TX - 'Lori Ruff', Longview, WhtFem UP9863, *General Discussion and Theories* #3

[llywrch]

"Erica" was used from the beginning as a middle name on her name change court decision, passport application etc. but, interestingly enough, not used on her SSN application.

The court decision had been the week before (5 July 1988) she filed her SSN application (12 July 1988), & the next day when she obtained her Texas ID card (13 July 1988) she supplied her middle name. Maybe she'd only decided on Lori Erica Kennedy a few weeks before (or less) she applied for a SSN & she had forgotten which middle name she picked when she filled out the application.

Speculating further...

One thing that we have all assumed is that LEK moved to the Dallas area in July 1988; what if she had moved there before that month? What made me wonder is the username "Spring/Summer 1988" picked, which makes better sense if S/S1988 had first met her in March or April, not July 1988.

If that is correct, that leads to another question (as is always the case here): why did LEK say she moved to the Dallas area July 1988? Building on S/S1988's reminiscences, maybe that was the month LEK's mother -- the woman S/S1988 says LEK was living with -- died. If so, knowing that her mother was likely to die soon, & having no other links to her past life, it was during those last months that she took the steps to assume her new identity -- which included selecting a new name.

If we could compile a list of all women who died in Irving, Texas July 1988 we might find a link to LEK's birth name. And solve the mystery.

Then again, this is just as likely to be another wild speculation about this case. And maybe even more incorrect than any other theory about her. I can't help wondering that if there was anything to S/S1988's story, & if he did tell agent Velling about knowing her, that agent Velling would have solved & closed the case before retiring.

 

[jslk]

I'd be intrigued to know on what grounds TT offered up the FH connection and how he suggested they might know the whole story?! It's a very tantalising detail.

 

[Beezneez]

Does anyone have an ancestory account? I just did a quick search on their Texas death records from 1903-2000, specifying 1988 as the exact year of death in Irving, Dallas Texas and females. It returned over 50,000 results. If someone has an account maybe there is a way to refine the search further? I'm thinking of including a year of birth, options for marital status, survived by daughter... Nothing so specific we might exclude too many people. Also, you need an account to look at the records of any returned name.

 

[Linda9681]

I would specifically look in lewisville tx or a town connected to it.


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[CoverMeCagney]

Does anyone here feel they're close to cracking this case? And if so which theory do you think has most potential?

I ask because I dip in quite regularly but it's confusing as I think some posts get deleted and there are clearly things which can't be discussed.

 

[Beezneez]

Is that the town spring/summer mentioned? It might be best to open up the location to the general Dallas area & look month by month instead. I'll have to look around later on my computer, I'm just looking on my phone now. Also, I doubt there would be much of an obit, since LEK was so weird about not announcing the wedding in the paper. The whole "we don't do that" thing is coming to mind. If we are going down this route we need to remember it's going to be almost unusual in the lack of obit, viewings, memorial services, etc mentioned. it might also be helpful to search by specific first names- Lori, Laura, Erica, what did LEK name her daughter? I think it is mentioned in her obit but I'm not posting it in case it's out of TOS.

 

[Laughing]

Some locations run a Death Notice column?

With all the secretive actions by FLEK, the deceased may be an aunt or other female relation, or not a blood relative at all.

I do agree that narrowing down the list of older women who passed away in Irving or Lewisville ( hey,and why Lewisville?) is a good research path for us.

:seeya:

 

[Linda9681]

Because that is where the woman who contacted me who knew her lived.. My guess is FLEK lived within driving distance of they worked/ went to school together( she never clarified which it was)..


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[CoverMeCagney]

Because that is where the woman who contacted me who knew her lived.. My guess is FLEK lived within driving distance of they worked/ went to school together( she never clarified which it was)..

Fill me in on this woman - does her story fit with the one SS1988 told us?

(has anyone checked if ss1988 ever checked back in here?)

