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

[Owutatangledweb]

OT, but is anyone else having trouble with their "quick links" button not working? I can't get to my subscribed threads.

 

[StarrChance]

OT, but is anyone else having trouble with their "quick links" button not working? I can't get to my subscribed threads.

Ditto

 

[Weyden]

Enough weeks have passed since that leak that an announcement was on the way that I guess we can safely confirm that someone mixed up the FLEK case with Lula Ann Gillespie-Miller. For the life of me, I don't understand how that happened. I guess it was a mess of miscommunication, misinformation, and a lapse or two in good judgment.

Either that or it was a psychotic prank.

Nobody involved in the mess-up owes an explanation but it sure would be a considerate thing to do. The seeming credibility of the sources made it sound legitimate enough that it reasonably caused a lot of scurrying and speculation for people who are invested in this case. Granted, every minute spent here researching and discussing FLEK is voluntary but those minutes (hours) represent a deep caring about this case and could potentially lead to it being resolved. FLEK is still listed as an unidentified person and the family has not formally withdrawn their request for help so until that happens, it's fair to keep trying to solve the mystery.

The mix-up had to be realized pretty early on and it's disappointing that nobody came out and said, "Hey, this is an embarrassing goof and it shouldn't have happened but this was an unfortunate leak of bad information and we're sorry." If that had happened early on, I'll bet that understanding would have overshadowed annoyance and everyone would have just moved on. Instead, the overall avoidance of any explanation or confirmation made the mess bigger.

Like I said before, I don't think an explanation or an apology is owed (unless maybe to some family members if they were impacted) but it would have been an honorable and helpful thing to do. I've made a lot of embarrassing mistakes in my life so I know I wouldn't have cast a stone.

ETA: I'm addressing the originators of the misinformation (DA and the woman who originally posted it on Facebook) not the people who brought the information here. I reread my post and realized I may not have made that clear.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I dunno, Weyden... I'm still hopeful one day we'll wake up and it'll be front page of the news. Both Abbot and Velling have (privately) said that there would be news soon, and those messages have been made public and I agree that a statement needs to be released either way. I question the Lula thing because of the age discrepancy, the story goes that Lori was an 18 year old runaway with family in Pennsylvania, but Lula was 28 and from Indiana.

The jury's out for me but I reckon we'll hear something soon. And contrary to popular opinion I still hope SS1988 was genuine and will one day come back to us to finish the story!

 

[Linda9681]

The only reason I don't think there was a mixup is the details for both cases are different . Abbott specifically relayed to his group the match for Lori was a 19 ur old runaway ( multiple times) who's family match was found in Pennsylvania . The other story from the lady in the news was a totally different scenario.
Secondly, Velling did confirm they " are close". We don't know the details yet, and I think patience in this situation is necessary.
Remember , this is NOT a missing person case, but a CRIMINAL case. I am sure IDing her was not the priority, but discovering HOW she got her fake identity( and who helped her) is what the SS is concerned with and it is possible that is why the reveal is not instant. They are possibly tracing the real " Lori's" movements and contacts to make a connection.
As far as SS1988 is concerned, I still stand on my belief that he was a she, and did know Lori.. And most likely knew yet another false name she may have been using.
It would be helpful to know what name she used to open the Vegas PO box.
Remember the poster here who was a dancer/ bunny ranch girl? Didn't she say there was a " circuit"? I had a good friend who was a dancer who did travel between several states to dance in a " circuit" seasonally. Vegas was in that rotation.
I have always said that even if we think her ID has been found we should keep looking. We have some good leads to follow, including the Howder lead.
I wish the FOIA request was more inclusive. Can the request be resubmitted with a wider time frame? Can you request the entire case file??
I am personally out of commission for research for now because I have a major assessment next week that requires my complete attention to pass.
Maybe someone could go over the notes page again and refocus on details of that. Laciner, Perkins, phone numbers... I think Velling thought it was important or he wouldn't have put it out there.
Remember how we discussed the military angle? Laciner's current wife was a military brat. She did live in Alaska. Didn't someone find a connection to Alaska recently? His first wife is from central California and did move to Texas with him and was here at least till the mid 80s.
SOMEONE HELPED LORI. Unless she had mad organizational skills, she had help somehow with her ID, moving, getting work.. Good luck guys.
PS.. I still think Lori is somehow connected by past work or friends to either Korean or Tiwanese families. I wish I could make a solid connection other than the woman from Facebook who contacted me..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Beezneez]

I was happy to see that this forum is posted at the top of my websleuths home page, as a top story. I wonder if that is based on my own activity on the site or if it is the same for all users?

