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Chris Benoit and Family Found Dead

The Devil

Bench
Messages
2,515
Pope said "the instruments of death were located on scene," but he would not specify what those instruments are or where in the house the bodies were found. Pope added the department is "not actively searching for any suspects outside of the house."

So there are instruments of death at the scene, yet Benoit's wife and son were strangled/smothered.

Makes you wonder if what is being reported is the truth..
 

Misanthrope

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
47,627
Yeah, it's hard to tell. The double murder suicide thing looks fairly likely though. It seems to be the one detail everyone is agreeing on.
 

ParraDude_Jay

First Grade
Messages
6,160
You hear of this type of thing in the news (too often) and think that the person who did it was just a nutter but when it happens like this it really makes you think. What must have posessed such a dedicated, professional man to do it? To kill his own wife, well marital problems are not uncommon and Rajah says she had a restraining order put on him in 2003, but to murder his 7 year old son aswell? I just can't comprehend it.

WWE.com has taken down all tributes to Chris Benoit, ceased all sales of his merchandise and removed his name from the PPV DVD's they sell (including WM20) since the murder suicide announcement. Talk about a knee-jerk reaction before the autopsy, I don't think there is anyone who could hold it against them for paying a tribute to a man who gave so much to the industry.
 

Agent Mulder

Bench
Messages
4,329
Im in a state of shock, i just read all this this morning, Still can't believe it, Benoit was one of the best of all time, Was always in my top 10 favorite wrestlers.

Its very sad, surely they can't go ahead with this McMahon dead angle anymore.

RIP Chris and thanks for the memories.
 

Eelectrica

Referee
Messages
21,134
Another update:
Source:http://www.sescoops.com/wwe/BENOIT_UPDATE_Motive_Watched_PPV_With_Son.shtml
PWTorch.com has reported that one major media entity has received an email purporting to be from a friend of the Chris Benoit extended family saying that Benoit accidentally killed his wife in a domestic argument, then panicked and killed his son later so his son could be with his mother rather than grow up without a mom and knowing his father as a murderer."


Makes sense in a screwed up kind of way.
If it is true then FFS Chris why didn't you turn yourself in to the cops straight away? Probably would have got 7-10 years on a manslaughter charge.

Not only have we lost a legend in the ring, but a hero as well. (We've lost Eddie, but he's still a hero)
 

Big_Bad_Shark_Fan

First Grade
Messages
8,279
I dont believe he could accidently kill his wife. And plus if this friend knew that, it means he must of been there, or somthing, so why would they of needed the police to come round , etc?

From ninemsn.com.au (I know its not in a good way , but great to see WWE making australian news)

Benoit strangled wife, smothered son


Wednesday Jun 27 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff
Wrestling superstar Chris Benoit strangled his wife, smothered his son and then hanged himself in his weight room, according to police.
Police investigators announced the grisly findings at a press conference this morning (AEST).
"Mr Benoit had sometime, possibly Friday, murdered his wife by asphyxiation. Sometime shortly after that, the same for his son Daniel and sometime later ... committed suicide by hanging himself in the basement area," officials said in a statement from the Fayetteville Sheriff's Department.
The bodies of the 40-year-old wrestler, his wife, Nancy Benoit, 43, and their seven-year-old son, Daniel, were found in three separate rooms at their Atlanta home on Monday.
Mrs Benoit was bound at the wrists and feet, with a towel wrapped around her body and blood underneath her head, according to officials.
A Bible was reportedly found near each one of the bodies.
World Wrestling Entertainment staff asked police to check on Benoit after they were alerted to a series of "curious" text messages he had sent to friends, reportedly during Sunday's Vengeance TV wrestling program.
There has been speculation he was watching the program with his son, who may have been alive at the time.
However, police say they believe Benoit died on Saturday. Authorities understand he used a cord from one of his workout machines as a makeshift noose.
Toxicology tests will show whether steroids or prescription drugs, both found inside the Benoit home, could have been a factor in the deaths. Steroid abuse has been linked to angry outbursts known as "roid rage."
As the investigation continues, Benoit's history of domestic abuse has been brought into the spotlight.
Mrs Benoit had filed for divorce and a restraining order against her husband in 2003, telling a judge she was "intimidated by threats of violence."
In the papers, Nancy claimed that Benoit, "lost his temper and threatened to strike the petitioner and cause extensive damage to the home and personal belongings of the parties, including furniture."
She also said she was "in reasonable fear for petitioner's own safety and that of the minor child."
Three months later, she withdrew the divorce papers and a judge cancelled the proceedings.
Some friends of Benoit, however, are unable to accept that would harm his family.
"He was very happy with his wife and he loved his son Daniel," Ross Hart, a friend of Benoit and member of the Hart wrestling family, told the Edmonton Journal.
"This would be very uncharacteristic of Chris to do anything self-destructive. I find it very hard to believe that he would end his life or his family's."
 