 

[south fishy]

I just searched under my Ancestry account, and approx. 80 older females died between March and July 1988 in Longview, TX. No names are tied to anything familiar in this case, so not sure how these records could help us further? ( they are SSA death records)

 

[Sherwood Park]

I just searched under my Ancestry account, and approx. 80 older females died between March and July 1988 in Longview, TX. No names are tied to anything familiar in this case, so not sure how these records could help us further? ( they are SSA death records)

Those names might be helpful to others who have been doing searches on their own but haven't been able to post additional information or details other than initials due to respecting the WS policies about who can and cannot be named and "sleuthed".
Part of the difficulty is not being to openly name certain people. I agree with WS policy on names, but for sure it makes it a challenge in a case like FLEK's.

S/S 1988's timeline didn't quite match up to what little was already known, but as I had mentioned during that time, FLEK is a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction, so it can be difficult to tell what is true vs false from FLEK. S/S 1988 may have been telling the truth, but the big question is whether or not FLEK was telling S/S 1988 the truth.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Having a little browse on other sites, did Cynthia (aka Lori) Perry get discussed here?

 

[Linda9681]

I just searched under my Ancestry account, and approx. 80 older females died between March and July 1988 in Longview, TX. No names are tied to anything familiar in this case, so not sure how these records could help us further? ( they are SSA death records)

FLEK did not live in Longview until after she got married. I doubt that is the town you should be looking at.


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[Beezneez]

Yes & I feel like there was some significant reason she has been discounted... CP had a tattoo of a heart on her arm (https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/8281/190) I think the Ruffs & Velling that would have probably mentioned if LEK had a tattoo or scarring from its removal. Otherwise I was pretty onboard that it could be her.
*a look at the Internet for a lot of the missing girls considered as potential matches is discouraging. Perry, Kim Mallon are both young women who vanished & there is no one actively looking. No family still it there, nothing. It makes you understand how easy it would have been for LEK to do what she did.

 

[llywrch]

Does anyone have an ancestory account? I just did a quick search on their Texas death records from 1903-2000, specifying 1988 as the exact year of death in Irving, Dallas Texas and females. It returned over 50,000 results. If someone has an account maybe there is a way to refine the search further? I'm thinking of including a year of birth, options for marital status, survived by daughter... Nothing so specific we might exclude too many people. Also, you need an account to look at the records of any returned name.

Someone may want to try that query again. In 1990 Irving, TX had a population of 155,037 (according to the US census apud Wikipedia); 50,000 deaths would be about a third of the population in a city that size. For that many people, let alone women, to die, we are talking a major epidemic, such as Plague, Ebola, or Spanish Flu. My knowledge of recent Texas history is admittedly incomplete, but I figure I would remember hearing of an epidemic striking down a third of Irving.

I'd expect a numeric result closer to a few thousand. Still a large number to work thru, but far more manageable.

 

[Beezneez]

It wasn't an exact search. The results returned for 5 years on either side of 88 & I'm sure areas further out of the geographic area. On my phone & not having an account limited my search, which is why I asked...

 

[llywrch]

S/S 1988's timeline didn't quite match up to what little was already known, but as I had mentioned during that time, FLEK is a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction, so it can be difficult to tell what is true vs false from FLEK. S/S 1988 may have been telling the truth, but the big question is whether or not FLEK was telling S/S 1988 the truth.

It's not that LEK "s a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction", but that the facts are so sparse, that she was unwilling to talk about herself, & there are a lot of misunderstandings about her.

Take another instance, one where LEK had no input about it. According to her mother-in-law, LEK would not let anyone hold her baby daughter but herself. However, if you look at LEK's photos at the Texas Business Woman of Bonham and Fannin Counties, she is not holding her daughter, who would have been 20-23 months old. Where is the little girl? Either LEK had a baby sitter, or the girl was in the room off-camera, but in both cases LEK could let someone else look after the little girl.

I'm thinking that the mother-in-law exaggerated here. Maybe LEK simply didn't want any of her inlaws to hold her daughter for some reason, not that she was overly protective. And if she exaggerated here, how many more errors are there. Somehow I don't think LEK's husband has Asperger's Syndrome quite as obviously as the article makes it seem; I know from personal experience the average engineer is not as odd as he is made to appear.

