In one of the more interesting stories to sweep the internet this week, Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, is facing sorrow, scrutiny and question, depending on which story you choose to believe.

Where to start?

Manti Te’o is a Mormon linebacker at Notre Dame who led his Catholic school’s football program back to the spotlight. He was a runner for the Heisman winner spot and was helping to lead his team to victory.

However, in the span of just a few hours last September Te’o supposedly learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his (supposed) girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. From here, he drew the support of thousands of people who looked to Te’o for inspiration–he was a model for people around the world.

Here’s where things get a bit odd.

Kekua, 22 , was said to have been in a serious car accident in California, and then had been diagnosed with leukemia shortly after.

Sports Illustrated’s Pete Thamel described to Deadpsin.com how Te’o would phone her in her hospital room and stay on the line with her as he slept through the night. “Her relatives told him that at her lowest points, as she fought to emerge from a coma, her breathing rate would increase at the sound of his voice,” Thamel wrote.

It is apparent, however, that Te’o never met with any woman and kept interaction strictly between phone, text and internet.

And thus, the legend of the Manti Te’o girlfriend arises, as no girlfriend ever existed.

Where it stands.

Manti Te’o did actually lose his grandmother this past fall, according to multiple news site’s reporting. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis.

No records, however, show someone named Lennay Marie Kekua, dying on that day, or any other day for that matter. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper, Deadspin.com says. There is also no report of any car accident and every background check available to the public turns up nothing.

Furthermore, Deadspin.com reports that the photographs that identified Kekua in online tributes and on TV news reports are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te’o.

Te’o claims he became aware in December, and then says he realized he was the subject of a hoax after Notre Dame hired private investigators and computer forensic experts to figure out exactly who, or whom, Lennay Kekua was and why she pretended to die – and later come back to life, Deadspin.com says.

The three scenarios.

1. Manti Te’o made the entire thing up to make himself look good in the press spotlight. He is a projected first-round NFL pick, finished second in the Heisman voting, and has won numerous other awards so a story like this is sure to gain support from the public.

2. Kekua is nothing more than a hoax done in poor taste by people (or person) with no time on their hands. Manti Te’o was severely duped and now is filled with sorrow as he has no idea what is real or fake.

3. Manti Te’o, a devout Morman, is homosexual and the entire situation was drawn up by him to cover this fact. While it’s more of a stretch, this would be a perfect story for parents, coaches and teammates to hide the fact that he is gay.

YOU DECIDE: What do you believe?