Lori Erica Ruff
Lori Erica Kennedy Ruff (born Kimberly Maria McLean, October 16, 1968 – December 24, 2010), was an American identity thief, who committed suicide in the driveway of her former in-laws' home in Longview, Texas on December 24, 2010. Following Ruff's death, her ex-husband and in-laws discovered through documents found in a lock box in her closet that she been living under a false name when she married into the family. Coupled with her secretive behavior, which had contributed to the collapse of her marriage, Ruff's true identity remained unknown for nearly six years after her death.
Lori Erica Ruff | |
|---|---|
Ruff's driver's license photo from 2001 | |
| Born | Kimberly Maria McLean October 16, 1968 |
| Disappeared | Late October, 1986 King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | December 24, 2010 (aged 42) Longview, Texas, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide by gunshot |
| Other names | Lori Erica Kennedy, Becky Sue Turner |
| Known for | Formerly unidentified identity thief |
| Spouse |
Blake Ruff
(m. 2004; div. 2010) |
| Children | 1 |
A 2013 Seattle Times feature article about the case was published in news outlets around the world and created enormous interest in the online "websleuth" community.
Ruff's true origins remained a mystery until September 2016, when her identity was confirmed using a combination of public records and direct-to-consumer autosomal SNP analysis of her husband's and daughter's DNA, leading back to the McLean–Cassidy family on Philadelphia's Main Line.