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

[dvo]

I lean towards viewing LEK in a sympathetic light and "taking her side" as it were; assuming she had just cause to do what she did. But the things we know indicate that she was not a completely innocent person. She lied, experienced financial issues, severe mental issues, and broke the law at very least with respect to her identity change. Lately I have been feeling strongly that while she may have been partially motivated by issues she wanted to escape in her previous life, there must have been some sort of catalyst that made her go to such extremes and take her secret to her grave, never even sharing details about her former life with her husband. Perhaps she was in a troubled relationship and killed her abuser in self defence, panicked and ran? I know it's dramatic, but I really feel she had more to hide than just the fact that she changed her name. She had a pretty troubled life and mental state, and I think she did have something in her past that she at least worried would get her into trouble either legally, or with a scary individual or group who could cause her harm.. Have we looked in to missing persons cases or unsolved homicides of 20 something males from this time period in the states that are of interest? Again, it could have been in self defence, and she could be a completely innocent person (in that particular situation) but was just young and terrified at the time. It would make sense if she had been in an abusive relationship for several years that perhaps she had been isolated from her own family and friends for some time anyway and that is why she wasn't reported missing...sorry for my rambling!

 

[sunnynz]

I lean towards viewing LEK in a sympathetic light and "taking her side" as it were; assuming she had just cause to do what she did. But the things we know indicate that she was not a completely innocent person. She lied, experienced financial issues, severe mental issues, and broke the law at very least with respect to her identity change. Lately I have been feeling strongly that while she may have been partially motivated by issues she wanted to escape in her previous life, there must have been some sort of catalyst that made her go to such extremes and take her secret to her grave, never even sharing details about her former life with her husband. Perhaps she was in a troubled relationship and killed her abuser in self defence, panicked and ran? I know it's dramatic, but I really feel she had more to hide than just the fact that she changed her name. She had a pretty troubled life and mental state, and I think she did have something in her past that she at least worried would get her into trouble either legally, or with a scary individual or group who could cause her harm.. Have we looked in to missing persons cases or unsolved homicides of 20 something males from this time period in the states that are of interest? Again, it could have been in self defence, and she could be a completely innocent person (in that particular situation) but was just young and terrified at the time. It would make sense if she had been in an abusive relationship for several years that perhaps she had been isolated from her own family and friends for some time anyway and that is why she wasn't reported missing...sorry for my rambling!

Yes when you take a step back and ask 'why did she change her name twice?' it raises those kinds of questions. If she just wanted to break ties with her past and move to another state why wouldn't she have just stuck with the BST identity - it's a common enough name that she could have lived under it in a different state without raising suspicion.

The fact that she then changed it again makes me feel she was very scared or worried about being found.

I could understand if she acquired some debt or criminal charges as BST and then needed to ditch that ID but that doesn't seem to be the case from what we've found so far. It seems like BST was just a stepping stone for her.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Yes when you take a step back and ask 'why did she change her name twice?' it raises those kinds of questions. If she just wanted to break ties with her past and move to another state why wouldn't she have just stuck with the BST identity - it's a common enough name that she could have lived under it in a different state without raising suspicion.

The fact that she then changed it again makes me feel she was very scared or worried about being found.

I could understand if she acquired some debt or criminal charges as BST and then needed to ditch that ID but that doesn't seem to be the case from what we've found so far. It seems like BST was just a stepping stone for her.

Likely the BST identity and documents were used as a cutout, a way to add one more layer to the deception and make it more difficult to find out who she was.

Seems to have worked.

 

[mrseeker]

Likely the BST identity and documents were used as a cutout, a way to add one more layer to the deception and make it more difficult to find out who she was.

Seems to have worked.

But another odd thing, why keep the documents that shows the deception so close? She should have destroyed the Idaho ID, and everything else that showed she changed her name. I have said this before, if my wife told me not to go into a box, that is the first place i would go. She really took a chance by keeping those things in the house. Kind of makes you wonder if her husband knew something all along. He seems led around by his mother.

