LACROSSE, Wis. – This, according to several sources, is how the investigation into a dorm fire and racist-homophobic grafitti, came down.

2:09 a.m., Sunday: Surveillance video showed  Victoria C. Unanka leaving her room in the Marian dor. She glanced around and checked the area for other people. During the next five minutes, she entered a lounge area and a bathroom before returning to her room.

2:14 a.m.: The he camera picked up images of smoke, Unanka frantically knocked on multiple residents’ doors and pulled a fire alarm.

2:30 a.m.: Security personnel reported a fire in the second-floor lounge of the dorm. Kaleb Peterson, our campus safety officer, extinguished the flames.  City firefighters ventilated the building. Besides the smoke, damage confined to one wall and adjacent carpeting. The fire didn’t activate the building’s sprinkler system.

After 3 a.m.: Unanka texted a friend that she was potentially a victim of another hate crime. She noted that the fire was started next to her dorm room.

The interrogation: Unanka told police she had been out with friends and arrived back at the dorm around midnight. She said she prepared food, went into the lounge area to wash her hands, and didn’t go anywhere else in the building before going to her room. Unanka told police she didn’t notice anything suspicious before the alarm sounded and that she and a friend then knocked on doors to alert residents to the fire before leaving themselves. Her account dodn’t square with the video footage. Unanka nidified her story: Yes, she had wanted to intentionally start a fire in the lounge by turning on a stove and leaving it on but decided not to. She said when she returned to the lounge from the bathroom, she found old food remnants on the stove and that she attempted to use paper towels to clean up the mess. The towels caught on fire, not to fan them, she said. She said she stuffed the burned paper towels  in the garbage can. Later Unanka told police she was frustrated that “no one was listening to me anymore.”

Sunday afternoon: The university called a meeting to juodate Marian residents and e courage discussion. This was followed byan all-campus meeting. Students were briefed on mental health counseling and ministry and other support services. Services.

Monday: Megan Pierce, director of foreign student services, scheduled a low-key discussion session in an informal setting.