Kevin Mazur/Getty ImagesTo begin with, no, April Bieber is not Justin Bieber's sister. For all we know, she's not anybody's sister.
But, sadly, the story of April Bieber is no hoax, either.
To explain today's mysterious Twitter topic, let's start at the beginning, with Monday morning's tragic death of a 15-year-old Ohio girl named Sodany Phann. Full name: Sodany April Phann.
According to the Dayton Daily News, Phann, struck and killed by a school bus, was an honor student who planned on attending Bieber's concert tour stop in Cincinnati in June.
By Monday night, word of Phann's death apparently reached Bieber, as he tweeted, "life is a blessing and appreciation for our time here with eachother is important." The message was marked: "#ripaprilbieber."
Now, we don't know if Bieber invented that particular hashtag, or if he was following others who'd used it to pay tribute to Phann, but it looks as if shortly after he invoked it, a lot of folks got confused—or, rather, confused a hashtag for a person. ("Anyone know who April Bieber is?," went one question.)
So, end of mystery.
There are a few other things known about the late Phann: One, she is currently the subject of an online petition that asks Bieber to "write/dedicate a song to her." (We sent an email to Bieber's record label seeing if the teen star plans to abide. No response yet.)
Two, she would have turned 16 on Thursday. And, three, she apparently maintained a Twitter account: BieberDollBabe.
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