TX - Longview, WhtFem (UP 9863), 41-50, Suicide - Assumed Identity, Dec'10

[AstroKitty]

The BPD could also tie into the way house was kept if she was having a rough patch, I know myself with my BPD if things are getting too much I just sit on my and do pretty much nothing.. That lack of motivation can be awful.

The BPD could also explain the pastor session where she's trying to get BR back to the point of all the notebooks etc. we do suffer abandonment issues.

It could also very well explain her reluctance to advertise the marriage etc. I know with me I couldn't give a rats about celebrating stuff (unless its for my kids) to the point I refused to celebrate my 30th recently

BPD could explain some of her weird behaviors for sure! And it certainly could help with the stripping having BPD because of our wonderful ability to disassociate from things..

Absolutely 100%. You also just explained me. I celebrate nothing other than what i have to because of kids. something about holidays bothers me. So weird how we are ALL so alike.

 

[Bsublime]

It has long been speculated on this thread that FLEK suffered from Marfan Syndrome. It seems unlikely to me that he really did have the disease because it seems like this is something people would talk about and because it is an autosomal dominant disease, it would be such a strong lead in discovering her family (many family members would also have it). It is a rare disease affecting about 1 in 10,000 people so about 200,000 people in the U.S. have it. So that would really narrow down the search for her family. From my research, it sounds like many people have no idea they have it and there have been several cases of high profile athletes who had no idea until they had a sudden heart attack. So FLEK and he family may not have even known.

However, I thought I would summarize some of the research I did on Marfan’s and FLEK
1) FLEK had unusually long fingers or “Arachnodactyly” (see photos of FLEK holding the dreamcatcher in the Texas Business Woman’s meeting). This is one of the key features of Marfan’s.
2) She’s was tall. Her Idaho ID card says she is 5’6” which isn’t all that tall, her Texas license says she is 5’10” and her passport application says she is 5’11”. In the livechat interview they say that her medical records say she is 5’8”. She does look tall in her photos, definitely more than 5’6. I did find one medical diagnostic that recommended that all women over 5’10” be screened for Marfan (but it also recommended that for all men over 6’0” be screened and that does not seem all that tall for a man to me).
3) FLEK had breast implants (ST article). Because she was linked to being a stripper it is assumed she did this to increase her tips. However, one of the symptoms of Marfan’s that may be present is either an indented or protruding breast bone. It is common for sufferers to have corrective surgery for health and/or purely cosmetic reasons.
4) Heart problems. This one confuses me. If you look at the time line/facts that has been put on here you see the line “Widely speculated in the WS community that she might have Marfan syndrome. Correlates with genetic marker for heart disease, height, large hand size and mental health issues.” I think the second sentence is saying that Marfan’s correlates with a genetic marker for heart disease. I don’t think there is any evidence that FLEK was tested for or was ever reported to have heart disease. Someone please correct me if I am wrong but after this excellent timeline was put together, I started seeing people talk about how FLEK had a genetic heart disease marker and I don’t think there is any evidence for that.
5) It has been stated that FLEK had a dental plate (post #1692 but no reference to where they heard it. I searched but couldn’t find it anywhere but I might have missed it) and in the photo with her in the hat holding the baby her teeth look gaped and it has been speculated that she had her teeth capped or wore veneers (post #886 and #887 and more recently). Many people with Marfan syndrome have narrow jaws and high, arched palates, which can create dental and orthodontic problems.
6) Most people with Marfan’s suffer from some ocular problems. Do we know if she wore glasses or contact lenses? I have never heard this mentioned or seen a photo of her wearing glasses. Someone brought up that her Texas driver’s license had a restriction on it which may mean she did have vision problems
7) Fertility problems (ST article). FLEK had at least one miscarriage and was only able to conceive her child via IVF. There is no link between Marfan’s and infertility. However, a woman with Marfan’s would be at high risk for having a heart attack during delivery and the entire pregnancy would be treated as high risk. But there is nothing medically to link her miscarriages to possibly having Marfan’s.
8) FLEK used IVF to have her child. If conceived naturally, there would be a 50% chance of that child also having Marfan’s. It is now possible to use IVF to select embryo’s that do not have the gene for Marfan’s and selectively implant those embryo’s. In Texas, and in with a reportedly very Christian family, this practice probably would have been very frowned upon. It seems unlikely that they would have opted for this, but could explain why no one is saying that she has the disease.
9) If she had the disease, there is a 50% chance that her daughter also had the disease. This could be the only reason for keeping quiet about her having this disease that I can think of. The R family wants to protect the privacy of the child.
10) Marfan’s would be a strong link to her family and I would think because this is a missing person’s case and there is no real crime involved other than using a fake SSN there is no reason for them to withhold information that would be such an identifier.
11) There is a National Marfan Syndrome Clinical Database. This would contain protected patient information and would not be accessible. However, posting on the National Marfan Foundation might be a good way to see if anyone has a missing family member that could be FLEK.

