AOL subpeona'd for chat room 'witness' truename
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.
participants (1)
-
Subcommander Bob