The Strange Life and Death of Lori Erica Ruff

[Susan]

She has been identified as Kimberley Mclean.

[HempzEczema]

Originally Posted by slyksleevemuckyey

She has been identified as Kimberley Mclean.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...ief-lori-ruff/

[Muertaluna]

Crazy, I wonder what made her do it- leave home at such a young age and go through all that

[2die4jess]

Interesting! I've never heard about this one before...

[vagabond]

Very perplexing. I wonder what made her go round the bend at the end? Thanks!

[maxcom]

[murofhsirgo]

Many men have lived (and died) lives similar to hers but rare I would think for a woman. Rip old girl

[S3v3n007]

I've read about this story before but this is new, hearing of her past as a stripper. Actually saddened me upon reading that because I've been there & it literally haunts you with every new job you apply for. It's terrifying too, when there's a child involved because the last thing you'd ever want is for that child to be teased because of something you did in your past. There's a reputation you try to maintain but the fear of being found out is such a huge burden, it's hard to emphasize just how paranoid one gets...especially at the point where you've achieved an honorable status, so to speak.

I don't see why she'd change her name while moving from state to state, unless she was also paranoid her previous alias would be discovered as well? Maybe she felt the need to "shake it off" & start anew, with every move. I can understand that reasoning because the paranoia eats you alive. I guess that's a curse for lying but it IS a personal hell, in itself. To those who haven't had that kind of past, it might seem like extreme lengths that she went through but for the one who lived it... it makes total sense. Being a stripper is NOT something you'd want to get out. Talk about being shunned! & mocked & sneered at... it's a secret one hopes NEVER reaches the light of day because it DOES change EVERYTHING.

[FaderTakhalous]

She worked as a stripper after she changed her identity, so that's probably not what she was trying to hide. However, it wouldn't be surprising if she'd worked as a prostitute during the "missing" two years between Kimberley Mclean's disappearing act and obtaining Becky Sue Turner's birth certificate, though -- for an eighteen-to-twenty-year-old girl with no work experience, trying to avoid being connected to her old home and family in Pennsylvania, that might well have been the only way to get by.

Why she changed her name after obtaining the Becky Sue Turner identity doesn't seem that hard a question: if she'd lived and worked as Turner, sooner or later someone somewhere might have made the connection to the obituary, death certificate, and grave marker associated with that name and date of birth and started asking awkward questions. By legally changing her name, she obscured that connection and reduced the risk that her deception would be discovered.

Now, here's a bit of speculation that there's probably no way to substantiate or conclusively refute -- a big piece that would fit very neatly in one of the largest blank spaces of this puzzle: why did Kimberley Mclean go to such lengths to erase any connection to her family? A plausible explanation is that she was sexually abused by her stepfather. Sexual abuse of adolescent stepdaughters or stepsisters by their stepfathers or older stepbrothers is significantly more common, relative to the number of families that include such relationships, than any other form of intrafamilial sexual abuse.

With Kimberley/Lori dead, it's highly unlikely anyone would ever find out for sure, but all the facts of the story -- her difficulty adjusting after her mother's remarriage and move, moving away from the family as soon as she eighteen and able to do so, cutting off her family and changing her identity, working as a stripper, and increasing mental and emotional instability culminating in her suicide -- are consistent with her being a victim of childhood or adolescent sexual abuse. It wouldn't necessarily have to have been her stepfather -- the name of the high school she attended strongly suggests that it was a Catholic school, and Pennsylvania in the 1980's was one of the major hotbeds of "priestiality" in the U.S. The stereotype of priestly sexual predation is that it mostly targets boys, but in fact the numbers show that children and adolescents of both sexes are about equally likely to be victimized.

[FunkPumpkin]

Originally Posted by S3v3n007

I've read about this story before but this is new, hearing of her past as a stripper. Actually saddened me upon reading that because I've been there & it literally haunts you with every new job you apply for. It's terrifying too, when there's a child involved because the last thing you'd ever want is for that child to be teased because of something you did in your past. There's a reputation you try to maintain but the fear of being found out is such a huge burden, it's hard to emphasize just how paranoid one gets...especially at the point where you've achieved an honorable status, so to speak.

I don't see why she'd change her name while moving from state to state, unless she was also paranoid her previous alias would be discovered as well? Maybe she felt the need to "shake it off" & start anew, with every move. I can understand that reasoning because the paranoia eats you alive. I guess that's a curse for lying but it IS a personal hell, in itself. To those who haven't had that kind of past, it might seem like extreme lengths that she went through but for the one who lived it... it makes total sense. Being a stripper is NOT something you'd want to get out. Talk about being shunned! & mocked & sneered at... it's a secret one hopes NEVER reaches the light of day because it DOES change EVERYTHING.

I'm sorry for what you went through.

I had a friend from high school that I lost touch with for probably 20 years. I had the biggest crush on her (and I was one of the "popular" athletes at the time) and never got connected with her.

Then by the by and by, while reconnecting with friends, I learned she'd spent a couple of year stripping to pay her way through college.

When I finally got back in touch with her, it didn't matter to me. And, from what I've heard privately from my HS mates, nobody else did. We knew back then she was smart, but had a shitty home. So she stripped to get her degree, nobody gave a fuck about that either. Scoring a job that pays for college tuition is non-existent for non-graduates. She did what she did and stopped doing it when she graduated. To me, that's a survivor. We all survive something or other at some point. Take strength in that, if you can.