Fiddy

Juniors
Messages
669
US wrestler's family tragedy revealed


Professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and suffocated his seven-year-old son before hanging himself by the pulley of a weightlifting machine, authorities said.
Investigators also found prescription anabolic steroids in the house, Lt Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department said.

He would not comment on Benoit's state of mind or possible motive.

Autopsies showed all three died of asphyxiation, Pope said.

Benoit's wife, Nancy, was killed on Friday in an upstairs family room, her feet and wrists were bound and there was blood under her head, indicating a possible struggle, Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said.The son, Daniel, was likely killed late Saturday or early Sunday, the body found in his bed, Ballard said.

Benoit apparently killed himself several hours and as long as a day later, Ballard said. His body was found in a downstairs weight room, his body found hanging from the pulley of a piece of exercise equipment. The prosecutor said he found it "bizarre" that the WWE wrestling star spread out the killings over a long weekend and appeared to remain in the house for up to a day with the bodies.

"I'm baffled about why anybody would kill a seven-year-old," Ballard said.

"I don't think we'll ever be able wrap our head around that."

Earlier, a law enforcement official said Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his son.
 

Fiddy

Juniors
Messages
669
As a huge wrestling fan.. i wish to send my condolences to both Benoits wife & son's extended family yet again.. i can only imagine what happened in those last few hours.



From all accounts it appears that Benoit was watching the Vegenance PPV with his son.. i don't think we will ever know the motive...
 

Iafeta

Referee
Messages
24,357
salivor said:
Wow, what arguments fellas, I'm truly outshone by your well reasoned arguments and linguistic ability. Tip of my hat you you two.



To both yourself and Iafeta, there's no point to miss, you can't seperate the guy's wrestling career with what he has now done. And yes I am calling it a murder suicide, read the main article on wwe.com, the lead investigater of the Sherriffs department has called it a murder sucide. The reports of friends recieving weird txt messages from Benoit that led them to call the police, the different times of death, police struggling to enter the property themselves and it being guarded by dogs would probably rule out an intruder as well as the fact that Benoit had failed to show at 2 WWE events leading up to this. It all points to one conclusion.

By paying tribute to Benoit the wrestler or the career of Benoit your brushing aside the actions of a murderer and that IMO is condoning the act whether or not that's your intention. It's like paying tribute to Gary Glitter as "I only knew him as the artist not the kiddie fiddler". There's fallen heroes all around us who rightfully live or die in shame, I personally think it's inappropriate to pay tribute or homage to a bloke who all signs point to being capable of killing his wife and 7 year old son. I wonder how the family of his wife would feel about it.

I agree in the majority with what you're saying.

Here's how I look at Chris Benoit right now...

