The Triple Life of Lori Erica Ruff, a Secret That Remains Unsolved
Usually, everything ends with the death of a person. But there are exceptions. When a woman named Lori Erica Ruff committed suicide in 2010, her death became the beginning of a mysterious story that left police scratching their heads. Why did this woman need to turn her life into a spy novel and mislead everyone around her?
The suicide of Texas resident Lori Erica Ruff in 2010 should have been another routine case for police. Family troubles, addictions, problems at work, depression — the list of reasons why Americans decide to end their lives is not that long. But the more detectives learned about Ruff, the more questions they had.
Everything about this woman's story was strange, from unexpected finds in her personal safe to witnesses' testimonies and mysterious suicide notes. Everything pointed to the fact that Lori Erica Ruff was not the person she claimed to be. Moreover, she had not a double life, but a triple life!
In 2003, Blake Ruff met a tall, attractive brunette in a church in Texas. She introduced herself as Lori Erica Kennedy. She was reluctant to talk about her past, only mentioning that she was born somewhere in Arizona and that her parents had died long ago. The man fell in love at first sight.
At the beginning of a relationship, lovers rarely interrogate each other. That's why Blake Ruff didn't pay much attention to Lori's secrecy. He decided that her past was connected with some painful events, so he preferred not to touch on this topic. A year later, Blake proposed to her, and Lori immediately accepted. The couple began preparing for the wedding and soon moved into Blake's house, located in the suburbs of Dallas.
Even as the wedding was being planned, oddities began to emerge. The groom's mother, Nancy Ruff, suggested that they advertise the wedding in the local newspaper - a common thing that would seem to go unnoticed. But for some reason, this idea infuriated Laurie. She forbade her future mother-in-law and other relatives of the groom to share details of the upcoming event with anyone.
After the wedding, Lori took her husband's last name, becoming Lori Erica Ruff. The couple dreamed of having children, but the path to parenthood was difficult. Several miscarriages undermined Lori's emotional state. However, in 2008, they finally had a daughter, who became the only child in the family.
In theory, 2008 should have been the happiest year for Lori and Blake. But it was the turning point for their marriage, and the long-awaited birth of their child became the cause of constant quarrels. After the birth of her daughter, Lori began to react painfully to other people's attempts to communicate with the child. This concerned not only strangers, but also close people.
Lori Erica categorically refused the services of a nanny, but at the same time did not allow her mother-in-law to even come near her daughter. She almost never let go of the baby, and soon the family began to worry about her mental state. Lori slept in fits and starts, practically did not eat, and devoted herself entirely to caring for the child. Such a lifestyle could not help but affect her condition.
In just a few months, Laurie had changed beyond recognition. From a cheerful and blooming woman, she had turned into an exhausted, depressed person who constantly took it out on her husband and friends. But that was only the beginning. Her suspicions began to grow. Every conversation about the past caused her to become hysterical. Laurie's behavior became increasingly unusual: she would suddenly get up from the table during a feast and leave, citing fatigue. She carefully avoided new acquaintances, and gradually distanced herself from old friends.
Blake Ruff tolerated his peculiar wife for a long time, but his cup of patience finally overflowed. Family life became unbearable for him, and he moved in with his parents. After breaking up with her husband, Laurie began to go to church often. She talked to the priest for a long time, but even in these conversations she showed a lot of oddities.
Later, the priest recalled that Laurie could suddenly fall silent right in the middle of a conversation. She could sit and look at her hands for a long time, as if she was seeing them for the first time, but she would not utter a sound. Neighbors also began to notice the oddities. Laurie Ruff often wandered around the neighborhood, muttering something incoherently under her breath. At the same time, she ignored people she met, not even responding to greetings.
Lori did not maintain contact with her husband and his family, but at the same time she was not going to leave them alone. She repeatedly wrote letters to Blake with groundless threats, and once, for some reason, stole the keys to his parents' house. On Christmas Eve 2010, Blake's father came to his daughter-in-law's house to take some of his son's things.
Lori Erica, as usual, did not come out to meet him, and this did not cause surprise. Then the man decided to enter the house through the garage. There, in the car, he found the lifeless body of his daughter-in-law. A revolver was lying nearby - she had shot herself. The police who arrived at the scene were initially preparing to conduct a standard, fairly simple investigation. However, everything turned out to be much more complicated and confusing than it seemed at first glance.
