From the first paragraph of the article: > "After months of trying to prove the result, I managed to understand why it was so difficult. I realized that if I u

From the first paragraph of the article: > "After months of trying to prove the result, I managed to understand why it was so difficult. I realized that if I used that information correctly, I might be able to refute the claim. Finally, after several failed attempts, I found a way to construct a counterexample [a case that does not satisfy the studied property and therefore proves it is not universally true]." That makes it quite clear that she refuted it.