Every Town - The Bizarre Lori Erica Ruff Enigma: Uncovering the Truth Behind Her Multiple Lives

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Kimberly McLean was a native of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Becky Turner was born in Bakersfield, California and died in Fife, Washington. And Lori Ruff came into existence in Dallas, Texas. However, they were all the same person. This week I’m bringing a truly interesting case of identity theft that has some weird twists and turns to say the least. 💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with a morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine, because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between. With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime.

Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Kimberly McLean was a native of Winwood, Pennsylvania. Becky Turner was born in Bakersfield, California, and died in Fife, Washington, and Lori Ruff came into existence in Dallas, Texas. Many people thought they were born at different times in different locations

and were strangers to one another, but the gory death of Lori Erica Ruff in 2010 became the impetus that uncovered a mystery which even her husband had known about until 2016. Lori was also Kimberly and also Becky Sue. Hey, I'm Andrew Fitzgerald and welcome to this week's episode of Everytown. This week, I'm bringing you a truly interesting case of identity theft that has some weird twists and turns to say the least. And this story takes place in many towns around the U.S.,

Where it starts exactly is up for you to decide, so let's head somewhere. We'll go to the beginning. We'll dig through this strange case together as one. A simple but happy life was what James McLean and Deanne Cassidy wanted for themselves and their two daughters. The first daughter was Kimberly McLean, the star of this episode. She was born on October 16, 1968 in Winwood, PA, a suburb in West Philadelphia. While Deanne opted to be a devoted homemaker and stay-at-home mom, James worked hard as a carpenter and volunteer firefighter to provide for his family.

For the McLean family, simple joys meant having nightly family dinners, kids playing on fire engines, and in the hand-built playhouse in their backyard. They also had some luxuries, fun day trips, and family vacation, so all in all, things were very normal and good. James and Deanne divorced when Kimberly was in her adolescent years and it deeply affected the teenage girl. Mom met a new man, Robert Becker, who became her second husband and Kimberly's stepfather. They then moved to Wincott, PA, and it was there that Kimberly attended Bishop McDevitt High School. And from this point, trouble hounded the family because the abrupt changes in their lives were just too much for Kimberly to take.

She wasn't able to adjust to the new house. the new school and its rules. When she turned 18 in 1986, she decided to leave that house and live on her own about half an hour away in King of Prussia. And then one day, Kimberly made another life-altering decision.

She told her mother that she was leaving for good with a warning. Don't come after me. That was the last time Deanne saw or heard from her daughter because Kimberly was going to go and change into another person completely. Perhaps she had done, done something illegal or maybe planned to. Or maybe she just hated her life as Kimberly so much

and all those involved that she needed to be somebody else. Her family tried several times to contact her, tried to find her, but they couldn't because two years later on May 20th of 1988, Kimberly acquired the birth certificate of a girl named Becky Sue Turner from Bakersfield, California. Becky was born on July 18, 1969, so she was around. She was around. around the same age as Kimberly. But at the age of two on December 30th of 1971, Becky and her two siblings died in a house fire in Fife, Washington. And Kimberly knew what she was doing.

Becky 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. And in a clever move, Kimberly traveled to Idaho, where on June 16th she obtained an Idaho driver's license with her picture on it, but printed in black and white was the name Becky Sue Turner. She used Becky's birth certificate for her application and got away with it just like that. But she only stayed Becky for 19 days. The identity thief perhaps realized that the real story about the dead toddler might be discovered someday,

and so she made a preemptive strike to ensure that that never happened. Kimberly posed as Becky Sue Turner for the last time on July 5, 1988, before a day. judge in Dallas, Texas, when she was legally changing her name to Lori Erica Kennedy. A week later, she applied for and received a Social Security number and a Texas identification card removing traces of her true identity. Aside from assuming a new name, Kimberly, aka Becky Sue, aka Lori Erica, also changed her birthday to July 18, 1969, making her nine months and two days younger than her actual age. With a brand new identity and newfound freedom, what exactly it was the plan behind this drastic move? While on April 18th of 89, she got a Texas

driver's license, and after that, a U.S. passport on March 19, 1990. At 22 years old, she qualified for a GED which enabled her to enroll at Dallas County Community College on October 1, 1990. seven years later on December 13th of 97, Lori had an academic achievement she could truly be proud of, a degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Arlington. Despite being busy pursuing her goals, Lori paid attention to her spiritual life too. He was active in church, and in the Bible study she attended in 2003, Lori met John Blakely Ruff, aka Blake,

