Lori Ruff Identified as Kimberly McLean of PA

[DBinMA]

I have in-laws in both areas. Wynnewood is exactly how you have stated. Lower Merion is part of the "Main Line" which my one in-law likes to throw around when she speaks of where she lives. "We are on the Main Line and it's so expensive here." Lots of history to it. Wynecote is more middle to upper middle, not as affluent as Wynnewood.
I have only found record of her father burying her grandfather but nothing more on him or that side of her family but I do know how to look through those PA records due to my family research.

I have many good things in my life, money doesn't happen to be one of them. We are from Massachusetts and 2 of my 3 kids go to school in PA. My son went to Villanova where he most assuredly felt the class/money issue but stuck it out to graduation. My daughter started at St. Joe's but the snobbery was too much for her and she transferred to Temple. The Main line is lovely. In Massachusetts my kids knew we were on the poor side but it was never a big deal in Philly, a whole different story!

 

[lisapr355]

I have many good things in my life, money doesn't happen to be one of them. We are from Massachusetts and 2 of my 3 kids go to school in PA. My son went to Villanova where he most assuredly felt the class/money issue but stuck it out to graduation. My daughter started at St. Joe's but the snobbery was too much for her and she transferred to Temple. The Main line is lovely. In Massachusetts my kids knew we were on the poor side but it was never a big deal in Philly, a whole different story!

I have gotten that vibe from my inlaw on the Main Line. She has to remind us of all the private schools she attended in that area. I am from TX and my cousin went to Temple and later did a residency there. I loved going to visit him and interacting with all the Italian families he became close to while living there. After I married and saw the "other side" of Philadelphia from this in-law, I don't like it so much.

 

[llywrch]

I'm hoping for some new info but I am getting the vibe they don't know all that much and we aren't going to learn many new details unfortunately

I suspect we're going to need to wait for someone to write a book on this case. A single person could probably get all the parties involved to open up & answer questions. Lots of anonymous usernames from the Internet won't accomplish that. Once enough questions are answered, then the rest of the story could be pieced together. And if the story is told properly, the book could be a money-maker.

I'd buy a copy.

 

[bears10]

Maybe her dad passing in 87 had something to do with her actions in 88

 

[Suglo]

I'm probably reading too much into these facts, but I am noticing a likely pattern here.

KM was born & raised for her first years in Wynnewood, PA; her father is reportedly a carpenter & a volunteer fireman. According to Wikipedia, Wynnewood straddles two townships: Lower Merion, which WP describes as having " the 5th highest per-capita income and the 12th highest median household income in the country", & Haverford Township, whose per capita income figures aren't much lower. Her mother divorces her father & ends up marrying a stock-broker.

Last I checked, while many carpenters do make enough money to raise a family on, very few make enough to fit into an affluent locale like Wynnewood. And stock-brokers do make a lot more money than carpenters -- & sometimes live in a community like Wynnwood, although in KM's case her step-father moved them to Wynecote. Wyncote also appears to be pretty affluent, too.

I wonder just how much money played a role in the life of KM during those few years before she left her family.

BTW: Does anyone know if KM's father is still alive? (I tried to search the county records for that part of Pennsylvania & only discovered accessibility to court records vary greatly by county.) If he is dead, I wonder if he died around 1995, when LEK is no longer known to be renting a mail box.

The reporter just answered that the father died a year after she left. Link here https://www.facebook.com/seattletimes/posts/10154427499431215. I have a SS but not sure if am allowed to post.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bears10]

The reporter just answered that the father died a year after she left. Link here https://www.facebook.com/seattletimes/posts/10154427499431215. I have a SS but not sure if am allowed to post.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wouldn't be surprised if this had something to do with her actions in 88. Maybe he was her only support system and or financial support

 

[Linda9681]

Ugh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1&2&3]

Comments from alumni seem to be referencing remembering her from at least 2 different grade schools and 2 different Jr./high schools (all Catholic schools). If correct that's a lot of moving around and adds to the understanding of no one really remembering her.

If her new stepfather moved the family out of their original home, it makes sense he would move them to a new neighborhood and school district. To me, that could account for the beginning of Kim's dislike of him. She had to start over in a new school, make new friends etc., and many schools are very clicky, not welcoming new students into their groups.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I thought this was a very useful, generic explanation of the types of DNA tests for those interested:

There are several kinds of DNA tests that are offered to genealogists. Each test can connect you with different kinds of relatives.

• Y-DNA will connect along the direct male line of the family and will tell you about your family name.
• Autosomal DNA will cast a wider net and identify "DNA-cousins" along all lines of your family back to, say, 5th cousins, but it won't tell you which line they connect through.
• Mitochondiral (mtDNA) tests connect you to people related to you along the direct female line of your family.

There are three big companies that cater to the genetic genealogy community - Ancestry.com (autosomal), 23andMe (autosomal), FamilyTree DNA (autosomal, Y-DNA, mtDNA). You can go to their websites and read more about what the tests can do for you. -Colleen

 

[DJmultiplecats]

Hi...an update on S/S1988: I've spoken to S/S1988 and he's not interested in posting here again. He's just not interested in having to justify or prove himself (or be "sleuthed" himself), rightly or wrongly, that's his decision.

