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Deadspin: Manti Te'o Dead Girlfriend Story a Hoax (now with drug dealers!)
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:15 pm
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:15 pm
Newspaper: “Lennay” Called Manti Te’o In December And Said She’d Faked Her Death To Elude Drug Dealers
Yikes. LINK
quote:
Manti Te'o has told family and friends that the woman who was the voice of his fictitious girlfriend "Lennay Kekua" called him in December and said she had to fake her own death months earlier to elude drug dealers, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has learned.
Yikes. LINK
quote:
Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school's football program back to glory, Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.
Kekua, 22 years old, had been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia. SI's Pete Thamel described how Te'o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. "Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice," Thamel wrote.
Upon receiving the news of the two deaths, Te'o went out and led the Fighting Irish to a 20-3 upset of Michigan State, racking up 12 tackles. It was heartbreaking and inspirational. Te'o would appear on ESPN's College GameDay to talk about the letters Kekua had written him during her illness. He would send a heartfelt letter to the parents of a sick child, discussing his experience with disease and grief. The South Bend Tribune wrote an article describing the young couple's fairytale meeting—she, a Stanford student; he, a Notre Dame star—after a football game outside Palo Alto.
Did you enjoy the uplifiting story, the tale of a man who responded to adversity by becoming one of the top players of the game? If so, stop reading.
Manti Te'o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.
Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.
The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.
quote:
Update (5:17 p.m.): Notre Dame responds:
On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te'o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.
Dennis Brown
University Spokesman | Assistant Vice President
quote:
Update (6:10 p.m.): Manti Te'o's statement:
This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online. We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating. It further pains me that the grief I felt and the sympathies expressed to me at the time of my grandmother's death in September were in any way deepened by what I believed to be another significant loss in my life. I am enormously grateful for the support of my family, friends and Notre Dame fans throughout this year. To think that I shared with them my happiness about my relationship and details that I thought to be true about her just makes me sick. I hope that people can understand how trying and confusing this whole experience has been. In retrospect, I obviously should have been much more cautious. If anything good comes of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when they engage with people online than I was. Fortunately, I have many wonderful things in my life, and I'm looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.
This post was edited on 1/18/13 at 5:23 pm
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:17 pm to WarSlamEagle
I don't even know what to say...
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:18 pm to WarSlamEagle
ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh shite
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:18 pm to WarSlamEagle
He's going to need to talk to Oprah.
This post was edited on 1/16/13 at 4:14 pm
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:18 pm to WarSlamEagle
quote:
Manti Te'o Championship game a Hoax
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:19 pm to WarSlamEagle
Greatest PR move in Notre Dame history?
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:19 pm to WarSlamEagle
Why would he lie about this?
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:19 pm to WarSlamEagle
i'm not touching this one until more comes out
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:19 pm to WarSlamEagle
L o fricking l
This is worse than the guy who faked a commitment to UCLA
This is worse than the guy who faked a commitment to UCLA
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to WarSlamEagle
Idk
I don't think he'd make that up.
I don't think he'd make that up.
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to WarSlamEagle
lol...lol...lol
what a POS if true
what a POS if true
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to DownSouthCrawfish
quote:
i'm not touching this one until more comes out
I just scanned this and can't tell if it's hard hitting investigation, the Onion, or a troll mocking truthers.
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to WarSlamEagle
Perhaps he had never met the gf, was getting catfished via Twitter, and the person on Twitter died?
Dunno
Dunno
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to tylercsbn9
maybe manti got trolled by an online woman he thought was Lennay?
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:21 pm to tylercsbn9
Why would he make that up?
Posted on 1/16/13 at 3:22 pm to WarSlamEagle
Manti's dad just blacklisted Deadspin
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