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

[sunnynz]

No luck on finding a yearbook photo from Arkansas. Sorry.

Agree, the first couple of posts seem like the genuine ones. I found this pic of a Becky

K from 1981

 

[Gardener1850]

Agree, the first couple of posts seem like the genuine ones. I found this pic of a Becky

K from 1981

Wow that photo does look like a young FLEK.

 

[Harriet]

Ooh, I just found the blogger's father is a pilot too. He received a prestigious award from the FAA in 2013. This is getting interesting. Could be the reason FLEK lived near airports if she had a family of pilots.

I looked up the bloggers email. She runs a quilting group at the Presbyterian church. Following that I looked up the church's archived newsletters going back to 2010 and each advert about the quilting group had another advert underneath for a genealogical society which held meetings in the same place. The library is located in the church!

Sure this is nothing but intriguing all the same. Probably FLEK met her and knew her and the blogger advertised her services as a favour. Interesting coincidence though.

 

[sunnynz]

No luck on finding a yearbook photo from Arkansas. Sorry.

I found a pic and posted it here but it got deleted. It's for a BK, year is 1981 Valley View High, Jonesboro, she was in 9th grade that year. In the class pic she kiiind of looks like FLEK around the eyes and has a similar smile but the pic is too low res for me to zoom in and really get a good look. There is another pic of her in a junior science club which again is tiny but I think really looks like FLEK's ID ID from a distance.

* sorry I see now my post didn't get deleted but here is extra info on the high school for anyone who wants to check it out

 

[sunnynz]

I looked up the bloggers email. She runs a quilting group at the Presbyterian church. Following that I looked up the church's archived newsletters going back to 2010 and each advert about the quilting group had another advert underneath for a genealogical society which held meetings in the same place. The library is located in the church!

Sure this is nothing but intriguing all the same. Probably FLEK met her and knew her and the blogger advertised her services as a favour. Interesting coincidence though.

Yes I agree with your hypothesis that they maybe met through church and the blogger helped FLEK out. It is odd though the way the dates of the blogs work, as though the mentions about FLEK's mystery shopping were posted to give her some credibility in that space, rather than genuine posts which happened at the actual time that the mystery shopping projects were running.

Regardless, this blogger seems like someone who knew FLEK and I see that someone has already posted a comment on one of the sites asking if she knew her so hopefully that person will post back here with any answers they get.

I am happy to email the blogger and ask her directly unless anyone has already done that? I just want to ask what memories she has of her beyond what we know - interests, accent, personality quirks, etc.

Harriet and Gardener, this is your find though so if you want to do it instead let me know and I will stay away.

 

[sunnynz]

And on the mystery shopping thing - I know this was all discussed some years back but this link http://forum.volition.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24529&SearchTerms=an,eye,for,detail really casts aspersions on the legitimacy of FLEK's business. Do we know that her projects were actually genuine? If so, how do we know?

I wonder if the AEFD business was a bit of smoke and mirrors to give Blake the appearance that she had a business that was giving her her income. That might be really unfair on her, and I haven't really dug deep enough into it to know. I'm just thinking aloud.

 

[Gardener1850]

Yes I agree with your hypothesis that they maybe met through church and the blogger helped FLEK out. It is odd though the way the dates of the blogs work, as though the mentions about FLEK's mystery shopping were posted to give her some credibility in that space, rather than genuine posts which happened at the actual time that the mystery shopping projects were running.

Regardless, this blogger seems like someone who knew FLEK and I see that someone has already posted a comment on one of the sites asking if she knew her so hopefully that person will post back here with any answers they get.

I am happy to email the blogger and ask her directly unless anyone has already done that? I just want to ask what memories she has of her beyond what we know - interests, accent, personality quirks, etc.

Harriet and Gardener, this is your find though so if you want to do it instead let me know and I will stay away.

If you feel like emailing her, please go for it! I feel a little too shy to do that. She has two different email addresses the one on her blog currently and also a gmail address that is her first name last name at gmail dot com. She used the gmail one on her blog in 2008. I wonder if the interest in this case scared her off the internet completely? I cannot find a facebook or other social media that is hers. But if she is still alive it would be nice to have some answers on if she knew FLEK personally.

ETA: there is someone by her same name on staff at Texas Women's University. Ironically, she runs the Criminal Justice Club there. I'm not sure if she is the same person as the blogger, however. If she is her, she might have given up blogging to work full time and that's why she is not online. I only mention it in case you don't get an answer from her blog emails you might try the university one if you are so bold. Thanks!

 

[Gardener1850]

And on the mystery shopping thing - I know this was all discussed some years back but this link http://forum.volition.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24529&SearchTerms=an,eye,for,detail really casts aspersions on the legitimacy of FLEK's business. Do we know that her projects were actually genuine? If so, how do we know?

I wonder if the AEFD business was a bit of smoke and mirrors to give Blake the appearance that she had a business that was giving her her income. That might be really unfair on her, and I haven't really dug deep enough into it to know. I'm just thinking aloud.