He said he's not sure who the woman was who Kimberly called her mother. He verified that they had a similar body type and similar features.

It does appear she had a nose job or perhaps broke her nose...the changes to her jawline are just age and weight gain. My face was much narrower in my mid-teens than now. It's amazing how similar she looks though...even with a nose job, you can still tell it's her.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Hi...an update on S/S1988: I've spoken to S/S1988 and he's not interested in posting here again. He's just not interested in having to justify or prove himself (or be "sleuthed" himself), rightly or wrongly, that's his decision.

He said he's not sure who the woman was who Kimberly called her mother. He verified that they had a similar body type and similar features.

It does appear she had a nose job or perhaps broke her nose...the changes to her jawline are just age and weight gain. My face was much narrower in my mid-teens than now. It's amazing how similar she looks though...even with a nose job, you can still tell it's her.

Well, tell him thank you. I read back through his posts and replies to him, and the overwhelming majority were supportive and interested. It's a shame he has allowed a small few to make him feel that way, and he must understand we can't just believe everything that is written anonymously.

That said, his observations are/were not particularly useful to the investigation in terms of name/family, it seems she lied to him too. Had he given us a name, it would have taken us down a huge but unnecessary rabbit hole. Whatever he reported to Velling it didn't help solve anything, science did that for us.

But it is good to know she had happy times in her younger life and that she was considered a nice, fun person in 1988. In the absence of few other positive character descriptions I'll take his posts as true and imagine Lori as he remembered her.

 

[llywrch]

But it is good to know she had happy times in her younger life and that she was considered a nice, fun person in 1988. In the absence of few other positive character descriptions I'll take his posts as true and imagine Lori as he remembered her.

Yes. Too much of what we found emphasizes the troubles she had in her life. It's good to know there were some happy times in her life.

 

[jessr927]

Interesting note on the Seattle Times Q&A.

BTW I am now certain that the note page originally belonged to her stepfather and she only wrote in "These Eyes" and "402 months."

 

[bears10]

Hi...an update on S/S1988: I've spoken to S/S1988 and he's not interested in posting here again. He's just not interested in having to justify or prove himself (or be "sleuthed" himself), rightly or wrongly, that's his decision.

He said he's not sure who the woman was who Kimberly called her mother. He verified that they had a similar body type and similar features.

It does appear she had a nose job or perhaps broke her nose...the changes to her jawline are just age and weight gain. My face was much narrower in my mid-teens than now. It's amazing how similar she looks though...even with a nose job, you can still tell it's her.

At this point I don't think anyone was asking him to prove anything. Thanks for letting us know. Still kind of shocking to see you were in touch with him over the past year. Hope he is handling all of this new info okay.

 

[Gardener1850]

Interesting note on the Seattle Times Q&A.

BTW I am now certain that the note page originally belonged to her stepfather and she only wrote in "These Eyes" and "402 months."

I agree about "These eyes" but I don't think she wrote 402 months. Take a look at the handwriting comparison I did in the notes thread: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?215620-The-Note-Page/page15

The M of the word months is in the style of the rest of the notes page. Kim/Lori made her M's more rounded.

When I think about this, it now makes sense that a stockbroker would write 402 months. That could be the time someone had until retirement and he is figuring out how much bonds or mutual funds would grow in 402 months. JMO.

 

[cvaldez1975]

my friend is Hispanic and she had twin boys, they both have the same middle name which is their paternal granpa's name. lol so maybe

Can I just interject here that my husband's side of the family - like everyone seems to carry a variation of his dad's first name, even the women. And like, his sister's kid is named after my husband, and her other kid is named after their dad, and then 3 or 4 kids have a vartion of grandpa's name, and our daughter's middle name is named after my husband's sister and blah blah -- it's so convoluted. But, he's Hispanic, so maybe that's why.

I digress.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Was Ben Perkins African American?

And has anybody got the dates page to hand please, wondering how that fits in with her known identities? Also whether we think those dates were written by Lori, or whoever wrote the majority of the notes page? ( I don't think she wrote it all). Was all that scribble something to do with her dad's death in c1987 and that's why she kept it?

 

[1&2&3]

We have only seen this one school picture of Kim. Did her family provide other pictures of her? I would love to see pictures of her in her real life as Kim as I'm sure Blake would like to have them for their daughter.

This case is truly sad. What if Blake's mother had not been so insistent on questioning Lori about her past? A difficult thing to do, however, Blake chose her for his wife. Mother needed to stay out of it unless she saw something terribly wrong. To me, she was a nosey Mother-in-law whose son didn't stand up to her to tell her to leave Lori alone! This story may have had a total different ending.

 

[Suglo]

Maybe her dad passing in 87 had something to do with her actions in 88

She may have been a daddy's girl. Would explain a lot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I'm quite intrigued as to why Lori didn't destroy what was left in the lockbox. I know we'll never know. But we do know she hadn't forgotten about that box (as she'd told Blake not to look in it) so if she intended to kill herself that morning why didn't she throw the papers out first? Did she want him to find out? Or did she not leave her house that day knowing she'd commit suicide? Just strange that she went to extraordinary lengths to cover her tracks then left tantalising clues behind.