Responding to article written by ACR

My draft on the "Lance Matthews Story"
as seen through the eyes and opinion of "ACandyRose"
Monday, July 26, 1999

When Lance Matthews first came to the Boulder News Forum in October 1998 he came as Lance Matthews using the hat name of "Matthews" and bidding that he had information about the Ramsey case which of course perked many ears on the forum message board. He was welcomed to a certain degree by some, including myself and others appeared suspicious of him and they did not give him a warm welcome. His said his goal was to promote J.T. Colfax, and his letters from jail, his artwork , his connection to the Ramsey case. Lance Matthews said he met Colfax in jail and they were cell buddies for a period. Matthews was in for some charge relating to selling herion and according to the Boulder newspaper archives he was classified as "the biggest heroin dealer in the area." Lance denies that he was a drug dealer. He does not deny that he used drugs and said he was in rehabilitation.

Yes, that seems right. He was fronting for JT Colfax who had stolen the morgue log with JonBenet's name on it - - he was also convicted of tampering with corpses he was hired to move for funeral homes.

Since Matthews logged onto a discussion forum that had to do with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, many of the cyber sleuths were suspicious of him and searched the newspaper archive records on the Internet to learn as much as they could about who he was. Much of that information was posted on the public forums. Although he had always said that Lance Matthews was his real life name others had found that information was not true and that he was actually using two different names, not that Internet posters personal real life names are important to some but later that was used against Matthews during various Internet poster wars. That personal information on Lance Matthews real name is not included in this story.

Yes, that seems right. Anyone posting was fair game to the BORG who sought out personal information - - yes, yes. (Most of us just wanted to discuss case and didn't play that game.)

Lance managed (or it was volunteered) to get the webmaster of the Redd Herring web site to put the Colfax police documents on the Internet. Later another (un-named) Internet poster helped Matthews set up the Tripod account and create the J.T. Colfax web site, pretty much the way Murphy from WebbSleiths helped Jameson set up her Timeline. Matthews asked me for help but I didn't have time and then another poster under the hat name of "Wiltonjr" took it over and became the webmaster.

Don't know - probably so.

Matthews jumped in with the BNF crowd to attack another poster under the hat name of "Jameson" and another under "Goethe2" who was also known as "Seal" on another forum and other WebbSleuths members, specifically another poster under the hat name of "Muni" who was also known as "Murphy" on the WebbSleuths Froum. Matthews was calling "Goethe2" names, one of which was "Nudules" and there appeared to be somewhat a personal war between them.

He joined the lynch mob for personal reasons - I know I didn't take his attacks personal - he was just joining the gang.

During this time, Matthews was posting J.T. Colfax's letters from the Boulder County jail on the BNF and many of those letters, that Matthews said were authored by J.T. Colfax and transcribed by Matthews, created an interaction via the posting message board with other posters on the Boulder News Forum. Both negative and positive messages were posted.

Colfax was an interesting character - and I think it is a shame he didn't take on the Ramsey case as a personal cause. Being where he was, with the contacts he had, maybe he could have made a difference.

On the Boulder New Forum, also called the BNF, Matthews was vocal in his choice of language but not as bad as he got by January 1999. I was a regular and active member of the Boulder News Forum from August 1998 through April 1999 when the forum closed and witnessed all of what occurred during that period.

Another poster hat named "Obsessor" was a problem for Matthews because "Obsessor" appeared to be convinced that J.T. Colfax wrote the ransom note and might have been involved with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and he even created a web page on that subject and went on and on posting at the BNF that he contacted the authorities about Colfax to have him further investigated. Matthews spent endless hours in rebuttal of Obsessor's postings out on the BNF. Both Matthews and Obsessor had lived in Boulder, Colorado so both were familiar with the town and knew mutual people who lived there.

I was also there - - it was rather like elementary school nastiness, as I recall. With no hall monitor, the forum was truly nasty.

That is when Lisa Flowers came into the picture. From Matthews, I had learned that Lisa was a good friend of this Obsessor in Boulder and had even kept a snail mail correspondence when apart for several years. Lisa and Obsessor shared a computer that was said to be at the college workshop for their e-mail accounts and access to the Internet forums. Lisa used the hat name of "Lflowers" on the BNF. Lisa didn't know Matthews personally but they had mutual friends and that is what got them corresponding. Lisa had posted a private message on the J.T. Colfax web page about who she was and who she knew and for Matthews to contact her. Matthews sent me a copy of that message the night Lisa posted it as he wondered if she was for real and the same person he knew via mutual friends. Matthews reported to me via e-mail again later that Lisa wrote to him that Obsessor broke into Lisa's e-mail account in Boulder and read Matthews letters which made both Matthews and Lisa angry.

Oh yeah. The mystery, the games, the pranks - - there was no end to the absurdities that were part of the ramsey case discussions.

Lisa Flowers then left Boulder and moved to New York to stay with Matthews. Many posters on the Boulders News Forum thought that Matthews and Lisa were boyfriend and girlfriend but they were only friends sharing mutual living arrangements. Matthews used some information that Lisa had in older private letters from Obsessor about Obsessor having pedophile thoughts and he used that information to obviously taint Obsessor on the BNF and in my opinion to basically discredit him, embarrass him and basically get rid of the poster hat of Obsessor. Obsessor also used the knowledge regarding Matthews deceased girlfriend Liz as a tool to hurt Matthews by posting that information on the forum with questioning whether Matthews was the one who dealt his girlfrie4nd that final overdose that she died of.. Several sources were noted that Obsessor also posted under the hat name of "JDillon" on the old BNF.

