Friend: Sanford lover got e-mailed threat

COLOMBIA, S.C., July 3 (UPI) -- A TV anchor in Argentina who is friendly with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's lover says she and the governor received an anonymous online threat.

Eduardo Feinmann said Maria Belen Chapur received the threat before Christmas 2008, apparently from the same person who hacked into her e-mail account and intercepted exchanges with Sanford, The (Columbia, S.C.) State reported Friday. The couple were warned "you don't know who you are messing with," Feinmann said.

The State received electronic copies of the couple's e-mails Dec. 30. After being missing for almost a week, Sanford admitted in June he had been visiting Chapur in Argentina after a reporter for the newspaper confronted him about his story he was alone there.

Feinmann, who got to know Chapur while she was a translator for a television station, said he was told of the threatening e-mail recently by a Chapur relative. He said he believes the story is true because "Belen Chapur and her family never lie."

The governor is reportedly spending the holiday weekend with his family in Florida. A spokesman would not comment on the threat.