Benoit's Wiki Vandal Fesses Up

While there are several mysteries still surrounding Chris Benoit's murder of his wife and child and his own suicide, one of the most perplexing aspects of the WWE star's case has just been solved: Who updated his Wikipedia entry with news of his wife's death hours before authorities discovered the bodies?

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the online encyclopedia came forward and said Benoit's page was edited on Monday with the line: "Chris Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro for the [ECW] Championship Wrestling Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy."

The revision was made by anonymous posted with an IP address in Stamford, Connecticut (the home base of World Wrestling Entertainment), at 12:01 a.m.—it was nearly 14 hours later that police in suburban Atlanta entered the Benoits' home and discovered the carnage.

But on Friday, the updater posted a mea culpa, saying the added material was just an "incredible coincidence" and that the information was gleaned from rumors on the Internet.

The editor, who did not reveal his identity, denied having any advanced knowledge of the Benoit killings and pleading for everyone "to move on."

"Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing [at] Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. 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 message read.

"I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence."

Benoit, 40, strangled his 43-year-old wife to death the night of June 22 in their suburban Atlanta home, and smothered his seven-year-old son, Daniel, the next day. The wrestler placed Bibles next to his family's bodies and then sent out several text messages on Sunday morning to friends, prompting them to alert WWE officials who, in turn, contacted police to check on his welfare. By the time officers arrived at the home, Benoit had hanged himself with a pulley cord from a piece of exercise equipment.

But the anonymous Wikipedia editor said he never could have imagined the horrifying scenario that played out.

"That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought. I was beyond wrong for posting wrongful information, and I am sorry to everyone for this," lamented the user.  "I just want everyone to know it was stupid of me, and I will never do anything like this again."

Wikipedia monitors have confirmed the authenticity of the follow-up post, stating it came at 12:01 a.m. from the same IP address as the person who first made the prophetic edit. (The online encycloped allows anyone to update entries, but the additions must be vetted by site administrators.)

Although the posted admitted being from Stamford, he did not say whether he was affiliated with WWE, nor did he explain why he made a second Wiki revision to Benoit's page using a wireless service provider based in Sydney, Australia.

Coincidence or not, police in Fayetteville, Georgia, are actively hunting for the vandal for questioning.

"Through local law enforcement in that jurisdiction, we made contact with that person. They are assisting us in doing a consensual search on this person's computer to verify the IP address matches up," said Lieutenant Tommy Pope, spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department. "The person is being very cooperative with us."

Pope said the department is not going to release any names or information until the search is done, which would be Monday at the earliest.

Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for the WWE, said that to his knowledge, no one at the WWE knew of the murders until police came upon the bodies.

Cary Bass, volunteer coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation, told Wikinews that the IP address of the mystery editor was not linked to any computers or servers used by the WWE. But once the curious predictions went up, Bass decided to contact authorities in Fayetteville to inform them of the situation.

"It didn't become apparent until someone put the pieces together and realized that the comment was made by someone who apparently knew about the murders," Bass said.

An hour after the original update was published, Wikipedia's volunteer editors flagged it and issued the following comment: "Need a reliable source.  Saying that his wife died his a pretty big statement. You need to back it up with something."

According to a timeline constructed by the nonprofit foundation's news outlet, the anonymous editor used the Australian service provider an hour later to post an addendum: "according to several pro wrestling sites."

Twenty minutes later, Wiki monitors flagged that, too: "Saying 'several pro-wrestling sites' is still not reliable information."

Wikinews has since declared that its investigation has failed to uncover any new details that might prove the anonymous Netizen had any "inside information" of Nancy Benoit's murder. 

"This is not the first time Benoit's article has been edited to show false or unsourced information, as the article's edit history indicates a long history of promotional spam and vandalism," the Wikinews report stated.

Friday's apology from the unknown user went up as part of a discussion thread for the Wikinews story.

Meanwhile, as the investigation into the Benoit murder/suicide continues, anguished relatives have announced separate funeral arrangements for the so-called Canadian Crippler and his wife and son.

Chris Benoit's father, Michael, who lives in Ardrossan, Alberta, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a private memorial service for the wrestler will take place in Canada, while a service for Nancy and Daniel will be held in Daytona Beach, Florida, where her parents, Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, live.

In a separate phone interview with the Associated Press, the elder Benoit offered his thoughts and prayers to Nancy's family and stated that both relatives were in shock over the slayings.

"We have no understanding of why it happened," he said. "We need some time to gather our thoughts and wait and see. There's still more information that's going to come out from toxicology tests that will give us some understanding of why this happened."

Investigators found anabolic steroids and legally obtained prescription drugs in the house, along with empty alcohol containers, and hope toxicology tests will confirm or rule out whether 'roid rage played a role in the murders, a scenario that WWE officials have been actively trying to discredit to avoid a major PR blow to their empire.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab plans to release the bodies later Friday so both funerals could take place as early as this weekend.