 

[sunnynz]

But another odd thing, why keep the documents that shows the deception so close? She should have destroyed the Idaho ID, and everything else that showed she changed her name. I have said this before, if my wife told me not to go into a box, that is the first place i would go. She really took a chance by keeping those things in the house. Kind of makes you wonder if her husband knew something all along. He seems led around by his mother.

I don't necessarily think Blake knew anything (who knows though) but I totally agree with you about the first point. Did she want the security of having that BST identity still on hand if she needed to 'run' again? Or was it just a sentimental reminder to her of how far she'd come from her past? I think the former.

 

[Gardener1850]

I go back and forth on whether I think she was hiding from something or not. The fact very few people who knew her as Lori have come forward makes me think she had no friends. Was that because she didn't trust anyone (wounds from a past) or was that because she was an anti-social personality? It seems like either or both could be the case, IMO. I'm not sure we'll ever know. I feel strangely compelled to defend her at times as well but we just don't KNOW if she was running from abuse, running from a cult, hiding due to a crime she committed or just an undocumented person who needed a way to stay in the US. I often wonder if part of the reason she married Ruff when she did was because something major happened in 2003/2004. Like the person she was hiding from died or the statute of limitations on her crime ran out. She still needed to keep a low profile because of the identity theft but maybe she felt she could get close to someone again. Though the Ruffs say she revealed very little, getting married still made her more vulnerable than if she had continued to live a solitary life. IDK.

 

[Midge Montana]

Hi folks. I was just told of this case yesterday by a friend who also issued the rabbit-hole warning! Lol.
I've been reading all day here and there throughout the various threads and will catch up eventually, but may I ask...
Has her husband worked with "us" at all to help rule out any of our guesses or provide any info at all to assist?
Are there any verified insiders here on this case?
Is "the note" that was found in the lockbox the only document released, except for the official documents like BC, DL, etc.?
Have there been any Dateline, 48 Hours, etc. episodes done on her?
Was her computer, if she used one, examined?
Have any of these phone numbers been called, any luck if so?
Sorry for the premature questions, I'm really trying to figure out where to start amongst the thousands of pages, but I'm already hooked!

 

[Gardener1850]

But another odd thing, why keep the documents that shows the deception so close? She should have destroyed the Idaho ID, and everything else that showed she changed her name. I have said this before, if my wife told me not to go into a box, that is the first place i would go. She really took a chance by keeping those things in the house. Kind of makes you wonder if her husband knew something all along. He seems led around by his mother.

The name change documents all help "prove" her ID as BST/LEK. She had to put the BST name down as an alias when filling out any official paperwork (passport application, student loans, etc.). She may have thought she would need them if she ever ran into legal trouble not related to the fraud as well. Plus, she went to some trouble to get them. Getting a BC is more difficult today and getting a state ID takes many more pieces of identification than it once did. IMO, she needed as many forms of identification as she could get to make the identity more real and keep up the charade. Even getting a PO box has become more difficult. My first PO box I ever got I went to the post office, requested the box, wrote my name on slip of paper and paid the rental fee. A few years ago I got a PO Box and I needed two forms of ID plus a copy of my lease or mortgage proving residency. She had already successfully fooled the government in order to get a name change, multiple photo ID's including a passport, student loans and filing for bankruptcy. Her biggest fear would be Blake finding them. If he did find them she could claim that she changed her name a long time ago due to her bad childhood which she had referenced vaguely before and ask not to talk about it. Even though the documents connect her with the fraud, they only do that when looked at really closely. She didn't give anyone a reason to look at them closely until she killed herself. The documents also don't connect her with her true past, or else we would all know who she really was. She was successful in continuing the fraud for over 2 decades. She had very little reason to fear keeping the documents at that point, IMO.

 

[Peachykeen]

Hi folks. I was just told of this case yesterday by a friend who also issued the rabbit-hole warning! Lol.
I've been reading all day here and there throughout the various threads and will catch up eventually, but may I ask...
Has her husband worked with "us" at all to help rule out any of our guesses or provide any info at all to assist?
Are there any verified insiders here on this case?
Is "the note" that was found in the lockbox the only document released, except for the official documents like BC, DL, etc.?
Have there been any Dateline, 48 Hours, etc. episodes done on her?
Was her computer, if she used one, examined?
Have any of these phone numbers been called, any luck if so?
Sorry for the premature questions, I'm really trying to figure out where to start amongst the thousands of pages, but I'm already hooked!

