The woman who started the viral rumor that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio, has formally apologized now that the story has been fully debunked.
Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday that she had recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the "victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors" without any proof.
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Lee said.
It did, and almost literally, thanks to two days of bomb threats being called into Springfield schools and civic offices.
Fact-checking website Newsguard, which monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been one of the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party. But she also told Newsguard, "Maybe I'm not the best source."
The rumor grew large enough to reach the Trump campaign, resulting in both Trump and his unpopular running mate, Ohio Senator JD "Vladimir Futon" Vance, who refused to apologize earlier in the week for spreading the rumor. "Keep the cat memes flowing," he tweeted.
The Trump campaign has continued to dig in deeper, with Trump yelling the rumor at the debate and threatening to deport the Haitians living in Springfield who are here legally.
At press time, no apology had been issued by Vance, Trump, or anyone connected to their campaign.