On another forum someone asked if he should be in the Hall of Fame - No, the hall of fame is not just wrestling ability but also how you represent the wrestling industry, and that is a gross misrepresentation

Do I respect Chris Benoit the wrestling character - yes, great performer, I will still watch re-runs of his matches

Do I condone or respect Chris Benoit the person - no, I can't bring myself to respect that. Not for Daniel his son, or his smoking hot wife Nancy who was of course Woman in WCW and previously Angel in the 1980s in Championship Wrestling from Florida where she was the valet for the Army of Darkness. I also have and always did respect that character too, because she was part of one of my favourite feuds - Benoit v Kevin Sullivan. Mostly out of all this, I feel for his son. 7 years is just a wasted life.

So my tribute pays no respect whatsoever to the man outside the ring, neither did my previous endorsements pre last weekend. This just shows us, we can't be naive enough to think we know people outside of their performances. It's the same with any number of professions, footballers, singers as you correctly point out, heck, even the blokes you work with you just never know what's going through their mind or what they do behind closed doors.

In terms of what I do know about the wrestling industry, they work a hell of a large number of days, get thrown around fairly badly, most cop a large amount of pain killers to cope, and yet no one does anything to regulate this industry. To me, this whole industry needs to be badly regulated by federal investigators. Why? A: Too many young deaths B: There are a lot of things that come about on the 'road' through the stresses of being on the 'road' that need to be stopped. I mean, take people we thought of as heroes like Jimmy Snuka, we all know what he was like now. I'm not citing this as being caused by pro wrestling necessarily because we'll never know, but did the industry have something to do with making him believe it's right to end your troubles with the leverage of the fists as it is in the ring? To me, the whole industry comes out of this tarnished, especially in light of the "McMahon death", they're going to be damned out of it. I expect there'll be a monsterous backlash to them on that story, when all around them for the last 10-15 years wrestlers have dropped like flies.
 

Special K

Coach
Messages
19,533
ParraDude_Jay said:
Talk about a knee-jerk reaction before the autopsy, I don't think there is anyone who could hold it against them for paying a tribute to a man who gave so much to the industry.
:? The man killed a woman then a seven year old boy for f**ks sake. Who cares what he did for the industry he killed a seven year old child and a woman. Yes he was a good worker, yes he entertained millions for 20 years but he killed his own son and his wife. You don't pay tribute to a "man" like that. You can't just turn a blind eye to what he did because he was a good wrestler. That doesn't give you a get out of jail free card!!

I want to know what the poor kid went through while his mum was dead upstairs.

Just on roid rage. There is no proof it even happens. Its very much up to the person, if you're a angry prick you get a excuse on it. It like times emotions by ten, yes so you'll get sadder then normal, laugh at unfunny stuff or get crankier when your mad but it comes in like waves/bursts. But a lot of people never experience it and the ones who often do because of their new found confidence. That is why I refuse to believe he could of been on a three day 'rage'.
 

Eelectrica

Referee
Messages
21,134
Special K said:
:? I want to know what the poor kid went through while his mum was dead upstairs.
I've been thinking about that and I think Benoit would have said something like "Mum is sick right now and is resting so don't disturb her."
At 7 the kid isn't really going to totally understand why mum is up and about.
For the kid, I don't think the horror would have been as bad as it sounds like it would have been.
 
Messages
806
hey guys im still in a state of shock im waiting for this afternoons raw where i will no doubt shed a few tears for a great man but im on here to show use what i came across on foxsports.com only 30 mins ago.


http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6960688

Pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife, suffocated his 7-year-old son and placed a Bible next to their bodies before hanging himself with a weight-machine pulley, authorities said Tuesday.



Police reveal the cause of death and other details behind the tragedy that saw wrestler Chris Benoit murder his wife and young child.


Investigators found anabolic steroids in the house and want to know whether the muscle man nicknamed "The Canadian Crippler" was unhinged by the bodybuilding drugs, which can cause paranoia, depression and explosive outbursts known as "roid rage."
Authorities offered no motive for the killings, which were spread out over a weekend, and would not discuss Benoit's state of mind. No suicide note was found.




