preacher. Help ID Me. 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. Cause of death. The suicide notes were quickly determined to be incoherent ramblings that offered no clues to Ruff's identity. 1,526 likes. She wasn’t Lori Erica Ruff—she was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. This was a cause for concern. 2010) Children 1 daughter (b. Also found in the lock box was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings.[4]. She went by a number of aliases but told most friends to call her “Mercedes.” Her life ended on July 10, 1991, when she was shot and killed at the Whitehall Motel in El Dorado, Arkansas. She was estimated to be between 16 and 25 years old and was between 5 feet 1 inch and 5 feet 9 inches tall. [5] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[6]. [4], On December 24, 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. [5] The couple eloped in January 2004 after Nancy Ruff, Blake's mother, had inquired about placing a wedding announcement in the local newspaper. 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). The Fifth Estate. Lori Erica Ruff, a Texan who committed suicide in 2010 and left behind a series of puzzling documents hinting that she wasn’t who her family thought she was, has now been identified. ", "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? Lori Erica Ruff (October 16, 1968 – December 24, 2010) was the alias of an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Following her death — caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound — her husband Blake Ruff learned the woman he married and the mother of his child was not who she claimed to be. Holy shit, this is the male El Dorado Jane Doe. KOAA 5. The writings on the paper found in the lock box included the scribblings "North Hollywood police," "402 months," and "Ben Perkins." Due to her off-putting, secretive behavior, she clashed with her husband's family, and her marriage eventually collapsed. Her face was reconstructed in 2014 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. [4], 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. No dental records were run.” http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/...-in-live-chat/ [1] After two years, Fitzpatrick finally identified Ruff when she discovered a third cousin match who was related to the Cassidys. After her death, her husband and his family found the evidence of her falsified identity in a lock box in her closet. We were able to get DNA because the mortuary provided some hair and skin samples. Apr 6, 2020 - The world is a mysterious place..... See more ideas about mysterious places, unsolved, strange. [1] He flew to Pennsylvania to meet the potential family. "Lori Erica Ruff" When Lori Erica Kennedy took her own life, she left behind evidence that she'd stolen another's... Jump to. The lockbox also contained fake IDs and other documentation that led the Ruff family to the conclusion that the woman they knew as Lori Erica Ruff was someone else. When Lori Erica Ruff took her own life in 2010, she left behind two suicide notes that investigators found to be nonsensical and a big mystery. Cause of death Location Circumstances Linda Agostini: 1934 1944 Manslaughter Australia A woman whose burned remains were located in a culvert. [6] 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. After she died, her husband opened a strong box that Lori had kept in the closet. She was believed to have been in the field for about 11 months. The couple had a daughter four years later. Nonprofit Organization. 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 had stolen the identity of deceased Becky Sue Turner in May 1988 before legally changing her name to "Lori Erica Kennedy ." ... East Idaho News. After some failed marriage therapy sessions, Blake Ruff moved back to his parents' house in Longview and filed for divorce, leaving Lori with their daughter in Leonard. In the midst of shock and grief, this is the last thing loved ones want to focus on, yet this is exactly what the Ruff family had to do when mother and soon-to-be ex-wife Lori Erica Ruff shot and killed herself in 2010. She lived in East Texas, was a vegetarian, and a mother and wife. After her death by suicide in 2010, Lori Erica Ruff (nee Kennedy) was discovered by her family to have been living under a false name, and that her real name was Becky Turner, except… Becky Turner died in 1971 at the age of 2. Who was Lori Ruff? A former lover (and alleged pimp) named James McAlphin was convicted of her murder after pleading guilty on a plea deal. Kennedy gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. [5] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via In vitro fertilisation in 2008. The true identitiy of Lori Erica Ruff, a woman known as Jane Doe to investigators, has continued to remain a mystery to her husband and family nearly three years after she … After her death by suicide in 2010, Lori Erica Ruff (nee Kennedy) was discovered by her family to have been living under a false name, and that her real name was Becky Turner, except… Becky Turner died in 1971 at the age of 2. The cause of death was not determined, but investigators believe that the woman had possibly died of multiple gunshot wounds. Lori Greiner Lori Greiner (born December 9, 1969) is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and television personality. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. Unlike today, where attempts are made by the royal family to show a connection with “the average person,” royalty in the early years of the 20th century purposely kept distant and aloof from the populace. It was hypothesized that Kendrick had climbed headfirst into the opening at the top of the rolled up gym mat in order to retrieve his sneaker, gotten stuck, and eventually died without being discovered. Dismayed by having to move and attend a new school, she told Deanne she’d be leaving for good. A week later, she obtained a Social Security number, removing traces of her true identity. [1] Velling approached a relative, who immediately identified the deceased Lori Ruff as Kimberly McLean. [4], 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 restroom. Cause of death Starvation Ben Bilemy was an alias of a man found deceased in Florida in 2018. Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. She had told him she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead, that she'd had an unhappy childhood, and that she had no siblings; she also said her father was a failed stockbroker. They tried several times to have a child, but had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. 2008) The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs filed a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of an unidentified American woman and identity thief who committed suicide on December 24, 2010 in Longview, Texas. [4], After getting married, the Ruffs moved to Leonard, Texas. works in the clubs. Lori Erica Ruff though is proving a big challenge. Becky Sue Turner turned out … Lots of people have been trying to find out, with no success. We now need to revise that list to seven, since one of those mysteries has now been solved. In May 1988, McLean obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a 2-year-old girl who was killed, with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. It has not been reported if any clothing was recovered from the scene. One of the names on Lori’s ID’s was Becky Sue Turner. In other cases, a sudden death can be not only shocking but also cause a great scrambling to arrange a funeral and other administrative and financial issues not taken care of prior. McAlphin claims to know her identity, but has yet to reveal any credible details to authorities. El Dorado Jane Doe is the name given to an unidentified American woman and identity thief estimated to be between eighteen and thirty years of age who was murdered on July 10, 1991 in El Dorado, Arkansas in Room 121 of the now-demolished Whitehall Motel. In addition, there were no matches for the woman in any existing fingerprint and facial recognition databases. 