Oct 18, 2026 · 50 min · 21 segments
**Listen to more of The Big Story here: **http://swap.fm/l/wi-bigstorypod-feeddrop Maddie Kowalski is one of countless young women who’ve had their lives destroyed by the burnerverse, a loosely…
Content warning.
This piece includes descriptions of non-consensual sex and intimate image abuse.
On the afternoon of Sunday, November 2nd, 2025, Maddie Kowalski stopped by a house in Gainesville to drop off a present.
The University of Florida sophomore had traveled to Japan that summer, where she'd picked up an action figure from the manga One Piece as a gift.
Students referred to this building near the main campus, which has long been associated with the UF chapter of the frat Phi Delta Theta, as Fort.
a brick multifamily colonial-style house.
It was a typical frat boy residence with worn hardwood floors, exposed cables, and This Is Fort spray-painted in UF's orange and blue colors on the fence lining the perimeter.
At the time, they were being investigated for accusations of hazing, but the boys who lived there were Kowalski's best friends.
It was a safe space, I thought.
A few hours later, Kowalski, then 19, was at an apartment drinking when a friend told her something that would alter the trajectory of her life.
Did she know that a nude image of her was circulating at FSU, a university a few hours away? Kowalski would later learn that the image was making the rounds on Snapchat, and people were talking about it on the anonymous campus social network Yik Yak.
When she opened the app, that's when I started crashing out, she says.
As Kowalski scrolled, she saw what appeared to be hundreds of messages about a DZ girl.
They were now referring to not just an image, but a video.
Some were joking about masturbating to it.
the situation was about to get worse.
Around six that night, an anonymous account on X with the handle at Steve Comful posted the video saying, meet Maddie Kowalski, queen of Delta Zeta.
Kowalski had no idea who the poster was, but she immediately identified the setting in one shot as Fort.
In the video, the floor is dirty, with debris strewn everywhere.
She's lying on the ground naked, her eyes half closed, touching herself while flanked by a group of men in shorts.
While their faces weren't visible, they appeared to be some of the same guys she'd been hanging out with just a few hours prior, she realized with a sinking feeling in her gut.
In another shot, from a different night and at a different location, she is being penetrated by two men.
The video that ended up going viral on X was a compilation of three different clips, one mentioned above that was taken at Fort earlier that fall, and two that were recorded during a separate sexual encounter with two strangers.
Content warning.
This piece includes descriptions of non-consensual sex and intimate image abuse.
On the afternoon of Sunday, November 2nd, 2025, Maddie Kowalski stopped by a house in Gainesville to drop off a present.
The University of Florida sophomore had traveled to Japan that summer, where she'd picked up an action figure from the manga One Piece as a gift.
Students referred to this building near the main campus, which has long been associated with the UF chapter of the frat Phi Delta Theta, as Fort.
a brick multifamily colonial-style house.
It was a typical frat boy residence with worn hardwood floors, exposed cables, and This Is Fort spray-painted in UF's orange and blue colors on the fence lining the perimeter.
At the time, they were being investigated for accusations of hazing, but the boys who lived there were Kowalski's best friends.
It was a safe space, I thought.
A few hours later, Kowalski, then 19, was at an apartment drinking when a friend told her something that would alter the trajectory of her life.
Did she know that a nude image of her was circulating at FSU, a university a few hours away? Kowalski would later learn that the image was making the rounds on Snapchat, and people were talking about it on the anonymous campus social network Yik Yak.
When she opened the app, that's when I started crashing out, she says.
As Kowalski scrolled, she saw what appeared to be hundreds of messages about a DZ girl.
They were now referring to not just an image, but a video.
Some were joking about masturbating to it.
the situation was about to get worse.
Around six that night, an anonymous account on X with the handle at Steve Comful posted the video saying, meet Maddie Kowalski, queen of Delta Zeta.
Kowalski had no idea who the poster was, but she immediately identified the setting in one shot as Fort.
In the video, the floor is dirty, with debris strewn everywhere.
She's lying on the ground naked, her eyes half closed, touching herself while flanked by a group of men in shorts.
While their faces weren't visible, they appeared to be some of the same guys she'd been hanging out with just a few hours prior, she realized with a sinking feeling in her gut.
In another shot, from a different night and at a different location, she is being penetrated by two men.
The video that ended up going viral on X was a compilation of three different clips, one mentioned above that was taken at Fort earlier that fall, and two that were recorded during a separate sexual encounter with two strangers.
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