Authorities are investigating who changed professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s Wikipedia entry to mention his wife’s death hours before police found the bodies of the couple and their 7-year-old son.
Wikipedia Benoit Posting Mystery
Benoit’s Wikipedia entry had been updated early Monday to say that the wrestler had been absent from a match two days earlier because of the death of his wife.
A Wikipedia official said Thursday that the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Connecticut, where the World Wrestling Entertainment has its headquarters.
The bodies were discovered in Benoit’s home in Atlanta and Wikipedia said they do not know the origin of the posting. Benoit’s page on Wikipedia was updated just after midnight Monday, around 14 hours before the bodies were found, according to authorities.
The original posting reads,”Chris Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro for the ECW Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy.”
Reporters alerted the Fayette County district attorney’s office of the Wikipedia posting Thursday, and they communicated the information to sheriff’s investigators who are looking into the matter.
On Benoit’s Wikipedia page there is a note that says editing of the entry by unregistered or newly registered users is disabled until July 8, 2007 due to vandalism.
Here is an update to this story.