the son of a socially prominent family in East. Texas. Blake, for the record, been described over the years in a rather unkindly way. Though undiagnosed, people viewed him as a simple, obedient man. Someone many speculated may have been on the autism spectrum. For Blake, it was love at first sight, though, the moment he laid eyes on Lori. It took one conversation with her for Blake to know that she was the one. The attraction was palpable, and much to the delight of the eligible bachelor, the feeling was mutual. When they started dating, Lori immediately continued with her deceitful ways, so you know things

aren't going to end well. She told Blake she had just moved to Texas from Arizona when, in fact, she had been a Texas resident for over a decade. Regardless, as they felt deeply in love, or at least as Blake felt deeply in love, to begin to learn how secretive Lori was, especially about her family background. And so, as Lori Erica Kennedy, she resorted to creating a completely fictional past. And she told him what she wanted him to believe, that she was from Arizona, that both her parents were dead and her dad was a failed stockbroker, that she had an unhappy childhood, and that she had no siblings.

Eliminate information Lori shared didn't bother Blake much who thought that maybe she had a traumatic experience in the past, and that she didn't want to talk about it. He respected her falsehoods, and besides, he had the rest of their lives to learn about her when he proposed and she said yes. Blake's family was always skeptical of Lori, and just found something off about her. Called a gut feeling, but of course they weren't wrong. So from the start, the rough family was distrustful of Lori, but Blake was a grown man intent on marrying the love of his life. On January 5th, 2004, they exchanged vows at a church and Denton County, Texas. It was a very small, intimate ceremony. Lorry didn't have relatives in

Texas, and Blake decided not to invite his own family. What was important was that their union became official, and Lorry assumed a new surname, which would make it now even more difficult for her family to trace her. She was a new wife with a new life. So could she finally find a happiness she so desperately looked for? In order to spare themselves from more antagonism, from Blake's family, the newly married couple moved to Leonard City, Texas in the southwestern region. The timing felt perfect. Blake enjoyed a stable job that would allow Lori to stay at home because they wanted to have kids. They tried several times to have a child, but the then 36-year-old Lori had trouble conceiving and suffered multiple miscarriages. But eventually, they were able to,

after seeking in vitro fertilization to improve their chances. Blake and Lori's bundle of joy arrived on September 15, 2008. The beautiful baby girl should have strengthened the bond of Blake and Lori and served as a key for Lori and her in-laws to narrow the gap between them. Sadly, though, that didn't happen because Lori herself changed for the worst after giving birth. She began pushing everyone in her new life away, including Blake, who couldn't understand why she was acting this way. She became irrational, an act of bizarre, cold and standoffish, sometimes to the point of rudeness. Laurie became so overprotective of the baby that she even refused to let the little girl's

grandparents hold their own grandchild. She would also obsessively track the Ruff's family history, asking questions and searching records. And ultimately, the bad feelings between the outgoing sociable Ruff's and their daughter-in-law put pressure on Blake and Lori's marriage. Then, things turned for the worst when Lori straight up banned Blake's family from seeing their granddaughter altogether. She knew they didn't like her, and so maybe this was her way of getting back at them. According to Lori, the ruffs didn't give her enough privacy, which affected her emotionally and

mentally. Those pressures made Lori then fall into a deep depression. So Blake was placed in between a rock and a hard place as the wedge between his family and Lori grew wider. In order to save their marriage, he convinced his wife to seek marital counseling in 2010. But ultimately, the damage had been done, The pain was too deep to salvage anything. The marriage counselor gave her diagnosis. The marriage simply didn't work. So there was nothing left to do. Blake needed to accept the fact that Lori was not the same woman that he fell in love with.

While she had always been a private person, he felt like he didn't know her anymore. It was the end of a fairy tale, most of which was built on lies anyway. In the spring of 2011, Blake decided to move back with his parents and long. Longview and filed for divorce. Laurie was left on her own with her young daughter, although she and Blake were still connected as co-parents. The breakdown of her marriage was a big blow to Lori, and it triggered her downward spiral. After it ended, her health started to fade.

She neglected herself, and her baby was becoming noticeably undernourished. In public, Lori would mutter to herself while pacing back and forth. She didn't stop pestering Blake's family. harassing them through emails, creating a scene of a custody exchange, and stealing a set of house keys from them. Her harassment was so severe, in fact, that the ruffs were compelled to file a cease and desist order against her. Before long, she sank deeper and deeper into depression. She isolated herself, which only made her feel more abandoned. Lori soon reached the peak of her anguish and decided to end her woes on the eve of Christmas of 2012.

