Rolling Stone’s UVA Rape Story Just Took a Surprising Turn

The story of an alleged gang rape at UVA has taken an unexpected new turn, one that puts the accuser’s story in a new light.

According to a report in the Washington Post,the woman known as Jackie wanted to start a relationship with anotherfreshman whom the story refers to by the pseudonym Randall, but Randallwasn’t interested in anything more than friendship. After that,according to her friends, Jackie began mentioning “a handsome junior from chemistry class who had a crush on her.”

Jackie’sfriends were intrigued and asked for the mystery man’s phone number.Jackie gave them a phone number and the friends began texting him.According to the Post, which has seen the texts, the mystery man“raved to them about ‘this super smart hot’ freshman.” He alsoexpressed disappointment that she was turning him down for dates becauseshe had a crush on a freshman. Randall tells the Post he believed this was a reference to himself.

The Postdoesn’t draw any conclusions from the facts in its storybut those facts suggest Jackie may have invented the handsomeupper-classman with an interest in her, perhaps as a way to make Randalljealous. That possibility seems to be bolstered by another factrevealed by the Post’s investigation.

Some ofthe texts provided by the mysterious upper-classman contained selfies.At least that’s what Jackie’s friends believed at the time. But the Post identified the man in the texted photos as a former high school classmate of Jackie. Contacted by the Post,the former classmate confirmed the photos were of him but said he hadnot been to UVA in six years. He also claimed he didn’t really knowJackie in high school and suggests the photos appeared to have beentaken from publicly available social media accounts.

OnSeptember 28, 2012, the date of the alleged rape, Jackie told herfriends that she had agreed to go on a date with the mysteriousupper-classman. The friends never saw this individual and were unable totrack him down via social media. At one point the Post recounts them wondering if they’d really been in touch with this person at all (via texts). And after the alleged attack, the mystery man texted Randall again “passing along praise that Jackie apparently had for him.”

For her part, Jackie is sticking to her story though the Postsays she “declined to answer specific questions” during a briefinterview Wednesday. Randall, who responded to Jackie’s call for helpthe night of the alleged attack, tells the Post, “She had very clearly just experienced a horrific trauma.” He adds, “If she was acting on the night of Sept. 28, 2012, then she deserves an Oscar.” Charlottesville Police are continuing to investigate the incident.