Hello everyone. I have been lurking for a while and reading the main threads for this case.
The resemblance of FLEK to 20-year-old Terry Turner is jaw-dropping. She just has to be related to him somehow.
This is how I see the case. Twenty-something FLEK knows about the family tragedy of "Uncle" Terry's three daughters dying in a fire. FLEK, for whatever reason, wants to start a new life. She sends for the birth certificate for BST, and she is sent a copy. When I lost my birth certificate and needed to request a new, certified copy, I had to provide the full names of my father and mother (including her maiden name), and their birth dates. This information may have been common knowledge in the Turner family.
Perhaps she got the bright idea to use the birth certificate of a dead baby from one of the "How to Change Your Identity" books out at the time.
So, once she has the birth certificate, she applies for the ID in ID (hah!). She is totally psyched that her plan is working, and her excitement shows in the photo. She's getting away with it! Then she uses the BST identity to change her name to LEK and get a Social Security number. It would not have been unusual at the time for a teenager to request an SSN. I did not get my SSN until I had to register for college.
Why did she want to change her identity? Well, when you're 18 you just love drama, even if your real life is only just mundane, or maybe even a little bad or disappointing. She probably thought getting a new identity would be so incredibly cool, the perfect (theatrical) way to shed her past and get a clean start.
About the lock-box, I have read posts questioning why she kept the BST identity. I think she kept the it "just in case" she needed to switch identities again down the road. (This again is the thinking of a very young person, who does not yet have ties to a place such as a college degree, friends, husband, and a child.)
When her FLEK world starts unraveling, she thinks about possibly using the BST birth certificate and the ID ID to start another new life. She writes down the three columns of numbers in order to figure out how old the Turner parents (M and D) would be at that time (in case she is ever asked). She doesn't have a calculator handy, so she writes out the age progressions by hand, and screws up one calculation (hence, three calculations). I was born in 1965, and I learned how to do math without a calculator (all the way through Calculus, ugh!). It would not be unusual for someone around FLEK's age to jot down numbers to do some simple math instead of stopping to find a calculator. Also, this way of figuring out age seems very frantic and basically brainless, in keeping with her disordered state of mind.
When it comes time to actually do the deed and skip out on the FLEK life, she just can't do it. In her crazy mind, she thinks killing herself is the best way out. No loose ends, no open doors, just be done with the whole thing. That way, the kiddo won't try to find her mom when she turns 18 or whatever.
My conclusion: FLEK is a close relative to BST's parents. She was already starting to to display disordered, theatrical thinking by about age 18, and she decides the perfect way to get out of her life is to go through a complete identity change, starting with BST's birth certificate.
My theory does not answer why FLEK kept a mail drop in NV. Could she have been getting money from someone who knew about her plan?
Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the length of this post!
The resemblance of FLEK to 20-year-old Terry Turner is jaw-dropping. She just has to be related to him somehow.
This is how I see the case. Twenty-something FLEK knows about the family tragedy of "Uncle" Terry's three daughters dying in a fire. FLEK, for whatever reason, wants to start a new life. She sends for the birth certificate for BST, and she is sent a copy. When I lost my birth certificate and needed to request a new, certified copy, I had to provide the full names of my father and mother (including her maiden name), and their birth dates. This information may have been common knowledge in the Turner family.
Perhaps she got the bright idea to use the birth certificate of a dead baby from one of the "How to Change Your Identity" books out at the time.
So, once she has the birth certificate, she applies for the ID in ID (hah!). She is totally psyched that her plan is working, and her excitement shows in the photo. She's getting away with it! Then she uses the BST identity to change her name to LEK and get a Social Security number. It would not have been unusual at the time for a teenager to request an SSN. I did not get my SSN until I had to register for college.
Why did she want to change her identity? Well, when you're 18 you just love drama, even if your real life is only just mundane, or maybe even a little bad or disappointing. She probably thought getting a new identity would be so incredibly cool, the perfect (theatrical) way to shed her past and get a clean start.
About the lock-box, I have read posts questioning why she kept the BST identity. I think she kept the it "just in case" she needed to switch identities again down the road. (This again is the thinking of a very young person, who does not yet have ties to a place such as a college degree, friends, husband, and a child.)
When her FLEK world starts unraveling, she thinks about possibly using the BST birth certificate and the ID ID to start another new life. She writes down the three columns of numbers in order to figure out how old the Turner parents (M and D) would be at that time (in case she is ever asked). She doesn't have a calculator handy, so she writes out the age progressions by hand, and screws up one calculation (hence, three calculations). I was born in 1965, and I learned how to do math without a calculator (all the way through Calculus, ugh!). It would not be unusual for someone around FLEK's age to jot down numbers to do some simple math instead of stopping to find a calculator. Also, this way of figuring out age seems very frantic and basically brainless, in keeping with her disordered state of mind.
When it comes time to actually do the deed and skip out on the FLEK life, she just can't do it. In her crazy mind, she thinks killing herself is the best way out. No loose ends, no open doors, just be done with the whole thing. That way, the kiddo won't try to find her mom when she turns 18 or whatever.
My conclusion: FLEK is a close relative to BST's parents. She was already starting to to display disordered, theatrical thinking by about age 18, and she decides the perfect way to get out of her life is to go through a complete identity change, starting with BST's birth certificate.
My theory does not answer why FLEK kept a mail drop in NV. Could she have been getting money from someone who knew about her plan?
Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the length of this post!