While most people were celebrating the joyous occasion, Lori marked it with tragedy and made sure her ex-husband and family weren't spared. Early on Christmas Eve, she drove over the Ruff's Longview House. Parked her car in the driveway, left it running, then shot herself. A short time later, Blake's father, John, left the house to pick up the paper when he noticed the car. When he found her dead, he cried in agony, despite the differences he had with her. John called the police who determined that Lori committed suicide through a self-inflicted gunshot

and a two suicide note she made, one of which was an 11-page note addressed to my wonderful husband, and another addressed to her daughter to be opened on her 18th birthday. The roughs opened and read the letter, but it contained only ramblings from a clearly disturbed person and no details about Lori's past. Blake couldn't fathom why his ex-wife and mother of his daughter took her own life. So after, Lori Erica Ruff was laid to rest, Lake and his family went over to her house. Not just to the questions Lori had evaded for so long, but to the ones her daughter would surely ask as she got older. Lori's house was in shambles 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. They then discovered a lockbox in a closet which Laurie kept hidden from Blake. They opened it with a screwdriver and discovered documents and a paper with several seemingly random scribblings such as North Hollywood Police, 402 months, and Ben Perkins. Some believe that these scribblings meant lawyer was trying to avoid prison time due to the references to police, a possible jail term length

and the name Ben Perkins, a Los Angeles attorney. However, Ben Perkins denied knowing Becky Sue Turner or Lori Erica Kennedy. The more revealing and incriminating contents of the lockbox, though, with the documents that reveal Lori's secrets about her past and her crime of identity theft.

Among them was a birth certificate belonging to Becky Sue Turner of Bakersfield, California. An ID card registered in Idaho. Pages torn from an Arizona phone book, and a letter of recommendation from Lori's former employee in Bangkok. The Russ discovered that Lori Erica Kennedy, as she was known before, she married Blake, was actually Becky Sue Turner. And they discovered the real Becky Sue had died in 1971 in a house fire when she was two. They tried to find out who Lori was before she stole Becky Sue's identity, but the trail went dead.

and for a devastated Blake, it was as if his wife had never existed at all. As speculations and theories, from the plausible to the outright absurd, overwhelmed online forums and communities about the true persona of Lori Erica and what really happened to her. The rough family, meanwhile, sought help from a Texas congressman to dig in to a real identity. The politician's aide then contacted Social Security Administration investigator Joe Velling. who probes identity theft and fraud, and the agent was baffled by Lori's case because if there was any financial motive behind her identity theft,

he couldn't find it. Blake Ruff and Joe Velling spent years trying to discover Lori's true personality, but the information they found about her just led to more questions and fewer answers. After two years, Blake finally gave up. After all, he had a daughter to look after. Moreover, he started to look after. thinking that Lori had outweighed them all with her skills. But before throwing in the towel on the probe, they decided to try one last idea.

I sought to help with the general public to identify Lori through an article published on June 22nd, 2013 in the Seattle Times, which was subsequently republished in numerous newspapers around the world. A California-based genealogist and former nuclear physicist, Colleen Fitzpatrick, had become interested in the case and wondered if science could give the break. Blake, Joe, and the authority so desperately needed. She had a hunch that Lori was connected to a Cassidy family from Philadelphia, but who exactly? She wasn't sure. In 2013, Colleen asked Blake if she could get a DNA sample from his daughter, and he agreed.

According to her, with the new technology, they could be able to locate someone related to Lori in their database. And she was right. In 2015, the experienced genealogist found a first cousin of Lori. Lories named Michael Cassidy, who lived in Pennsylvania. Without hesitation, Joe Velling flew to Philadelphia in March of 2016 to meet members of the Cassidy clan with the hope of finding an absolute answer to the big question who really is the former Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff.

Joe located the house of a Cassidy family in Philadelphia. He knocked on the door without any idea what he was walking into. I mean, he didn't even know Lori's real name. The roughs had provided Joe some photos, and he began laying them out on the table. And that's when the surprise reaction of a family member came in. My God, that's Kimberly. After hearing that, Joe recalled, The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I realized she knew who this person was.

The truth was finally coming out. Lori was born Kimberly Maria McLean. Mother Deanne, who married James McLean, was Michael Cassidy's aunt. And later Deanne took a DNA test and confirmed the match. Already 80 years old, she was devastated to know that her daughter had killed herself. Certainly wasn't the kind of news she wanted to hear after 30 years of being estranged from Kimberly slash Lori. The rough family had found the answer. A family member commented,

At least now we know her identity and know she had a family that loved her. Now, Lori and Blake's daughter as a new set of grandparents, grandparents on the East Coast and a whole new batch of cousins. The two families have been connected. One lost Kimberly when she ran away, leaving them clueless and asking where she was. The other lost Lori through a tragic suicide, making them wonder, who really was she? They may have found the answer they wanted, but it will remain a mystery why Kimberly McLean, aka Becky Sue Turner, aka Lori Erica Kennedy, had to take a risk and commit identity

theft. Had she been alive today, do you think she deserves to be punished for her crime? So that's going to do it, guys, for this week's episode of Everytown. Thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.