It is now confirmed. On Friday, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo proved that he was indeed the voice behind Lennay Kekua, the non-existent woman that ensnared Manti Te'o into the so-called "dead girlfriend hoax."
Given the privacy screen that we reported on Thursday, Tuiasosopo was able to perform the voice. Earlier, when asked by Dr. Phil, he said he could not do it due to embarrassment. Given the screen, which simulated anonymity, he was able to perform the voice (embedded).
During the episode that aired Friday, Tuiasosopo not only read the voicemails that had been leaked earlier, he also called a show producer, simulating the same conditions of the original voicemails he left Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist Manti Te'o.
Not only that, vocal experts concluded that the voices -- Tuiasosopo's and Kekua's -- were a match.
During the show, Tuiasosopo revealed that he was molested as a child. He said that came up with the idea for the online hoax as a way to escape from his real life.
The story broke on Jan. 16. Lennay Kekua, the dead girlfriend that helped to inspire Manti Te'o's football feats, never existed. However, it wasn't just the non-existence of Kekua that was an issue. It was also that Te'o, an All-American Notre Dame linebacker and a Heisman Trophy finalist became a national sensation when he played a huge game against Michigan State on Sept. 15, which was the the Saturday after his grandmother and girlfriend both died (on the same day, Sept. 12).
To make things work, Te'o continued to discuss Kekua and his grandmother after that game. It seemed as though the story continued to grow in proportion as time went on, until the Notre Dame Fighting Irish finally concluded an unbeaten regular season, only to lose to the Alabama Crimson Tide on Jan. 7 in the BCS Championship game.
Since the story broke, both Te'o and Tuiasosopo have been interviewed. Tuiasosopo seemed to confirm what Te'o said, that the linebacker had no knowledge of the hoax and was uninvolved.
You can compare the audio from Dr. Phil with the original voicemails. Due to embedding limitations, those can be listened to here.
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