 

[Beezneez]

One thought I have been going over lately is the most likely route LEK took from Boise to Dallas. It took her nearly a month. Currently the routes could have been I-80 E or US 287-S, both would have taken her into Denver, CO. Do we have any connections there?
*It is about a 24 hour drive, so the significance of the month between Boise DMV and Dallas name change is what I am sticking on. I am also unsure if there were alternate routes in 88. Is anyone here a member of a trucking forum or something similar? Is there a place to distribute her Idaho ID photo among truckers who took that route in 1988? It might be a long shot, but if she hitchhiked someone might remember her.

 

[Weyden]

The only reason I don't think there was a mixup is the details for both cases are different . Abbott specifically relayed to his group the match for Lori was a 19 ur old runaway ( multiple times) who's family match was found in Pennsylvania . The other story from the lady in the news was a totally different scenario.
Secondly, Velling did confirm they " are close". We don't know the details yet, and I think patience in this situation is necessary.
Remember , this is NOT a missing person case, but a CRIMINAL case. I am sure IDing her was not the priority, but discovering HOW she got her fake identity( and who helped her) is what the SS is concerned with and it is possible that is why the reveal is not instant. They are possibly tracing the real " Lori's" movements and contacts to make a connection.
As far as SS1988 is concerned, I still stand on my belief that he was a she, and did know Lori.. And most likely knew yet another false name she may have been using.
It would be helpful to know what name she used to open the Vegas PO box.
Remember the poster here who was a dancer/ bunny ranch girl? Didn't she say there was a " circuit"? I had a good friend who was a dancer who did travel between several states to dance in a " circuit" seasonally. Vegas was in that rotation.
I have always said that even if we think her ID has been found we should keep looking. We have some good leads to follow, including the Howder lead.
I wish the FOIA request was more inclusive. Can the request be resubmitted with a wider time frame? Can you request the entire case file??
I am personally out of commission for research for now because I have a major assessment next week that requires my complete attention to pass.
Maybe someone could go over the notes page again and refocus on details of that. Laciner, Perkins, phone numbers... I think Velling thought it was important or he wouldn't have put it out there.
Remember how we discussed the military angle? Laciner's current wife was a military brat. She did live in Alaska. Didn't someone find a connection to Alaska recently? His first wife is from central California and did move to Texas with him and was here at least till the mid 80s.
SOMEONE HELPED LORI. Unless she had mad organizational skills, she had help somehow with her ID, moving, getting work.. Good luck guys.
PS.. I still think Lori is somehow connected by past work or friends to either Korean or Tiwanese families. I wish I could make a solid connection other than the woman from Facebook who contacted me..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow. That post was insightful, timely, and practical and it helped me see things differently. The specifics mentioned will be a good focus for research. Thank you .

 

[CoverMeCagney]

One thought I have been going over lately is the most likely route LEK took from Boise to Dallas. It took her nearly a month. Currently the routes could have been I-80 E or US 287-S, both would have taken her into Denver, CO. Do we have any connections there?
*It is about a 24 hour drive, so the significance of the month between Boise DMV and Dallas name change is what I am sticking on. I am also unsure if there were alternate routes in 88. Is anyone here a member of a trucking forum or something similar? Is there a place to distribute her Idaho ID photo among truckers who took that route in 1988? It might be a long shot, but if she hitchhiked someone might remember her.

Could she have flown from A to B? Because if she did she might have been in Texas earlier than we think.

 

[Beezneez]

Could she have flown from A to B? Because if she did she might have been in Texas earlier than we think.

Anything is possible. For all we know she spent a week in Hawaii before heading to Texas. I am looking to the idea of hitchhiking because it doesn't appear that she had a great deal of money, so that would have been the cheapest way to travel. If she didn't have a continuous ride to Texas, like on a bus, it could also explain some of the time between ID and TX. If she caught a ride from Boise to SLC, hung out in the area for a day or two, maybe visited a shelter? From SLC she could have ridden to Denver, and gradually made her way to Texas. I'm linking a map, it shows a couple other routes. Is there anything that we can gather from the areas on routes?

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boi...a4f647678f!2m2!1d-96.7969879!2d32.7766642!3e0

You can also see on this map how she might have gone down this route, including Boulder City and Scottsdale.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boi...a4f647678f!2m2!1d-96.7969879!2d32.7766642!3e0

I really wish we had more information on those Arizona phone book pages. If they were from Scottsdale or somewhere else? What were they for? This is going to drive me around the bend.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I just can't help but wonder if a Grateful Doe style social media push is the only way to try and get answers to some of these questions. Is anyone familiar with how that got started? I don't do Rddit or that photo sharing site but I know GD's case got solved pretty quickly after it went "viral".