The husband and his family have not helped in any public way if that is what you mean.
There was a user that claimed to have known her in the past. He was never verified and disappeared. HIs user name was something similar to spring/summer 1988
There are some documents that have been released in a Freedom of information act request. They are mostly regarding the investigation.
I am unsure of the rest of your questions.

This can be daunting to take on this late in the game, but I did it just a few weeks ago. Good luck !

 

[Gardener1850]

Hi folks. I was just told of this case yesterday by a friend who also issued the rabbit-hole warning! Lol.
I've been reading all day here and there throughout the various threads and will catch up eventually, but may I ask...
Has her husband worked with "us" at all to help rule out any of our guesses or provide any info at all to assist?
Are there any verified insiders here on this case?
Is "the note" that was found in the lockbox the only document released, except for the official documents like BC, DL, etc.?
Have there been any Dateline, 48 Hours, etc. episodes done on her?
Was her computer, if she used one, examined?
Have any of these phone numbers been called, any luck if so?
Sorry for the premature questions, I'm really trying to figure out where to start amongst the thousands of pages, but I'm already hooked!

Welcome to the rabbit hole!
AFAIK, her husband has not posted here. There have even been some disagreements by members here on whether he truly wants her identity discovered.
A few posters here live in the Dallas area. One person claiming to know her came and made 10 posts but left and was never verified as a true insider--he or she gave us no real info to go by.
I believe all the documents can be found in the media thread. We have copies of her passport, multiple texas Id's, Idaho ID, Birth certificate and death certificate of the child whose identity she stole, A GED test result form, student loan paperwork from 1996/97, a letter of reference, a resume and a parachuting certificate. We also have copies of the investigation report which were obtained by a FOIA request and an interview with the investigator, Mr. Velling.
No major news shows have covered it yet but there has been discussion of trying to make the story go viral to attract their attention. Several members have written to various news programs and websites trying to get them to do a story on FLEK.
Her computer was searched by investigators and provided no clues. I believe members here and elsewhere have even searched her usernames and email addresses to see if she posted anything on a message board somewhere--she was all business, IIRC. Her password was Cedar. It's one of the most common street names in the US and could refer to anything.
Since we think the note was from the 1980's, calling those numbers would not be any use--most of them will not go to the same businesses and people today. I think every number on that page has be searched and discussed at length but in the end, it's hard to know for sure what some of them were for because the note has no exact date or place attached.
Try to read as much as you can. I read about 3/4 of the threads before posting and I probably posted a few theories that had already been suggested but it's hard to read everything.

 

[Gardener1850]

Anyone else feel like we should write a FAQ for this case? I had just about all the same questions as above and then some when I started reading about it.
Some other common questions: Did they test her DNA? Answer: yes--DNA came from a hair and skin samples from the mortician. It has been run against the crime databases, genealogy DNA databases and missing persons cases submitted as possible matches.
Did they find anything in an autopsy? No autopsy was preformed because it was a clear case of suicide and the identity theft was discovered much later, after she was cremated.
Did they question the family of the real BST who died in 1971? Yes. They claimed to know nothing.
Did they question the people named on the note? They questioned Ben Perkins and Kathy Jeung...I'm not sure who else was questioned.
Did they question the people who knew her as Lori Erica Kennedy? No. Velling felt it would not yield any useful info.
Was the Idaho ID fake? Velling examined it and believed it to be real.

What else?

 

[Midge Montana]

Anyone else feel like we should write a FAQ for this case? I had just about all the same questions as above and then some when I started reading about it.
Some other common questions: Did they test her DNA? Answer: yes--DNA came from a hair and skin samples from the mortician. It has been run against the crime databases, genealogy DNA databases and missing persons cases submitted as possible matches.
Did they find anything in an autopsy? No autopsy was preformed because it was a clear case of suicide and the identity theft was discovered much later, after she was cremated.
Did they question the family of the real BST who died in 1971? Yes. They claimed to know nothing.
Did they question the people named on the note? They questioned Ben Perkins and Kathy Jeung...I'm not sure who else was questioned.
Did they question the people who knew her as Lori Erica Kennedy? No. Velling felt it would not yield any useful info.
Was the Idaho ID fake? Velling examined it and believed it to be real.

