The Washington Post‘s thorough reporting has already cleaned up much of the mess that Rolling Stone made in its botched expose of an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.
But crosstown rival Washington Times adds a few new details on how friends of “Jackie” got conned into thinking she was dating someone right before her alleged rape.
Regarding that cellphone number that Jackie gave her friends to text the man she claimed to be seeing:
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.
“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.”
Another friend, Kathryn Hendley, said “It’s news to me” when told Jackie’s numbers were traced to spoofing services:
“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.
Another friend verifies that Jackie panicked and tried to back out when writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely indicated she wanted to write a broad story with UVa at the center of a national crisis of rape.
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