Chris Benoit and family found dead in home

[JB]

This is already bizarre...apparently going to get even more bizarre. I know there are not a lot of WWE fans on this site, but I am one and this guy is/was one of the truley best wrestlers to ever get in the ring. This is just really really sad:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and son were found dead Monday, and police said they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.


Pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife and 7-year-old son were found dead in their Georgia home.

Lt. Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department said the three were found at their home about 2:30 p.m.

Pope said autopsies on Benoit, his wife Nancy, and 7-year-old son Daniel were scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday. It could be weeks before there is a result.

Benoit had missed several appointments over the weekend, leading some concerned parties to ask police to do a "welfare check," Pope told ABC News. The WWE reported on its Web site on Monday night that friends received several curious text messages sent by Benoit early Sunday morning, prompting VP of Government Relations for WWE, Inc. Richard Hering to contact Fayette County sheriffs on Monday and request they check on Benoit and his family. When sheriffs arrived at the home, they found the wrestler, his wife and their son dead.

Detective Bo Turner told television station WAGA that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide, but he said that couldn't be confirmed until evidence was examined by a crime lab.

The station said that investigators believe the 40-year-old Benoit killed Nancy, 43, and Daniel over the weekend, then himself on Monday. The bodies were found in three rooms.

According to Pope, there were no signs of gunshot wounds or stabbing. Authorities are not ruling out other causes, such as poisoning, suffocation or strangulation.

"The details, when they come out are going to prove a little bizarre," said Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Pope told ABC News "the instruments of death were located on scene," but 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."

The house is in a secluded neighborhood set back about 60 yards off a gravel road, surrounded by stacked stone wall and a double-iron gate. On Monday night, the house was dark except for a few outside lights. There was a police car in front, along with two uniformed officers.

Benoit was a former world heavyweight champion, Intercontinental champion and held several tag-team titles over his career.

"WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family's relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy," the federation said in a statement on its Web site.

Benoit was scheduled to perform at the "Vengeance" pay-per-view event Sunday night in Houston, but was replaced at the last minute because of what announcer Jim Ross called "personal reasons."

Benoit, a Canadian native, maintained a home in metro Atlanta from the time he wrestled for the defunct World Championship Wrestling.

The WWE canceled its live "Monday Night RAW" card in Corpus Christi, Texas, and USA Network aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled wrestling telecast.

"My relationship with Chris has extended many years and I consider him a great friend," Carl DeMarco, the president of WWE Canada, said in a statement. "Chris was always first-class -- warm, friendly, caring and professional -- one of the best in our business."

[AddictedToBetting]

RIP Chris and Eddie =(

[Underdog88]

Originally Posted by AddictedToBetting

RIP Chris

Not if it is proven that he in fact murdered his wife/7 yr old child. If that's the case, I wish him an afterlife of torment & agony (if there is one). Disgusting.

[joepa66]

Just came back from a late lunch at home and watched FoxNews....they said he bound both his wife up and wrapped them in towels to asphyxiate them...FREAKING SICKO...then put a bible at the foot of their beds. Imagine how scared they both were but especially that 7 yr. old boy! Thank heavens he offed himself too.....but not after spending almost 24 hours in the house with them both dead and he text messaged a bunch of people.....WTF is going on in this world!?

Right now they're blaming it on "'Roid Rage"...from all the steroids....

[emv01]

Wow just wow..How ******* sick are people now a days...If you are that upset with your life or whatever and as bad as this may sound then just kill yourself not everyone else as well..Sickning killing his SEVEN year old..Makes me sick...

[homedawg]

something smells fishy to me, coulda messed with the wrong people... but if someone could, go as much as 48 hours, to kill your wife, son, and yourself, then you are totally f'd up...

[GamblinMan03]

Hopefully he rots in hell because what he did is inexcusable. I felt sorry for him yesterday but after the real story got out, all my respect for him is lost.

[Queen]

Guess they had been fighting for a while. THen made up. Then now they are dead.


Ballard also said that investigators found several prescription drugs in the house, as well as anabolic steroids, but he could not comment on whether or not Benoit was taking them, as officials are awaiting the results of a toxicology.