What else?

Because this case is so extensive, I think an FAQ would be super helpful, MOO. I always try to catch up first, but realistically, getting current on this case will take me weeks at least, due to the excellent sleuthing you all have done. Thank you for your patience in answering my few questions. I promise to do my best to get current before I comment again, as I know how bothersome that can be. If you do an FAQ, it may help to "guide" us latecomers (by years!) toward a logical order in which to read the many threads in the sub forum. Just a loose suggestion would be great, such as...start with the long (numbered) threads first, or whichever sections you feel contain the info that is best to know from the get-go. Several of the links in the media thread are no longer available, due to age I assume.
Thanks again! Reading on.....

 

[Gardener1850]

Because this case is so extensive, I think an FAQ would be super helpful, MOO. I always try to catch up first, but realistically, getting current on this case will take me weeks at least, due to the excellent sleuthing you all have done. Thank you for your patience in answering my few questions. I promise to do my best to get current before I comment again, as I know how bothersome that can be. If you do an FAQ, it may help to "guide" us latecomers (by years!) toward a logical order in which to read the many threads in the sub forum. Just a loose suggestion would be great, such as...start with the long (numbered) threads first, or whichever sections you feel contain the info that is best to know from the get-go. Several of the links in the media thread are no longer available, due to age I assume.
Thanks again! Reading on.....

Ok, I'm sort of new to this board so I don't know if the MODS will do a FAQ thread but here are a few more questions we could add:

Do we have copies of the suicide notes she wrote? No. Those have been kept private. The investigator read them and said they contained no reference to her past. He said they were the writings of a mentally disturbed person.
Do we have any voice recordings or videos of FLEK? No.
Do we have any profile or candid photos of FLEK? No.
Do we have her dental records? No. She was cremated without autopsy.
Did she have breast implants and when did she get them? Yes. She got them after the identity change. We don't know exactly when. Were the breast implants traceable via serial numbers? No. Since she was cremated before they about the fraud any evidence was destroyed.
Did she have a nose job? We are uncertain. There is no evidence but it has been speculated she might have had one.
Did she dye her hair? We don't know.
Did she work as a stripper? We don't know. We have only rumors about that from someone online who claimed she did.
Did she have Marfans/autism/ADHD or another disorder? We don't know.
Did she actually go to college/graduate from college? We don't know. We have one year of a student loan application and we know she filed for bankruptcy the year following that application. We have her resume which seems highly embellished, possibly faked.
What were her claimed occupations? Hand model (told verbally to people), data entry (on her passport application), marketing/graphic design for a church (on her resume), Tech Support (on her resume) and Secret Shopper.
How tall was she, really? We are uncertain. Her Idaho ID said 5'6". Her Texas ID's said 5'10". Her passport said 5'11". The mortician put her at 5'8". Most lean towards the taller heights being more accurate because of photos of her with other people.
Does she have any actual connection to Arizona, California, Washington or Idaho? We don't know.
Was her father really a (failed) stock broker? We don't know. That's the only story about her family she told.
Were the owners of the house listed on her Idaho ID questioned? Yes. They claimed to not know her.

 

[dvo]

Because this case is so extensive, I think an FAQ would be super helpful, MOO. I always try to catch up first, but realistically, getting current on this case will take me weeks at least, due to the excellent sleuthing you all have done. Thank you for your patience in answering my few questions. I promise to do my best to get current before I comment again, as I know how bothersome that can be. If you do an FAQ, it may help to "guide" us latecomers (by years!) toward a logical order in which to read the many threads in the sub forum. Just a loose suggestion would be great, such as...start with the long (numbered) threads first, or whichever sections you feel contain the info that is best to know from the get-go. Several of the links in the media thread are no longer available, due to age I assume.
Thanks again! Reading on.....