There may well really be legit mystery shopping opportunities but my experiences attempting it many years ago was that most "businesses" like the one FLEK claimed to run just sell your email address to other companies who then spam your account. I would not be surprised if she made some money but the money she made was from selling other people's info and collecting ad revenue from a blog (the blog we are discussing in this thread used to have paid ads on it according to the web archive). Plus, most legit mystery shopping assignments don't pay you anything. They only reimburse you for the product you bought. If you find a genuine opportunity it is nice you get free latte or meal out but you are not going to make enough to live on from doing surveys and mystery shopping. All MOO/YMMV.

 

[Gardener1850]

I looked up the bloggers email. She runs a quilting group at the Presbyterian church. Following that I looked up the church's archived newsletters going back to 2010 and each advert about the quilting group had another advert underneath for a genealogical society which held meetings in the same place. The library is located in the church!

Sure this is nothing but intriguing all the same. Probably FLEK met her and knew her and the blogger advertised her services as a favour. Interesting coincidence though.

Oh gosh you are probably right and this was just a friend of FLEK's. Things they have in common: mystery shopping, tea parties, and a possible connection to genealogy and church. Do we know if Lori liked to sew? This blogger had a sewing website at one time called sewing365. Her domain is now owned by GoDaddy. She also used to make shopping cart covers and sold the pattern online. Her shoppingcartcover website is taken down or purged as well.

 

[Gardener1850]

I don't know why I didn't check her shopping cart cover website before this but I just ran it through archive.org and found it was up and functioning from 2002 until 2012. She had quite a legit-looking business selling seat covers and monogrammed items online for 10 years. I wonder if the interest in her covers dried up or she just went on to other things. We can add to the list of common interests building websites. She not only built 2 business websites, she also built a website for the Garland Quilt Guild in 2011. She either has more talent in building websites than FLEK or she had a professional build her shoppingcartcover website. So I'm now willing to concede she is NOT FLEK but I think she may have known her or been related to her still. I hope she won't let the interest in Lori keep her from building another business if she wants to do that again.

 

[Harriet]

Yes I agree with your hypothesis that they maybe met through church and the blogger helped FLEK out. It is odd though the way the dates of the blogs work, as though the mentions about FLEK's mystery shopping were posted to give her some credibility in that space, rather than genuine posts which happened at the actual time that the mystery shopping projects were running.

Regardless, this blogger seems like someone who knew FLEK and I see that someone has already posted a comment on one of the sites asking if she knew her so hopefully that person will post back here with any answers they get.

I am happy to email the blogger and ask her directly unless anyone has already done that? I just want to ask what memories she has of her beyond what we know - interests, accent, personality quirks, etc.

Harriet and Gardener, this is your find though so if you want to do it instead let me know and I will stay away.

I am fine with you emailing as I am shy too and have a long run of shifts coming up so will be checking this thread on my phone and probably not posting much.

 

[BigCityAccountant]

Originally Posted by Darknagel090260
I not sure if anyone has looked in to this but could she have been in Job Corps. There was a job corps about 30 minutes out side of Boise she would have been in the age range to be there and most of the kid there had a hard time in life. So could that be something to look in to .. I did post a photo of her and some basic info on there group page on facebook

DArk, thanks, and especially thanks for sharing an FLEK photo with an additional group!!!

We need to get something prior to Becky Sue Turner and you may have opened that door for us.

Hi All! :seeya:

I've been searching a few different angles myself...LOL

In any event, can someone tell me where the post is? I think there are several.

 

[Gardener1850]

Originally Posted by Darknagel090260
I not sure if anyone has looked in to this but could she have been in Job Corps. There was a job corps about 30 minutes out side of Boise she would have been in the age range to be there and most of the kid there had a hard time in life. So could that be something to look in to .. I did post a photo of her and some basic info on there group page on facebook



Hi All! :seeya:

I've been searching a few different angles myself...LOL

In any event, can someone tell me where the post is? I think there are several.

If you are asking about Darknagel090260's posts about the job corps thing--he or she posted more in the BST and related thread: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?215592-Becky-Sue-Turner-and-related/page29
If you are asking which group the photo was posted to, then Dark will have to answer that.

 

[Gardener1850]

Here's a bizarre search result I found that I cannot understand nor explain. I searched the blogger's email address from her blog and found it connected with words from a poem about a twin sister that died in a car accident. But this website, I'm not sure what it is, it's garbled and I don't understand why her email is there. I'm not going to post the website I found this partial poem and her email address on because it's such a weird URL. I'm concerned it might be a virus site or something, although my virus detectors did not alert. The email to search is her name at gmail and you will find it.

I searched for the poem from the first line and found it posted here: http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/death-of-twin-sister
But none of the comments seem to be the blogger unless she used a different name to comment on the post. Maybe the poem is posted elsewhere. Can anyone find a comment on this poem elsewhere by the blogger or someone that sounds like FLEK? I know someone joked about FLEK being a twin, but if I found out this blogger was her twin I would not be at all surprised at this point.

