Kamal Ghorui
In 2015, a five-year-old boy from Ohio began describing what he said were memories of a previous life as a woman who died in a fire, a claim his mother initially dismissed, before finding details that appeared to match a real case from more than two decades earlier. The account, later featured on television and examined alongside similar cases documented by researchers, drew attention for the specificity of the child’s statements and the extent to which they aligned with recorded events.
A name that appeared without explanation
Luke Ruehlman first began talking about “Pam” when he was around two years old. His mother, Erika Ruehlman, said the name came up repeatedly in everyday conversation, despite the family not knowing anyone by that name. At first, she assumed it was imaginary. That changed when she asked him directly who Pam was. “Well, I was.” When she questioned what he meant, Luke continued with a more detailed account: “Well, I used to be, but I died and I went up to heaven. I saw God and then eventually, God pushed me back down and I was a baby and you named me Luke.”
Erika, Luke’s mother, contacted Pam’s family and learned about similarities between the deceased and her son/ Image: Fox8
Erika later said in interviews with Ohio’s Fox 2 that this was especially confusing because the family was not religious and had never discussed heaven, God, or reincarnation with him.
Details about a life he said he had lived
As he grew older, Luke continued to describe aspects of this alleged past life with consistent detail. He said he had been a woman, often referring to having black hair and wearing earrings, and would point to jewellery and remark, “I used to have earrings like that when I was a girl.” He also spoke about travelling by train to Chicago, a place his family, who lived in Cincinnati, had never visited.
Luke began talking about a mystery woman named Pam when he was just 2 years old/ Image: Fox8
When his mother asked how “Pam” had died, Luke replied: “Yea it was fire.” Erika said he then made a motion with his hand as if jumping from a building. He also described the setting as a tall building. These repeated, specific details prompted her to look into whether any such incident had occurred.
A real fire, and a victim with the same name
Erika’s search led her to reports of a fire at the Paxton Hotel in Chicago in 1993, where 19 people were killed. Among the victims was Pamela Robinson, a woman in her 30s who died after jumping from a window during the blaze. The alignment between what her son had described, a woman named Pam, a fire, a fall from a building in Chicago, and the documented case was what led Erika to take his claims more seriously.
As Luke began to share more details, his mother learned of a woman named Pam Robinson who died 24 years before Luke was born/ Image: Fox8
She later obtained a photograph of Pamela Robinson and placed it among other papers without drawing attention to it. According to her account, Luke found the image on his own and recognised her.
Television testing and further verification
The family later appeared on the television programme The Ghost Inside My Child, where producers conducted a controlled test. Luke was shown a full page of photographs of different Black women, including Pamela Robinson, and was asked to identify her.According to his mother, Erika Ruehlman, he pointed to the correct image without hesitation and said:“I don’t recognise anybody. But, I remember when this one was taken.”Erika also contacted Pamela Robinson’s family to learn more about her life and said she found similarities between her son and the woman, including a shared interest in Stevie Wonder and playing the keyboard.
Pam Robinson died in a fire at Chicago’s Paxton Hotel in 1993/ Image: Fox8
The family has continued to speak publicly about the experience, including in interviews with Fox 2, while maintaining that they were not motivated by financial gain. “We didn’t receive any money for the show,” said Lisa Trump, Luke’s grandmother, who has been closely involved in sharing the family’s account.Erika said they chose to speak about it because of what they believe the story represents. “It’s a positive one. It is one of unification it is one of love,” she said.Lisa Trump added that, for her, the experience carried a broader message: “I think it tells us we shouldn’t define the soul by race or gender.”The family has also emphasised that they are not religious and had not raised Luke with beliefs about reincarnation, heaven, or past lives, making his statements more difficult for them to explain.
Similar cases and how they are studied
Cases involving young children describing what they claim are past lives have been documented and studied, particularly by Jim Tucker, a medical director of the Child and Family Psychiatry Clinic and associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. In his 2013 book Return to Life, Tucker compiled accounts of children reporting detailed memories of previous identities. These include a five-year-old named Ryan who described a life in Hollywood and a three-year-old golfing prodigy who believed he was the reincarnation of 1930s golfer Bobby Jones, as well as a two-year-old whose visit to a flight museum triggered memories associated with the Battle of Iwo Jima. Researchers note that such accounts often emerge at a very young age and tend to fade over time.
Memories that eventually disappeared
That pattern appeared to hold in Luke’s case as well. According to his mother, his references to “Pam” gradually stopped as he grew older, and the detailed recollections he once described faded. He eventually resumed what the family described as a normal childhood, without continuing to speak about the earlier claims.While Luke’s family spoke publicly about the case, Pamela Robinson’s relatives generally refused to comment when approached by reporters at the time. The case remains one of several widely cited examples where a child’s account appeared to align closely with documented events, though no explanation has been established for why such similarities occur.
