Ok I was inclined to believe he was the victim of a sick joke until I realized he had "talked" to her on the phone. Now I'm just confused, because I don't know what he had to gain from being in on this if that's what happened. He had to have known how easy it would be for someone to check Stanford's enrollment records and notice that this girl doesn't exist. Or death records, etc. On the other hand, if he was the victim of an elaborate hoax, who the christ was he talking to on the phone for eight hours a night?