Related: A Killer Calls: The Unsolved Murder of Dorothy Jane Scott. McLean also asked them not to come after her. They then discovered the lockbox in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. This is a true crime podcast that spares none of the details and delves into what makes these killers tick. Anyone with credible tips on this case is urged to email this reporter at cristina.corbin@foxnews.com. I find her case fascinating, especially in a post-9/11 world where there are so many avenues for identifying individuals. The house was in total shambles. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. 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. [3], After getting married, the Ruffs moved to Leonard, Texas. Then, in September 2016, investigators believed they solved the case. The Varangians: Viking Conquerors turned Byzantium Honor Guard, The Secret Necropolis of Ancient Varna and the First Goldsmiths. Hosted on Acast. According to the Seattle Times, a crowd-sourced investigation into Ruffs background began after the paper ran a story on her in 2013. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. In 2010, he moved back across the state to live with his parents. In the days that followed, Blake tried to make sense of how things had gone so wrong. 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 request was made in Bakersfield, California. Also found in the lock box was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings.[6]. Investigation Discovery's ' Where Murder Lies: The Girl in the Lockbox' chronicles the story behind Lori Ruff's past. The tension between the Ruffs continued to grow as the new grandparents were rebuffed from visits. They married and had a daughter together. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. She didnt even allow the publication of the announcement of their nuptials in the local newspaper either. According to Deannes brother, Tom, Kimberly grew irate after her mother and father separated in the 1980s. It did. [3], In 2003, she met Blake Ruff, the son of a well-established family in East Texas,[2][3] in a Bible study class. According to the man, whom Velling did not name, Jane Doe had more problems than he could deal with.. Additionally, she displayed many asocial behaviors, such as leaving social gatherings to take naps. [6], On December 24, 2010, Ruff's body was discovered in her car in the Ruffs' driveway, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. 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. Legal Statement. Then, in September 2016, the case of Lori Erica Ruff was finally solved: her real name wasKimberly McLean. By changing her name, she created a clean identity a person with no past.. By the time Blake Ruff's wife died, he realized he didn't know her at all. When contacted, however, Perkins stated that he had never heard of Becky Sue Turner or Lori Kennedy. [4] She was eventually identified as a native of suburban Philadelphia who left home at age 17, in the fall of 1986,[5] because she did not get along with her mother and stepfather. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Prior to marrying Blake, Loriwas known as Lori Erica Kennedy. She had brown hair and hazel eyes. The harassment was so severe that the Ruffs were planning to file a cease and desist order just before Lori's death. In the car were two suicide notes: One 11page note addressed to "my wonderful husband" and another addressed to her daughter, to be opened on her 18th birthday. She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America, Velling told FoxNews.com. She suffered a miscarriage before eventually giving birth to a baby girl in 2008. We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. [7] She then traveled to Idaho, where she used the document to obtain a state ID card on June 16.[8]. The grieving husbandrecognized the box. Who was she? A neighbor recalled that she and her daughter appeared to be very thin and that Lori would often ramble incoherently about her problems. She was never too keen to go into further detail. McLean requested the birth certificate in Bakersfield, California, Becky Sue Turner's birthplace. 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 . She was overly protective, and she refused to let other people hold their daughter. 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. There was a successful application for a new social security number. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. Southern charm is attempted but southern sass is bountiful. 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. [2] The writings on the paper found in the lockbox included the scribblings "North Hollywood police", "402 months", and "Ben Perkins", who turned out to be an attorney. It was in 2010 when events finally took their toll on her. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. Lori and Blake tried to have a child almost immediately after they were married, but found themselves experiencing fertility issues. 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). She obtained this identity via a girl named Becky Sue Turner, who died in 1971 in a house fire near Seattle, Washington. With each question she asked, Lori deflected, the Seattle Times reported. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. As many of you know, "Lori Ruff" is the assumed name of an otherwise anonymous woman who died in 2010. A Net Inceptions project. The pair set up a home together and tried to start a family. [8], In the months between the separation and Lori's suicide, she behaved very erratically. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. This led investigators to believe that Ruff was older than she claimed, although the difference turned out to be less than a year. 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. Host Charlie brings in appropriate historic and cultural context to look beyond what happened and consider why it happened. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. In July 1988, she moved to Dallas, where, according to court documents, she legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. When Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff took her own life on Christmas Eve, 2010 in Longview, Texas, she took with her all of the secrets of her true identity. Ruff gradually acquired more documents in her new name, including a Social Security number. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Velling, a seasoned government sleuth, has been stumped in figuring out the true name and background of this Jane Doe, who took on aliases with spy-like sophistication. And, with the child, Lori's behavior became even more erratic. ", "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. He found a birth certificate for one person that wasn't her. 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. 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. The tall and slender brunette met Ruff at a bible study group and introduced herself as Lori Kennedy. But Lori tragically died by suicide just before Christmas in 2010. Various identification cards of Lori Ruff (AKA: Kimberly McLean) retrieved from the Social Security Administration. Lori Erica Ruff The Generation Why Podcast. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Was she Lori Erica Ruff? Yes! Ruff had a first cousin named Cassidy on her list of matches; however, the name was very common and the cousin was not responsive. 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. 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. Related: The Strange Case of the Isdal Woman. 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. Ruff's earliest known activity dates back to May 1988, when she requested the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who was killed, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. 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. Image: http://reallifeishorror.blogspot.co.uk/. She began to lose weight and attended counseling sessions held at the local church. Lori Erica Ruff's true identity was Kimberly McLean. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. Who was she? [6] The article was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Lori's husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. The woman told doctors in 2005 that she was 35 a claim Velling doubts. It is generally believed that a new identity was already being considered either for herself or others. This has led investigators to believe that Ruff was much older than she claimed to be. Lori definitely was not who she portrayed herself to be, so who was she? They then discovered the lock box in a closet, pried it open with a screwdriver, and discovered the documentation of Ruff's past. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. The family tried everything to find her but she changed her name and location regularly, making it difficult for Kimberlys family to find her. Lori kept to herself, rarely speaking Finally, in 2008, the pair had a daughter, conceived with in vitro fertilization. But Blake was in love. In May 1988, McLean obtained the birth certificate of Becky Sue Turner, a two-year-old girl who had died, along with two of her siblings, in a house fire in Fife, Washington in 1971. Also found in the lockbox was a paper with several seemingly random scribblings. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. 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. For several years, nobody suspected anything. Ruff did his best to find out as much about his new partner as he could. 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 revealed that Lori considered it to be a personal item that must never be opened. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel.