Colorado Investigators Seek Name of AOL User Who Claims to Have Witnessed Ramsey Killing

TBO.com ^ | 9/08/01 | AP

[kattracks]

DULLES, Va. (AP) - Colorado police investigating the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey are trying to learn the identity of an America Online subscriber who claimed in an Internet message that he witnessed the 6-year-old's slaying.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Boulder, Colo., police Detective Thomas Trujillo asked Loudoun County, Va., investigators to file a search warrant asking AOL for the user's name, e-mail files and buddy lists.

Boulder city spokeswoman Jana Peterson confirmed the report in an interview with Denver's KUSA-TV, but said: "It is not, in our estimation, any more significant than any number of tips that we've received in the past five years."

An affidavit for the warrant said the message was posted on a Web site devoted to JonBenet, who was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996. No charges have been filed in the killing.

Police Chief Mark Beckner received an e-mail Aug. 8 from an AOL user about the "confession," according to the affidavit

"I was there when the whole thing occurred," the Aug. 7 message read. "I never wanted any part in it, but they said if I didn't help I would be killed as well."

Messages left by The Associated Press for Beckner and Trujillo were not immediately returned. Loudoun County officials said no one would be available for comment until Monday.

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said the Dulles-based company were cooperating with authorities. He declined to identify the source of the e-mails.

[Rodney King]

Good God. There is like a 1 in 10 billion chance that this guy was actually there. Unless it is her brother posting.

[tippytoes]

The state of Virginia is certainly a hot spot for criminal activity all of a sudden. I wonder who "they" are supposed to be? This could be the real thing.

[PoisedWoman]

It seems unlikely that "they" were in the house, as noise would have awakened JonBenet's parents. Still, I believe that someone killed her other than her family. Her brother may have let that person in and been complicit in some way.