Two days after the Manti Te’o fake dead girlfriend scandal blew up into the nation’s most-talked about story, the girl pictured as the made-up Lennay Kekua has been identified.
The New York Post ran the story on its front page Friday with the headline, “She Lives!”, identifying 23-year-old Diane O’Meara of Torrance, CA, outside Los Angeles as the woman in question. O’Meara is reportedly a former high school classmate of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who is believed to be the culprit behind the hoax that used pictures of O’Meara on the internet to either dupe Te’o or work with him to create the hoax.
“Somebody stole her identity,” a relative named Olga Volkov told The Post. “[O’Meara’s family] found out about it yesterday. They were shocked.”
That is certainly an understatement.
According to what appears to be her LinkedIn profile, O’Meara attended Cal State Long Beach and is now a marketing coordinator at STN Media Group based in Torrance. She is also apparently on Twitter, although her account is protected. Her description reads, “most driven person you’ll meet, literally. diaries of a commuting queen.”
Maybe she should add “The ghost of Lennay Kekua” to that.
Certainly, there will be many more details to come about this woman whose life has been turned upside down by a scandal she apparently had no involvement in.
