Manti Te'o's Girlfriend Never Existed

[al3xis]

And, this got more bizarre..USA Today:

She is a beautiful young woman, in her early 20s, fighting leukemia. Unlike Lennay Kekua, she is real.

Jazmine Lutu smiles back from the Facebook page of her uncle, Titus Tuiasosopo. It is her cousin, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who several media reports say orchestrated the hoax that led former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o to believe Kekua had died of the disease when she never even existed.

Tuiasosopo has yet to respond publicly to the reports.

Yet some of the false world created around Kekua seems to align with the experiences of the Tuiasosopo family. Lutu's struggle with cancer is one of at least three parallels between actual events chronicled on the Facebook page of Titus Tuiasosopo that match fictional details in the Kekua tale. Lennay Kekua was never in a car accident, but Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was in a March wreck. A touching quotation Te'o attributed to Kekua after her reported death was the same one Titus Tuiasosopo previously posted on his Facebook page after a relative died in August.

Reached on Friday, Lutu confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that she continues to battle cancer but declined to comment further about her family.

According to Titus Tuiasosopo's Facebook page, Lutu was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August. She was set to receive a bone marrow transplant.

The fictional Lennay Kekua died at 22 years old in September after a brief battle with leukemia, a disease supposedly discovered after she'd been in a serious car accident. Brian Te'o, Manti's father, even told The South Bend Tribune in October that Kekua received a bone marrow transplant.

In Sports Illustrated, Kekua's accident was reported as happening on April 28.

It was just about a month earlier, on March 23, when Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and at least two male cousins were in a car accident.

Around 5 a.m. on that day, Tuiasosopo was involved in a two-vehicle accident on California State Highway 14 near Avenue I in Lancaster, the California Highway Patrol confirmed on Friday. An officer reached at the Antelope Valley Station could not discuss other details of the crash or any injuries that resulted from it.

On his Facebook page that day, Titus Tuiasosopo, who is the pastor of a church where his son leads the band, wrote, "This morning at the outset of our travels to Reno, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Team Worship were in an unfortunate car accident."

Over the subsequent days, Titus Tuiasosopo's Facebook page detailed the recovery of two of his nephews who were hospitalized and at least briefly in intensive care as a result of the crash.

The story of the accident is one Ronaiah reportedly told when he auditioned on The Voice, according to US Weekly.

A third parallel comes in a quotation Te'o shared with his teammates before practice on the day he learned that Kekua had died just hours after his grandmother, who did actually pass away that day in September.

According to Sports Illustrated, he told his teammates, "My girlfriend always told me, 'Send roses while they can still smell them, tell people you love them while they can still hear.'"

On Titus Tuiasosospo's Facebook wall, he offered the same message as the family mourned the loss of a relative in August.

"Give roses while you can smell them. Tell them you love them while they can hear you," he wrote.

Titus Tuiasosopo is a teacher at Paraclete High School, a small Catholic school in Lancaster, Calif.

Efforts to contact him at the school – in person, and through phone calls and emails – were unsuccessful.

Ronaiah Tuiasosopo has not spoken to the media since the Deadspin article suggested he is responsible for the hoax. On Friday, ESPN quoted an unnamed friend of Tuiasosopo's who said he admitted to orchestrating it to fool Te'o.

"I know so much has been splattered all over the media about my son & my family," Titus Tuiasosopo wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday. "I also know that many who were born in a manger in Bethlehem & continue to walk on water will undoubtedly express their opinions. Those of you who know us the best still love us the most."

Lucy Nava, who claimed to be Te'o's aunt, responded, "THANK YOU TITUS FOR THE LOVE N SUPPORT U HAVE FOR MY NEPHEW...N GOD BLESS YOUR SON AND FAMILY AS WE SUPPORT HIM N YOU ALL AS WELL..FA'AFETAI LAVA"

Te'o has yet to publicy answer questions about his involvement in the hoax and whether he used it to gain publicity as he finished as runner-up in Heisman Trophy balloting and led Notre Dame to a 12-0 regular season. Deadspin's reporting and an interview with Te'o's uncle, Alema, by The Zone Sports Network confirmed that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and Te'o know each other.

