At least two fake news sites (MegaNews360 and USANews) are claiming South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya has died, with articles titled "Caster Semenya dies in the US" and "BREAKING: Caster Semenya dies in a California Hospital". The articles are undated but they were picked up by Trendolizer on February 16th 2017 so they are at least this old.
A quote from one of the the fake articles reads:
South African middle-distance runner and 2016 Olympic gold medallist, Caster Semenya, has died in a California Hospital at Palo Alto, spouse Violet Raseboya tells States TV.
Violet Raseboya says Semenya took ill suddenly while the couple was in the United States on the invitation of Apple Inc. to talk over "a possible endorsement deal".
"She was fine but complained of minor chest pains a day before our coming. It wasn't something we had to worry about" - Violet said.
Of course it would be kind of hard for Caster Semenya to die on or before February 16th 2017 and then to send out tweets endorsing menstrual cups on February 21st 2017:
-- Caster Semenya (@caster800m) February 21, 2017
Despite this obvious proof of life the death hoax is being shared around anyway as you can see in the Trendolizer graph at the end of this article. If you notice anyone spreading the rumor around you can help by pointing them to this article here because nobody likes fake news.
