Hey dude, you probably remember me on some level, I know I remember you.
When all that happened, I decided for myself to just treat both possibilities (truth/lie) as just that: Possible. It does sound to me, based on the reddit thread which I've read, that the lie is the more likely result. However, my advice? Just know that there was a person who, in the long gone past, made you feel in a certain way, and now that person is gone. It's okay to grieve for a fictional person, a celebrity, a real person, an animal, whatever. You can mourn the loss of any material thing, too. The thing that was once in your life, the person, they have departed through some means and moving on is all you can do at that point.
It does suck, though. I can understand being curious after all these years, and I hope you find the most important thing in it all: Closure.
I hope that aside from all this, you're doing really well!
You always seemed like a good guy, going from memory!