# Manti Te'o's Fake, Dead Girlfriend **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 16, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424 "2013-01-16T22:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/101 "2013-01-17T19:00:28Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > Per AD/independent investigation. He was duped. He found out Dec 6 when “she” called him - alive and well. He discussed with his family over Christmas break. He told ND/coaches Dec. 26. The Te’o’s were going to release the hoax story next week - but deadspin beat them. [snip] Sure. Uh, yeah, the check’s in the mail too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/102 "2013-01-17T19:00:35Z")
Now it’s being reported that his ESPN interview has been cancelled. I don’t think this is going to end well for him. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/103 "2013-01-17T19:03:13Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > True, Manti may have exaggerated the details of what he thought was his relationship with his girlfriend, but I do not think he knew she didn’t exist. The claim is that they met, in person, after a game in SoCal. That’s his original story of how and where they met. How did he meet her in person if she never existed? He was in on this, and if I was an NFL team owner or coach, I’d want nothing to do with him. Bizarre, dishonest and/or ridiculously stupidly naive and gullible behavior can go play for some other team. At this point, I don’t think he’s gonna have much of an NFL career, if any at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/104 "2013-01-17T19:05:32Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Now it’s being reported that his ESPN interview has been cancelled. Maybe he doesn’t exist either! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/105 "2013-01-17T19:11:16Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > They launched the investigation to figure out the facts. They launched an investigation to figure out if this was going to be a problem for them. That’s not quite the same thing. Having satisfied themselves that Te’o wasn’t scamming anybody or that they had at least covered their asses, they either - depending on how much you trust them, perhaps - decided to let Te’o handle it at his own pace and tell the truth later, or decided they didn’t care what happened with the story. Some people online are drawing contrasts between the Te’o thing and [this story, which is of much more consequence and worthy of much more anger.](http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/notre_dames_double_standard/) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/106 "2013-01-17T19:12:23Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The claim is that they met, in person, after a game in SoCal. That’s his original story of how and where they met. Do we have that directly from him? (And yes, even if it doesn’t directly come from him, he probably had to tell someone else.) ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/107 "2013-01-17T19:16:18Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > But Te’o and his family perpetuated the hoax out of embarrassment (or so they say, and it sounds increasingly credible), and Te’o didn’t say anything in his press conference before the championship game. They admitted this? > [@](#): > > This kind of story is more suited for sites like Deadspin than it is for ESPN and SI, and Deadspin did a good job here. If only because Deadspin didn’t have to wait for all the facts to come in before they published it. ESPN, Sports Illustrated and others should be embarrassed because they played up the sob story having obviously done zero investigation. Nobody reached out to her family for their side of the story? Apparently, Deadspin only moved on it because they got a tip. It’s pretty surprising that this kind of story could go unchecked for so long in this day and age. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/108 "2013-01-17T19:18:41Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Occam’s razor says he was making up everything, not just half of it while the other half was a hoax perpetrated on him. This is true. It’s possible he was fooled, but it seems much more likely that he was in on it. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The claim is that they met, in person, after a game in SoCal. That’s his original story of how and where they met. How did he meet her in person if she never existed? That’s true. I could see that being his original story, because a lot of people still feel embarrassed about meeting their boyfriends or girlfriends online. And he wouldn’t be the first person to embellish details about his relationship, saying they’d visited each other in person when they’d only talked online. But if he was fooled, you’d think that he’d clarify these things. That she’d first tweeted at him after the Stanford game and they’d started talking. And that when he said he we to visit her, he was actually visiting some other friend or doing something else. And that he’s sorry for lying, but that he was embarrassed. Maybe he’ll clarify all these things later, but it makes me wonder that he hasn’t. I’m with **Gangster Octopus** ; I don’t think it’s an important story where the truth must come out, but I find it fascinating and want to know more. ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/109 "2013-01-17T19:21:43Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > THow did he meet her in person if she never existed? Here’s the thing. The person in the picture existed. And is friends with the guy behind the alias. Her name isn’t Lennay Kekua, but I’m not yet convinced that she _didn’t_ have a part in this. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/110 "2013-01-17T19:30:25Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > They admitted this? I may have messed up the timeline; maybe his family didn’t do anything. Te’o himself was asked about the girlfriend and his late grandmother in a press conference before the Alabama game. He gave a general answer about loss but didn’t admit what he knew. And [here he is at the Heisman press conference (after he’s supposed to have known about the hoax) saying he’d lost his girlfriend to cancer.](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/two-days-after-manti-teo-knew-it-was-a-hoax-he-sp) ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/111 "2013-01-17T19:33:28Z")
