TX - 'Lori Ruff', Longview, WhtFem UP9863, *General Discussion and Theories* #4

[creepedout]

Edited to add: Can I have some salt and pepper for my crow? I still have to wonder about her choice to live on this road.

I'm not sure if that's truly her or not, but it is quite unusual.

 

[velvetmonologue]

Thank you for this. There is one issue, we don't know if the person who posted knows proper grammar.. So we can't assume either way


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh totally - I too was thinking that as I typed my response, but at the same time (as a person who doesn't necessarily always use perfect grammar myself), I was so surprised that people interpreted it as someone signing off as Sandy rather than addressing someone named Sandy. My thought process is that this is very basic grammar, so I believe it is more likely that the person posting meant to address LEK as Sandy. Also, as someone else pointed out, before posting your message there is an option to show your username or add a name if you wish to have one displayed. Well, I truly hope that nobody takes offense to my pointing this out as my intention isn't to judge or split hairs over grammar or semantics. I may be overly analytical (but I guess that's why we are all here, right?) I just genuinely think that it is more probable that someone was addressing her as Sandy, and I think that could potentially be significant. It compelled me because this case is, of course, so mysterious; I can't help but wonder, is this a huge lead in plain sight? It has been taunting me since I read it. I wonder if the investigators are able to work on finding out who created the account on findagrave.com... is this considered a criminal investigation even though LEK is deceased? I can only imagine that would be the only way they could gain access.

 

[sunnynz]

I just genuinely think that it is more probable that someone was addressing her as Sandy, and I think that could potentially be significant. It compelled me because this case is, of course, so mysterious; I can't help but wonder, is this a huge lead in plain sight? It has been taunting me since I read it. I wonder if the investigators are able to work on finding out who created the account on findagrave.com... is this considered a criminal investigation even though LEK is deceased? I can only imagine that would be the only way they could gain access.

There is a Lt Haddix at the Gregg County Sheriff's who is apparently in charge of the case. So that's interesting that he is now the apparent lead instead of a social security agent.

 

[sunnynz]

I came across this by accident just now. Has this record ever been discovered and/or investigated?

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJ62-3YTX

The dates make no sense compared to when she was apparently in Idaho getting the false ID. But the address is identical.

There's also this, but I'm not sure if it's related:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJPH-72PT

There's also marriage records for Becky Sue Turner in Clark County NV in 1988 and 1995, but I'm not sure if they're the same person:

https://familysearch.org/search/rec...es" +record_subcountry:"United States,Nevada"

I know the marriage record has been discussed because I brought it up - it didn't really ignite much here on the forum except that we kind of pondered over whether she continued to live as BST (or use that identity for some things) even after she took on the Lori identity.

I personally haven't seen the other two Idaho records and I think these are very interesting because they point to the fact that she may well have been living as BST in Idaho during the years that she then later on tried to pretend she'd been living as Lori in Texas.

Idaho is a location which again reinforces a Turner/Howder connection just purely due to geography and I'm now interested to do some more digging in Idaho as it's not somewhere I've really focused my attention.

 

[Gardener1850]

So I've been trying to research the families mentioned and I stumbled upon something I thought might be of interest. We've been wondering why she would have a PO box in Boulder City, NV. Well, there is a cemetery there: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nv/clark/cemeteries/bouldcem.txt

And this made me think-- what if she stole another ID from this cemetery? There are a few Turners, a few Kennedy's but the name that I immediately searched for was Lori. There are three Lori's on the page. One died in 1986. One in 1990 and one in 2002. So far I have only looked up the yearbook photo for the one who died in '86. I think she is dead ringer for FLEK! There is both a head shot and a color picture of her in a cheerleading uniform. The color picture shows she is tall and it's obvious she dyed her hair blonde as she had dark roots and dark eyebrows.
If anyone with an ancestry account wants to look her up she's at Gahr High School in Cerritos, California (which is a suburb of Los Angeles). In all my yearbook sleuthing, this is the closest match I have found to FLEK.

