On November 19, Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s Rolling Stone feature “A Rape on Campus” went viral. It was a story about the preponderance of sexual assaults at the University of Virginia that fail to materialize into formal complaints. UVA responded, suspending fraternity activities and promising to dedicate all necessary resources to the investigation of the horrific gang rape the essay took as its frame.

But before UVA could begin probing the complaint, the world stepped in, and the findings were shattering. Not because every gruesome detail turned out to be true, but because it now appears that many of the most foundational ones were not.

What began as a trickle of suspicion in blogs specializing in rape suspicion developed into a cascade of interest from venues like the Washington Post, the New Republic, Columbia Journalism Review, and more, culminating in a statement issued by Rolling Stone on December 5 effectively disowning responsibility for the veracity of the story. (A day later, without mentioning that the statement had been updated, the magazine appeared to pivot, noting that the “mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.”)