> [@planetcory](#): > > Here’s the thing. The person in the picture existed. And is friends with the guy behind the alias. > > Her name isn’t Lennay Kekua, but I’m not yet convinced that she _didn’t_ have a part in this. Possibly, but doubtful. I mean if you were duping someone like this would you still use one of your own photos? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/112 "2013-01-17T19:37:42Z")
> [@planetcory](#): > > Here’s the thing. The person in the picture existed. And is friends with the guy behind the alias. > > Her name isn’t Lennay Kekua, but I’m not yet convinced that she _didn’t_ have a part in this. In the deadspin article she says that Tuiasasopo was a casual acquaintance from college who lifted pictures from her Facebook account without her consent, and conned her into e-mailing an additional picture with the MSMK sign. She strikes me as a much more plausible victim than Te’o. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/113 "2013-01-17T19:39:18Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Possibly, but doubtful. I mean if you were duping someone like this would you still use one of your own photos? They never do. Not in the examples I know about, anyway. When people get caught pulling off a fraud like this, it’s often because someone recognizes a picture they’ve stolen from another website or a blog - of someone who really has a disease they are pretending to have, for instance. In this case it sounds like for some reason the person who had pretended to be Kekua on the phone became uncomfortable with the scam or decided it was going to fall apart. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/114 "2013-01-17T19:42:13Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Yeah, I’ll agree with that part. It sort of sounds like nobody ever Googled her or looked her up on Facebook or asked to speak to her (before she “died”). Well, she had a twitter account (and briefly, a sister with a twitter account as well), that was apparently being maintained by someone. Which is sort of the problem, its obvious someone was putting a good amount of effort into the hoax, enough to spoof at least some online presence with pictures. And I sort of assume someone did ask for an interview and was refused. By the time anyone would’ve cared to ask though, she was “dying of cancer”, so I can’t really blame them for not being super-insistant on getting an interview if they were told she didn’t want to give one. And they did have a second source in the form of Manti’s father, who claimed to have met the girl and talked to her on the phone. What are the chances they were both lying (apparently 100%, but I can hardly blame journalists for not guessing that). The story is so bizarre that I can’t really blame journalists for not catching it. Its not the Watergate break-in. There isn’t really any reason to be super-sceptical when someone tells you their SO is sick, or to pry for more information then they want to give, even if your a journalist (and being sceptical is going to come off pretty dickish). ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/115 "2013-01-17T19:44:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > They launched an investigation to figure out if this was going to be a problem for them. That’s not quite the same thing. Having satisfied themselves that Te’o wasn’t scamming anybody or that they had at least covered their asses, they either - depending on how much you trust them, perhaps - decided to let Te’o handle it at his own pace and tell the truth later, or decided they didn’t care what happened with the story. You’re guessing as to their motive, I’m just saying they wanted to know what was going on. I think that’s splitting hairs. They very much cared, they are letting Te’o handle it. If this happened to me, I don’t think my employer, would, should, or even could act on their own regarding someone’s privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/116 "2013-01-17T19:45:37Z")
Think I read somewhere there were donations made to a cancer charity in the name of the apparently non-existent woman. If Te’o knowingly participated in soliciting those funds, there may be a criminal investigation in progress… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/117 "2013-01-17T19:45:45Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Well, she had a twitter account (and briefly, a sister with a twitter account as well), that was apparently being maintained by someone. The Twitter account was reactivated yesterday, and the person operating it has been promising a statement on this case. In fact - _I’m not making this up, this is really on Twitter_ - “she” Tweeted this 11 minutes ago: > [@@LennayKay](#): > > My statement: This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but I have been told by Alabama’s offense that Manti Te’o is not real. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/118 "2013-01-17T19:48:21Z")
That’s awesome. I’m officially changing my theory from closeted gay football star trying to hide his romantic life to this being someone’s incredibly successful performance art piece. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/119 "2013-01-17T19:55:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The Twitter account was reactivated yesterday, and the person operating it has been promising a statement on this case. In fact - _I’m not making this up, this is really on Twitter_ - “she” Tweeted this 11 minutes ago: Curioser and curioser. ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424/120 "2013-01-17T20:00:11Z")
According to [this](http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/1/17/3885600/lennaykay-twitter-manti-teo), the account wasn’t “reactivated” but recreated - could be anyone (not just the person who originally made the twitter account). And it inherits the original tweets to it. The fact the statement is just a football-related insult seems to point to this, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/manti-teos-fake-dead-girlfriend/647424.md?page=7)