My mom can beat up YOUR Mom. Your Mom wears combat boots. I know where you live. I will tell how many bananas you ate when we were in Boulder in the Boulderado bathroom!! Scary stuff was in the air. Nothing to do with Ramsey - - just another sideshow.

The fighting on the BNF was so intense that late fall of 1998 that Lance Matthews posted on the Boulder News Forum that he was leaving the Internet forums for good. In his exit speech posting on the BNF, and with my personal help, the newspaper article information as well as the photograph of his deceased girlfriend, Liz Cook were posted on the BNF. The purpose, Matthews said, was to show that Liz was a real live person and a beautiful woman who didn't deserve what Obsessor was posting about her. But Matthews exit only last a week and his come back took him and Obsessor to posting on the WebbSleuths Community forum where they both got into long arguments about stuff they both knew about Boulder and the drug scene there on what they called, "the hill."

Too bad they didn't continue - in detail. Another thought - - It's too bad they didn't get together and go back to see if they might help solve this rather than just duke it out on the forums. THAT was a waste of time.

I had become acquainted with Matthews both through e-mail and on the telephone early in the fall of 1998 shortly after he logged online to the Internet. He admitted he just got out of jail and that he was living with his mother and young child and that he was not divorced from his estranged wife. He said he was a total newbie to the Ramsey case and the Internet and wanted help on understanding more about the case and then about the posters on the forums where he was promoting J.T. Colfax.

And ACR took him in - - but not for reasons I would have hoped.

He told me about his ex-girlfriend named Liz who died of an overdose in Boulder in October 1998. Matthews said he had been released from jail and moved to New York. He said he was going to send for her but she died instead. Her father evidently works for one of the law firms in relation to others who are associated with the Ramsey case. Obsessor and Seal on the WebbSleuths forum were the first to use the death of Liz as a written tool against Matthews accusing him of providing the drugs to Liz that caused her death. Several postings that included the words, "Matthews, the killer" were posted on the Internet forums by the poster known as "Seal."

Lance, like most of us, was naive when it came to the Internet and the fact that it harbors the true nasty people of the world who feel anonimity gives them the right to attempt to destroy those who get int heir way. I felt sorry for Lance, who was honest to a fault. He found his personal history used against him and he was honestly hurt as a result. Later on, some left because they couldn't take it. others understood and grew thicker skin.

Later in January 1999, another poster under the hat name of "Gsquared" also known as "G2" used that same information about Liz as her written tool to fight back during her personal war with Matthews.

Gail Gordon, an attorney at one point, was a truly vile and nasty person. One day her daughter will do her research and find Gsquared's old posts. She has my sympathy.

I knew something wasn't right when Matthews send me an e-mail last fall 1998 asking me if I would become a reference for Lisa Flowers to get an apartment in New York. I didn't even know Lisa Flowers much less to provide my own personal information to be put on an apartment application and I thought it was a bit strange that they would bid the aid of a complete stranger on the Internet as a reference. I never responded to give him an answer.

Don't know if this is true, but expect it may well be.

Then some other strange things happened that I still don't know the full details about even today. Matthews would e-mail me saying it was extremely important to call him at various motels in New York on different occasions. He would even tell me that the motel was registered in a totally different name that I didn't know. I fell for what appeared to be his "wolf cry" one time and called one of the motels and Matthews said he was there in the room with Lisa Flowers and all he appeared to want to do was chit chat on the telephone, long distance at my expense. There was no emergency that I could see. There was no reason for me to call a motel out of state. I had been informed via e-mail from the hat poster named "Gsquared" that she too had received e-mails form Matthews to also call various motels in New York and like me, she lacked the understand for the purpose. I didn't know what his game was and on this incident, I still don't.

He liked the attention. And he was building up a network of Ramsey people for a reason.

During October 1998, Matthews e-mailed many others including myself and including another poster named Samantha talking about how nice it would be to "let it rip" and be able to confront Jameson with what others called her "Ramsey Spin" that they called lies.

Samantha, LOL - another vile one. BORG queen in the early days who was terribly angry at my failure to comply with their bullying demands to join their "gang" - the BORG.

In the meantime, Matthews was diligently posting the J.T. Colfax jail letters on the Boulder News Forum as well as his now developing web site and other posters comments were being sent to Colfax in jail who in turn was writing back answers to be posted on the discussion forum creating what might have been the first time an inmate from a jail to continue an ongoing daily posting chat with others on the Internet.

Yep, we were breaking new ground, to be sure. Wild West doesn't begin to describe what was happening.

Then around November 1998, Matthews started e-mailing to Jameson and he would forward her e-mails to others (including myself) for a "good laugh" and to continue comments regarding being able to confront Jameson if the opportunity was made available.

Like a good politician, Lance was playing both sides of the field. He was very reasonable in his emails to me and I responded in kind. We talked case - and I found him to be a person I might call a friend.

The fact that he was sharing my emails doesn't surprise me, however. I knew he was in touch with the others and didn't care.

He called her "a delusional housewife in North Carolina." And he was also into major name calling war with Murphy and Goethe2/Seal on the BNF and had since added a few other Internet posters to his verbal war as did they.

He almost had to to stay in the good graces of the BORG queens. I understand that. But in truth, his actions were those of someone with a lot more class.

Then Matthews got involved with Dave Lucas, a radio show host out of Albany, New York and started acting as a guest host on the Dave Lucas Radio show. It appeared at first that he was on that show to only promote J.T. Colfax as his first and second show seemed to be more on that subject. Actually the radio shows were very good and it almost seemed that Matthews had missed is calling and should have been in the promotional business. He was pushing and promoting J.T. Colfax and the morgue photos that Colfax had taken and basically promised the Internet posters that they would all see the morgue photos some day on the Internet.

Yes, I agree with all she says here.