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. "True identity of Lori Ruff revealed six years after she committed suicide", "After 30 Years, Lori Ruff's True Identity Finally Revealed", "5 Creepy-As-Hell Stories Of Real People With No Identity", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. Was she Lori Erica Ruff? ", "Texas woman's true identity baffles ex-husband, authorities years after her suicide", "She stole another's identity, and took her secret to the grave. Both fingerprints and DNA testing turned up nothing to help get to the bottom of her true identity. Buried deep in the back of Lori's closet, Blake pulled out a sealed lockbox. Velling traveled to the city and approached a member of the Cassidy family, who saw Loris drivers license photo. 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 tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. 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. Related: Girl in the Green Mac: The Baffling, Unsolved Disappearance of Sheila Fox. But Blake was in love. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. After the birth of their daughter, Lori's behavior became increasingly strange. Her student loan applications listed three references, one of whom was a former classmate she had briefly dated. At the time, a request of this nature was hardly unusual. Unfortunately, it looks like Lori took all of her secrets to the grave. 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. Legal Statement. Sources She suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. 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 . In life, Lori hadwarnedhimto stay away from it. He revealed that Lori considered it to be a personal item that must never be opened. When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. [3], On Christmas Eve 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. 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. If Lori was trying to escape her past, then it could explain her reluctance for publicity. 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. Yes! But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Watch 48 Hours Saturday 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+ and hear all new episodes every Sunday. Although she left notes for her husband and her daughter, they didn't provide any clues. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. [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. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au. Prior to marrying Blake, Loriwas known as Lori Erica Kennedy. She became distressed due to her parents divorce. Within the next two years, she obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died with her two sisters in a house fire in 1971. After her death, Lori's husband found a lockbox with papers inside that shed light on his wife's past. Blake, who was close with his parents, couldn't take it anymore. 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. Con Erica Peeples, Tiffany Black, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chris Sakyi. 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. Knowing the identity of the third cousin led her to Ruff's identity. Apparently, after Becky Sue Turner perished, a woman turned up and requested a copy of the birth certificate. There were no dates and the letter itself was a little vague. These secrets Lori Ruff had kept from even her husband, Blake Ruff, and his family. 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. 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. 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. The Ruff family declined to comment on the story, which was first reported by the Seattle Times on Saturday. In the days that followed, Blake tried to make sense of how things had gone so wrong. Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. But who she really was is still a mystery. [8] Other papers included the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner and a judge's ruling granting a name change to Lori Erica Kennedy. Related: Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. Join her as she shows you just how southern fried the justice system can be in the Deep South. All rights reserved. When Lori Erica Kennedy took her own life, she left behind evidence that she'd stolen another's identity. 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. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. When a woman known as Lori Erica Ruff died in Texas three years ago, she left behind a mystery that has investigators baffled. But Lori tragically died by suicide just before Christmas in 2010. After four years of attempts, miscarriages, and disappointments, the couple had a daughter. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Lori didnt take this at all well. The contents of this safe put into sharp focus everything that Blake thought he knew about Lori Kennedy. Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. His recollection was that she was a dancer at a Dallas-area nightclub at the time [she was attending school], Velling said. He describes her as being incredibly secretive, particularly regarding her past. Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! One of these had notes written and a collection of phone numbers and names. She wanted to live in her little cocoon.. A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be very thin and that Lori would often ramble incoherently about her problems. Lori Erica Ruff. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices. 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. 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. Among the various documents was a certificate indicating that Lori Kennedy had changed her name from Becky Sue Turner. 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. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. Loris husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. She left behind an 11-page suicide note but apparently no clue that she had lived a secret life. Whomever she was, the woman Blake knew as Lori Ruff was not who she claimed to be. In the days following her death, he began the grim task of sorting . Who was she? 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. Perhaps because of these miscarriages, Lori was ultra-protective of her daughter. Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. Lori and Blake tried to have a child almost immediately after they were married, but found themselves experiencing fertility issues. 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. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. And she did it all pre-InternetShe may have done this on her own, but its possible she sought out one of these identity brokers.. Or at least they should. [5], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, "Three years after Texas woman's suicide, a question lingers: Who was she? 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 Morf as they discuss the mysterious Lori Erica Ruff.