Wasn’t The Person He Thought She Was
Blake felt the knot form in his stomach as he peered into the closet. This couldn’t be possible. Was everything based on a lie? His mind raced with questions while his pulse sped up to that of an Olympic runner.
Blake felt betrayed, she was the woman he was planning on spending the rest of his life with. He only thought he’d ever feel this hurt if she cheated on him, but she hadn’t. In his mind, what she had done was worse. At that moment that blake looked into the closet, he could only hope his attempts at fighting back the urge to vomit would be successful.
Struck Out In Love
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Blake Ruff had never had much luck when it came to love. He was looking for something other than a fling. While his friends were out every night looking for a casual hookup, he wanted something more. He wanted something special that would make him happy for the rest of his life.
Blake had many bad relationships that hadn’t worked out. He was thinking of giving up on love altogether. But one day his life changed in an instant. Blake knew he would be a changed man from that day forward.
Lori Erica Kennedy
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In 2003 while at a Bible study class, he saw her, Lori Erica Kennedy. He instantly fell in love with her and wanted to spend every waking moment of his life with her. When he saw her smile for even a second it would make his day and leave butterflies in his stomach.
After careful thought, Blake decided it was time to stop staring and ask her out. She agreed to a date! Lori was a shy woman who came from Arizona while Blake was part of a well off family in Texas. Lori was shy and didn’t know anyone yet. In Blake’s mind, she was the ideal woman for him. He’d soon find out that wasn’t the case.
Something Was Wrong
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It was clear that Lori had a troubled past and that she didn’t want to talk about it. After both her parents passed away she was left with no inheritance because her father lost everything as a stockbroker.
Blake respected her wishes, but his family didn’t, they probed him with questions about her. Blake didn’t worry too much about the questions, but he should have been a bit more curious like his family was.
Moving
Although Blake’s family was hesitant to have Lori as part of the family, the couple got married in 2004 and moved away from his family. They went to Leonard, Texas where in 2008 they had a baby girl. Lori changed after this, she was very protective over their daughter and wouldn’t even let Blake’s mother hold her.
From the outside, the marriage seemed to be just fine, but Blake’s family was worried bout him and they felt something was off. Something wasn’t right about Lori, she even started looking at the Ruff family history very intently while she wouldn’t share anything about her own.
New Chapter
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Tensions were at their highest between Blake’s family and his wife. This in turn complicated their marriage a great deal. When Lori told Blake that his family couldn’t visit their daughter anymore, he felt that he couldn’t just sit back anymore.
After one last attempt of reconciliation Blake finally saw that Lori wasn’t the woman he had fallen for. He decided to move back in with his family and go forward with divorce proceedings. Blake could breathe a sigh of relief and get on with his life, ushering in a new chapter. He had no idea what would happen next.
Terrible News
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After a few weeks of living with his family again, Blake started feeling good again. With his family by his side nothing could get to him, right? Then one day he got some terrible news that he couldn’t believe.
His ex-wife, Lori, had passed away. Blake couldn’t believe it, he dropped to his knees and cried out in anguish. He thought this would be the worst he could feel, he didn’t know what was about to come.
The Closet
After a month of mourning, Blake drove back to their house and needed to sort out their belongings. He was busy sorting out her wardrobe when he felt a sensation running down his spine.
He found out that he was right to move back in with his family. His wife had been hiding something from him. She wasn’t the person she had said she was and had many secrets she didn’t tell Blake.
A Discovery
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Blake didn’t like sorting through her things in the house they had bought together all too recently. There were many happy and sad memories inside the walls. But then Blake stumbled upon a trunk sealed at the back of Lori’s closet.
Blake had seen it before, he just forgot about it. Lori had always stressed to him the importance of letting her keep her privacy. As a doting husband, Blake didn’t bat an eye, but now he would have to open the trunk.
Inside
Documenting Reality
A policeman broke open the trunk and found several documents and IDs with numerous names and states. Blake saw a birth certificate of a woman with a name Blake had never heard. The name change would have been when “Lori” was 17-years-old.
Blake didn’t understand, this was confusing for him. He felt his pulse start to climb. He needed to find the truth and he needed to find it quickly.
What Is The Truth?
Documenting Reality
Inside the document, it revealed that Becky Sue Turner legally changed her name to Lori Erica Kennedy in 1988, but a little digging on this strange tragedy revealed something even more bizarre.
Becky Sue Turner and her siblings passed away in a house fire in Washington state in 1971, when she was just two years old. What was the truth?
Who Was She?
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The authorities and experts claimed Lori Ruff was now “Jane Doe” and investigators started to piece together the strange puzzle of this mystery woman’s life.
The only clear thing was that because Becky Sue passed away in a different state than she was born, Lori had obviously gone to extreme lengths to keep her true identity a secret. But there were still hundreds of questions that Blake needed the answers to.
Leading Nowhere
Documenting Reality
Investigations also found that she obtained a state ID and social security card as Lori Erica Kennedy in Idaho and received her GED and a degree in business from the University of Texas.
So when the investigators ran her fingerprints and face through databases, they were stumped to find no matches. Although she was linked to a few disappearing women, none of them led anywhere. Investigators thought they would never learn the truth, but six years later this mind-boggling and bizarre case was finally about to get cracked.
Back On The Case
Documenting Reality
It wasn’t until genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick learned of Lori’s bizarre case in 2013 and took a saliva sample from Lori’s young daughter to try and find a DNA connection.
The tension was high as Colleen and investigators awaited the results. And finally, a few days later she was matched with many distant relatives around the world, the closest being Michael Cassidy who lived in Pennsylvania. Colleen informed the man and jumped on a plane to question Michael’s relatives. Finally, the truth was about to reveal, right?
Still More Secrets
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Immediately, a family member recognized the face on the ID cards as Kimberly McLean, meaning investigators would finally get the truth about “Lori.”In 1986, 17-year-old Kimberly disappeared from her Pennsylvania home after her mother remarried a man she didn’t like or care for. She told her mother to never look for her and she was never heard from again.
Although Lori Erica Huff’s true identity was finally discovered years after her passing, there are still periods in her life that are completely unknown. And any other secrets that woman was undeniably hiding, had been taken with her to the grave, forever.