We've kept quiet and waited patiently, and now what we expected to hear is announced.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

Madison police announced Friday morning that they were not able to corroborate allegations made by a Madison woman that she was burned by four white men in Downtown Madison in June in what was initially reported as a hate crime.

Althea Bernstein, 18, of Monona, told police she had a lighter fluid sprayed on her and was set on fire on June 24 by four white men after one of them yelled a racial epithet.

But in a statement Friday morning, Madison police said it is "closing the investigation into this case. After an exhaustive probe, detectives were unable to corroborate or locate evidence consistent with what was reported."

The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division came to the same conclusion, according to the statement....

In mid-August, I asked:

"Seven weeks after a biracial woman told police she had been sprayed with lighter fluid by a group of white men and then set on fire..."

"... police and the woman’s family say the investigation into the incident continues. But little information about the June 24 incident has been released as the Madison police and the FBI continue to investigate. Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said... 'There is nothing new to release at this time'...  Althea Bernstein, 18, of Monona, told police she was stopped at a stoplight, possibly on West Gorham Street at State Street, around 1 a.m. on June 24 when four white men approached her vehicle. One yelled a racial epithet. She told police one of the men sprayed her with lighter fluid through her open driver’s-side window, then threw a lighter or match at her, igniting the fluid on her face and neck. She said they looked like 'frat boys' and that two were wearing floral shirts and blue jeans. The other two, she said, were dressed all in black and were wearing masks.... [P]olice have not released any surveillance camera images.... The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports.

ADDED: Couldn't the police just tell us whether there is continual camera footage for all the intersections crossing State Street and whether there's an image of her car when it crossed State Street? Shouldn't that be easy? She's clear that it happened crossing State Street. In Madison, crossing State Street is very obvious. You know when you're there, and she said that's where it happened. Shouldn't the police at least be able to tell us that something or nothing happened as the car crossed State Street (or alternatively that there is no footage of the car crossing State Street)? This story was such a big deal at the time, and it stirred people up about racial hatred. It's important to get the truth out so we can feel relieved or wary, depending on the evidence.