Wrestling Story's Twists and Turns

By: Matthew Felling
Topics: In The News

(Peter Kramer/Getty Images)

As written in this space earlier this week, the grisly story of professional wrestler Chris Benoit killing his wife and child before hanging himself has more than enough components within it to attract continued attention. As of this writing, a Google News search shows that 1,812 stories have been written on the double murder-suicide.

And the story gets curiouser by the day, as more disturbinging and confusing findings of the investigation emerge.

Soon after the story broke, it was reported that Benoit had sent out text messages after he killed his wife.

Hours later, before dawn Sunday morning, Benoit reportedly sent a string of strange text messages to co-workers and neighbors, including, "The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open." Another said, "My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane."

Then, in a tragic development, it was revealed that he had killed his own son using a wrestling maneuver:

[His son] Daniel appeared to have been killed in a chokehold because he had internal neck injuries but no visible bruises, according to Scott Ballard, district attorney for Fayette County.

And yesterday, the Associated Press reported that someone with an Internet IP address in the same town as the World Wrestling Entertainment office -- Stamford, Connecticut -- had gone online and updated Chris Benoit's biography to include the death of his wife -- before the police had found her body.

Investigators are looking into who altered pro wrestler Chris Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their 7-year-old son. … Benoit's page on Wikipedia, a reference site that allows users to add and edit information, was updated at 12:01 a.m. Monday, about 14 hours before authorities say the bodies were found. The reason he missed a match Saturday night was "stemming from the death of his wife Nancy," it said.

Also, earlier in the AP story it was noted that:

A Wikipedia official, Cary Bass, said Thursday that the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Conn., where World Wrestling Entertainment is based.

What did this development mean? Was Benoit involved in changing his own biography? It's extremely unlikely, because the activity from that IP address didn't end when the police found the bodies of the Benoit family. According to Wikipedia's constantly-changing entry for Benoit:

The IP address of the editor was traced to Stamford, Connecticut, which is also the location of WWE headquarters. After news of the early death notice reached mainstream media, the anonymous poster accessed Wikinews to explain his seemingly prescient comments as a "huge coincidence and nothing more."

In a conversation with Public Eye, Wikimedia Communications Director Sandra Ordonez confirmed that this anonymous message was sent from the exact same IP address as the one discussing the death of Benoit's wife, but days later, adding that "the person who wrote from this IP address had a history of vandalism. It wasn't an extensive history, but he had vandalized some entries before."

(An earlier draft of this story reported that the Internet account belonged to the WWE. The IP address used in the messages and posts is based in Stamford, Connecticut -- the same town as WWE HQ -- but is not owned by WWE. Public Eye regrets the error.)

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by klaatu62 June 29, 2007 4:20 PM EDT: Nothing said it was a WWE internet account. They said the IP was traced to Stamford where the WWE also has an office. Reports also that this IP has been used in the past to mess with wiki entries for both wrestlers and basketball players.; Reply to this comment