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. Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. Lash’s previous home was in Sunset Mesa and the property manager there did report that Lash’s health was diminishing rapidly. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the … When contacted, however, Perkins stated that he had never heard of Becky Sue Turner or Lori Kennedy. Lori killed herself two years ago. Ruff describes her as being incredibly secretive, particularly regarding her past. [4] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. Ruff was eventually identified as Kimberly McLean, a native of the Philadelphia area who moved away from her Wyncote home in fall of 1986 and later vanished after struggling to adapt to her parents' divorce. McLean, posing as Becky Sue Turner, then appeared before a judge in Dallas July 5, 1988, and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. He also used the names "Denim" and "Mostly Harmless." McLean assumed a series of aliases before marrying Blake Ruff in 2004 and settling down—leaving no trace of Kimberly McLean, at least until Fitzpatrick began researching her family tree. 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. According to Deanne’s brother, Tom, Kimberly grew irate after her mother and father separated in the 1980s. 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. 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. She received a Texas driver license in 1989 and qualified for a GED[6] the following year. [1], "5 Creepy-As-Hell Stories Of Real People With No Identity", "True identity of Lori Ruff revealed six years after she committed suicide", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. 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. 1 Characteristics; 2 Exclusions; 3 Gallery; 4 Sources; Characteristics. Law enforcement officials in Maine have notifiedresidents that there have been reports of people receiving text messages indicating the recipient has been in contact with a person who has tested positive for 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. She was identified through dental records and her husband admitted to killing her, yet some question the identification based … Lori Erica Ruff (October 16, 1968 – December 24, 2010) was the alias of an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Cause. FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation. 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. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Lori’s driver’s license photo. Velling agreed to help identify her as a case of identify theft. In January 2004, a Longview, Texas resident named Blake Ruff married Lori Erica Kennedy. [2] She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986,[3] because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. 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. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, though the difference turned out to be less than a year. Locate The Missing. [6], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. 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. 8 Lori Erica Kennedy. Lori Erica Ruff committed suicide on Christmas Eve 2010, shortly after her husband tried to get a divorce. She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. [1][8] 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. ", "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", Unidentified decedents in the United States, Unidentified murder victims in the United States, National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lori_Erica_Ruff&oldid=1002701776, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 January 2021, at 18:09. Following her marriage in 2001, she assumed the surname " Ruff ." Lori Erica Kennedy / Lori Ruff - Identified. Lori Erica Ruff was the alias of a identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. She had been someone else and then created an … [4] 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.[4]. McLean'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 McLean–Cassidy family on Philadelphia's Main Line. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. The cause of her death is unknown and her eye color and hair color were not possible to determine due to the decomposition of the remains. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. 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 restroom. Unknown: After changing her name from Becky Sue Turner to Lori Erica Kennedy, Jane Doe, pictured here in 1990, married Blake Ruff in Texas and had a daughter. [6] Other papers included the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner and a judge's ruling granting a name change to Lori Erica Kennedy. To date, a cause of death has not been discovered. "My God, that’s 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. To this day, she has yet to be identified, even though her face has been reconstructed several times. Dateline NBC. Nevada Lostnmissing ... found within a 55-gallon drum in a nearby wooded area in 1985. reddit_url. She committed suicide in the driveway of her former in-laws' home in Longview, Texas, on Christmas Eve 2010.[4]. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s initial autopsy ruled Kendrick’s death accidental, sighting positional asphyxia from hanging upside down for hours as the cause. Sections of this page. Walker County Jane Doe is an unidentified murder victim discovered on November 1, 1980, in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas.After the investigation of her murder and identity went cold, she was buried in a donated casket in the Oakwood Cemetery in the same town where she was found. The manager added that the simple act of negotiating stairs would often prove difficult for Lash. Lori Erica Ruff Born Unknown c. 1960-1969 Died December 24, 2010 (aged c. 41-50) Longview, Texas Cause of death Suicide by gunshot Other names Lori Erica Kennedy, Becky Sue Turner Known for Unidentified identity thief Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) Weight 160 lb (73 kg) Spouse(s) Blake Ruff (m. 2004; div. Ruff was eventually identified as Kimberly McLean, a native of the Philadelphia area who moved away from her Wyncote home in fall of 1986 and later vanished after struggling to adapt to her parents' divorce. She enrolled in Dallas County Community College,[5] and in 1997 she graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in business administration. But a prime candidate is late-stage cancer that he was suffering from. [7][4], After Lori's funeral, some of the Ruffs drove to Leonard to see if they could find out more about her in her house. Blake Ruff and 32-year old Lori Erica Kennedy were polar opposites when they met in 2003 at a Bible study class. Gunshot (suicide) Kimberly McLean (October 16, 1968 - December 24, 2010) was a woman who took her own life while living in Longview, Texas. Inside was another identity. After following numerous leads he was stumped, and sought the help of the general public to identify her through an article published June 22, 2013, in The Seattle Times. Ruff’s 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. (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 2003 McLean met Jon Blakely "Blake" Ruff, the son of a socially prominent family in East Texas,[6][4] in a Bible study class. Blake came from a well-established family living in Eastern Texas, while Lori hadn’t got to know anyone in the area as of yet, and was incredibly introverted, making her very shy. The response? • “There was no autopsy done at the time of death because the cause of death was a gun shot to the head.