How can the receipt of email be acknowledged?

The e-mail was provided to Durham police by a confidential source who received the correspondence from the player's Duke e-mail account at 1:58 AM on March 14. The player's defense attorney has called this a "vile" email. The players suggest that the e-mail was conceived as humorous irony. Administrators say the email was an imitation of a character in the Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho. McFadyen was not indicted of any crime, but was suspended from the university due to safety concerns. However, on June 29, 2006, the university reinstated him.