I could use your sleuthing skills! I tried to find out if this Lori B. from the yearbook was still alive someplace else or some other record of her death. She is only listed on the website I linked above, findagrave and in a Nevada death index. I did NOT find a SS death record for her. Plus, her mother is buried next to her and died the same year. From everything I've learned from studying this case those things make for an easy ID theft target. Someone with the same name (Lori B.) got married in Las Vegas in 2003, which would seem to exclude her from being an alias FLEK used but it would have technically been possible for FLEK to marry in 2003, then return to Texas and meet Blake in 2004. I'm running into walls trying to locate this other Lori's husband from Vegas because he shares the name of a British Actor. Help!

 

[newfiedee]

Hi Everyone , ive been looking at this young girl Kimberly Alice who went vanished from michigan 1979,she very tall at 12 years old did some research she has a sister Konnie king - Beyma and sister Kathie Lucas father was Harold King . They were living with her grandmother Anna Laura King at the time she diappeared.. there has never been any mention of her mother or her name .. In some articles and posters she is discribe as being brown hair and other blonde and other about her eyes being brown or blue
..what do you think


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/king_kimberly.html

 

[Gardener1850]

So I've been trying to research the families mentioned and I stumbled upon something I thought might be of interest. We've been wondering why she would have a PO box in Boulder City, NV. Well, there is a cemetery there: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nv/clark/cemeteries/bouldcem.txt

And this made me think-- what if she stole another ID from this cemetery? There are a few Turners, a few Kennedy's but the name that I immediately searched for was Lori. There are three Lori's on the page. One died in 1986. One in 1990 and one in 2002. So far I have only looked up the yearbook photo for the one who died in '86. I think she is dead ringer for FLEK! There is both a head shot and a color picture of her in a cheerleading uniform. The color picture shows she is tall and it's obvious she dyed her hair blonde as she had dark roots and dark eyebrows.
If anyone with an ancestry account wants to look her up she's at Gahr High School in Cerritos, California (which is a suburb of Los Angeles). In all my yearbook sleuthing, this is the closest match I have found to FLEK.

I could use your sleuthing skills! I tried to find out if this Lori B. from the yearbook was still alive someplace else or some other record of her death. She is only listed on the website I linked above, findagrave and in a Nevada death index. I did NOT find a SS death record for her. Plus, her mother is buried next to her and died the same year. From everything I've learned from studying this case those things make for an easy ID theft target. Someone with the same name (Lori B.) got married in Las Vegas in 2003, which would seem to exclude her from being an alias FLEK used but it would have technically been possible for FLEK to marry in 2003, then return to Texas and meet Blake in 2004. I'm running into walls trying to locate this other Lori's husband from Vegas because he shares the name of a British Actor. Help!

Something weird is going on with Lori B's mother Audrey B as well, IMO. She also has no SS death record that I can find and I found a strange Obituary placing her death just about a month after FLEK married BR in 2004 and her age about the same as Lori B. http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/MIKALAMA/2004-02/1076201976
I found address records which place Audrey B. in Alabama and Michigan but no actual birth record or death record and again no SS death record. Also the name given as her parents is one I have found to be associated with a Turner family in Idaho, but I'm far from finding a clear connection. Am I losing my mind to think these are additional ID theft cases? Have I stumbled on some big? I can't tell.

 

[Gardener1850]

Hi Everyone , ive been looking at this young girl Kimberly Alice who went vanished from michigan 1979,she very tall at 12 years old did some research she has a sister Konnie king - Beyma and sister Kathie Lucas father was Harold King . They were living with her grandmother Anna Laura King at the time she diappeared.. there has never been any mention of her mother or her name .. In some articles and posters she is discribe as being brown hair and other blonde and other about her eyes being brown or blue
..what do you think


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/king_kimberly.html

I see it a little in her eyebrow shape and eyes but it's so hard to compare children's pictures to adult pictures.

 

[Gardener1850]

I'm going to attempt to post a picture. I'm fairly certain that this Lori B. is buried in Boulder City, NV if she is not FLEK--meaning I found no others living with her name. I also did not find a birth certificate or a death certificate or SS death record. So your guess is as good as mine. Does this look like FLEK to anyone else?

