TX - Longview, WhtFem (UP 9863), 41-50, Suicide - Assumed Identity, Dec'10

[AstroKitty]

The thing that bothers me the most in many of the threads on this site is when people start naming suspects without any evidence. Earlier in this thread, someone accused Lori's husband of abuse without any facts to back it up. Accusations like that could result in libel charges.

Agreed. The naming of neighbors, "suspects", kids and other innocents is always alarming to me. There's a lot of people out there who run wild with it and I'm always afraid of the damage they can do. Even if someone is caught, admits to things and is found guilty - there are people out there who refuse to believe it and continue to harass. We've all seen this if you're on the board long enough.

I just don't know what to even think regarding THIS thread. So much information has been lost in the shuffle now, well - possible good info to conspiracy theories and far out possibilities. I think about people that find this thread and want information that is FACT, to look at the photos and then read what others think (believing they are reading sleuthing that has been well thought out and possibilities) but finding things not thought out or possible - and getting confused or believing it's all light-hearted. I don't know how to make my point make sense or not to sound rude. Again, I have no ill-will or think one way or another about ANY poster here in this thread - it's a general feeling. That is all.

 

[AngelaE8654]

I suspect when it all comes together and we find out who she really is, it's going to be a lot simpler than some people think. I doubt she's any kind of missing person as Velling has been looking through every lead like that for almost three years. Personally, I suspect she's either someone who had a financial or other reason for needing to "wipe the slate clean" or she's someone who may have been born in a place that she either never got a birth certificate or was born to American parents in another country and wasn't a citizen and needed a quick-and-easy way to "become" a citizen without waiting lists and testing and all of that. Her parents actually MAY have died while she was young and she needed either to wipe the slate clean for financial reasons or needed a quick "citizenship".

 

[toscaxyz]

I feel like this thread is becoming ridiculous and losing any seriousness that was at one point in here. All the great information and sleuthing that had been contributed is almost diluted with the off the wall things being slung around.

I've only been on WS for a few months, but I have noticed a tendency for many threads to spin off in this way, especially for high profile cases. In a complicated situation like this one, it does tend to detract from the more mundane work of trying to piece together small bits of evidence into a larger story. But I think it's also a pretty normal human response to brainstorm and throw out lots and lots of ideas.

One of the good things about this thread is that there are people here who've been working on the case since before it hit the mainstream news. And there are people (like you, AstroKitty) who try to provide additional facts and back it up with either personal experience or reputable sources. ClaireNC has been great about posting summaries of the known facts for people who haven't been following since the beginning (like me).

I know in some of the higher traffic cases subforums have been created for specific discussions. Maybe it's time to consider requesting that for this case?

 

[kiteflier]

I agree that it's probably much simpler than we all think - when you hear hoof beats, do you think horses or zebras?

I feel like papers/news channels in Idaho should be running this. It's true she could have just hopped over the line from a bordering state to quickly grab an ID, but it's also very likely she DID have connections to Boise. Does anyone know if anything has been run on the local news there?

 

[ClaireNC]

I agree that it's probably much simpler than we all think - when you hear hoof beats, do you think horses or zebras?

I feel like papers/news channels in Idaho should be running this. It's true she could have just hopped over the line from a bordering state to quickly grab an ID, but it's also very likely she DID have connections to Boise. Does anyone know if anything has been run on the local news there?

Hi Kiteflier, Welcome! Just look at the timeline in my post just above yours. It has the press coverage with links at the bottom of the list.

Originally Posted by HerStory
As for genetics, Marfan's, and her daughter -> if she had problems conceiving and turned to IVF, they may have used an egg donor and she is genetically unrelated to her daughter.

HerStory, Excellent post and this point about them potentially using an egg donor is a really good point that I have not seen mentioned before.

 

[kiteflier]

Hi Kiteflier, Welcome! Just look at the timeline in my post just above yours. It has the press coverage with links at the bottom of the list.

Ah, okay, thank you Claire! I'm curious to hear any follow up to the residents of the El Caballo address.

 

[ClaireNC]

Ah, okay, thank you Claire! I'm curious to hear any follow up to the residents of the El Caballo address.

We were able to trace the family that owned the property at the time. We didn't find any obvious leads there, but there were some interesting coincidences.

From the Live Chat with the Seattle Times, Joe Velling said this:

I did locate the family who lived at the residence in Boise, Idaho in 1988. One of the son's did not recognize the photo from the Idaho Identification Card but was going to share the picture with his family members.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/...-in-live-chat/

 

[HerStory]

Okay...I found AL's family but am not comfortable asking questions unless someone else wants to...

 

[toscaxyz]

I wonder who she thought could find her in the weddings section of a Longview, TX newspaper.

It's possible that she just didn't want to do it because she didn't like her mother-in-law. She must have known that the family wasn't thrilled about the marriage, and maybe it was a way of trying to separate from them by not following their social rules.

 

[HerStory]

Does anyone know the actual birthdates of BST's parents?

 

[killarney rose]

The thing that bothers me the most in many of the threads on this site is when people start naming suspects without any evidence. Earlier in this thread, someone accused Lori's husband of abuse without any facts to back it up. Accusations like that could result in libel charges.

I get soooooo frustrated on threads where a particular poster will get in their head that a case happened in a certain way. They then come up with all kinds of theories and ideas , evidence etc to promote their theory. I followed a case where a woman went missing right after Memorial Day. She was later found deceased with her wrecked car. Most likely an accident, possibly a suicide. But because she was going thru a divorce, one member is determined the soon to be ex killed her and pushed her in her car over the mountain. The person posts frequently and just won't let it go.

