Lori Ruff’s Secret Identity

Lori Ruff was 42 when she took her life.Lori Ruff took her life.Authorities found Ruff dead in her car. She shot herself in the driveway of her ex-in-law's house. After her suicide, her ex-husband, Blake Ruff, searched his ex-wife's home.

Blake found a lockbox. It showed secrets about his ex-wife's real identity, and an identity he never knew existed.

Blake Ruff found shredded papers and documents in the lockbox. These documents suggested Lori was actually Becky Sue Turner. Ruff felt confused. He knew his former wife asLori KennedyLori assumed Becky Sue Turner's identity before becoming Lori Kennedy. Turner was actually a child who died in a house fire.

The Ruff family learned this fact while searching for Lori's family, the Turners. The Turners explained their daughterBecky diedBecky died at age 2. The mystery overwhelmed the Ruff family as authorities got involved. If she was Becky Suebeforeshe was Lori Kennedy. Who was this person really?

SSA investigator Joseph Velling got involved. Lori's story took strange turns. Someone who knew "Becky" earlier told authorities she claimed to work as an exotic dancer and had breast implants. Medical records backed this. Velling thought he found a big lead.

Lori's family cremated her body after her suicide. With the Ruff family's permission, Velling contacted a reporter atThe Seattle TimesThe reporter investigated the story further. This report sparked online sleuths. A California scientist created a theory and contacted Velling. The scientist thought Lori was a missing person from the Philadelphia area, so Velling flew to Philadelphia to find out this woman's identity.

Velling thought Lori Ruff was Kimberly McLean, a young woman who disappeared from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1986. Velling lacked proof. He had a hunch, online support, and a photo of Lori Ruff. During his trip to Pennsylvania, he showed the picture to Kimberly's family member, who shouted, "Oh my God, that's Kimberly."

Velling later confirmed the identity by connecting to Kimberly McLean's mother, Deanne. Deanne did a DNA test that proved her relation to Lori Ruff as Lori's mother. Kimberly had gone missing 30 years earlier.

The identification offered no answers. It gave no insight into Kimberly's reason for leaving her family and identity behind. Kimberly's uncle,Tom CassidyKimberly McLean had a normal childhood with her sister in the Philadelphia suburbs. Her mother, Deanne, stayed home with Kimberly and her sister. Her father worked as a carpenter and volunteer firefighter.

Kimberly McLean had a normal childhood. After her parents divorced, Kimberly moved. Her uncle said that is when her troubles began. In 1986, at age 18, Kimberly moved to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and told her mother not to look for her.

Investigators took six years to solve the mystery of her true identity after Ruff's death. The solution arrived three years later.The Seattle TimesThe Seattle Times started tracking the story and asked online sleuths for help. For years, the online community reviewed records trying to solve the mystery. Colleen Fitzpatrick, a nuclear-physicist turned forensic genealogist, got interested in the case. She began tracking Ruff's family tree using a DNA sample, and that action broke the case.

Fitzpatrick's DNA tree pointed to Michael Cassidy, a relative of Ruff's (McLean's), who lived near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fitzpatrick and the online community reviewed newspapers, obituaries, and other online evidence until they built the following timeline.The Seattle Times published it.On October 16, 1968, Kimberly McLean was born. Becky Sue Turner was born on July 18, 1969. Becky sued died in a house fire on December 30, 1971. In 1986, Kimberly McLean left Pennsylvania.

Kimberly McLean was born on October 16, 1968. Becky Sue Turner was born on July 18, 1969. Becky sued died in a house fire on December 30, 1971. Kimberly McLean left Pennsylvania in 1986.

On May 20, 1988, McLean obtained Becky Sue Turner's birth certificate. On June 16, 1988, McLean took Turner's identity after getting an Idaho state ID card with her photo and Becky Sue Turner's name.

In 1988, Turner (McLean) moved to Texas. In Dallas, she legally changed her name from Becky Sue Turner to Lori Kennedy on July 5, 1988. She got a social security number as Lori Kennedy on July 12, 1998. She got a Texas state ID card as Lori Kennedy on July 13, 1988.

On April 19, 1989, Kennedy got a Texas driver's license, listing her age as 19. Kennedy graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration on December 13, 1997.

On January 5, 2004, Lori Kennedy married Blake Ruff. After the marriage, she changed her name to Lori Ruff. The couple had a daughter on September 15, 2008. Lori Ruff took her life on December 24, 2010.

Some mysteries surround Lori Ruff's life and death, like the initial motive. However, today, the Ruff family and the McLean's know Lori Ruff's true identity.

Connecting identities did little to settle the details. Velling got involved in Lori Ruff's identity case after the Ruff family turned to a Texas congressman's aide, who then turned to Velling. Velling turned to him because he grew frustrated with the lack of answers.The Seattle TimesThe newspaper ran a front-page article about the story, titled:She stole another’s identity and took her secret to the grave. Who was she?The Discovery Didn't Answer How She Did It in Lori Ruff’s Secret Identity"

Other publications ran the story. This inspired an online following and a group of online sleuths.A Facebook pageMaureen O'Hagan, a reporter, and Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist, led the effort to solve the mystery of Lori Ruff.They answered questions.The online sleuths helped Velling, the Ruff family, and the McLean family with the mysterious chronicles of Lori Ruff. Many questions remained unanswered. For example, how did the McLean family steal the identity of a dead young girl? O'Hagan thought Ruff probably used an identity-broker.

The McLean family could not find Kimberly because her identity swap made her impossible to locate. Authorities and family stated Kimberly was just a teen runaway. No evidence shows she was a spy, in witness protection, a fugitive, or hiding from abuse.

Velling cannot explain the two years between 1986, when Kimberly left home, and 1988, when she took her first stolen identity as Becky Sue Turner. He knows she spent time inIdaho, California, and Las Vegas before moving to Texas.In Texas, she changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy using an Idaho ID. She even graduated from the University of Texas before meeting her husband, Blake Ruff. Kimberly seemed unwilling to be found, so she settled as Lori Ruff, content until she became overwhelmed and died by suicide in 2010.

When Kimberly's mother, Deanne, learned about her daughter's hidden past, she also learned Kimberly had taken her own life. Lori's ex-husband, Blake, and their daughter know the roots of their wife and mother but have few answers about what happened between her leaving Pennsylvania at 18 and taking Blake's last name, Ruff.

Her true identity offers little comfort to the two families because a woman's life and death remain clouded by mystery.

Identity theft usually serves a purpose. Thieves often have financial motives. Other times, it is personal, like a fugitive hiding or an abused spouse or child. Law enforcement says some thieves take it further, assuming victims' lives. Identity thieves seek normal lives; they do not want tolive in the shadows..

However, the theft's purpose and steps usually reveal themselves to investigators. There was no known reason or motive for Lori Ruff to steal a deceased child's identity, nor why she took a new identity after moving to Texas.