Welcome! Your instinct is right; reading all the old general threads preceding this one will get you caught up. I started obsessing about this case only a year ago, which is as good as yesterday compared to the truly dedicated sleuths here. I don't think everyone follows the "specialty" threads and therefore there is a lot of duplication of info/theories on this thread, and most of the in-depth discussion ends up here anyway. On that note, I have had the feeling that there are some really good thoughts and questions raised on the specified topic threads that haven't necessarily been thoroughly dug into because not as many people post on those, so having fresh eyes go through them and bump them, or bring the not-so-throughly investigated leads over to this thread, could be very worthwhile!

 

[CaseCracka]

I'm actually trying to find a reason for her to have NOT been in Pennsylvania, because that library location included on this sheet of paper makes no sense to me. There is no area code. Just because the Penn library is the only one that comes up in a google search of that number doesn't mean it is the only library in the country ever to have that phone number. The law office with no area code was in Inglewood. There was a Pacific Bell office building in Inglewood that was expanded during the 1980's and that number might have gone there at that time. http://www.thecentraloffice.com/calif/la/lap/lap.htm
We don't know what the "These Eyes" number without area code means at all. Though people have speculated it was the name of a photo shoot (and I favor this interpretation)....for all we know she doodled that while on hold listening to the song "These Eyes" playing on the hold music. My point is, I think all the numbers without area codes could indicate a place she lived for a time--Inglewood, CA being top on my list. I tried looking for a California phone directory from the 1980's and could not find one online. Ancestry's Inglewood phone books only go to 1964.

You are correct though we have no context. Was the note written the same day? Over the course of weeks? Months? Years apart? Where was it written? When was it written? IDK. IMO, it's seems unlikely she started in Penn, wrote down the number to the library, then that paper had to travel with her all the way to the West Coast where weeks or months later she wrote the other numbers not needing an area code and also a bunch of LA numbers outside the area code she happened to be in. Then again, maybe I'm trying to force context where there is none. Maybe she kept every scrap of paper and reused it for years. It's all a mystery.

These Eyes was linked to Kathy Jeung and Visages. It's almost definitely the one we believe it to be. The phone number thing is interesting. I live in an area code near 610 and that library. I remember in about the mid 90s, we needed to start dialing the area code to call anyone in it. Before that, you could dial the 7 digits and get your local call sent. To me, that suggests, possibly, that she was from the area and new the number quite well?

 

[CaseCracka]

Okay this is interesting, I kind of forgot about this because I was very young when the changed happened. So back in the 1980s, people in Chester County (where the library is) and where I lived (Montgomery County) used the same area code. In 1993, the 610-area code was introduced, so actually, that number would have been a 215 area code in the 80s.

http://articles.philly.com/1993-01-06/news/25961771_1_new-area-three-digit-prefixes-area-code

To me, this states a deep familiarity with Eastern Pennsylvania. Why? Because that number, out of area code, would have needed to have been dialed by adding the area code out of Eastern Pennsylvania. Additionally, after January 1st, 1995, that number would have had to been dialed using current format. I'm working on looking at chester county phone book from the 80s just to confirm number.

 

[mrseeker]

These Eyes was linked to Kathy Jeung and Visages. It's almost definitely the one we believe it to be. The phone number thing is interesting. I live in an area code near 610 and that library. I remember in about the mid 90s, we needed to start dialing the area code to call anyone in it. Before that, you could dial the 7 digits and get your local call sent. To me, that suggests, possibly, that she was from the area and new the number quite well?

Go back a few pages and look at Gardener1850's side by side of known Ruff writing and that note. I think Gardener has put together a good case that the note was written by someone else. So this scrap of paper might have belonged to someone close to her. I have not seen anywhere that the husband or his family say this looks like her writing. It could be, but if she did, her writing style seems to be unique to this paper and not her other documents. Something on that paper had to mean something on the day she kept it. Personally I think it looks more like a man's scribble with the exception of These Eyes entry. But these eyes is consistent with the letter E at least that Gardener points out.

