True-crime buffs can spend hours and hours surfing the Internet for the latest developments in their favorite investigations. Or, they can let the folks at crimenews2000.com do the surfing for them.

The 20-month-old Web site offers visitors links to online news stories about crimes, criminals and trials all over the world. And after reading up on their favorite cases, visitors can then join the online discussion about victims, suspects and investigators trying to crack the most-watched cases of the day.

"The last time I checked, we were getting about 3,000 hits a day Monday to Friday. I think the highest we ever got was 4,000," said Martha Knapp of Colorado, the site's coordinator. "I'm not sure why it was — maybe it was the Chandra Levy case."

Crimenews2000.com does not provide original content about crime and criminal justice issues. Nor does it offer editorial comment or fancy graphics.

Instead, the site directs visitors to online newspapers, magazines and other content providers by providing headlines, story summaries and links. The site's 17 volunteers — all true-crime buffs themselves who met online — do a remarkable job of posting timely links to breaking and non-breaking news.

"I think most of them are women," said Knapp, who is originally from Kansas City. "I think we have all been fascinated by a particular crime case and that is what brought us all to the Internet. We all kind of connected through that."

The five-year-old mystery of Jon Benet Ramsey's murder in Colorado and the prosecution of Michael Skakel for the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley in Connecticut are constantly in the news and fixtures on crimenews2000.com's home page. But each volunteer has his or her own personal favorite, Knapp said.

"We have two main news posters now. One in the morning and the other at night. They're addicted to this," she said.

The site is owned by Laurene Stewart and Jeff Stewart of Michigan, a married couple who both work at a state prison. Laurene Stewart got hooked on the case of the murder of Las Vegas casino mogul Ted Binion.

Stewart met Knapp in one of the many online discussion boards dedicated to the Ramsey case. Crimenews2000.com grew out of that.

"We kind of like the idea of having a clearing house, a place where you can follow cases," Laurene Stewart said. "The Jon Benet case was getting a lot of coverage, but there were a lot of cases of little girls out there who weren't getting the coverage. [Crimenews2000.com] is a way to keep the stories big and small in the news."

The site has just one sponsor and charges users nothing. Eventually, the Stewarts hope to commission some original content and offer more special chat guests and perhaps add a book club.

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