Sorry for the length, but a lot of connect thoughts

 

[Sulamith]

Regarding her teeth, it is also the only picture where she is not clenching her teeth together in a forced grin. Somebody here mentioned that she might have had an overbite, so when she clenched her top teeth over the bottom teeth it hid the gap in earlier pictures. It could be that combined with the lighting of the picture and maybe she just had tea and ate blueberry pie (or something) that stained her teeth.

Hi mrskeev, Welcome!! As for MSM (main stream media), this story really hasn't gotten enough attention to draw out those who might have known her. I have sent in suggestions to the LA Times, several Texas newspapers and CNN suggesting that they run the story. Maybe if more people report it, one of the larger shows will pick up the story.

I live in a tiny town around 100 miles from Longview. We have a few small papers around here (report mostly County news) and I was thinking about contacting them to see if they will run the story. A lot of people where I live have ties to Longview. But, I am clueless. Can you please tell me what you wrote to the newspapers? Can you name the Texas newspapers you sent your suggestion into?

Can another newspaper just copy the Seattle Times article? What about copywrite? Like I said I am clueless!

I also thought about printing the SS admin. "poster" of LR, if I can find it, and see if I can post it in shop owner's windows. Please tell me I did not dream that "poster" up! LOL!

TIA!

 

[AstroKitty]

with marfan- unless you have genetic testing along with an echo cardiogram + MRI and the Dr's diagnosis - you'd never know.

my son has it and is 18, we literally just found out 2 months ago! He's obviously had it his entire life. If it hadn't been a new GP asking if he had it (he has scoliosis) and persuading me to do all the above tests.. he would have aged out of our insurance and never knew. i think it's an "obvious" disease but i'm not sure all GP's look for it. Or if she'd share that she had it. I have no idea where my son got this as no one on either side that we know of has it.

 

[AstroKitty]

Oh and to add; my son doesn't have the concave chest but he does have huge feet - size 12 and he's 6 ft 4in - fit and his hands don't look elongated as some cases. His feet are also flat which is another "sign" of Marfan. I don't know a lot about it still, it's rather new to us. but if we made it 18 years with 2 different PED dr's not even bringing it up - it's possible it happened to her too.

 

[SideKick]

that was another group that did that. I saw that too, but didnt want to confuse us. there are TONS of groups like them, like the jesops that were in texas.

- Ah! Right. I realize realized that as well but we're talking a cult situation in similarity in which, I found, may correlate to LEK's possible dancing era/practices within this insane cult enviro.

 

[SideKick]

totally off topic but you probably saved me 18k because i rather buy this than get all new veneers. so thank you!

Her smile looks fake. Her 'perfect' white smile does not look natural, I would tend to believe she wore a veneer or something. Her younger photos are white, straight teeth, the one holding her child throws me, as if she didn't wear it for the pic. Just strange!

