Chris Benoit 1967 - 2007/Nancy Benoit 1964 - 2007/ Daniel Benoit 2000 - 2007
According to a statement released by WWE.com, Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel were found dead in their Atlanta home. Chris was 40 years old, his wife was 43 years old, and their son was 7 years old. The highlight of his career was when he won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX. After that match, Chris celebrated in the ring with his wife (former valet Woman), his son Daniel, and his good friend, the late Eddie Guerrero. Sadly, all four of them are no longer with us.No more information is available at the moment and police are currently investigating. What is known is that Chris was scheduled to appear at last night's Vengeance PPV event. He did not appear on the show and the announcers stated that he had to go home for personal reasons. I will continually update the site as more information about this terrible tragedy becomes public.
Update 1: 6/25 9:30 P.M.
According to AP NEWS, the bodies were discovered at 2:30 P.M. The Fayette County Sheriff's Department is investigating the case as a homicide and results from the three autopsies are expected sometime on Tuesday. In a horrible irony, tonight's episode of Monday Night RAW was scheduled to be a three-hour tribute to the "late" Mr. McMahon who was "blown up" while in his limo. Tonight's live event was canceled. Vince McMahon appeared on TV for the first time since his "death" in the empty arena where the show was supposed to take place and announced the tragic news. The three hour show became a tribute to Chris Benoit that featured classic matches and current stars talking about their late friend and his family. During the show, it was announced that Chris is survived by a son, David, and a daughter, Megan. Those children are from another relationship.
Update 2: 6/25 11:15 P.M.
WWE.com is reporting that the deaths of the Benoit family were the result of a double murder-suicide that took place in the home. It is not known at this time which member of the family was responsible for this tragedy.
Update 3: 6/26 12:15 A.M.
I read this on Sports Illustrated.com and can't bring myself to write about what was said so I'm just copying a portion that was in their report:
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"Investigators believe the 40-year-old Benoit killed his wife, Nancy, and 7-year-old son, Daniel, over the weekend, then himself on Monday. A neighbor called police, and the bodies were found in three rooms."
Update 4: 6/26 6:30 A.M.
WWE.com is reporting that they contacted the police in Georgia to check on the Benoit residence because some of his friends received text messages on Sunday morning that concerned them. World Wrestling Entertainment is also reporting that they have more information relating to both the investigation and the cause of death but are not releasing it due to a request from the police. Autopsies on the three bodies are scheduled for later this morning.
Update 5: 6/26 4:00 P.M.
In a press conference held earlier today, many gruesome details were announced about the situation.
- Nancy Benoit was strangled to death on Friday. Detectives discovered her with her feet and wrists bound, her body wrapped in a towel and a bible by her side. The body was discovered in an office area of the home.
- Police believe Daniel was smothered the next day in his bed. There were no signs of a struggle. A bible was also placed next to his body.
- Chris hung himself in the gym area of the house using a cord from gym equipment. Police think he did it either late Saturday or on Sunday.
- There was no suicide note and police are trying to figure out a motive.
- Legal prescription drugs were found in the house. One of the prescribed drugs found were steroids.
- Toxicology reports will take two weeks.
- In 2003, Nancy had filed for divorce and requested an issue of protection from Chris. A few months later, she filed to have the papers dismissed. Here is a copy of the divorce papers.
Update 6: 6/27 11:30 A.M.
Several more details about the case have been trickling in over the past few hours.
This could be the first clue as to why these events happened. The Edmonton Sun has written an article that explains the cause of murder-suicides. Dr. John Bradford, associate chief of the integrated forensic program for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, has several interesting quotes in the article. He said that murder-suicides are typically caused by the father when they believe the family would be better off in heaven. They typically smother the children because they don't want them to suffer. It has to be noted that Benoit placed a bible at the bodies of each member of his family. So far, this seems to me to be the most plausible explanation yet.
Photo: (c) 2007 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
does anyone know if they were found bloody-like murder or undisturbed suicide—this is crazy shouldn’t happen like this I AM SHOCKED
u r sick mark askin **[EDIT]** like this u should be praying for him and his family u r one sick indiviaual
chris was an awsum athlete and a nice man and a good father.he gave it all his best but deep down inside he loved the sport.you will be missed chris god bless.