The police found a large safe in the house. When Blake Ruff arrived, he explained that Lori kept her personal belongings in this safe and did not allow anyone to touch them. The police opened the safe, ready to see anything. But its contents turned out to be completely unexpected.
It seemed as if the safe belonged to a professional spy. Inside were stacks of documents: fake birth certificates, fake driver's licenses, ID cards, certificates, even diplomas. When detectives began sorting through the papers, it became clear: No Lori Erica Kennedy had ever existed.
A document about the name change was found in the safe - it turned out that in 1988 the woman changed her name from Becky Sue Turner to Lori Erica Kennedy. There was also a birth certificate in the name of Mrs. Turner, an insurance policy, a driver's license and even a diploma from one of the universities of Texas in business administration.
At first glance, there was nothing surprising about this. Well, Becky Turner wanted to become Laurie Erica Kennedy. But it’s not that simple. An investigation revealed that the real Becky Sue Turner died in 1971 at the age of two during a fire in Washington State. As the police continued to examine the contents of the safe, they discovered other unexpected details.
Among the papers, detectives found notes that mentioned a police station in Hollywood, California, and addressed them to a lawyer named Ben Perkins. Also in the safe was an unsigned letter that indicated Turner-Kennedy-Ruff had once worked as a stripper at a nightclub. In addition, two cryptic messages were found in the house. One was addressed to the daughter and could not have been opened until after her 18th birthday. The second was addressed to Blake, but consisted of meaningless scribbles and drawings.
Despite the wealth of information, the investigation was at a dead end. The woman’s fingerprints and DNA samples were missing from the databases. Ben Perkins, the lawyer who had been the most hopeful, said he knew no women named Turner, Kennedy or Ruff, and had never met a Lori Erica. Friends of the deceased woman were also unable to shed light on her past. It was as if Lori Erica simply did not exist until she met Blake Ruff in 2003.
The police had two main hypotheses. Perhaps the woman was connected to the criminal world and was carefully hiding from someone. Or, on the contrary, she was participating in the witness protection program. However, both versions remained unconfirmed. As a result, the investigation reached a dead end, and the Texas police stopped working on this case, without solving the mystery of the identity of Lori Erica Ruff.
In 2013, the investigation was unexpectedly reopened by forensic scientist Colin Fitzpatrick. He decided to use a DNA sample from Laurie's daughter Erica. He was lucky: he found the woman's second cousin. Joe Welling, a retired detective, joined the case. The detective went to the mysterious woman's relative and showed her a photograph of the deceased. The woman immediately recognized her sister in the picture - her name was Kimberly McClean.
The woman said that Kimberly McClean was born in 1968 in the small town of Wynwood, Pennsylvania. After her parents divorced, she began to have serious mental health problems. Her relationship with her mother's new husband also did not work out, which only worsened the situation. At 18, Kimberly decided to leave home, warning her family of her intention. Her parents tried to dissuade her, and when that did not help, they searched for their daughter for a long time and unsuccessfully.
What happened to Kimberly after she disappeared remained a mystery until she resurfaced in Texas under a false name. She carefully covered her tracks: she changed her name, got an education, worked as a stripper in a nightclub, and even had breast augmentation surgery. But why did she do all this? The answer was never found.
By that time, Lori-Kimberly's mother was already in her eighties, and the news of her daughter's death was a terrible blow to her. Even though she was found many years later, it could not change anything. However, there was a bright spot in this story: Blake Ruff's granddaughter, who became a link between the two families. The mysterious woman's daughter grows up not knowing the truth about her mother. The letter left by Lori-Kimberly is still waiting for its time. Perhaps it will shed light on the motives of this strange woman. Or maybe it will only add new mysteries.
The information received from Kimberly's relatives clarified many things. It became clear that Blake Ruff's wife suffered from mental illness. However, Fitzpatrick and Welling were not satisfied with the results of the investigation. They still did not find out what Kimberly had been doing for 17 years, why she changed identities, or how she was able to obtain documents in the name of a long-dead child.
The police showed little interest in the enthusiasts' investigation, and that was the end of it. The case is officially closed, and we will likely never know who Kimberly McClean was hiding from for most of her life, or what drove her to commit suicide. However, perhaps there is a clue somewhere in this story? What do you think could have made Kimberly not just change her name, but essentially erase her past entirely? Share your versions in the comments!