The Manti Te'o story is ever-changing.
Te'o was a victim of a hoax about a dead online girlfriend. He had a real girlfriend according to TMZ. ESPN says that Notre Dame teammates knew the girlfriend was not real. Shelly Smith reports that Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was fully behind the hoax. A rape case involving the Notre Dame football team entered on the fringe.
An interview with Sports Illustarted showed how much Te'o was duped, as he talked about many experiences with his girlfriend in great detail. The word "Catfish" has entered the cultural lexicon.
Now the creator of the film "Catfish" has come out to defend Te'o.
The entire situation began when Deadspin said the inspirational story about Te'o using his girlfriend's death from leukemia as an inspiration was found out to be a hoax. The report says that the girl Te'o claimed was his girlfriend was a made up identity and that the woman, Lennay Kekua, did not exist. Notre Dame issued a news release following the report, saying that "the proper authorities" are investigating a "very cruel deception."
Now, according to TMZ.com, the linebacker who had a fake dead girlfriend actually had a real one following the "death" of of his hoax girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. The report says that Te'o dated a St. Mary's College named Alexandra del Pilar soon after the "death" of Kekua.
The two dated for two months and then broke up recently before the news broke about the fake girlfriend. The report, as well as another article on Buzzfeed, have a number of Twitter posts and pictures that show the two knew eachother.
More came out Friday, as Shelly Smith reported that others had fallen under the same hoax by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
According to ESPN.com, a woman spoke anonymously to a church friend in early December crying and admitted to duping the Heisman finalist, the friend told Outside the Lines Thursday.
"The friend, a woman in her mid-20s, agreed to be interviewed under the condition that she not be identified, saying she was fearful for her family's safety because of the overwhelming publicity the story has generated. In the interview, she did allow for her voice to be recorded."
The woman in her mid-20s spoke to Shelly Smith and said that Tuiasosopo started the hoax as a game, but it quickly spiraled into something more.
"He (Ronaiah) told me that Manti was not involved at all, he was a victim. ... The girlfriend was a lie, the accident was a lie, the leukemia was a lie," said the woman. "He was crying, he was literally crying, he's like 'I know, I know what I have to do.'
She also said that this was not the first time Tuiasosopo had done something like this.
"It's not only Manti, but he was telling me that it's a lot of other people they had done this to," she said.
Notre Dame has supported Te'o, with Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick saying at a news conference that he was a victim of a hoax. Swarbrick said that the relationship took place online and over the phone.
"At the end of the day this is Manti's story to tell, and we believe he has the right to tell it, which we believe he is going to do," Swarbrick said.
Te'o issued a statement Wednesday afternoon:
"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."
Te'o previously said that his girlfriend had inspired him to play better during the season and he helped the Irish make it to the BCS National Championship game against Alabama.
The Deadspin report stated that Kekua does not have a death certificate and Stanford, where she reportedly went to school, has no record of anybody by that name. According to ESPN.com, friends and relatives of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, a high school classmate of Te'o, told Deadspin they believe he created Kekua.
Tuiasosopo is described in the report as an athlete from a football family who had cousins and relatives play football in college and in the NFL. The Deadspin report claims that Te'o and Tuiasosopo had met before and had communicated on Twitter.
The Deadspin report also stated that a friend of Tuiasosopo was quoted as saying he was "80 percent sure" hat Manti Te'o was "in on it," and that the two perpetrated Lennay Kekua's death with publicity in mind. The report offers a full timeline of tweets and other communications via social media.
According to Deadspin, the only photos that have been found online that identified Kekua are actually pictures of another 22-year-old woman. That woman, not named in the report, told Deadspin one of those photos likely was shared by Tuiasosopo.
She said to the website over the phone: "That picture is a picture of me from my Facebook account."
Te'o has not been out in public much since the national title game and hadn't tweeted since Nov. 6, writing " @LennayKay I miss you!" The hoax has also brought up questions about his future in the NFL.
Here is a LINK to the ESPN video with the Catfish creator defending Manti Te'o.