My husband always like Chris as a wrestling. He enjoyed watching him. May I ask, did he have other children? What happened to such a good wrestler? It seems to always happen to the good person.
henry—u have a problem i want to know what happened to benoit it is nothing about being sick—i am sittng here in shock and watching a real emotional raw—nothing wrong with my questions—god bless chris—and henry think before u speak
Chris will be missed it’s such a great loss that the family will have to be strong in this time of need we all need to pray for him and his family.God bless you chris nancy daniel.May god welcome you and your family into heaven.
Chris has always been my favorite and a good wrestler. He will be missed. I am also shocked to hear about this and wonder why and how. May GOD bless him and his family.
I cant’ find on the WWE.com website that it was a double murder-suicide. I was hoping that it wasn’t something like that. That would be really disheartening.
I just read update 3, I really hate to hear that. I hope they are wrong. Chris didn’t seem like the type of person that would do something like that. Of course, most people that do something like that never seem to be the “type”.
Say it like it is. What a pig he was to kill his wife and child!
Long time Chris Benoit fan and I will truly miss him. No one wrestles and preforms with the passion and energy of Benoit. Why?????????
He killed them on the weekend that is why he didnt show up for his matches. Then he did himself in Monday. I loved the guy too..BUT WHY BENOIT WHY??? He also called Gererro Sunday and said I LOVE YOU
I am beginning to wonder what kind of organization the WWE is and the kind of people in it. Can you think of any sport where so many die young? Chris, Eddie, Bam Bam, Owen Hart, Davey Boy Smith,Curt Henning, Brian Pillman,Hawk, Rick Rude, Earthquake, Big Boss Man, Miss Elizabeth, Sharri Martel, etc. Food for Thought?
It somehow feels surreal. I sympathis with all the other fans who wonder,”what the hell” is life coming to? just a naive fan
I am so sad, as no doubt the rest of the wrestling fraternity and fans alike are sure to be.I cannot imagine what he was thinking, to take the lives of those he loved as well as his own, something must have been very disturbing to him…….what causes people to do this?.And yet we read what a wonderful person he was…..what went wrong then?.Chris.hopefully you will rest in peace mate, we in aussie will miss you and the way you entertained the world. To your children, i send my deepest sympathy, god bless you…….an aussie fan .kaz
For me, i actually go further back with Nancy as the dastardly Woman back in 1990. She first came on ths scene at WCW as a “special fan” of The Steiners(especially Rick.) One night, she called up Rick Steiner to her hotel room. Along with Jim Ross, he made the trek and much to their surprise was this knockout of woman(no pun intended)who eventually turned on the brothers and became the heel manager of the tag-team Doom(Ron Simmons&Butch Reed.) Fast forwarding to 1996, the feud between Kevin Sullivan & her eventual husband Chris Benoit was so intense because it was a true hatred between the men do to the fact that Woman & Sullivan was an item. Before that feud ended, Women was through with the sport and not knowing exactly when, she became Nancy Benoit. As far as Chris goes, he was great to watch in the ring and if there was only one word to say about him, it was respected. With all these friends in the business, it pisses me off that he couldnt go to one of them for help after he shouldered the burden of many others. I thought very highly of him but I also thought of his wife too. As a fan of wrestling for 25 years, she made an impact here.
If confirmed. A tribute for a murderer is wrong. I accept he was a fabulous wrestler, but i believe a tribute should not have taken place.
I cannot believe that Chris Benoit committed a double murder-suicide. He was one of the best, most affable wrestlers out there and never exuded the maniacal stuff that has been uncovered!
what really bothers me, more than Chris killing himself or his wife is his innocent 7 year old son. Now, after the facts have come out, it sounds like he strangled Nancy, then smothered Daniel, then sat in the house for two more days before killing himself. As a father, how in the world can you kill your own child?! I enjoyed the tribute last night, but when i found out what really happened, I felt dirty and ashamed to have watched it and to have rooted for Chris for all these years.
you all ever think it was drugs like steroids, he was a good guy, but something made him do this those drugs are awful and make u do awful things.. its terrible..
