Three friends of the alleged University of Virginia rape victim are growing more skeptical about her account, saying they have doubts about information she gave them and why she belatedly tried to get herself deleted from the Rolling Stone article that engulfed their campus in controversy.
The friends say among their concerns is the fact that the woman, named only as “Jackie” in the article, gave them a cellphone number so they could text a man she said she was seeing about three weeks before she alleged she was gang-raped at a fraternity house.
Eventually, the friends ended up with three numbers for the man. All are registered to Internet services that enable people to text without cellphone numbers but also can be used to redirect calls to different numbers or engage in spoofing, according to multiple research databases checked by The Washington Times.
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“That definitely raises some red flags,” Alex Stock, a University of Virginia junior and friend of Jackie, told The Times. “I think as more details come out I definitely feel a little more skeptical. This is all new territory for me. I’m not too technologically savvy.”
The friends say Jackie also gave them the name “Haven” as the first name of the upperclassman she was seeing shortly before the purported attack, but they haven’t been able to find anyone by that name enrolled on the campus or even living in the area.
Kathryn Hendley explained that the three friends began using the phone numbers to text Haven because they were “curious” about the upperclassman. Now, they don’t know what to think about that part of her story, the friends said.
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When told the cellphone numbers were traced to the Internet services, Ms. Hendley remarked: “Wow, really? That’s interesting. It’s news to me.
“I think as the story has moved along it has raised some new doubts. I honestly wish I could just talk to her sometimes and ask her myself or at least tell her that I hope she’s all right,” she said.
Ryan Duffin, another junior, said he was trying to keep an open mind about Jackie’s accusations, but the cellphone numbers added to his own skepticism.
He noted that Jackie told him she tried to get herself dropped from the Rolling Stone article at the last minute, but was told by the magazine that it was too late.
“She was contacted thinking her story was going to be a much smaller piece about the issue as a whole as it existed at U.Va., and that it was much more focused on survivors,” Mr. Duffin told The Times. “There came a point when she didn’t want that anymore, she tried to retract, but the reporter said at that stage it wasn’t possible.
“She said that she thinks the article did get out of hand and that the reporter used her story to make a broader point,” he said.
All three friends nonetheless remain cautiously supportive of Jackie, saying only she and others at the fraternity house ultimately know what happened on the night of Sept. 28, 2012, when she alleges she was attacked.
“As the investigation goes on, more and more aspects of the story are coming into question; the aggregate of all this evidence is increasing doubt. But it doesn’t change my opinion that it may or may not have happened,” Mr. Duffin said. “More and more is coming to the surface, and I think there will come a time when we know what really happened, especially since I know there is a police investigation.”
The accuser’s attorney, Palma Pustilnik, declined to comment when contacted Monday about the friends’ comments and the details about the numbers.
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