It is a “whodunnit” for the internet age. Detectives investigating the suicide of the professional wrestler Chris Benoit, and the murder of his wife and son, are perplexed by a change made to the online encylopaedia Wikipedia 14 hours before the bodies were discovered.

The change said that Benoit – known as the “Canadian Crippler” and “Rabid Wolverine” – had missed a weekend match “due to personal reasons stemming from the death of his wife, Nancy”.

The entry was spotted and pointed out immediately to the police by newspaper reporters covering the story.

How could anyone have known about Benoit’s death before the police arrived? Did Benoit make the change after strangling his wife and mentally handicapped son, before placing Bibles next to their bodies and hanging himself?

The phrase “stemming from the death of his wife, Nancy” was added to the Wikipedia article at 12.01am on June 25. A moderator for the free encylopaedia, often criticised for the inaccurate updates made by members of the public, spotted the change and challenged it.

“Need a reliable source,” the moderator said. “Saying that his wife died is a pretty big statement.”

It was not until 14 hours later, at 2.30pm, that police in LaFayette County, Georgia, discovered the bodies.

The wrestler had hanged himself using the cable from one of his weightlifting machines.

At some point after the Wikipedia entry, Benoit sent several text messages to his colleagues, reminding them of his address and the fact that “the dogs are in the enclosed pool area, garage-side door is open”.

Detectives later found steroids in Benoit’s home, prompting speculation that he was suffering from a steriod-induced rage when he killed his family. The premeditated nature of the killings appears to contradict this theory, however.

The office of a doctor who prescribed testosterone to Benoit was searched on Thursday by federal drug agents, and an investigation is under way into the wrestler’s treatment for low testosterone levels. State medical records have revealed that Benoit’s doctor had been suspended from a Georgia hospital in 2001 for “reasons related to competence or character”.

When Benoit missed shows over the weekend, he told officials at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) that his wife and son were vomiting blood because of food poisoning. It is thought that Benoit’s son, who was 7, suffered from Fragile X syndrome and was small for his age. Viewers of WWE were told that Benoit had suffered a “family emergency”. Meanwhile, the IP address of the computer that made the prescient Wikipedia entry was traced to Stamford, Connecticut, which is also the location of WWE’s headquarters.

A computer that appeared to use the same IP address was used to make another posting to Wikipedia’s news page yesterday, describing the incident as “a huge coincidence”.

“I just posted something that was at that time a piece of wrong, unsourced information that is typical on Wikipedia, as it is done all the time,” read yesterday’s anonymous item. “That night I found out that what I posted ended up actually happening.”

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