 

[Beezneez]

On this map I have pinned some points of interest. The first thing of note is that there are two definite clusters. Her time in Texas and various cities in the SW corner of the US. Second, for some reason I had not realized how close the Boulder City, NV/Maildrop location was to Las Vegas. I don't know why, but I assumed it was more northern Nevada. That could have easily been a stop on the way to the second Vegas wedding- I wonder if they drove or flew?
Bakersfield is near enough to Los Angeles, connection there being BST birthplace and various notes pages references. If she spent significant time in the LA area before becoming BST it is possible that a local paper ran a story about the Turner family deaths, that could be how she picked up the name/info on BST. I wasn't able to find any news articles, but I don't subscribe to paid archives. That might be worth looking up if someone has access. The LA area also has quite a few beloved Cuban restaurants that were around in the 80's. The Pacific North West isn't really known for it's Cuban culture.
Just throwing some ideas out, seeing if anything sticks!

 

[Laughing]

Love the map, Beezneez.

Thanks, Linda, great case review!

One day, we'll know the answers....

 

[purplemonstertruck02]

Maybe someone could go over the notes page again and refocus on details of that. Laciner, Perkins, phone numbers... I think Velling thought it was important or he wouldn't have put it out there.
Remember how we discussed the military angle? Laciner's current wife was a military brat. She did live in Alaska. Didn't someone find a connection to Alaska recently? His first wife is from central California and did move to Texas with him and was here at least till the mid 80s.

Wanda Howder was (briefly) married to a guy from Alaska and gave birth to a daughter to him. He's been a single parent to that daughter for some time at this point.

 

[sunnynz]

Hi folks, this is the form to make a FOIA request to the Social Security Administration. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps9/eFOIA-FEWeb/internet/main.jsp?action=OPD Because I live outside the US it doesn't look like it will accept my address in the web form so I am not able to do it. Per Linda9681's suggestion, I think this would be a great next step to see if there is a broader file of Velling's that we could gain access to. Does anyone here have some time to fill in the form?

 

[fred&edna]

I'm way behind on this, but I was reviewing Vellings' Q&A session (from June 2013) and I see they had autosomal dna... and it was stated (not by Velling) but by someone else (who seemed knowledgeable on the subject of dna) it was possible "eventually". Now, (almost 3 years later) maybe the recent possible match to relatives in PA has come to fruition based on the testing of the autosomal dna. ** Understanding all the different types of dna testing causes my brain to fog, however, this seems the most likely reasoning.

http://live.seattletimes.com/Event/Live_chat_with_investigator_reporter_about_Jane_Doe_case?Page=1

 

[FBEye]

Some interesting records from Fannin County, TX court case searches (for their Leonard, TX residence):

An Assault charge dated 9-18-2010, Case CR10-0144JP2

On the divorce case: it was filed 8-5-2010, Case FA10-39830, the last motions and citations filed 12-14-2010
were just 10 days before Lori's suicide

http://www.co.fannin.tx.us/default.aspx?Fannin_County/Public.Records.Search

 

[trixandhoney]

Some interesting records from Fannin County, TX court case searches (for their Leonard, TX residence):

An Assault charge dated 9-18-2010, Case CR10-0144JP2

On the divorce case: it was filed 8-5-2010, Case FA10-39830, the last motions and citations filed 12-14-2010
were just 10 days before Lori's suicide

http://www.co.fannin.tx.us/default.aspx?Fannin_County/Public.Records.Search

Wow, really nice find!!! In the first case you listed - does that mean Blake was the one accused of assault? And in the second - am I just up way past my bed time or is the judge's name "Laurine Blake"???

 

[FBEye]

Wow, really nice find!!! In the first case you listed - does that mean Blake was the one accused of assault? And in the second - am I just up way past my bed time or is the judge's name "Laurine Blake"???

Yes, if you search under Criminal case records, under his legal first name Jon.......Assault/Physical Contact charge
And yes, strange coincidence with the judge's name similarity....

 

[Sherwood Park]

Wow, really nice find!!! In the first case you listed - does that mean Blake was the one accused of assault? And in the second - am I just up way past my bed time or is the judge's name "Laurine Blake"???

Yes, accused, then it was dismissed.
The last names are not the same. One is Blake, the other is Blakely