I think the name Perkins is an interesting angle. Either she, or the note writer, is looking for a lawyer named Perkins. Or perhaps a family member named Perkins. I notice the Ben Jr entry and the Jennifer Perkins entry are kind of aligned like they were written on the same day. Also the phone companies fall into that. Also the note writer writes Ben Jr, and then adds Perkins. Like they might know Ben Jr or Sr and the last name was not important. It's also possible the writer was pretending to be someone else when calling these people, fishing for information about a person, or court case, or legal issue. But I do think writing Ben Jr first, must mean familiarity and the addition of Perkins is an afterthought.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

But another odd thing, why keep the documents that shows the deception so close? She should have destroyed the Idaho ID, and everything else that showed she changed her name. I have said this before, if my wife told me not to go into a box, that is the first place i would go. She really took a chance by keeping those things in the house. Kind of makes you wonder if her husband knew something all along. He seems led around by his mother.

True, the sensible path would have been to destroy all those documents. There was no logical reason for the box to exist, but that presupposes someone acting logically. FLEK probably wasn't. The issues that led to her death may have been going on a long time.

She left us one clue that none of us can investigate; her mitochondrial DNA. I think this will be solved if and when her daughter is of age and chooses to do a test with a commercial DNA lab. CODIS is not much help in cases like this.

It baffles me that not one CREDIBLE person has claimed to know her, pre-FLEK.

 

[Linda9681]

Go back a few pages and look at Gardener1850's side by side of known Ruff writing and that note. I think Gardener has put together a good case that the note was written by someone else. So this scrap of paper might have belonged to someone close to her. I have not seen anywhere that the husband or his family say this looks like her writing. It could be, but if she did, her writing style seems to be unique to this paper and not her other documents. Something on that paper had to mean something on the day she kept it. Personally I think it looks more like a man's scribble with the exception of These Eyes entry. But these eyes is consistent with the letter E at least that Gardener points out.

I think the name Perkins is an interesting angle. Either she, or the note writer, is looking for a lawyer named Perkins. Or perhaps a family member named Perkins. I notice the Ben Jr entry and the Jennifer Perkins entry are kind of aligned like they were written on the same day. Also the phone companies fall into that. Also the note writer writes Ben Jr, and then adds Perkins. Like they might know Ben Jr or Sr and the last name was not important. It's also possible the writer was pretending to be someone else when calling these people, fishing for information about a person, or court case, or legal issue. But I do think writing Ben Jr first, must mean familiarity and the addition of Perkins is an afterthought.

Ben Jr had a daughter in LA that died. I can find ZERO info on HOW she died. Her first name was Denise. I saw her pic and info on Ancestry. Pics from Ben Jrs funeral are also on there. I have always said and stick to the idea that Ben Perkins was a huge part of all this. If we could figure out HOW we may just get a break. He was interviewed about her by Velling but if he was shady, I doubt he would have admitted much. He has a brother that lives in Jackson MS. The coroner info we just discussed is VERY interesting to me and really could be what she meant by Laciner. I think we know some of the players, we just don't know the game. I also think the Princeton, TX address from the unclaimed funds could be very important. I wish I had time to follow that up!! Princeton lies just NE of Dallas, and is a rocks throw where she settled with Blake ( Lenard, TX). Princeton is sorta " trashy" compared to surrounding towns. I live about 18 minutes from there.


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[Gardener1850]

Ben Jr had a daughter in LA that died. I can find ZERO info on HOW she died. Her first name was Denise. I saw her pic and info on Ancestry. Pics from Ben Jrs funeral are also on there. I have always said and stick to the idea that Ben Perkins was a huge part of all this. If we could figure out HOW we may just get a break. He was interviewed about her by Velling but if he was shady, I doubt he would have admitted much. He has a brother that lives in Jackson MS. The coroner info we just discussed is VERY interesting to me and really could be what she meant by Laciner. I think we know some of the players, we just don't know the game. I also think the Princeton, TX address from the unclaimed funds could be very important. I wish I had time to follow that up!! Princeton lies just NE of Dallas, and is a rocks throw where she settled with Blake ( Lenard, TX). Princeton is sorta " trashy" compared to surrounding towns. I live about 18 minutes from there.


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I went back and reread but I'm having trouble finding where you posted the Princeton address. If you PM it to me I'll do some digging on it today. Thanks! I feel like we are close to discovering something important.

Ignore this request. I got the address PM'd to me by another helpful member I'll see what I can find.