I think I figured out her connection to the twin poem. She has twin daughters. On the web archive of one of her old websites I found an entire page with poems and sayings about twins. She was saving them for a scrapbook for her daughters. I think she might have linked to this poem at one point but then when she deleted the page the connection became garbled and produced the website I found. I feel stupid for jumping to the conclusion she was FLEK's twin now. :doh:

 

[NDMagoo]

There may well really be legit mystery shopping opportunities but my experiences attempting it many years ago was that most "businesses" like the one FLEK claimed to run just sell your email address to other companies who then spam your account. I would not be surprised if she made some money but the money she made was from selling other people's info and collecting ad revenue from a blog (the blog we are discussing in this thread used to have paid ads on it according to the web archive). Plus, most legit mystery shopping assignments don't pay you anything. They only reimburse you for the product you bought. If you find a genuine opportunity it is nice you get free latte or meal out but you are not going to make enough to live on from doing surveys and mystery shopping. All MOO/YMMV.

Actual paid mystery shoppers definitely do exist (or at least did a decade or so ago). I used to work at a store that sold phones, and one of the wireless companies would periodically send mystery shoppers to evaluate our performance. If I recall, they worked for some sort of mystery shopping company, which was contracted out by corporations to monitor how their products were being sold by retail employees.

 

[llywrch]

ETA: there is someone by her same name on staff at Texas Women's University. Ironically, she runs the Criminal Justice Club there. I'm not sure if she is the same person as the blogger, however. If she is her, she might have given up blogging to work full time and that's why she is not online. I only mention it in case you don't get an answer from her blog emails you might try the university one if you are so bold. Thanks!

Well my Google-fu sucks (as usual), but that page at twu was the only one I could find about her. And I can confirm they are the same person, because it has the same image as on her Blogger pages. In fact, it was the way I found her twu page: when I entered the subject's name into Google, I saw the subject's photo at the top under "Images for [subject]", followed that link, & came to her twu page which has a short bio/cv for the subject & other Graduate students. Since the page was last update May of this year, I figure this person is currently in the graduate program there.

This is one lead/rabbit hole I don't remember seeing anyone investigating before. Even if it doesn't help identify LEK, at least it's fresh information.

 

[Gardener1850]

Well my Google-fu sucks (as usual), but that page at twu was the only one I could find about her. And I can confirm they are the same person, because it has the same image as on her Blogger pages. In fact, it was the way I found her twu page: when I entered the subject's name into Google, I saw the subject's photo at the top under "Images for [subject]", followed that link, & came to her twu page which has a short bio/cv for the subject & other Graduate students. Since the page was last update May of this year, I figure this person is currently in the graduate program there.

This is one lead/rabbit hole I don't remember seeing anyone investigating before. Even if it doesn't help identify LEK, at least it's fresh information.

Thanks! Doh, I had found the picture before but couldn't find it again. The picture from the university being used on the blog is what started me down this rabbit hole in the first place. I thought it might be a sock blog that FLEK had created. After further investigation, this is not a case of a sock, IMO. She is just someone who decided late to delete all her photos from the web except that one. The photo is a very old one. I'm still hoping she knew FLEK somehow since she had so much in common with her and has an uncanny resemblance in her other pictures.

 

[milkymama]

And on the mystery shopping thing - I know this was all discussed some years back but this link http://forum.volition.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24529&SearchTerms=an,eye,for,detail really casts aspersions on the legitimacy of FLEK's business. Do we know that her projects were actually genuine? If so, how do we know?

I wonder if the AEFD business was a bit of smoke and mirrors to give Blake the appearance that she had a business that was giving her her income. That might be really unfair on her, and I haven't really dug deep enough into it to know. I'm just thinking aloud.

She seems to have had some actual clients - her business has around $800 in funds on the unclaimed property site in Texas. If you go here and enter "an eye" in the search field, it will come up.

 

[Gardener1850]

Actual paid mystery shoppers definitely do exist (or at least did a decade or so ago). I used to work at a store that sold phones, and one of the wireless companies would periodically send mystery shoppers to evaluate our performance. If I recall, they worked for some sort of mystery shopping company, which was contracted out by corporations to monitor how their products were being sold by retail employees.

I know there are people who do mystery shopping. I have also worked at places where mystery shoppers came in to evaluate us on the sly. We figured out who was a mystery shopper in most cases because companies would require them to do certain things like ask a question or order something with a special request. I just have not known anyone personally that has made a living off of mystery shopping. Most people who do it view it as a hobby and are in it for the freebies and extras they get. Again, just my experience and maybe there are mystery shoppers out there making big bucks but I've never met one.

 

[Gardener1850]

She seems to have had some actual clients - her business has around $800 in funds on the unclaimed property site in Texas. If you go here and enter "an eye" in the search field, it will come up.

I had not seen this before! Thanks milkymama.

ETA: It's a Texas bank reporting the missing funds from 2014 so I wonder if that is what she had in her business banking account when she died. Sad.