I’ve been a fan of wrestling since the Gordon Solie and Eddie Graham days. Benoit was a wrestler for Christ’s sake and an obvious, very disturbed man. Drugs or not, you do not just wake up one day and say I’m going to kill my wife and strangle ny 7 year old. He was a */!!#*& wacko and should be recognized as such. If true, he is a murderer of the worst kind and should/will rot in hell. What kind of scum bag looks your son in the eye and mercilessly slaughters him? There is NO forgiveness for this abominable act. DO NOT TRY AND JUSTIFY HIS MISERABLE EXISTENCE.
so sad after a career like that to go down as another crazy psychopath…
are you all kidding me? i’ll miss you chris, we love you chris – HE JUST KILLED HIS WIFE & 7 YEAR OLD SON! Everyone is failing to realize the heinous crime he has committed because he is a famous wrestler….unreal!
omg i cant believe any of this. Chris was like my 2nd fave wrestler of all time, but to think that if something was wrong w/ him the he had to take the lives of his wife and inncoent son that is really outrageing and quite disturbing. Just goes to show you never know what a person is capable of
Enough eulogizing this creep! In reality he was a wife beater who in the end suffocated his own 7 year old child who idolized him. I hope he gets what he deserves in the next world. Good riddance Chris!
BURN IN HELL CHRIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE GUY NEEDED HELP! TOO BAD..WHAT A WASTE, SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR.
hi chris
DIE IN HELL CHRIS THE KILLER, BURN BABY BURN HAHAHA
i am definitely wondering why i get page after page of tribute, this man murder a his wife and seven year old child. and all i see is pic after pic of him and not nancy or daniel. if this was just a person who was not famous would he be talked about in this way. Dawn
as someone said, you could fully know a person. this is so disturbing. was it really the steroids?
The WWE did the tribute show when they found out the family was dead. At that time, they thought Benoit was out for a family emergency and no one new that it was a double-murder suicide. The WWE has a timeline on their website http://www.wwe.com
Again, they didn’t know he killed his family when they aired the tribute show. They routinely do this type of tribute when an active wrestler dies.
I feel very sorry for the Benoit family during such a trying and difficult time. Now is not the time to pass judgement on Chris Benoit, although I will never be able to understand his actions.
I love the burn in hell comments and other things. I guess you people do not know how to read very well or listen to the news. A report is Nancy died friday evening, Daniel Early sat morning and Chris well there is one report that says sunday morning but cnn said sat mroning. Text messages sent 3:30 am est time sunday. Nothing is adding up what so ever. The DA also reported to cnn that Daniel had track marks in his arm but failed to mention that he could have had Fragile X Syndrome. Look it up if you don’t know, and try and educate yourselves.
Now I am not defending him by any means but this is all to odd and facts do not add up. Hopefully this DA is not another NIfong and can actually get al the facts without reporting bullcrap or half facts.
I just keep thinking about his other two, older children. I don’t know how close they were to Chris, but not only did they lose their father, but they have to continue on knowing what he did to Nancy and Daniel.
he was a sick man.. and he will burn in hell for the crime against his child. what kind of person does this? if it was you or i, no one would be talking about the great achievements we have had in our lives.. by praising him.. is putting him above the wrong that has been commited against a innocent child… as a parent i could never imagine being the one to cause fear in my childs heart or eyes.. could never imagine what went through that little boys head, knowing it was his “daddy” the whole time.. what a sick F@#%… i hope you burn in hell for all eternity Mr. Flippin oh so fabulous!!!
It is indeed tragic what happend to the benoit family. But I can’t help but be aggravated by a few things that I have seen gone on in the case. First of all, people saying “oh Chris was my favorite wrestler. I didn’t think he could do something like that!” Very true. Chris Benoit is by far one of the best wrestlers the wrestling business will ever see. But did you know him? How do you ,as a fan, have the credibility to say wheither or not he could do that. All you saw was what was put on tv every week on wrestling. What you saw has nothing to do with how his personality may be. That’s sports entertainment. Though these guys do indeed take a beating, they are still actors. No one knows what kind of pyschological problems he may have had. Another thing is blaming steroids for what happend. I bet the media just LOVED hearing the a pro wrestler killed his family. Pro Wrestling is always in a bad light and now that something like this happend, people want to blame steroids and make wrestling look bad. If steroids DID make him do this, does that mean that Scott Peterson was on them when he killed him 9 months pregnant wife? Or the police officer in Ohio who did the same thing just recently? Unfortuneately, stuff like this happens too often and in not one of those cases were steroids to blame. Psychological problems were. I’m sure he had a very hot temper and got mad easily. That would be from the steroids. I don’t feel those are too blame for what happen. I’m not trying to say steroids are good. We have lost too many of the great wrestlers from heart attacks at young ages. But this specific instant, no. All I am asking is for wrestlers to NOT be sterotyped. I come from a family of them and they are the most loving people I have ever . What happend at the Benoit household, was a tragedy. There was obviously something wrong in his head and that problem may have always been there and he met his breaking point. I pray for the benoit family that they can cope with their loses.
