Lori Ruff Identified as Kimberly McLean of PA

[Hank36]

In a more serious question, one for which I do not have tme to review 26 pages of posts: Was Kimberly McLean ever placed on any missing persons databases?

 

[anewman1022]

In a more serious question, one for which I do not have tme to review 26 pages of posts: Was Kimberly McLean ever placed on any missing persons databases?

no she wasn't.

 

[llywrch]

I post info here to share with all and I understand anyone can copy that anywhere but I don't want someone thinking I'm a different person than I am. Someone could copy and paste my posts and then claim to be me and scam someone else from here. I just want people to know I am not over there and if someone PM's them on fb or any other website than websleuths saying they are "Gardener1850" it is NOT me. I don't mind anyone sharing info I post as long as they say they are quoting.

Adding for everyone's entertainment:

Maybe the most audacious example of plagiarism I have encountered in the last few days was finding a blog post about this case, & realizing it was a cut-n-paste job from the Wikipedia article on LEK. I was quite sure it had been plagiarized because just the day before I had added a paragraph at the end explaining how LEK & KM were determined to be the same person (with a link to the article on Colleen Fitzpatrick), & I can recognize my own words.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I find it odd that Kim's living sister never looking for her. Not same caring & concern as Miss Suzanne and Maureen's sister did for their missing sister. Both women found this Webslueths site and other sites as well.

We don't know that they didn't look. Maybe they didn't need to. Maybe she sent the occasional card or letter. Those PO Boxes in various places could have been used to communicate without giving away her new identity or location. They were surely used for something, and it was inconvenient to travel all that way to get mail. It is possible that members of her family did hear from her up to some point and that the break was not as complete as we assume. Who knows.....

 

[1&2&3]

Now that we have the identity of Lori Ruff, we are left with so many questions regarding her actions during her life.

Just think, we know more about her than her family does. They only are aware of the first 18 years of her life.

I truly believe there is someone that kept in contact with her. Remember the Post Office Box she had? Why did she have it or what did she need it for? She kept it much longer than two years after she left home and her father's death.

Another puzzling factor is the bags of shredded paper Blake's family found in her home after her death. What had she been shredding? This has always been a curiosity for me. It seems she intentionally left the lockbox with the identity change. Was it a way to have the final word to her mother-in-law?

I am not sleuthing, just a thought. Wonder if Kim's father committed suicide after the breakup of his marriage and Kim leaving home? *** SPECULATION ONLY***. His death so soon after Kim's departure is questionable in my mind. The breakup of her marriage must have brought many nightmares back to her that were reminiscent of her parents divorce.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I find it odd that Kim's living sister never looking for her. Not same caring & concern as Miss Suzanne and Maureen's sister did for their missing sister. Both women found this Webslueths site and other sites as well.

We don't know that. Maybe she sent the occasional card or letter. Those PO Boxes in various places could have been used to communicate without giving away her new identity or location. They were used for something, it was inconvenient to travel all that way to get mail. It is possible that members of her family did hear from her up to some point and that the break was not as complete as we assume. Who knows.....

 

[KateNY]

Don't recall seeing this one posted

From that article from Philly.com
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/M...ing-mystery-of-identity-thief-Lori-Ruff-.html




Pic of her in third grade, at Queen of Peace in Ardsley’

 

[DJmultiplecats]

So Agent Velling was actually retired? And he took the story to a Seattle reporter because he already knew her? No wonder the whole "investigation" seemed like something straight out of the Little Rascals.

When he was in Pennsylvania, was Velling shocked to learn that some people out there speak without an accent, just like people from the West Coast?

Also, O'Hagen's article--which I read after McAfee pleaded me not to click on it--failed to answer the most essential question: how was the connection made between "Lori" and her family?

More importantly--after insisting that she was only interested in interviewing people who knew "Lori" prior to 1988, why is O'Hagen now claiming that there is much we can't know about her disappearance because "all of these events happened a long time ago?" Is this woman the laziest jourrnalist alive or what?

Journalist here. She's not lazy, it's a matter of being able to verify facts. Rumoured appearances or events 30 years ago are nearly impossible to factcheck properly. Documentation is lost or missing, key figures are dead or won't speak to media, houses and businesses are no longer standing. It can be done, but would involve a large-scale investigation, over many months, covering several states...nothing even the best of us could do on a weeklong deadline in between other assignments. Let alone on the typical budget publishers give reporters these days.