"I'm baffled about why anybody would kill a 7-year-old," District Attorney Scott Ballard said. "I don't think we'll ever be able wrap our head around that."

The Montreal-born Benoit was one of the stars of the WWE wrestling circuit and was known for his wholesome family-man image. His wife, Nancy, was a wrestling stage manager who worked under the name "Woman." They married in 2000.

When he won the world heavyweight championship in 2004, Benoit (pronounced ben-WAH) hoisted the belt over his head and invited his wife and child into the ring to celebrate. Asked by the Calgary Sun that same year to name his worst vice: Benoit replied: "Quality time with my family is a big vice. It's something I'll fight for and crave."

Nevertheless, Nancy Benoit filed for a divorce in 2003, saying the couple's three-year marriage was irrevocably broken and alleging "cruel treatment." She later dropped the complaint, as well as a request for a restraining order in which she charged that the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home.

In the divorce filing, she said Benoit made more than $500,000 a year as a professional wrestler and asked for permanent custody of Daniel and child support. In his response, Benoit sought joint custody.

The bodies were found Monday afternoon in the house, situated off a gravel road in this suburb about 20 miles south of Atlanta.


Chris Benoit, his wife and son were discovered dead on Monday in their Georgia home.

Benoit's 43-year-old wife was killed Friday in an upstairs family room, her feet and wrists were bound and there was blood under her head, indicating a possible struggle, Ballard said. Daniel was probably killed late Saturday or early Sunday, the body found in his bed, the district attorney said.

Benoit, 40, apparently hanged himself several hours and as long as a day later, Ballard said. His body was found in a downstairs weight room, his body found hanging from the pulley of a piece of exercise equipment.

A closed Bible was placed next to the bodies of the wife and son, authorities said.

The prosecutor said he found it "bizarre" that the WWE wrestling star spread out the killings over a weekend and appeared to remain in the house for up to a day with the bodies.

Toxicology test results may not be available for weeks or even months, Ballard said. As for whether steroids played a role in the crime, he said: "We don't know yet. That's one of the things we'll be looking at."

Steroids have been linked to the deaths of several professional wrestlers in recent years. Eddie Guerrero, one of Benoit's best friends, died in 2005 from heart failure linked to long-term steroid use.

The father of Curt "Mr. Perfect" Henning blamed steroids and painkillers for Henning's drug overdose death in 2003. Davey Boy Smith, the "British Bulldog," died in 2002 from heart failure that a coroner said was probably caused by steroids.

Benoit was a quiet, roughhewn figure amid the glitz and bluster of pro wrestling. He performed under his real name, eschewed scripted personas and didn't bother to fix a gap where he had lost one of his front teeth. (According to the WWE Web site, he lost the tooth while roughhousing with his pet Rottweiler.)

His signature move was the "Crippler Crossface," in which he would lock his hands around an opponent's face and stretch his neck.

He met his wife in the 1990s when she was married to rival wrestler Kevin Sullivan. As part of the scripted rivalry, Benoit and Nancy were supposed to act as if they were having an affair. A real romance blossomed, and she left Sullivan for Benoit.

Neighbors said the Benoits led a low-key lifestyle.

"We would see Chris walking in his yard from time to time. He wasn't rude, but he wasn't really outwardly warm," said Alaina Jones, who lives across the street.

Jimmy Baswell, who was Benoit's driver for more than five years, placed a white wreath at the Benoits' gate. "They always seemed like they were the happiest people," he said.


World Wrestling Entertainment said on its Web site that it asked authorities to check on Benoit and his family after being alerted by friends who had received "several curious text messages sent by Benoit early Sunday morning."

"He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard," said fellow Canadian Bret Hart, a five-time champion.

The WWE canceled its live "Monday Night RAW" card in Corpus Christi, Texas, after the bodies were discovered.

