Damn. I finally got around to reading the article. That's a hell of a story.
I can believe either main possibility though. It's possible the dude just has a type, and a lot of really strange coincidence in his life. Unlikely that so many perfect coincidences exist, but not totally impossible (I've seen some weird shit in my fifty years).
It's also totally believable that someone would create alternate identities for any number of reasons, some of which aren't necessarily bad, though the degree to which it went is out of line if that's the case. But I kinda doubt it was done fully benignly if that's what the truth is.
And, I guess there's always the possibility of a mix of those, with one or more of the three dubious people being real, and the rest fake.
But dude nuking everything online is super suspicious.