 

[SavetheQueen]

In a more serious question, one for which I do not have tme to review 26 pages of posts: Was Kimberly McLean ever placed on any missing persons databases?

No.

*All statements are that of my own opinion unless otherwise specified. *

 

[SavetheQueen]

Adding for everyone's entertainment:

Maybe the most audacious example of plagiarism I have encountered in the last few days was finding a blog post about this case, & realizing it was a cut-n-paste job from the Wikipedia article on LEK. I was quite sure it had been plagiarized because just the day before I had added a paragraph at the end explaining how LEK & KM were determined to be the same person (with a link to the article on Colleen Fitzpatrick), & I can recognize my own words.

That's awesome! LOL!

On the contrary, on the day the ST article came out, I saw, through a random search of trending Facebook topics, an "article" that someone had put together. It was a mash-up of the ST articles, new and previous. The problem is that whoever put it together didn't change words, but changed some of the minor facts. It was one of the most horrible jobs of plagiarism that I think I've ever seen. I read the comments, thinking that someone would say, "That didn't happen like that!". Instead, there was, "Great article." No! That's not how it happened! That's not how any of it happened! [emoji15]

*All statements are that of my own opinion unless otherwise specified. *

 

[SavetheQueen]

So Agent Velling was actually retired? And he took the story to a Seattle reporter because he already knew her? No wonder the whole "investigation" seemed like something straight out of the Little Rascals.

When he was in Pennsylvania, was Velling shocked to learn that some people out there speak without an accent, just like people from the West Coast?

Also, O'Hagen's article--which I read after McAfee pleaded me not to click on it--failed to answer the most essential question: how was the connection made between "Lori" and her family?

More importantly--after insisting that she was only interested in interviewing people who knew "Lori" prior to 1988, why is O'Hagen now claiming that there is much we can't know about her disappearance because "all of these events happened a long time ago?" Is this woman the laziest jourrnalist alive or what?

Joe Velling retired in August of last year. He completed this case after his retirement, yes. He did an outstanding job. I'm sure he went to a reporter that he knew would put a factual story out. I know that's what I do when I turn something newsworthy over to the press.

Perhaps he's never been to Philadelphia, and had no idea about the folks with no accents. The one time that I visited the City of Brotherly Love, I guess I missed meeting any of those accent-less people myself. Learned something new.

There were things that the reporter probably could have gone into deeper detail regarding, but as she mentioned today on the Q&A session that she held along with Colleen Fitzpatrick, the article was a fairly quick piece. They were the lead press for the break on the ID of Lori, and they needed to go to print and publish. There are tons of questions that probably only one person can answer, and she's no longer with us. The reporter did what she could with what she had is the bottom line.

The main element of the article was an in depth informative story regarding exactly how DNA and genealogy connected Lori to her family starting with distant cousins and going to a close relative which led Velling to Pennsylvania.

Maybe ditch McAfee, and go with Avast. 😐



*All statements are that of my own opinion unless otherwise specified. *

 

[llywrch]

Journalist here. She's not lazy, it's a matter of being able to verify facts. Rumoured appearances or events 30 years ago are nearly impossible to factcheck properly. Documentation is lost or missing, key figures are dead or won't speak to media, houses and businesses are no longer standing. It can be done, but would involve a large-scale investigation, over many months, covering several states...nothing even the best of us could do on a weeklong deadline in between other assignments. Let alone on the typical budget publishers give reporters these days.

And consider that the story broke Monday, & people immediately started clamoring for details (including yours truly), & she managed to write up a fairly comprehensive story that was published at noon on Wednesday. That was a praiseworthy achievement.

And even if she had some lead time to perform the interviews & research, she still managed to compose a piece with a minimum of unnecessary words. Writing well is a lot harder to do than it appears.

 

[Robotic]

So I know we should not be looking into the family, only Kimberly herself, but I've found the place and date of her bio father's death in an obituary. I don't think anyone here found that yet. I thought it would be useful if allowed in order to add to her timeline between 1986 and 1988. Would that be allowed?

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Don't have links to actual FB posts but here's these that others have found.

Thank you. I now understand why her family recognized the later pics of her as opposed to the earlier. She looks more like the tea party pic. I really think the fake teeth changed how her face looked, especially the shape of her mouth/smile.

 

[sunnynz]

Hey all, I think I am done with this case now - call it curiosity satisfied or whatever, but I feel content with the information that I know.