I am always amazed at how people judge others even before the facts are set before them. This ranting “Rot in Hell!!!” jabber is just plain sickening especially when the facts about these killings are not in. How dare the police jump to the media and give people reason to jump to conclusions so soon into the investigation.
Innocent until found guilty.
What pisses me off is the storyline that WWE thought up in the last week about Vince McMahon “dying”.
Last week Sensational Sherrie was found dead at her home, now it is Chris and his family. Can anyone know for sure that there maybe another cause. It just doesn’t make sense to anyone that is a wrestling fan and a fan of Chris Benoit.
Crazy as it sounds…could someone have gone into the Benoit home, committed this crime and then made it look as though Chris did it?
I’m not going to judge Chris that is for GOD to do. What we all need to do is keep the families of Chris, Nancy and Daniel in our prayers including Kevin Sullivan. If anyone out there knows Kevin Sullivan let himknow ther are fans who are keeping him in our prayers
I don’t believe Chris did this. So all you people who say he did can just shut the hell up!! I loved Chris i grew up watching him on tv. i loved him so much. He will be forever missed but not forgotten!! AND REMEMBER THIS HE DIDN’T DO IT!! I BELIEVE HE WAS SET UP LOOK AT ALL THE FACTS BEFORE YOU RUN YOUR MOUTHS!!!
I don’t think Chris was a murderer, I only know that he was a good wrestler, I’m his good wrestling fan at Sri Lanka, and we miss U!!!!
You people make him out to look like a good father a nice man , etc. For christ sake he killed his family.. He wasnt any of those things. He was SICK!!!
Not to add even more speculation, but being in the medical field, I’m still trying to figure out why someone with a history of steroid abuse was being treated for a low testosterone level, with yet MORE steroids??? What kind of treatment is that?? Not only that, but if the child really had this “fragile x syndrome” it would show up in the autopsy, right? What about the history of concussions? Medically this doesn’t all add up, and I for one can’t wait to see what the autopsy results really come up with. This whole thing is so sad, and we will never know WHY, I just pray they are all at peace.
Who cares what he did in wrestling to me should be taken of tv anyway.What a coward he was not only killing his wife but their little son who did nothing wrong.Nancy and Daniel are in heaven while he is burning in hell.Rest in peace Nancy and Daniel you are in a better place.
I was SO Shocked when I heard and seen that he died. He was a preety good wrestler and a very good person. he would always be there for his friends and even enemies. He will be missed and forever in our hearts and our mind. He will never get the chance to get WWE gold again. At least he’s with Eddie and his family in Heaven where he can do anything and everything he wants. He was a cool, loving, caring person. We miss u Chris R.I.P Peacefully.
i just have to say to some of those back in june like john and others that wished chris will burn in hell. i truelly hope that you get his spot and then some in hell you cold hearted pricks. chris benoit was one of the greatest out there and busted himself for you. you all need to give he the respect and credit that he deserves. chris benoit was one hell of an athlete, yes what happened was messed up and unexplainable…but he was one of the best damn athletes anyone could ask to watch. he died, he is in a better place…let’s leave him alone now ok???
Why did benoit do this he was fine when he went against Elijah Burke. He always loved Daniel, he always said he did so why.
WE LOVE YOU DANIEL BENOIT 2000-2007 RIP
Chris and his family i hope u R.I.P in heaven God Bless u Chris n his family.
i just want to say R.I.P nancy chris and daniel may god bless u in heven
I believe benoit did not kill his family and whoever believes ut aughtta be ashamed of themselves you know benoit was a good man and if he was gonna kill his family he would have walked away first i believe he was called home because his wife and son was in danger. Investigators sure are not trying hard i believe an fbi or someone who knows how to handle that situation needs to come on in. I am a fan of benoit and i am sure he has a lot of fans and everyone should pull together in the nation and do something about it and also talk to his kids and first wife. Somehow we need to make sure benoit rests in peace. I seen on one of the websites where someone said nancys first husband was from a satanic church and you know they hate bibles. Why did the next door neighbor come up missing either she had a part in it or she knows who does. Common sense will tell a person that if you were gonna win a title that night at pay-per-view and be on top making more money why kill youself? If i made good money i would wamt to be happy and make my family happy not lose my own life that is stupid.
To this day i am still shocked by what happened
I don’t want to jump to the same conclusion that the police jumped too but i is still a mystery over what actually happened to me
The person that knows the details is dead
RIP Chris,Nancy and Daniel