Manti Te'o gets support from hometown after "girlfriend" hoax

LAIE, Hawaii People in small Hawaii hometown of Manti Te'o are offering support for the Notre Dame linebacker, after the story of his girlfriend and her death from Leukemia were revealed as a hoax.

No one answered the door Wednesday evening and no one appeared to be inside the modest, single-story wood home of Te'o's parents, Brian and Ottilia Te'o, in the small coastal town of Laie on Oahu's northern shore where Manti Te'o, an All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist, was born.

But members of the mostly Mormon community said they were dumbfounded, and didn't believe he would have knowingly perpetrated such a story. The town of about 6,000 people, roughly an hour's drive from Honolulu, is home to a small satellite campus of Hawaii's Brigham Young University,

Lokelani Kaiahua said Te'o's parents were her classmates, and she knew them to have strong family values they instilled in their children.

"I just don't see something like that being made up from him or having any part of that because they're not those kind of people," she said while sitting and talking with friends a few doors down from the Te'o family home. "Everybody's kind of like `what is going on?"'

According to media accounts that surrounded Te'o this season, his purported girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, died of Leukemia in September. But on Wednesday, the website Deadspin.com posted a lengthy story saying there was no evidence that she ever existed.

Notre Dame officials then confirmed the hoax but were insistent that Te'o was only the victim.

Te'o's inspirational story was featured all over sports media, from ESPN to Sports Illustrated. CBS News' Chip Reid reported on the story as well for "CBS This Morning," on the day of the BCS Championship game. But it turns out everyone was duped by what turned out to be a fictitious story, born online.

• Manti Te'o hoax: Many questions remain
• Manti Te'o says he's the victim of girlfriend hoax
• CBS News' initial report: Manti Te'o: Playing through adversity

Jack Dickey, a writer for Deadspin, told CBS News, "Well, OK, 22-year-old Stanford grad gets in a car accident, contracts leukemia and then dies. That's a big tragedy that's going to be written up somewhere. It wasn't. There was no death notice, no obituary, no announcement of her funeral."



Dickey is one of the reporters who broke the story after receiving an anonymous tip. He said, "This was a person who should have had a high profile, but had no profile aside from stuff on social media and stuff connected with Manti Te'o."

Te'o is a hero and role model to many children in Laie and nearby small towns like Haaula, Kaaawa and Kahuku along the two-lane highway snaking through Oahu's northeastern coast.

Students at Haaula often wear Notre Dame jerseys with his number "5" on them, and Te'o has returned to the area to talk to students about the importance of staying in school, said school administrator Makala Paakaula, 38.

"He always keeps giving back to his community," Paakaula said.

Te'o should be lauded for uniting Notre Dame during his senior year when he could have left for the NFL, she said.

"It's amazing how he brought together the whole school to become one ohana, one family, where they all belonged, where they all had a purpose," Paakaula said.

Many residents expressed anger toward whoever was behind the entire affair.

"If he got hoaxed, that's not his fault — shame on them," Paakaula said, "because he has a very trusting, open heart."

But some question whether Te'o is really a victim.

"Nothing about this story has been comprehensible, or logical, and that extends to what happens next," writes CBSSports.com national columnist Gregg Doyel. "I cannot comprehend Manti Te'o saying anything that could make me believe he was a victim."