The death of a Texas woman in 2010 launched a near worldwide, crowdsourced investigation that asked a very important question: Who was Lori Erica Ruff?
Lori was born Kimberly Maria McLean on October 16th, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1986, Kimberly up and vanished. It was known that she didn’t get along with her new stepfather, but her family never imagined things were so rough that Kimberly would disappear. And yet, that is exactly what she did.
Some of her movements are unknown. For the next two years, Kimberly worked and travelled, seemingly. In 1988, she obtained a birth certificate for a 2-year-old little girl who had died in a house fire in 1971 from Bakersfield, California – the birthplace of the real certificate holder.
With Becky Sue Turner’s birth certificate in hand, Kimberly received a state identification card in Idaho. She also chose her birthday, June 16th, and stated that, as of 1988, she was 18 years old.
After sorting that out, “Becky Sue Turner” moved to Texas. On July 5th, 1988, she appeared before a judge in Dallas, and changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. With her new name, and new identity, Lori obtained a Social Security number.
Lori had erased every trace of her past, and where she’d come from.
A year later, in 1989, Lori received her driver’s license, and qualified for a GED. Lori was a hard worker, and a good student. She enrolled in Dallas County Community College, and then moved on to the Universit of Texas at Arlington, where she graduated with a degree in business administration in 1997.
Lori was pleasant, and kind, but very secretive. She kept people at a distance, and never spoke of her past. This often frustrated romantic partners, and other friends. But Blake Ruff didn’t seem to mind so much. At first.
The Ruff family was, and still is, considered Texas royalty. They are a close-knit family, residing in Longview, Texas, making a name for themselves in banking and real estate. Blake Ruff has often been described as timid, and non-assuming. He’s agreeable, and honest. And he piqued Lori’s interest when they met in 2003 in a Bible study class.
Though smitten, Blake had a hard time getting her to open up. All she would say was that her family was dead, and she was born in Arizona. Blake wanted her to meet his family. Nancy, Blake’s mother, was especially eager. She wanted to get to know the woman who had captured her son’s heart.
Much like with Blake, Lori was evasive. Nancy asked standard questions – family, friends, education – and Lori kept deflecting. She was a very private person, Lori said, stating that her unhappy childhood made her protective.
When the couple announced that they planned to marry, Nancy was elated. She wanted to place an ad in the paper, announcing the wedding. Lori panicked. No ad! No photos! She convinced Blake into eloping with her, where the only person in attendance was the preacher officiating the wedding.
The Ruffs were confused by this, as weddings were supposed to be family events. Why was Lori separating Blake from his family?
Shortly after the wedding, Lori and Blake further distanced themselves fromt he Ruffs by moving to Leonard, Texas, roughly 125 miles from the rest of the family in Longview.
Blake and Lori’s new neighbours were excited about a new couple on the block. But Lori was evasive, cagey. Where Blake tired to be friendly and neighbourly, Lori was evasive. She would walk the perimeter of the property, avoiding eye contact. She rarely left the house alone, as she worked from home as a mystery shopper, though she called herself a marketing consultant.
Despite Lori’s secluded behaviour, the couple were generally happy. They wanted children. In 2008, Lori gave birth to a baby girl. And her protective, secretive behaviour reached a fever pitch.
Lori refused to let anyone else near her daughter. She wouldn’t even allow Blake to hold her unless Lori was directly within reach. Nancy wasn’t allowed to babysit, or be left alone with the child.
Lori constantly found fault with Nancy, and the rest of the Ruff family. She held grudges for every single perceived slight. She obsessively tracked the Ruff family genealogy, family recipes, and other such information, almost as if to use it against them.
Eventually, Lori cut the Ruffs off completely. Her daughter was to have no contact with Blake’s family. Blake found this excruciating. Blake suggested therapy, but the sessions were unsuccessful. Lori would not open up, would not participate. Blake had had enough. He returned to his parents’ home in Longview, and filed for divorce. Lori and her daughter were left in Leonard.
Lori’s behaviour became even more obsessive and erratic following the separation. Lori often paced back and forth outside, and rambled incoherently to herself. She lost focus. But she continued to obsessively track the Ruffs, write ramblings in notebooks, and obsessively plan how to get Blake back.
Her behaviour soon escalated from odd, to downright dangerous. She began sending harassing emails to various members of the Ruff family. The Ruffs found a set of their house keys missing, and highly suspected that Lori had stolen them. She also created a scene during a custody exchange, causing Blake’s father to call the police on Lori.
Lori was, very possibly, experiencing a severe decline in her mental health, and was either unable, or unwilling, to get help.
On December 24th, 2010, Blake’s father went to his front door to get the paper. As he looked outside, he saw Lori’s vehicle in the driveway. The Ruffs had previously filed a cease and desist order against Lori for her harassing behaviour, and idling in their driveway was a breach of the order. Jon Ruff went back inside and called the police.
When police arrived, they found Lori. She was dead. She’d shot herself. Police also found two suicide notes in the vehicle. One was an 11-page note addressed to “my wonderful husband”. The other note was addressed to her daughter, to be opened on her 18th birthday.
The Ruffs read both notes. They hoped they would have answers for this tragic turn of events. However, all they found were incoherent ramblings. And absolutely no clues as to Lori’s past, or any reasoning for her overprotectiveness.