 

[AstroKitty]

I think the one with the child (the hat photo) was scanned from a direct print. The other photographs look like they are pictures of a picture. The pixelation is way off. if the pixels are low quality and taken a bit away - it could LOOK like her teeth are pearly white and straight. Maybe she tried invasalign? for some reason, I think if she had extensive dental work - it would be mentioned and looked into. It's not cheap to get cosmetic dentistry & insurance won't cover it. They mentioned her boob job and "possible" nose job, so I don't think they'd hesitate to mention the teeth JMO

 

[mrskeev]

Just a thought, I was looking at the passport application and was struck by something. Do you think that the birth dates that she used for the Turners could be actual birth dates of her actual parents? Maybe not the year but the day and month? Birth dates are hard to remember as it is and I would think that random made up ones would be even harder to remember. Maybe she used the real birth dates to keep her from getting tripped up.
Also on the age calculation notes LR created I know some have speculated that there may be a third person she was trying to figure out the age for because there was a third set of dates. I think possibly the third set of numbers was also for the mother. Like she was trying to figure out how old she would be if her birthday was before July 18th she would have just turned 22 but if she was born after July 18th she would be turning 23. If she were using her actual parents birth dates and her actual mother was born in December like the passport app. says then Mrs. Turner would be turning 23 in 1969. Probably totally out there but who knows.

 

[ClaireNC]

(snipped)
4) Heart problems. This one confuses me.
5) It has been stated that FLEK had a dental plate

Hi Bsublime! Welcome! Thanks for your very informative post on Marfan's syndrome. It was very helpful. I cut your post down to the few timeline facts that I might be able to address. As for heart problems, it was the DNA testing that as performed after she died that showed she had one of the genes associated with coronary artery disease. The talk about a dental plate is purely speculation based on the change in the appearance of her teeth in the picture where she is wearing the pink dress and hat, compared to earlier pictures. There is no proof that she had a dental plate.

 

[MrsTigglesworth]

Bsublime, the heart disease being discussed I believe was from detective V's live chat on the Seattle times website. She was found to carry the gene when her DNA was reviewed.

And.. To answer the question about the article...it was released to the AP, so I think anyone is welcome to run it (with credits )

I haven't posted in a while, but am still here, searching yearbooks I am happy to see so many new members and great ideas! Keep it up!

 

[AngelaE8654]

totally off topic but you probably saved me 18k because i rather buy this than get all new veneers. so thank you!

I've actually seriously thought about getting this as well. Never had braces but my teeth aren't too crooked but they are a tiny bit yellowed from having tetracycline when I was a kid. Straight, white teeth has always seemed very attractive to me.

 

[Bsublime]

Snipped
As for heart problems, it was the DNA testing that as performed after she died that showed she had one of the genes associated with coronary artery disease.

I just went back and read the livechat again, just to make sure. There is no reference there to heart disease. Velling just says that they mito DNA and STR autosomal DNA. Neither of those would tell you about heart disease. You would have to actually do specific genetic testing for specific mutations in a gene to find something like that.

I do think it is coming from the speculations about Marfan's followed by a list of Marfan symptoms, and not a known fact. I will keep looking to where this was first mentioned to see if I can trace it back though.

 

[mandiedq]

BPD angle: My sister has this. She is not on medication or in therapy, so I'm seeing it without those filters. One of the common traits is the categorizing of people as "good" or "bad." Someone in our family has been on the bad list for years. Currently we are all on that list so she's not talking to anyone.

BPD could explain why she just up and left her entire family. BUT you'd think someone would be missing her! (Although, it is kind of a relief to be on the 'bad' list for a spell to get a break when your loved one is not medicated or in therapy for their illness.)

