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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDeadspin Reports Manti Te'o Dead Girlfriend Story Is a Hoax
http://deadspin.com/5976517/manti-teos-dead-girlfriend-the-most-heartbreaking-and-inspirational-story-of-the-college-football-season-is-a-hoax****
'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 Kekuain online tributes and on TV news reportsare 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.'
*****
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)I'm not gonna cry any tears over this at all
KG
(28,752 posts)but reading the article it's pretty clear he was in on it...
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)Nothing but a huge scam.
As if I didn't need any more reasons to detest ND.
FreeJoe
(1,039 posts)The evidence seems pretty substantial that he was in on the scam. On the other hand, the school investigated and claims to support his version of events. If we assume that he is in on the scam, is the school that gullible or did they decide that it was better to circle the wagons? Are they really that stupid?
I always thought something was odd about him. He's supposed to be this really devout Mormon kid. He pick ND because he prayed about it and that's what God told him to do. Really? God tells Mormon's to go to Catholic schools? That just seems weird on so many levels.
Oh well, I'm certainly glad he lost out on the Heisman. That would have been even more embarrassing than pretending that ND should have played for the National Championship.
Response to KG (Reply #2)
Post removed
mtnester
(8,885 posts)Joey Liberal
(5,526 posts)You sound like the Newtown Truthers.
EastTennesseeDem
(2,675 posts)How?
Te'o has since admitted it was a hoax.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)siligut
(12,272 posts)Even his apology and excuse sounds like another ruse.
LiberalAndProud
(12,799 posts)It was there earlier. Now it's gone.
In that article, Brian T'eo said the couple had met up in Hawaii on more than one occasion. She was maybe his future daughter-in-law. So was Brian lying or lied to about the meetups? Of course, we won't know. I just don't believe that Manti was an innocent dupe. I'm not surprised that Notre Dame found no dirt. It's college football, don't you know.
siligut
(12,272 posts)Just how do you get an article pulled? I do know that Mormons have a thing about appearances and what they look like in the media, so I would suspect it was more the religion at work than ND.
Brian and his son have bought into the biggest lie, they have been duped for sure. But this story? They went with it, they enjoyed the benefits, so I agree no one is innocent here.
GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)Joey Liberal
(5,526 posts)Teo has released a statement addressing this situation as well. Here it is, in its entirety.
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 someones 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 grandmothers 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 Im looking forward to putting this painful experience behind me as I focus on preparing for the NFL Draft.
dbackjon
(6,578 posts)They have been lying about football for decades.
Killing and raping, and covering it up.
Notre Dame football - golden image, but the slimiest program in the country. If any program deserves the death penalty, it is the Lying/Killin/Rapin Irish.
RedCloud
(9,230 posts)Next on Oprah...
Another of our athletes craving national publicity and an NFL megacontract enters into a conspiracy...
Where he doesn't cry for her death and doesn't show outrage over the hoax.
You are in it Te'o thick as thieves! Taking a month to reveal the outrage! Coverup!
Taverner
(55,476 posts)pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Seems more likely to me it's a beard than a catfish.
Taverner
(55,476 posts)I know what beard means, but what's a catfish?
Taken from the Urban Dictionary:
A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.
BellaLuna
(291 posts)Their macho culture doesn't help either - if he is indeed gay.
siligut
(12,272 posts)The Mormon mafia says that they control the media, so why is he out now? Seriously, the whole girlfriend story that got so much attention and now the idea that it was a hoax is all over the news too?
I think the hoax part is getting more play, the little news junket that first exposed the story was on with Tweety or O'Donnell yesterday and he was saying how they have made it into the big-time now.
Who did he piss off? Now I hope Teo succeeds, breaks free of the cult and finds his true love.
KG
(28,752 posts)siligut
(12,272 posts)Or maybe it is sympathetic gays, in which case, I understand.
KG
(28,752 posts)my reading into this: I have no reason to think Teo is gay.
siligut
(12,272 posts)But making up a girlfriend, when there are plenty of real females available, seems pretty beardish to me. Could be both ND subway Alumni and Mormon mafia; which has more pull in the media?
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)However, like in my other post, I can see his point of view and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I can see how easily a person can fall for a fake person online. I've known some who have.
It sucks because a lot of times, people create fake personas online. It is easy to suspend disbelief when you're talking to someone who seems to get you.
I don't really see why this has to be a big deal though. To me this is more personal than anything else for someone who isn't even really famous.
KG
(28,752 posts)it's a big deal because, amongst other things, a foundation/charity was set up in the fake dead girls name.
pokerfan
(27,677 posts)Interesting...
I am somewhat confused though.
It talked about how his parents said they met, but the parents never met the girl. Nothing mentioning that the guy himself said they met. I only get conjecture of the article saying that an acquaintance is 80% sure that he is in on it, without giving a name or anything is mere hearsay and does not give much credence to the article.
Other places purporting facts is not linked to anything.
In regards to meeting, it seems they concocted meeting in person. To me, this can be a simple lie to make people more acceptable of an online relationship. There used to be and still is a stigma attached to online relationships, particularly if the two people have never met. Sometimes people say they met even if they haven't, just to lead credence to show why they are so committed to each other.
Like I mentioned in another post I put in regards to things like this. I know of someone who was in a relationship with a supposed Asian Lesbian, who stuck with that persona for over 6 years. She went and created drama through different relationships only to find out that she is in fact a guy. He even had a device that changed his voice in skype and on the phone.
I actually became friends with that person and felt sick when I found out that I've been deceived for that long, as one who listened to that person when they acted out as if they were going to commit suicide.
You may be right, he may be in on it. If that is the case, then what he has done was seeking publicity for its own sake and is disgusting.
Still, I think this should be more of a private matter than a public one. Either way, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. This doesn't really hurt Notre Dame, just a promising athlete who isn't really famous any way.
--Edit, now about the charities and stuff done out of that fake person's name... That is going to be sticky, and this is where investigation is warranted.--
dr.strangelove
(4,851 posts)the jury is very much out on that. I certainly don't know either way, but it is far from a foregone conclusion. Since another nfl player says he too was duped and told this girl was real and even met her, i find it odd and think someone was obviously duping others. Maybe Te'o was in on it, maybe not. I will wait to hear from him and let the investigations go forward before I convict anyone in my head and heart.
pokerfan
(27,677 posts)but in this case, they supposedly met face to face. From the Deadspin article...
Nov. 28, 2009: Te'o and Kekua meet after Stanford's 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: "Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te'o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes." Kekua, a Stanford student, swaps phone numbers with Te'o.
2010-2011: Te'o and Kekua are friends. "She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them" (South Bend Tribune). "They started out as just friends," Te'o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. "Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there."
Now all that's getting walked back. That's what doesn't add up.
Xyzse
(8,217 posts)Ah well.
I can't really defend this or anything. Just saying, that I can understand how such a thing could happen.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)dr.strangelove
(4,851 posts)I think there is another motive here we are missing. The chances of him being in the running for the Heisman when this started were so impossibly out of reach. I want to know more. I tend to think the worst, but keeping my mind open as best I can. There is more to this. This is either in the venue of CrazyTown or there is more to it. Maybe it was just an insane USC fan trying to burn him for jumping to ND, but I doubt it. I bet there is money behind this somehow. I want to know if there was a fundraiser for her care, or to start a fund to remember her. Something stinks and its the kind of stink that usually leads to stealing, not just lying to either get an award or to get back at a kid for picking a different school.
Myrina
(12,296 posts)... is ignored. And still dead.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/notre-dame-accused-woman-prosecuting-sex-assault-charge/story?id=12944141
We'd rather talk about an imaginary girl.