The more I look at the provided facts of this case, the more I feel we need a fresh examination of the eye-witnesses. It's beginning to be clear that the Seattle Times article has some mistakes & omissions in it. Agent Velling might not have even talked to the Ruffs; he focused his investigation on the earliest parts of her life he could find, where there was some possibility someone might know her birth name, not the last parts where no one did. And by overlooking the later parts, he may have missed clues that would solve this case.

I'm not criticizing agent Velling here. He is far more experienced an investigator than I could be, & in 99+% of the cases his approach would get answers. And if he had the time & resources he might have taken the time to work up a biographical profile of LEK to see if it yielded any results. However this is a minor case, probably on the level of a misdemeanor, & had a congressman not asked a favor even the few hours Velling spent on it might not have happened. Now that he's retired, I bet this case will end up in the SSA equivalent of the cold case files & unless someone makes an identification no further work will be done on it.

 

[llywrch]

It wasn't an exact search. The results returned for 5 years on either side of 88 & I'm sure areas further out of the geographic area. On my phone & not having an account limited my search, which is why I asked...

Sorry if I was rude; I didn't mean to be. And you did good taking a look. But the number was just so far off, I figured either you made a mistake with the interface (which happens to me the first few times with any new application), or Ancestry.com really crippled the feature (which it appears they did).

FWIW, I try to find out when BST's parents divorced, but found nothing. Of course, I assumed the divorce happened in Washington State & before 1988 -- which it might not have been. So the free version of these tools aren't that great of examples of what they can do, making them lousy advertisements.

 

[Sherwood Park]

It's not that LEK "s a little bit of truth and a whole lot of fiction", but that the facts are so sparse, that she was unwilling to talk about herself, & there are a lot of misunderstandings about her.

Take another instance, one where LEK had no input about it. According to her mother-in-law, LEK would not let anyone hold her baby daughter but herself. However, if you look at LEK's photos at the Texas Business Woman of Bonham and Fannin Counties, she is not holding her daughter, who would have been 20-23 months old. Where is the little girl? Either LEK had a baby sitter, or the girl was in the room off-camera, but in both cases LEK could let someone else look after the little girl.

I'm thinking that the mother-in-law exaggerated here. Maybe LEK simply didn't want any of her inlaws to hold her daughter for some reason, not that she was overly protective. And if she exaggerated here, how many more errors are there. Somehow I don't think LEK's husband has Asperger's Syndrome quite as obviously as the article makes it seem; I know from personal experience the average engineer is not as odd as he is made to appear.

The more I look at the provided facts of this case, the more I feel we need a fresh examination of the eye-witnesses. It's beginning to be clear that the Seattle Times article has some mistakes & omissions in it. Agent Velling might not have even talked to the Ruffs; he focused his investigation on the earliest parts of her life he could find, where there was some possibility someone might know her birth name, not the last parts where no one did. And by overlooking the later parts, he may have missed clues that would solve this case.

I'm not criticizing agent Velling here. He is far more experienced an investigator than I could be, & in 99+% of the cases his approach would get answers. And if he had the time & resources he might have taken the time to work up a biographical profile of LEK to see if it yielded any results. However this is a minor case, probably on the level of a misdemeanor, & had a congressman not asked a favor even the few hours Velling spent on it might not have happened. Now that he's retired, I bet this case will end up in the SSA equivalent of the cold case files & unless someone makes an identification no further work will be done on it.

Thank you for your response. I don't mean to imply that FLEK ran around telling people lies, it appears she simply remained quiet about a lot of basic information (Necessary when you have put so much energy into changing your identity) and here we are trying to fill in the blanks with as many facts as possible unfortunately built on theories. The best that any one can do right now. But when you have to keep so many secrets sometimes it is necessary for one to tell a lie or two to protect one's original identity (e.g. age, birthplace, etc.)

Regarding watching her daughter, FLEK was a married mother, her husband might have been the one watching their child. Those pictures might have been a time when she wasn't yet in a downward spiral mentally.

 

[LaLaw2000]

If the family knows, then the government knows too, and we should be able to get answers via the "freedom of information act."

Not if the Ruff's had hired their own PI to track down her identity and the information was kept private by them!

JMO