 

[martie82]

I didn't just speculate about the plate; I would swear I saw it somewhere as being something Blake said. But since I can't find it anywhere, and neither can anyone else, it can just be dropped. It doesn't particularly back anything up that I've said, and I might suppose she could have a false tooth or two anyhow as it's not unusual. That info was just thrown in as extra back-up, and I'm not exactly sure what a plate is anyhow. I think it can be any number of things. BTW: The much-discussed gap shows in more than one picture, the one with the pink hat, of course, and one of the earlier ID pictures where she is extremely tan and her hair is pulled back but not in a pony tail, more of a modified half and half. I don't want to open a second window right now because I'll lose the post. My laptop is real touchy. I think it was one of the Texas driver's licenses.

 

[Bsublime]

Who would think I would wind up sleuthing on WS site. There are so many posts. Anyway, I traced back the heart disease lead. It is from the Foxnews article.

"DNA taken from the body might also help crack the case. Hair pulled from the woman's head had skin on it that helped forensic investigators learn she had one of the genes associated with coronary artery disease."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/2...tery-three-years-after-suicide/#ixzz2Ybdu7xDf

Still makes me wonder. Why would they test for a gene for coronary artery disease? Did they test for anything else? Is it just me who thinks this is weird?

 

[trixandhoney]

I personally think her teeth are incredibly different from the ID photos to the pink hat picture. I can't imagine how smiling with clenched teeth would make that much of a difference. I think she must have usually worn veneers and didn't for the pink hat photo. In general she looks quite different in the pink hat photo - even in the last drivers license photo she looks more like the early pictures, despite the weight gain. So what was up when that picture was taken? Is that a clue?

I also feel that Velling likely has more info than he is disclosing at this time. If there were papers with her writing scattered all over the house, why show only one piece? How does he know which were important and which were ramblings of a woman come undone? Why not include any interviews with her friends or coworkers for another perspective, either to confirm or deny what little the Ruffs have said? What else was in the lockbox? Maybe there are crucial identifying details that are purposely being withheld. Details that a family member would surely know, and therefore he/she'd be able to prove legitimacy should he/she come forward. There is also a part of me that feels like this is a one-sided piece of sensationalism. I know many of you feel the same sympathy toward Jane Doe. It makes me sad. She has no voice.

 

[toscaxyz]

Still makes me wonder. Why would they test for a gene for coronary artery disease? Did they test for anything else? Is it just me who thinks this is weird?

There are genetic tests available that can give information about a person's ancestry and the presence of a large number of putative disease risk markers. 23 and Me is one commercial service that offers this test to anyone who wants it (and can pay for it).

I don't know if it is routinely used by LE, but maybe the family paid for it when they were trying to figure out just who LEK was. Or possibly LEK underwent genetic testing as part of her infertility workup. That would be pretty common, too, though I don't know if they test for heart disease markers.

The heart disease thing may be a red herring anyway. They don't say which marker of heart disease they found. There are many of these, some very common, some very rare. A rare one might point to a particular ethnic origin.

 

[martie82]

Saying that she has a gene for coronary artery disease doesn't stand out as being very defining unless she comes from a family that is easily recognizable by it -- say at early ages. So many people have coronary artery problems.
On another note, it must have been horrible for her to go through the breakup because she didn't really have any way to support herself. She would have probably gotten the house, of course. But most things she could try to compensate (government support, etc.) would jeopardize her custody of the child with the Ruffs, I think. The house was away from any sort of urban area. And she didn't have enough years in for some stuff, I think.

 

[martie82]

I personally think her teeth are incredibly different from the ID photos to the pink hat picture. I can't imagine how smiling with clenched teeth would make that much of a difference. I think she must have usually worn veneers and didn't for the pink hat photo. In general she looks quite different in the pink hat photo - even in the last drivers license photo she looks more like the early pictures, despite the weight gain. So what was up when that picture was taken? Is that a clue?


The gap seems bigger, but the way your teeth sit change over the years, too. The fact is that the teas and such were important to her. That photo was to accompany her recipe book, I think. It's obvious to me that she's deliberately holding her mouth relaxed and slightly open, the classic Politician's Photo Op Half-Open-Mouthed Look. It's easy to practice and hold your mouth in a certain manner if you have a tendency to look a particular way in all your photos otherwise.