Crazy thing is, when you read stories of people since that time getting catfished out of thousands upon thousands of dollars from "the loves of their life", him believing he had a g/f attending Stanford that died seems tame by comparison.
His #1 mistake was mentioning her death to media outlets without confirming some stuff. This was 2012, not 1972. Most people's obituaries can be Googled within a few days of their death.