After the school came out strongly in support of its former star player, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said in his podcast released on Friday that officials hope Te'o will address the story.

"I don't have any specific knowledge as to how and when," Swarbrick said. "But I can't fathom a circumstance where it doesn't. I sort of share everybody's view that it has to happen. And we are certainly encouraging it to happen. We think it's important and we'd like to see it happen sooner rather than later."

Tuiasosopo lives in a two-story house at the end of a cul-de-sac in a tidy, middle-class neighborhood in Palmdale, 10 miles south of Lancaster and about an hour's drive north from downtown Los Angeles. His street is currently lined with television trucks. A variety of media outlets are holding stakeouts.

Friday afternoon, no one answered a knock on the front door. The porch was littered with notes and business cards of media outlets seeking interviews.

 

[rook]

Lmao dawg this story just keeps getting crazier

 

[dsquare]

Am I the only person that is still very confused about story ?

 

[bigmike23]

Get the **** out of here!!!

 

[T0INE]

Te'o saying he tailored his stories about Lennay to make it seem like he met her because he was "embarassed" about never actually meeting her.

 

[freakydestroyer]

Cliffnotes please? I am confused. Why did he lie in the first place?

 

[benny bugatti]

This dude Manti is just going to keep making up stuff til people don't care anymore.

I'm pretty much done with the story, just play football, man.

 

[elpablo21]

Te'o saying he tailored his stories about Lennay to make it seem like he met her because he was "embarassed" about never actually meeting her.

Although I think he was still part of it....something like that happens quite often. There's still a big stigma regarding online dating (even for real couples)

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

Am I the only one who thinks Jeremy Schapp looked hella nervous?

(No conspiracy theory)

 

[nationaltruckerdave]

ESPN is a joke

 

[dman14]

Cliffnotes please? I am confused. Why did he lie in the first place?

so...

in manti's lie, he did it so he wasnt embarrased about being "catfished"
in reality, he wanted fame for playing through adversity

basically,
espn and manti saying he got catfished.
deadspin has proof that manti knows roniah/lennay and they were in it together. they got a pic of manti with his little sister.

where is mark zuckerberg when we need the facebook messages, lol


i still think this may be a cover up that he is gay and "lennay" was a way they could communicate publicly

 

[mr marcus]

Am I the only one who thinks Jeremy Schapp looked hella nervous?

(No conspiracy theory)

Yea..and pale..probably no make up

 

[jus3]

Jeremy Schaap is useless

 

[T0INE]

Te'o saying he tailored his stories about Lennay to make it seem like he met her because he was "embarassed" about never actually meeting her.

Although I think he was still part of it....something like that happens quite often. There's still a big stigma regarding online dating (even for real couples)

I know Pabs, I just have a hard time believing anything this dude says at this point.

 

[moiety]

Jeremy Schaap got that guap low key during the "interview"

 

[frshstunna]

ESPN is pitiful.. we now what story they running wit

 

[Renaldo Balkman]

espn is in on the fix... sad day for media

 

[Rootin4EverybodyBlack]

This is bull and it's so obvious.

 

[Arthur Shelby]

This is to much. they even got jeremy schaap looking crazy

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

Jeremy Schaap ain't the type to "sell out" for the company though. They got their best reporter for the job but shame on ESPN (and Manti's people) for putting dude in a tough spot. Got him looking like a damn fool on TV.

 

[duba169]

espn is in on the fix... sad day for media

It's been a sad decade for them

CREAM

 

[MVP]

Schaap popped a molly, dude was sweating looking like a clown

 

[foreverdecember21]

Schaap popped a molly, dude was sweating looking like a clown

K .. what the **** does this even mean?

 

[Truth]

If football doesn't work out, this dude Manti definitely has a future in pro wrestling

 

[elpablo21]

Te'o saying he tailored his stories about Lennay to make it seem like he met her because he was "embarassed" about never actually meeting her.

Although I think he was still part of it....something like that happens quite often. There's still a big stigma regarding online dating (even for real couples)

I know Pabs, I just have a hard time believing anything this dude says at this point.

Me too fam...me too