Shortly after Lori’s funeral, the Ruff family drove to the house in Leonard, to see what they could find. They intended to clean it out and sell it, but were hopeful they could find some clues to Lori’s past. They wanted to reach out to any friends or family she may have had, and inform them of her passing.
The house was a disaster. Piles of dirty dishes, trash, laundry, shredded documents, and mountains of scribblings and ramblings littered every available surface. In Lori’s closet, they found a lock box, which they immediately pried open.
The lock box opened up a 6-year-long investigation into the mystery of Lori Erica Ruff.
Inside, they found the birth certificate for Becky Sue Turner, the judge’s ruling granting Lori the name change to Lori Erica Kennedy, and various pieces of paper with scribblings on them. Most notably, the found a paper with “North Hollywood police”, “402 months”, and “Ben Perkins” scribbled on it.
Was this what the Ruffs had been looking for? Had Lori been on the run, avoiding jail time?
They contacted Ben Perkins, an attorney from Los Angeles, hoping he may be able to provide some answers. He had none. He’d never heard of Lori Erica Kennedy, or Becky Sue Turner.
In 2011, having run out of leads to follow, when searches in fingerprint and facial recognition databases turned up nothing, the Ruff family turned to Joe Velling, an investigator for the Social Security Administration.
It was clear that Lori had stolen her identity, and the Ruffs wanted to know why.
Joe ran into similar brick walls as the Ruffs. They had the birth certificate, and the documents leading up to Lori becoming Lori Erica Kennedy, but they had no idea how she’d gotten there.
On June 22nd, 2013, The Seattle Times ran an article asking the public for help identifying Lori, whom Joe called Jane Doe.
The article resulted in the emergence of a lot of theories. Had Lori been on the run from the law? Had she escaped a cult? Had she escaped a bad relationship? Was she hiding from an abusive partner? Was she in a witness protection program?
Whatever the reasons, one thing was apparent – Lori had definitely planned and prepared to become someone entirely different.
Through all the theories, nuclear physicist Colleen Fitzpatrick gained an interest in the case. Colleen had created the field of forensic genealogy. Through the use of direct-to-consumer DNA testing companies, she’d managed to help various individuals find each other.
As stated in The Seattle Times: “She has helped Holocaust survivors search for family members and adoptees find birthparents. She has helped estate lawyers track down heirs. In one case that made the news, she was able to find the identity of a child who died on the Titanic in 1912 by tracing his ancestry through his relatives’ DNA.”
If the Ruffs, and Joe Velling, had any hope in solving the mystery of Lori Erica Ruff, it was placed squarely on Colleen’s shoulders.
Colleen had a DNA sample, and got to work. She found a cousin, with the family name Cassidy, but the individual was not responsive. Two years later, a third cousin of the Cassidys was found.
Colleen then proceeded to build a family tree, tracing back to ancestors from 1848. Then, she traced a branch of that family tree down to the name she’d first found – Michael Cassidy. From there, it took some social media sleuthing. As stated in The Seattle Times: “Between Facebook, online obituaries, public records, and people-finder tools used by private investigators, she put together a picture of the Cassidy family”.
Having done what she could, Colleen got in touch with Joe, and told him what she’d found. Joe flew to Pennsylvania, and made contact with a relative. He launched into the complicated, convoluted tale of Lori Erica Ruff, and then pulled out the photos.
“My god, that’s Kimberly!” They had a name.
The following day, Joe met with the extended family, attempting to answer their questions, and get answers in return. One thing was for sure: Lori Erica Ruff was identified as Kimberly Maria McLean.
Joe discovered that Michael Cassidy’s aunt, Deanne, was Lori’s mother. A DNA test confirmed the match between Deanne and Lori, or Kimberly.
Joe also discovered that Kimberly had lived a relatively happy life with her sister, and her parents. Then, when her parents divorced, things changed. Deanne met a man, remarried, and moved the family from their cozy Philadelphia suburb to Wyncote, Pennsylvania.
Kimberly was unhappy about the move. She did not get along with her stepfather, she did not like her new school, and she did not like all the change. In 1986, she moved out of the house. Then, abruptly, she told her mother that she was leaving, and not to come after her.
Kimberly vanished, and was never heard from again. While she’d warned her mother, none of her family members had anticipated the extreme lengths Kimberly would go to in order to run away.
Lori Erica Ruff’s name has been removed from the federal government’s database for missing and unidentified persons. The mystery of who she was has been solved.
But why are there still so many questions? Why did Kimberly go to such extreme lengths to change her identity? Did she plan it out? Were there other factors at play?
Lori’s identify may have been revealed, but the larger mystery still remains.
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Sources:
She stole another’s identity, then took her secret to the grave. Who was she? – Maureen O’Hagan – The Seattle Times
‘My God, that’s Kimberly!’: Scientist solves perplexing mystery of identity thief Lori Ruff – Maureen O’Hagan – The Seattle Times
The Mystery of Identity Thief Lori Erica Ruff – Jake Rossen – Mental Floss
Mystery woman: After 30 years and a suicide, Lori Ruff’s real identity emerges – Brett Barrouquere – Chron
The Generation Why Podcast – Episode 93 – Lori Erica Ruff
Lori Erica Ruff Wikipedia page