 

[mjak]

Originally when I read about this case I assumed this was a women running from the law or an abusive marriage. However, when you look at the timeline it reads more to like someone trying to build a life not running from a previous one. More like someone who found herself an adult with no Id and no resources, but had enough skills and drive to want to build a life. Her pursuit of College Education is not what I would think a fugitive would be spending time doing. I think she might have needed the fake ID to get a GED to get into College, to get a job, to have a life. I think of someone raised in a cult or sickingly abuducted as a young child who escaped or was released from her situation. Imagine all the mental health issues this upbringing would result in. Fugitives hide there ID, in this case we maybe looking at women hiding the fact she didn't know her Identity. Very sad.

 

[ClaireNC]

Does anyone know the actual birthdates of BST's parents?

There was a discussion of their birthdates back on pages 70 and 71 of this thread. NCSleuth was trying to verify the dates but was not able to find them. I am not sure if they have been found since those posts were made.

 

[Jubble]

Probably not related at all, but I was poking around in Newspaper Archive looking for missing girls/women who may not be in our usual databases like Namus, Doe, Charlie etc. Here is one that popped up and seemed interesting to me for a couple of reasons.
1) she was 17 in 1987 (or possibly in 1986 which would make her 18 in 1987)
2) she was said to be in Jackson, Miss and we have LEK's scribbled "Jackson" notation
3) I can't find further evidence of her (admittedly, I'm no pro at searching though)
4) She ran away from a girl's school run by a church

I can't find her on the usual missing person's sites or anywhere else in Newspaper archive except for where this article is repeated in several papers. Also had no luck finding her on Ancestry (or her mother mentioned in the article)

I wonder if she was ever found or back in touch with her family.

Nancy Lee Rascoe
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1987/B...n-Runaway/id-672bdc6c8d537e35ead5bacb5a0eed80

 

[kiteflier]

We were able to trace the family that owned the property at the time. We didn't find any obvious leads there, but there were some interesting coincidences.

From the Live Chat with the Seattle Times, Joe Velling said this:

Yes, I remember the one man - I meant I am interested to hear from his family members if they recognized her or not!

 

[HerStory]

As I do an intense reorganization of my Bedroom/office/craftroom.... my hamster wheel is non-stop.

Someone must know this woman!

Otherwise, why go to great lengths to relocate, re-identify, and redefine yourself? For all intents and purposes, if I was a quiet, nondescript young woman who was wanting a new start...I would just move and do it. But to go to the lengths that LEK has gone implies that there ARE people out there who could recognize her.

But maybe her parents really are dead. Maybe those who know her see a necessity in protecting her new life. Maybe those who could recognize her do not have access to national news or internet (incarcerated?).

Okay, back to cleaning. :banghead:

 

[AstroKitty]

I truly wonder if her intense desire to relocate and "hide" wasn't due in part to her possible mental health and "paranoia". It really could be that simple

 

[lamblisa]

Originally when I read about this case I assumed this was a women running from the law or an abusive marriage. However, when you look at the timeline it reads more to like someone trying to build a life not running from a previous one. More like someone who found herself an adult with no Id and no resources, but had enough skills and drive to want to build a life. Her pursuit of College Education is not what I would think a fugitive would be spending time doing. I think she might have needed the fake ID to get a GED to get into College, to get a job, to have a life.

Although secretly I wish there was a really interesting story behind who LEK "was" before BST, what you say makes sense to me. I tend to think that what we're going to find out about her is relatively mundane. Maybe she was estranged from her family because her dad was a jerk, maybe she was bullied in school because of her height, maybe she got married too young and realized she wasn't in love so she panicked and left, maybe she just really wanted to be someone else. There doesn't have to be something sinister in her background making her want to make a clean break for whatever reason. The accounts of her behavior after her divorce got underway strikes me as someone who saw their life unraveling and lost her mind a little bit because of it, not necessarily someone terrified because she was going to be discovered to be in the witness protection program or an ET hiding from Joel Rifkin.

The biggest things for me that don't make sense if she was in hiding, why would she marry into a prominent TX family who by all appearances could have doxxed her if they really felt something was hinky about her? Why would she get involved in the businesswomen's association and allow herself to be in photos that she had to know would be posted. Why wouldn't she have destroyed the box in the closet?

:moo: of course.

Have any of the women that were in the business group with her been interviewed as to her mental state?

 

[FiveFelines]

I truly wonder if her intense desire to relocate and "hide" wasn't due in part to her possible mental health and "paranoia". It really could be that simple

I wonder this as well. As I mentioned earlier, I asked my SO for his opinion on this case because he knows nothing about it except for the basics and I wanted a fresh set of eyes. He immediately guessed it was the result of mental health issues. Perhaps the most obvious answer really is the truth.

If I were paranoid, I suspect I would keep moving and changing IDs, not just do it once. But who knows? That's just me. I am curious to know how often this type of thing happens--not just Does who kill themselves under assumed names, but people who actually change their entire identities. It's fascinating and sad.

 

[fred&edna]

RSBM

I feel like this thread is becoming ridiculous and losing any seriousness that was at one point in here. All the great information and sleuthing that had been contributed is almost diluted with the off the wall things being slung around.

Back in April (which was obviously before the ST article) I shared my thoughts that LEKR could be linked to a rapist/killer (mustard all over the place, btw). I was apprehensive when I posted my thoughts and readily admitted it seemed crazy to suggest such a thing. However, my post wasn't met with any negativity... well, at least I didn't see any . WS'ers appeared quite tolerant which was greatly appreciated Sometimes silence is golden.