 

[llywrch]

I need to go back and re-read but I'm not sure we even have evidence she actually went to those colleges. We have her student loan application (correct? did I dream this, now I can't find it) and evidence she filed for bankruptcy for failure to pay the loans back. For all we know, she could have managed to take out the loans, live it up on the loan money and not worry about working for a few years. Or she used the money to live on and laid low until she was more certain she would not be found by whoever she was hiding from. Do we have her name listed in a graduation program anywhere? Do we have her picture on a student ID? Do we have a picture of her diploma(s)? No, we have GED test results and her resume which could be fake. We also have a parachuting certificate, which is not a cheap hobby, IMO. And after all those years in college, not one person that remembers her? Not one teacher or fellow student she might have studied with? No roommates coming forward with stories? Just one guy who claims he was her boyfriend when she was a dancer and that "she had too many problems". If she was getting money illegally or doing drugs, how did she manage to do that for 22 years without being arrested once? She didn't even have a parking ticket as far as we know...I have to wonder if she grew more paranoid as technology increased and video cameras increased and everyone started posting photos of things as mundane as business meetings online...And if her age was really much older than she claimed she must have worried about how to explain her early menopause and aging going on...Just random thoughts I'm having...I don't think she had Aspergers...I do agree she seems like a mentally unstable person--results of all the years of lies and/or trauma from what she was ran from?--MOO.

I don't think anyone has actually verified if LEK graduated, but she claimed she had on her resume, & the family has said they found her college records in her personal papers after her death. (They were in another file drawer that she told B not to look in. Sorry I don't remember the post this was shared in, but I know it was in "General Discussion and Theories" #3 thread.) So the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong that she went to those college & graduated; if she hadn't I would expect that either Velling or the Ruffs would have said so since that would be another clue.

And it's very easy to think she had a chronic, long-term mental illness, due to the lack of a personal history & her notorious end. But when I looked at all of the meager evidence for her life in the Houston area, nothing really stood out: she lived in some sketchy apartments at the beginning -- but anyone new to a city would do that -- & while she moved once a year to a new address, they were always to a better apartment (based on Yelp reviews) & once she moved to a decent one she stayed there for several years. They portray a person who, while struggling with paying bills, wasn't exactly poor or living the high life off of stripping. In many ways LEK was very average & unremarkable -- like countless thousands of other young women living in the Houston area.

And she did get a speeding ticket. I posted some of the information here back in December. The resulting discussion provides a lot more information.

As for the fact that no one remembers her... we have had the occasional person who dropped in, said they remembered her as a casual acquaintance, then vanish. (And then there's Spring/Summer1988. Form your own opinion about that those posts.) So it's not as if she were a complete ghost. Yet you have touched on an important point: LEK had no known close friends. Any she had after marrying B would have been contacted by Velling or the Ruffs, & mentioned at some point. And none have come forth from her time before she was married. All of which suggest she was either one of those people who was difficult to get along with, or maybe tended to blend into the background. (Sometimes I think I fall into one of these two groups.) The people who knew her best probably either haven't heard about her suicide & her mystery, or haven't connected the LEK they knew with the one who killed herself, & would hardly consider themselves more than acquaintances.

If there was any stress in her life, IMHO it wasn't because she was hiding from her old life, but due to lack of any substantial personal connection to other people. Loneliness can harm one's health, both physical & mental. And IMHO, only someone who had problems making substantial personal connections with other people would sever all connections to her previous identity as well as LEK had, & leave everyone else with a mystery.

I wouldn't be surprised if this case ends up like one of those famous & baffling mysteries like the Roanoke colony or the Mary Celeste, ​puzzling armchair detectives for generations.

 

[Gardener1850]

I don't think anyone has actually verified if LEK graduated, but she claimed she had on her resume, & the family has said they found her college records in her personal papers after her death. (They were in another file drawer that she told B not to look in. Sorry I don't remember the post this was shared in, but I know it was in "General Discussion and Theories" #3 thread.) So the circumstantial evidence is pretty strong that she went to those college & graduated; if she hadn't I would expect that either Velling or the Ruffs would have said so since that would be another clue.

And it's very easy to think she had a chronic, long-term mental illness, due to the lack of a personal history & her notorious end. But when I looked at all of the meager evidence for her life in the Houston area, nothing really stood out: she lived in some sketchy apartments at the beginning -- but anyone new to a city would do that -- & while she moved once a year to a new address, they were always to a better apartment (based on Yelp reviews) & once she moved to a decent one she stayed there for several years. They portray a person who, while struggling with paying bills, wasn't exactly poor or living the high life off of stripping. In many ways LEK was very average & unremarkable -- like countless thousands of other young women living in the Houston area.

