Deadspin.com may have blown the door wide open on highly revered Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o.
According to the website the entire story surrounding the death of Te’o’s girlfriend Lennay Kekua was completely fabricated by a friend of Te’o who goes by the name of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te’o himself. But beyond that, Deadspin is making the claim that Kekua didn’t even exist.
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.
The report by Deadspin is extremely in-depth as they go on to find and actually speak with the girl whose pictures where used in the various stories talking about the supposed dead girlfriend. Deadspin even dives into the Twitter accounts of those supposedly involved seemingly exposing further contractions and falsehoods.
Below is the last tweet sent to Lennay by Te’o according to Deadspin:
https://twitter.com/MTeo_5/status/265993595268509696
Notre Dame has since released a statement saying that Te’o himself was involved in a hoax except he wasn’t the perpetrator, he was the victim.
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.
Deadspin goes on to say that they haven’t been able to contact Te’0 as the number they have isn’t accepting calls. Furthermore attempts to talk with Manti’s father have been unsuccessful as well.
Manti though as been MIA ever since Notre Dame was trounced in the National Championship Game by Alabama and even refused to an invitation to the Senior Bowl.
Either way if Te’o is the victim or the perpetrator he needs to speak out, especially given the proximity to the NFL offseason and the upcoming draft in April.
UPDATE: Te’o has issued a statement regarding the matter:
“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.”
The statement still fails to address many of the points highlighted in the Deadspin article… stay tuned.
