We don't take ourselves too seriously but we take true crime very seriously. Little Beckywas just two years old when she diedin a house fire outside of Seattle, Washington in 1971. Sources 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. But nobody in the world knew Lori Erica Ruff. Image: Social Security Administration. When given the chance for an extravagant and lavish wedding day to remember, Lori declined the offer. Now, as he opened it, he understood why it was forbidden territory. Follow along with 48 Hours every week as award-winning CBS News correspondents investigate the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience. All rights reserved. She left behind an 11-page suicide note but apparently no clue that she had lived a secret life. She had ended her life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Lori acquired Becky Turners birth certificate in 1988. Lori didnt take this at all well. Although she left notes for her husband and her daughter, they didn't provide any clues. In the box, which she told her husband never to touch, were all the documents exposing her elaborate ruse the paperwork showing the name change and the application for a Social Security number, among other receipts. 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. After earning a GED and a college degree, she married into a wealthy East Texas family and gave birth to a daughter. 2010 42- , . In 2010, he moved back across the state to live with his parents. Be the first to contribute! Most of these discoveries came from talking to those that she had worked with previously. 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. 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]. After several months living as Becky Sue Turner, she legally changed her name to Lori Kennedy and moved to the Dallas area, where she met Blake Ruff. In May of 2016, several commentators on the internet noticed similarities to Ruff's story and to the plot of a 1987 crime drama called Positive I.D., which was directed by a professor of film at UT Arlington. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. On Monday though, Lori. Although Blakes family was suspicious of Lori from the beginning, Blake himself was very much in love. When contacted, however, Perkins stated that he had never heard of Becky Sue Turner or Lori Kennedy. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (October 16, 1968-December 24, 2010), was an identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. Lori's behavior caused immense tensions between Lori and the Ruffs, even keeping the new grandparents from visiting their granddaughter. Blake Ruff married the woman he had known asLori in2004. The other had dates and the letters D and M on it. Shortly after marrying Ruff, Jane Doe tried repeatedly to conceive a child of her own with much difficulty, according to Velling. 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. It was under this new assumed name that sheeventually moved to the Dallas area, where she met andmarried Blake Ruff. Loris husband, Blake Ruff, was devastated. However, it was written on hotel stationery from Bangkok, Thailand. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. After marrying, the couple moved away from the senior Ruffs, who lived in eastern Texas, settling in Leonard, Texas, in the southwestern region. Her student loan applications listed three references, one of whom was a former classmate she had briefly dated. Kimberly Maria McLean, a.k.a. And when asked about her days in high school, she said she skipped it and went straight to college. A man who knew Ruff during this time has stated that she worked as a stripper in the early 1990s. She wasn't Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. His letter contained pages of incoherent rambling. After they married, Lori and Blake moved across the state from his parents, and they tried to have a child almost immediately. [1] She eventually gave birth to a baby girl via in-vitro fertilization in 2008. She then moved to Idaho and obtained a driver's license using Becky's birth certificate, according to news.com.au. A week later, she obtained a Social Security number, removing traces of her true identity. It's a big Universe full of wonders. 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 Ruff - identity SOLVED? When he returned to his parents, he filed for a divorce. She also took a birth date of July 18, 1969. The writings on the paper found in the lock box included the scribblings "North Hollywood police," "402 months," and "Ben Perkins." 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. For the next couple of years, Blake worked on all aspects of the marriage. After obtaining the driver's license, Ruff went before a judge in Dallas on July 5 1988 and legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy; a week later she obtained a social security number, effectively erasing her past. Blake Ruff thought he had found someone special. She wasnt Lori Erica Ruffshe was a Pennsylvania woman named Kimberly McLean. Lori refused to allow anyone else to babysit her child. She had brown hair and hazel eyes. McLean also asked them not to come after her. With the help of investigator Joe Velling, he traced the DNA to a family in Pennsylvania. Related: Jeffrey Alan Lash: His Remarkable Mystery. (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.) 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. She would regularly be seen with her in some of her favorite tea shops. Ordinary people who do unthinkable thingsThe Minds of Madness is a True Crime Podcast that examines the most disturbing criminal minds and the impact violent crimes have on survivors of homicide. 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. It had the instructions to open on her 18th birthday. 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. It was in 2010 when events finally took their toll on her. [1] She eventually graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1997, with a degree in Business Administration. The only person in attendance at their wedding ceremony, held in a church outside Dallas, was the officiating preacher. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. As far as the police officers could tell, Lori never traveled abroad before 1990, as there is no passport with that name. There was a birth and death certificate in the box. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. Sometime later, Blake's father left the house to pick up the paper. After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. In 1989, her new identity was completed with a Texas drivers license. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices. On Christmas Eve 2010, the body of 42-year-old Lori Erica Ruff was found in acar parked outside the Rufffamily home in Longview, Texas. It outlined work that Lori had done for him until 1988. Different cultures define matrimony in different ways and tie the knot for various reasons. Many of these sessions tended to feature increasingly strange behavior on her part. In 2010, after she took her own life, secrets were revealed and the truth about her past began to unravel. But all that he managed to discover was that Lori had something of a difficult upbringing. Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, was an American identity thief who remained unidentified for nearly six years after her death. That created a lot of heartburn for the family.. It was either she or his family, and he chose his family, Velling said. True Crime. [3], In 2003, she met Blake Ruff, the son of a well-established family in East Texas,[2][3] in a Bible study class. She was very private and didn't open to people about her past. Such things have happened in other cases, and are often traumatic events. The trail leading backwards was in the forbidden lockbox. Blake Ruff has admitted that he isn't completely sure what drew him to Lori. Lori Ruffs handwritten notes. 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.. Investigators wondered if she had been a KGB agent, or if she had been in the military and gone AWOL. He filed for divorce a short time later. Join us for a good mix of lesser known cases as well as our take on what we call the "Big Timers". 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. A friend of the family verified that Becky Sue Turner had died in a house fire at the age of 2. Pic credit: Family pic. I think she was born sometime between 1960 and 1968., Records gathered by Velling provide tantalizing clues. 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. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! After she died, her ex-husband's family discovered a lockbox in a closet in her home. Blake and Lori married in 2004the only witness to their marriage was the priest. 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. 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. Market data provided by Factset. Velling said hes determined to uncover Jane Doe's true identity because he suspects she may have used a so-called identity broker to pull off such a complex crime. Where Murder Lies is investigating the mysterious case of identity thief Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff, aka Kimberly Maria McLean, who, unbeknown to her husband, led a secret life for decades.