And she did get a speeding ticket. I posted some of the information here back in December. The resulting discussion provides a lot more information.

As for the fact that no one remembers her... we have had the occasional person who dropped in, said they remembered her as a casual acquaintance, then vanish. (And then there's Spring/Summer1988. Form your own opinion about that those posts.) So it's not as if she were a complete ghost. Yet you have touched on an important point: LEK had no known close friends. Any she had after marrying B would have been contacted by Velling or the Ruffs, & mentioned at some point. And none have come forth from her time before she was married. All of which suggest she was either one of those people who was difficult to get along with, or maybe tended to blend into the background. (Sometimes I think I fall into one of these two groups.) The people who knew her best probably either haven't heard about her suicide & her mystery, or haven't connected the LEK they knew with the one who killed herself, & would hardly consider themselves more than acquaintances.

If there was any stress in her life, IMHO it wasn't because she was hiding from her old life, but due to lack of any substantial personal connection to other people. Loneliness can harm one's health, both physical & mental. And IMHO, only someone who had problems making substantial personal connections with other people would sever all connections to her previous identity as well as LEK had, & leave everyone else with a mystery.

I wouldn't be surprised if this case ends up like one of those famous & baffling mysteries like the Roanoke colony or the Mary Celeste, ​puzzling armchair detectives for generations.

Thanks, I was not aware they had her partial college transcripts. IMO the resume was intentionally vague as to whether she graduated and when. Here it is to look at it again: http://old.seattletimes.com/html/localpages/2021243300_janedoeevidence.html I noticed that she did not write a graduation date. She wrote "Bachelors degree in Business" and a line that said she was currently taking computer science classes. That wording plus the fact that there is no such thing as just a "Bachelors Degree in Business" at UTA led me to believe she didn't graduate. She would have had to choose a B.S., B.A. or B.B.A. for her degree for one thing and choose a concentration (Accounting, Marketing etc). See their list here: http://wweb.uta.edu/business/ugadvise/degrees.aspx If I were a prospective employer I would interpret that line about still taking classes as she had not yet completed her Bachelors degree. YMMV.

I read your excellent sleuthing of the speeding ticket after writing my above post. Thanks for all your legwork on that! I guess running into so many dead ends in this story I have begun to question everything. I was even started to wonder if she forged the GED test results. I have compared the signatures of the GED test Examiner, the witness for her parachute class and the Roger Steinbeck who signed her letter of reference. I'm no handwriting expert but I thought it was interesting how these three signature appear to have nearly the same slant and appear to be written by a light hand. It's almost as if they might have all been written by the same person (someone associated with FLEK, who helped her maybe?). Lori's signatures are the opposite, written by a heavy hand and not very consistent in some of the lettering--she has two different ways of making K's and two different ways of making L's and at times she capitalize her E. Though I don't doubt she signed then all because they are the same style of writing, IMO. She was very dedicated to keeping her identity a secret that and that is all I'm certain of for now. Everything is MOO.

 

[Gardener1850]

So I've been trying to research the families mentioned and I stumbled upon something I thought might be of interest. We've been wondering why she would have a PO box in Boulder City, NV. Well, there is a cemetery there: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nv/clark/cemeteries/bouldcem.txt

And this made me think-- what if she stole another ID from this cemetery? There are a few Turners, a few Kennedy's but the name that I immediately searched for was Lori. There are three Lori's on the page. One died in 1986. One in 1990 and one in 2002. So far I have only looked up the yearbook photo for the one who died in '86. I think she is dead ringer for FLEK! There is both a head shot and a color picture of her in a cheerleading uniform. The color picture shows she is tall and it's obvious she dyed her hair blonde as she had dark roots and dark eyebrows.
If anyone with an ancestry account wants to look her up she's at Gahr High School in Cerritos, California (which is a suburb of Los Angeles). In all my yearbook sleuthing, this is the closest match I have found to FLEK.

I could use your sleuthing skills! I tried to find out if this Lori B. from the yearbook was still alive someplace else or some other record of her death. She is only listed on the website I linked above, findagrave and in a Nevada death index. I did NOT find a SS death record for her. Plus, her mother is buried next to her and died the same year. From everything I've learned from studying this case those things make for an easy ID theft target. Someone with the same name (Lori B.) got married in Las Vegas in 2003, which would seem to exclude her from being an alias FLEK used but it would have technically been possible for FLEK to marry in 2003, then return to Texas and meet Blake in 2004. I'm running into walls trying to locate this other Lori's husband from Vegas because he shares the name of a British Actor. Help!

