Nope, it actually was the serpentine belt. The serpentine belt shredded, wrapped around the crankshaft and worked its way into the timing cover, caused the timing belt to slip, which, since this is an interference motor, was disastrous for the valves.
There is a design flaw that allows a shredded serpentine belt to work it's way past the timing cover and wreak havok. When I took apart the engine, the timing belt was in-tact.
There is now available a guard that you place behind the main crankshaft pulley to stop this from happening but I can't find it right this second.
Forum threads:
https://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=424956
https://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=407745
There is a design flaw that allows a shredded serpentine belt to work it's way past the timing cover and wreak havok. When I took apart the engine, the timing belt was in-tact.
There is now available a guard that you place behind the main crankshaft pulley to stop this from happening but I can't find it right this second.