Monday's show was supposed to be a memorial service for WWE owner Vince McMahon. In a storyline concocted by the WWE, McMahon was supposedly "assassinated" in a limousine explosion two weeks earlier. McMahon appeared at the beginning of Monday's telecast and acknowledged the bombing was made up.

The McMahon storyline has been dropped.
 

Hurriflatch

Referee
Messages
22,093
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2917133

"In a community like this it's bizarre to have a murder-suicide, especially involving the death of a 7-year-old," District Attorney Scott Ballard said. "I don't think we'll ever be able to wrap our minds around this."

In an interview with ESPN.com on Tuesday, Ballard indicated that the boy had needle marks in his arms. The district attorney said he believed that the boy had been given growth hormones for some time because the family considered him undersized.

That was only one of the strange facts that Ballard revealed. He said that two text messages of note caused authorities to investigate the house. In one, Benoit told somebody he knew that his wife and son were sick.

"Of course, they were dead," Ballard told ESPN.com.

In a second message to a neighbor, Benoit said that the door of the house was open and the pets were outside.

"And our assumption is that that was an effort to try and get somebody to come find the bodies after the suicide," Ballard said. "That is our assumption."
 

Dazzelx01

Juniors
Messages
129
Vince To Address Benoit Death Tonight On ECW

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon will apologize for the three-hour USA Network tribute to pro wrestler Chris Benoit that aired Monday night, sources said.

The WWE and USA Network have received complaints about the tribute, which was hastily produced after Mr. Benoit, his wife and their son were found dead in their Georgia home Monday afternoon.

Authorities said Tuesday that Mr. Benoit strangled his wife and suffocated his son, then took his own life. But WWE and network officials were unaware of the circumstances of Mr. Benoit’s death when the tribute was assembled, sources said.

The WWE canceled its regularly scheduled “Monday Night RAW” event on USA Network Monday night and aired the tribute in its place.

Mr. McMahon will address wrestling fans tonight on Sci Fi Channel’s live Extreme Championship Wrestling event. He also plans to address speculation that Mr. Benoit’s actions were the result of steroid use.
 

bartman

Immortal
Messages
41,022
McMahon/WWE don't have to apologise for a tribute. It was done at a time the details were far from clear, and was a tribute to his career only.

Having just found out/read about this today, from the start I'd assumed this was a murder-suicide as reported, and that's really sad for the people who lost their lives. Everything that seems like an anomaly (family crisis, text messages, timings etc) would likely also be easily explainable, but we don't need the details.

No-one can condone murder of your own family, nor can we hope to understand it. Other than to acknowledge that sometimes certain things possess the minds of certain people. But for me he was and always will be a great wrestler, one of my favourite and most watchable wrestlers over the last ten years in WCW and WWE. It's a shame, but not in the tragic sense of Owen, and with the family aspect casts more of a shadow over his name than the self-inflicted demises and lifestyle choices of people like Eddy.
 

ParraDude_Jay

First Grade
Messages
6,160
Special K said:
:? The man killed a woman then a seven year old boy for f**ks sake. Who cares what he did for the industry he killed a seven year old child and a woman. Yes he was a good worker, yes he entertained millions for 20 years but he killed his own son and his wife. You don't pay tribute to a "man" like that. You can't just turn a blind eye to what he did because he was a good wrestler. That doesn't give you a get out of jail free card!!

I agree but this was before the autopsy that they did it, they thought it was a murder suicide but police also thought Bob Woolmer was murdered, not the same police obviously but everyone makes mistakes. I just thought it was a bit harsh to completely remove him from history before any confirmation.

Aside from that I still don't know how to feel. Never seen the man as anything less than a marvelous performer and a dedicated professional who has provided years of entertainment for myself and millions of others. I don't think this can be judged as a regular murder, this is a man that had no enemies and did something so heinous but still out of character, he was obviously in a very dark spot in his life and he went over the edge. I am not defending him or his actions either but I think it is very harsh for WWE to completely erase him from their history over the way his career, and life, ended.
 

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