The man who married Jane Doe:

DOE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED.

(Thanks for the heads up Mike in Dallas)

Read the Seattle times article here! << click click

Edit: Just remembered this case and intend to go back to it with some more sources and updates etc. Stay tuned.

Lori Erica Ruff ("née": Kennedy) was a private and introverted woman.

In 2003, the tall, pretty brunette married a man named Blake Ruff after meeting him at a church bible study group in East Texas.

They eloped in Dallas, as Lori rejected the idea of a well-attended traditional wedding and the newspaper announcement that came with it.

She never warmed to her family in law and spent a lot of time alone, also working from her computer at home as a marketing consultant.

Lori was always evasive when questioned about her childhood and past, stating only that both her parents were deceased and that she had no living relatives.

Her husband didn’t push her for answers or attempt to make her open up in any way.

They tried for a baby, but Lori miscarried several times, before finally giving birth to a daughter in 2008.

She was very protective of her child, and never allowed anyone to babysit.

She spent time with her daughter, dressing up and frequenting tea shops as she always liked to do.

Problems arose in their relationship, causing Blake to move out of the marital home in 2010.

He moved back to his family home and ordered a divorce.

Lori began to have a meltdown; she lost weight and received counseling at a nearby church, where she would ramble and repeat to the pastor on the subject of her flaws and problems and questioned what was wrong with her and why her marriage had deteriorated.

She would fidget and repeat herself and stare at her open palms and the back of her long hands.

In 2010 Blake’s father discovered the body of Lori in Blake’s car, a black Tahoe, outside of their family home.

She had committed suicide with a shotgun to the head.

She had two letters on her person; one for Blake and one for her daughter with a note that it be opened on her 18^th birthday.

According to the report, the letters were nothing but pages of incoherent rambling.

During a search of the Ruff’s marital home, which was in very poor condition inside, scattered with paper scrawling’s of conscious commentary from the hand of Lori, the police found a safe box at the bottom of her closet.

Blake noted that when they were living together Lori was adamant that he never open the box and that it was personal. As usual, Blake didn’t question it or push her as to why, he simply accepted it.

An officer jammed the box open and was shocked by the contents.

Inside were various documents.

One of which was a certificate in which Lori had legally changed her name, from Becky Sue Turner, To Lori Erica Kennedy.

The only problem was, that Becky Sue turner had died many years ago in Fife, of asphyxiation in a house fire. She was only two years old.

Some digging revealed an article on the tragedy.

 

Becky Sue Turners birth and death certificates were also in the box.

Lori had apparently taken over the identity of Becky Sue only a month or two after the death.

She had ordered a copy of the birth certificate and knew that since Becky sue had died in a state that she wasn’t born in, it would be less likely that she would get caught taking over her identity.

  

From there she got an I.D Card for the state of Idaho stating that she was 18 years old and went on to legally change her name to Lori Erica Kennedy and obtained a social security card.

She got a GED and a degree in business from the University of Texas.

There was a letter of reference signed by a man named Roger Steinbeck, who claimed that Lori had worked for him “since high school until 1988”. However the letter was vague and had no mention of any specific date and what Lori’s actual role or duties were.

The letter was written on hotel stationary from “The oriental hotel” in Bangkok, Thailand.

The hotel is an actual establishment (Now the mandolin Oriental hotel) and one of the first five star hotels built in the city. It was host to many celebrities back in the day, such as Audrey Hepburn, John Steinbeck, Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.

Officers contacted Roger Steinbeck, but were met with a dead end and reported that he didn’t exist.

It is not known if Lori ever traveled over sea’s, however she didn’t have a passport under the name Lori Erica Kennedy until 1990, and no stamps for Thailand were found in it.  

Amongst the documents were two other sheets of paper; one with notes, scrawled phone numbers and names, and one with dates and the letters D and M, leading people to believe she had possibly been working out dates to indicate ages of her new identities parents.

When her finger prints and face were ran through data bases nothing showed up.

In fact, finding out anything about Lori pre 1988 was impossible.

The only other information that investigators were able to find out through talking to an old acquaintance was that she had previously worked as a dancer in a gentleman’s club. The autopsy revealed that she had breast implants, but had gotten them as Lori and not her previous identity.

Some people speculate that Lori was running from a tragic past, or was in a witness protection program, but nobody knows the truth.

Lori Erica Kennedy took her secret to the grave.

(sources and images: seattletimes, dailynews, websluethes, reddit, doenetwork)