AOL subpeona'd for chat room 'witness' truename

[Subcommander Bob]

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.