Just wanted to say how impressed I've been at the skills and commitment of so many of you over the last 7 or 8 months that I've been posting here, working to find out Lori's real identity, and I hope to bump into some of you putting your talents to good use on other threads/cases. I'm off over to this one! http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...R-18-21-July-1991-1&highlight=whitehall+motel

See ya

 

[Linda9681]

Snipped by me:



Hmmmmm. Is he? Was he????

*All statements are that of my own opinion unless otherwise specified.*

He was. His obit was online for awhile. He is on ancestry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BigCityAccountant]

Hey all, I think I am done with this case now - call it curiosity satisfied or whatever, but I feel content with the information that I know.

Just wanted to say how impressed I've been at the skills and commitment of so many of you over the last 7 or 8 months that I've been posting here, working to find out Lori's real identity, and I hope to bump into some of you putting your talents to good use on other threads/cases. I'm off over to this one! http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...R-18-21-July-1991-1&highlight=whitehall+motel

See ya

Bye SunnyNZ~~was certainly a pleasure working with you!! I hope we bump into each other another thread!! She certainly ISN'T KRD...LOL but maybe she will be identified too with the new suggestions added to this thread!

 

[mrseeker]

So I know we should not be looking into the family, only Kimberly herself, but I've found the place and date of her bio father's death in an obituary. I don't think anyone here found that yet. I thought it would be useful if allowed in order to add to her timeline between 1986 and 1988. Would that be allowed?

Does it list Kimberly as a daughter and with a location? He would have died young if her mother was about 50 then.

 

[Gardener1850]

Hey all, I think I am done with this case now - call it curiosity satisfied or whatever, but I feel content with the information that I know.

Just wanted to say how impressed I've been at the skills and commitment of so many of you over the last 7 or 8 months that I've been posting here, working to find out Lori's real identity, and I hope to bump into some of you putting your talents to good use on other threads/cases. I'm off over to this one! http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...R-18-21-July-1991-1&highlight=whitehall+motel

See ya

Hey sunnynz, was great to work with you on this one and I think I might just do the same and head over to that thread or another one.

Unless the family does an interview, I don't think we will find out much to "explain" all the questions we have had about Lori/Kim.

I'm taking a break from PM's for anyone trying to reach me. I'll turn them back on eventually. :wave:

 

[Roselvr]

Now that this news has finally sunk in, I have a couple of questions/thoughts and I think this group has invested the most in this case, so I'd be interested if you all have input. These have been talked about a little, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

1) I'm confused about comments I've read in a few different places implying that what we learned was Lori's actual identity is anticlimactic. I don't understand that. In fact to me, this revelation is a more perplexing and fascinating scenario than what I had narrowed down in my mind as plausible theories. She's more interesting to me now than she was a week ago. Am I the only one?

2) How in the world, I mean how in the WORLD, was Lori not recognized by someone who knew her as Kimberly? I understand the low profile Lori kept when she was alive and while it's a little surprising, I can see how she managed to keep her new life separate from her old life. However, the last few years with all of the publicity her case has had, it's unimaginable to me that not one person from her Kimberly life saw the Lori Ruff story and thought, "She kind of looks like that Kim girl" enough to check it out. I know this hasn't been Brangelina divorce level coverage but all it would take would be one superficial glance at a news story to catch the attention of just one person who spent time with her when she was Kimberly. I just can't believe that in all these years, that never happened, especially in the beginning when her story was widely published.

So having said that, it puzzles me greatly in sort of a "what are the odds?" way but I guess I accept the moderately suitable explanation that she seemed to be an introvert who probably didn't collect friends by the dozens. BUT I can't even come close to comprehending how this happened with her family. In fact, I don't believe it. I honestly believe it's next to impossible that not one family member had figured it out. I know people keep asking why the family didn't search for her and the answer that is given, correctly, is that she left voluntarily so she wasn't "missing". However, I can't accept that not one sibling, cousin, aunt, or uncle hasn't sat at the computer in the last few years, thought about her, gotten curious and started googling. Of course googling her as Kimberly wouldn't bring anything but for anyone whose family member left a few decades ago and hasn't been heard of since, stories like Lori's are going to at least merit a glance. Even with a small amount of curiosity and the most basic search skills, Lori's face would likely appear. She didn't undergo any huge changes in her appearance that would make her unrecognizable. And it was SO weird to me that her mother didn't react until a more recent photo of her was shown.

I am praying for both families and hope the adjustment is as smooth as possible. Lori's story remains a mystery even now.

I know it may blow everyone's mind but look at Grateful Dead Fan, it took greymetal sharing on imgur. So many people have shared his photo and info on social media