Rolling Stone said its trust in Jackie "was misplaced" and apologised to "anyone who was affected by the story".
"In the months Sabrina Erdely spent reporting the story, Jackie neither said nor did anything that made Erdely, or Rolling Stone's editors and fact-checkers, question Jackie's credibility," Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana wrote. "New information" had exposed "discrepancies in Jackie's account".
Jackie's friends say they remember being shocked when she came to them. Though they did not notice any blood or visible injuries, they said they immediately urged Jackie to speak to police and insisted they find her help. Instead, they said, Jackie declined and asked to be taken back to her dorm room. They went with her - two of them said they spent the night - seeking to comfort Jackie in what appeared to be a moment of extreme turmoil.
"I mean obviously we were very concerned for her," Andy said. "We tried to be as supportive as we could be." The three students agreed to be interviewed on the condition that the Post use the same aliases as appeared in Rolling Stone because of the sensitivity of the subject.
They said there were mounting inconsistencies with the original narrative in the magazine. The students also expressed suspicions about Jackie's allegations from that night. They said the name she provided as that of her date did not match anyone at the university, and officials confirmed to the Post no one by that name has attended the school.
And photographs that were texted to one of the friends showing her date that night actually were pictures depicting one of Jackie's high school classmates in Northern Virginia. That man, now a junior at a university in another state, confirmed the photos were of him, said he barely knew Jackie and that he hadn't been to Charlottesville for at least six years.
The friends said they were never contacted or interviewed by the pop culture magazine's reporters or editors. Though vilified in the article as coldly indifferent to Jackie's ordeal, the students said they cared deeply about their friend's wellbeing and safety. Randall said they made every effort to help Jackie that night.
"She had very clearly just experienced a horrific trauma," Randall said. "I had never seen anybody acting like she was that night and I really hope I never have to again. ... If she was acting on the night of September 28, 2012, then she deserves an Oscar."
They also said Jackie's description of what happened to her that night differed from what she told Rolling Stone. Also, information Jackie gave the three friends about one of her attackers, called "Drew" in Rolling Stone, differed significantly from details she later told the Post, Rolling Stone and friends from sexual assault awareness groups on campus. The three said Jackie did not specifically identify a fraternity that night.
The Rolling Stone article also said Randall had declined to be interviewed, "citing his loyalty to his own frat". He told the Post he was never contacted by Rolling Stone and would have agreed to an interview.
Erdely, the article's writer, did not respond to requests for comment this week. Rolling Stone also declined to comment, citing an internal review of the story. The magazine has apologised for inaccuracies and discrepancies in its report.
The 9000-word article appeared online in late November and led with the brutal account of Jackie's alleged sexual assault. In the article, Jackie said she attended a date function at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in the fall of 2012 with a lifeguard she said she met at the university pool. During the party, Jackie said her date "Drew" lured her into a dark room where seven men gang-raped her in an attack that left her bloodied and injured. In earlier interviews with the Post, Jackie stood by the account she provided to Rolling Stone.
Palma Pustilnik, a lawyer representing Jackie, issued a statement yesterday asking journalists to refrain from contacting Jackie or her family.
"As I'm sure you all can understand, all of this has been very stressful, overwhelming and retraumatising for Jackie and her family," Pustilnik said. She declined to answer specific questions or to elaborate.
Jackie ultimately told her harrowing account to sexual assault prevention groups on campus and spoke to university officials about it, though she said in interviews she was always reluctant to identify an attacker and never felt ready to report it to police. In interviews she acknowledged a police investigation now would be unlikely to yield criminal charges because of a lack of forensic evidence.
Emily Renda, a 2014 University of Virginia graduate who was raped during her freshman year and now works for the university as a sexual violence specialist, told the Post she met Jackie in the fall of 2013. Renda said that, at the time, Jackie told her she had been attacked by five students at Phi Kappa Psi. Renda said she learned months later the number of perpetrators had changed to seven.
The Rolling Stone article, which appeared on its website last month, roiled the campus, set off protests and vandalism and prompted self-reflection. University officials responded by suspending the university's Greek system of fraternities and sororities until next month and promoting a broader discussion on campus about sexual assault and campus safety. University officials declined to comment on the specifics of the allegations and the article.
In an interview on Thursday, university president Teresa Sullivan said her administration would continue to co-operate with authorities in the investigation of the case; she wants the university community to focus on prevention of sexual assault.
Charlottesville City police Captain Gary Pleasants said detectives were looking into the allegations at the request of the university. Andy and Randall said they had both spoken to police about the case since the Rolling Stone article was published.
Last week, Jackie for the first time revealed a name of her alleged attacker to other friends who she had met more recently, the friends said. That name was different from the one she gave Andy, Cindy and Randall the first night. All three said they had never heard the second name before a reporter gave it to them.
The Post interviewed a man whose name is similar to the second one Jackie used for her attacker. He said while he did work as a lifeguard at the same time as Jackie, he had never met her in person and had never taken her out on a date. He also said he was not a member of Phi Kappa Psi.
The fraternity at the centre of the Rolling Stone allegations has said it did not host any registered social event on the weekend of September 28, 2012, and no members of Phi Kappa Psi at the time worked at the campus aquatic and fitness centre. A lawyer who has represented the fraternity said no member of the fraternity at the time matched a description of "Drew" given by Jackie to the Post and Rolling Stone.
In interviews, some of Jackie's closest friends said they believed she suffered a horrific trauma during her freshman year, but others have expressed doubts about the account.
"I definitely believe she was sexually assaulted," said junior Alex Pinkleton, a sexual violence peer advocate who survived a rape and an attempted rape in her first two years on campus and is a close friend of Jackie. "The main message we want to come out of all this is that sexual assault is a problem nationwide that we need to act in preventing. It has never been about one story. This is about the thousands of women and men who have been victims of sexual assault and have felt silenced not only by their perpetrators, but by society's misunderstanding and stigmatisation of rape."
Rachel Soltis, who lived with Jackie in their freshman year, said she appeared depressed and stopped going to classes. Andy, Cindy and Randall all said Jackie's behaviour clearly changed that semester.
Jackie said in interviews last week she wanted to use her ordeal to help focus more resources on survivors to augment existing prevention efforts. "I didn't think things like this happened in the real world. Maybe now another freshman girl will decide not to go into a room with someone they don't know very well."