Just tacking this on here: https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=3lEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4118,2398691&hl=en
Probably total confirmation bias on my part as I search for this mysterious Lori B with no records trying to prove she could be LEK. The picture is not clear but it resembles her, IMO, she's in Prescott, AZ AND she saved a baby's life--an event that would explain her extreme protectiveness when she had her own baby in 2008. I know, I know it's all speculation and no hard evidence. For one thing, she would have had to go from getting her TX drivers license in July of 1988 to living in AZ two months later to save the child's life on Sept 6. Possible? Yes. Likely? IDK. She did a lot of unlikely things in my not so humble opinion. Only Caveat I have is that the records for the Lori B who lived in AZ at that time have a different middle initial and a different birth year completely from the Lori B on the gravestone ranging from 1967-69 vs 1960. Yet strangely THAT Lori B with that age range from 1967-69 only seems to show up in AZ. I'm having trouble finding her with the same birth date elsewhere or even any actual documents for her. So I don't know what to make of Lori B at all.

 

[BigCityAccountant]

I came across this by accident just now. Has this record ever been discovered and/or investigated?

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJ62-3YTX

The dates make no sense compared to when she was apparently in Idaho getting the false ID. But the address is identical.

There's also this, but I'm not sure if it's related:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJPH-72PT

There's also marriage records for Becky Sue Turner in Clark County NV in 1988 and 1995, but I'm not sure if they're the same person:

https://familysearch.org/search/rec...es" +record_subcountry:"United States,Nevada"

I explored this very early on. It appears there were 2 Becky Sue Turner's in Idaho. One was married to a Conolty and then married a Swanson. I believe she was born in May 1966 and has a son Jeff. : (

I also did some digging on the name Sandy. I looked at all of the Sandy's that went missing from the 70's thru '92 (in the off chance she wasn't reported missing right away) IMHO, I didn't find any that would match FLEK, some came close, but as the old saying goes "Close only counts in horseshoes". : (

I'm off to see if I can find a missing mom with a son name Jack during that time.

 

[Fukiyama]

I'm going to attempt to post a picture. I'm fairly certain that this Lori B. is buried in Boulder City, NV if she is not FLEK--meaning I found no others living with her name. I also did not find a birth certificate or a death certificate or SS death record. So your guess is as good as mine. Does this look like FLEK to anyone else?

I don't think they are the same person. The cheerleader's smile ends at sharp points where her lips meet. FLEK's smile looks like an oval. The rest of the face of the cheerleader does resemble FLEK, but it doesn't jump out at me enough for me to think they are the same person.

 

[kat913]

You know I wonder if she "happened to walk away" from a mental health facility and that is why she kept a low profile...not wanting to go back? Just a thought...there are quite a few MP who were last seen in a hospital.

 

[Gardener1850]

I don't think they are the same person. The cheerleader's smile ends at sharp points where her lips meet. FLEK's smile looks like an oval. The rest of the face of the cheerleader does resemble FLEK, but it doesn't jump out at me enough for me to think they are the same person.

Thanks for the input! Hmm...I was thinking they have the same crooked/off center smile. It's hard to see in these small pics so here's a side by side with just the heads:

 

[Gardener1850]

Also there is roughly 10 years between those pics--the cheerleader was in high school in 1977 and the BST photo was 1988.

 

[DJmultiplecats]

Is the cheerleader deceased? What is the theory...that this is FLEK's true identity and then she faked her death?

I agree that the dates are off age wise and the cheerleader has a much more delicate jaw area as well as a different mouth shape. Those features can't change much with surgery.

 

[HerStory]

You know I wonder if she "happened to walk away" from a mental health facility and that is why she kept a low profile...not wanting to go back? Just a thought...there are quite a few MP who were last seen in a hospital.

I could be wrong, after several years of sleuthing fogs and dusty dirt trails..... Wasn't there a mental health facility near the address she used in Boise?

 

[kat913]

This is a complete long shot...absolutely is...but does anyone see resemblance in this picture (mom maybe)?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/giusti_sharon.html

and her two girls (1 yr old and 10mos) went missing as well...would make a good story!!