Web Post On Dead Wrestler Examined

(AP)  A user of the Web site Wikipedia confessed to making edits to pro wrestler Chris Benoit's profile mentioning the death of Benoit's wife before authorities had found her body.

In a lengthy post added to the Web site early Friday, the anonymous user acknowledged being "deeply sorry" and called the situation a "terrible coincidence."

The edits were originally reported by Wikinews, an online news source connected to Wikipedia. Friday's post was added to a discussion page for the Wikinews story. According to Wikinews, the IP address of the individual is identical to that of the user who edited Benoit's profile early Monday morning.

"I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on Wikipedia to spite (sic) there being no evidence," the user wrote. The poster did not identify himself or herself.

The individual acknowledged being from Stamford, Conn., the home of World Wrestling Entertainment. In the message, the individual claimed no connection to WWE.

The IP address connected to the individual has a history of editing wrestling-related articles on Wikipedia, according to Sandra Ordonez, Communications Manager for Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization for Wikipedia.

"The IP address had a very consistent history," Ordonez said.

Ordonez also said the organization had verified the authenticity of the time stamps on the posts.

Ordonez referred all additional questions to authorities investigating the deaths.

A voicemail left for Fayette County, Ga., District Attorney Scott Ballard was not immediately returned.

"I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth," the user wrote. "I just can't believe what I wrote was actually the case, I've remained stunned and saddened over it."

Investigators had not yet discovered the bodies of Benoit, his wife and their 7-year-old son when someone altered Benoit's Wikipedia entry to mention his wife's death, authorities said.

Authorities said Thursday they were trying to determine who altered the entry on the collaborative reference site 14 hours before authorities discovered the bodies of the couple and their son.

Benoit's Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife's death.

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

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[gheemaster38]

Vincent McMahan kills one of his biggest money makers???! I dont think so.. Get real.. No one bites the hand that feed them.. As for the belt to Nitro... being a motive... News Flash! These guys get the same amount of pay written in their contract with or without the belt. Of course, it is up to the Wrestler to develop and work with the character they invent. So, Pubicity would not be the motive either.. Separate the real World from the World of Sports Entertainment please.. I honestly believe that the family met foul play. How many murder-suicides take place where the murder decides to separate the bodies? then, 24 hours between each death? Strange text messages? and then Wikipedia incident? Not to mention law officials closing the case so suddenly? Consequence or not; there is a bad fish in the Aquarium..

[willylou11]

Kevin Sullivan arranged to have his wife killed, are you kidding me. Now I understand that there are some Benoit fans out there who don't want to believe that he did this, and yeah, i was a fan of his to. However, creating fairy tales about Kevin Sullivan having something to do with this is just an attempt to suspend disbelief. We all know who is respsonsible for this whether we want to admit it or not. Besides, Kevin Sullivan would have no chance of getting over the fence that was around the house.

[willylou11]

shutUPfreak
This may be an example of the most ignorant person I have ever seen in his life. I have been following these articles for 4-5 days, and I haven't really seen a whole lot of tributes. Just another tragic example of someone abusing the point of this story to push the view that they don't like wrestling, therefore it is wrong. Can we please do something about the narrow-minded bigots who think wrestling fans are white trash and feel it necessary to belittle them because they feel insecure about they're own shortcomings. Shutupfreak, it is not our fault your dissapointed in your life, but you shouldn't take it out on others, ok lil' fella.

[brian31462]

For those here who are in doubt, see this comment section on Wiki;
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Talk:Chris_Benoit_mystery_editor_confesses:_claims_%22terrible_coincidence%22/Comments

[brian31462]

For your info I am not the one who had to repeat the 3rd grade for grammar. I use the PROPER grammatical collocation for this phrase instead of the contraction that you are using, which is a lazy persons way of writing.

Hey BRIAN - if YOU ARE = YOU'RE good, maybe you can repeat the 3rd grade for the 4th time and learn basic childs grammar.
Posted by shutUPfreak at 11:31 PM : Jun 29, 2007

[brianbwb-2009]

"I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on Wikipedia to spite (sic) there being no evidence," the user wrote. The poster did not identify himself or herself."

Funny, I've tried for the past two days to find some of these "rumors and speculation" dated before his Wiki edit, but to no avail. I wish he had pointed out a few, maybe one of those people know something the police might find interesting.

Hopefully he will let the police know where to find them...

[witchypoo69]

DID KEVIN SULLIVATION HAVE HIS X WIFE KILLED AND CHILD BECAUSE THEY NEVER HAD CHILDREN and he may have resented that fact. Hating Chris for taking his wife away?????? who knows, we surely wont know what happened or why. For all we did know he could have come home and found Nancy dead, So why do people naturally assumed that it was Chris Beniot. True every house has their problems so why should the any Beniot family be different, or is because people think he should air his dirty laundry in public. Why should he!!!!!!!!

It is possible that Kevin Sullivan who is heavily involved in satan arts, arranged to have his x wife Nancy and Daniel killed and Chris being the loving family man that he was couldnt live without them ...joined them in going to another place where hatred wont be tolerated.

Whilst there are lots of speculation on what happened are we not loosing site of the fact that he was one of the finest entertainers in the wrestling business always prepared to help up and coming stars.

May we take this oportunity to say rest in peace Beniot family. You will be sadly missed.

All this is very weird. Someone posting about his wife being dead. The text messages. I wonder who was scared? Who was he going to snitch on.

[nomorspics]

Burn in he11 you roided out motherfu(king PIG. Fu(k you and the psycho MORONS who perfom this violent trsh excuse for entertainment. An innocent mother and child are dead and you are the ultimate selfish scum of the earth.

[taylpatr]

Hey, wiccan. The comparison to Bush is just to show that you can sell anything in America. Chris Benoit was an entertainer, but some people get so wrapped up in it that they start to think it's real. He died for our sins, the sin being the inability to tell truth from fiction. Bush has capitalized on this to gain power.God rest the souls of Chris and his family, but if it wern't for the fact that people want to see huge men fake-fight, he might have been a regular guy bringing home a weekly check instead of being dead. Bush and Cheney use this make-believe tactic to stay in power, and because of people like mudrose and donnie900, it works!