Benoit and Nancy, a wrestling manager who worked under the name "Woman," were married in 2000 but separated in May 2003 when Nancy filed for divorce, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Accompanying that filing was a petition for protection from domestic abuse, with Nancy claiming that she was intimidated by her husband, who "lost his temper and threatened to strike the petitioner and cause extensive damage to the home." In another count, she claimed Benoit had destroyed furniture in their home.

On the same day the divorce and petition for protection were filed, a judge issued a restraining order against the wrestler, which barred him from the family's home. A few months later, in August, Nancy filed to have both the divorce and protective petition dismissed.

[flmmkrz]

I respected the hell out of Benoit as a wrestler and I just don't want to believe he could be capable of what is being said. He must've been terribly troubled mentally. RIP Nancy and Daniel.

[Q-Unit]

I agree, back in my wrestling craze days, I enjoyed watching benoit. very troubling indeed to read about this.

its easy to assume, maybe he wasnt crazy, maybe he was.

but either way God save his soul. its not our call to be the judge of him, only God can

[CuseFan10]

Really a sick sick sick story, and the whole world needs to wake up and realize the truly horrible effect anabolic steroids can have on people. How many WWE people have to die before people wake up and see what is going on? They are averaging about one death per year over the past 4-5 years, and now Benoit kills his wife and son more than likely because he's a juice bag psycho who is depressed and/or in a "roid rage"?

You'd think he would be smart enough to stop taking steroids after one of his lifelong friends died from heart failure deemed a result "from long time anabolic steroid use". Then, to make it even worse, the psycho strangles his wife and "smothers" his seven year old son? Smothering your own child until you cut off the air from him and he dies in your arms? Benoit is a monster in every sense of the word, and Vince McMahon is an enabler and piece of **** human being himself who should be held responsible for encouraging these guys rampant drug use and essentially rewarding them for it. People are dying on his watch, and now they are taking innocent lives with them.

Steroids are more important than a son? Truly horrific and hopefully eye opening in some sense about a massive problem and life taking trend.

[beermantm]

Everything is dangerous when you abuse it!! The steroids are getting a bad rap yet again. No one ever thinks to make the stuff legal and have it controlled by doctors who can watch your mental state and make sure you are getting pure stuff. Roid rage is a myth and with the sheer number of people doing roids across the world I'm pretty sure the safety of them is pretty well known at this point. You want drugs to blame deaths on start with Tobacco and Alcohol but again it's usually the abuse of the drugs that does it.
When will society wake up and start understanding that controlling peoples behavior through information and regulation in a controlled environment is much better then trying to control things through the threat of prison time.

Steroids should be legal, made to the highest quality possible, prescribed by a doctor and liver and blood tests should be done while cycling. People can then be screened for any type of mental problems before they go on and monitored or told that the risk is too high and then be denied.

This case is about more than roids I can tell you that but there is no doubt that roids plays a part because abuse of anything plays a role. Poor choices lead to poor results. Wrestling is a tough life also. There is a lot that probably contributes to the crazy behavior.

[AddictedToBetting]

Yeah, I was watching CNN and they were talking about him for about 30 minutes. I like to take back my RIP to Chris Benoit because that guy is just plain crazy in the head. I feel very sad for his wife Nancy and his 7 year old boy Daniel. I can't believe something could happen like this. I have no sympathy for anyone killing their own child. Just plain ******* sick.

[GamblinMan03]

I dont think Steroids are fully to blame for this. Im not even sure if they are to blame at all. First of all Benoit killed his wife on Friday night. Then he killed his son sometime Saturday. Does "roid rage" really last that long??? I doubt it, the man was just ****ed up! Then he kills himself a day after he killed his son. Dont blame steroids on this one.

But what is really ****ed up to me is he was giving his son HGH and it was confirmed through the needle marks in his arm. What the **** was up with that guy. I thought he was a man to look up to in the WWE, I guess I was wrong as was a lot of people.

[CuseFan10]

Dookie Fan- There are many other adverse affects from chronic steroid abuse than just "roid rage". One of the major ones is clinical depression. To say that his steroid abuse does not factor into this is a bit short sided, IMHO. Where did you read that he was giving his son HGH? Jesus, what a scumbag.

beerman- I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't agree that there is no such thing as "roid rage". It's clinically proven that steroids cause serious, to dangerous, mood swings and affect personality and mental states. While there might not be "roid rage" in the stereotypic form most people associate the term with, it definitely is a prevalent, IMHO.