RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling Chris Benoit and family found dead

A tribute video set to Metallica's "Hero of the Day"

I don't follow wrestling. My only exposure to the whole concept is from Grimm and Doc. And, I only know Benoit from playing him on a PS2 wrestling game. But, for some reason....and I'm not sure if I can put the reasoning into words...this bothers me. Beyond the idea of a family dead, which is horrible in and of itself. But, I think it's akin to what Nowhereman said about not ever seeing behind the facade of characters. If one of these guys died in the ring, it's just something you almost expect. If they die of old age, or medical issues brought on by physically abusing their bodies over the years, it's not all that surprising. But, when you hear about something as tragic as this...whether it be murder, murder/suicide, or whatever...it really, really gut-punches the realization that these superhuman guys aren't superhuman at all. They are, in fact, very human. And, the idea that something, or someone could kill one of them just as easily as any other person....well, that bothers me for some reason. Makes me feel we are all very...vulnerable. Very human.

So, I will not insult this tribute thread by eulogizing a performer I only vaguely even knew. This is much more personal for all the wrestling fans, and I would not insult his memory or your sentiments by joining in and pretending I know anything about him, or why he is so appreciated. But, seeing the banners startled me enough to make me actually come into this forum, and read this thread.

And, if nothing else, I know it sucks to lose a favorite "hero" or performer. I'm a nerd. I miss guys like Douglas Adams. You all will miss Chris Benoit. And, in the end, they were both taken from us unexpectedly, and tragically. So, we aren't that much different.

You have my understandable sympathies.

http://www.thecitizen.com/node/18058

wow. if thats really how it went down then that truly is a tragedy...

I find that scenario hard to believe. Or maybe, I just don't want to believe it.

Hi everyone.

I heard the news only hours ago myself. I'm still numb.

And I just hope Vince can see the sick irony of all this and not continue with his own "death" angle and investigation to coincide directly with any Benoit updates such as the ones above. That would make too much sense, which hardly ever goes hand in hand with WWE storylines. Pray for a miracle?

Will considering he introduced tonight's show hale and hearty, I would hope that Vince will not try and pick up his alleged death angle.

"WAGA, a FOX-owned and operated television station in Atlanta, reported that investigators believe Benoit killed his wife and 7-year-old son over the weekend, then himself on Monday."

Wow. Spent the weekend with the corpses. That's scary.

Allegedly. If Benoit did do it, then he kept this dark side a secret. And all these folks who adopted him into their family, the Malenkos and Guerreros and Harts, were either fooled or didn't care. Or, Benoit just had some kind of madness festering within him. So he was either a sociopath or a ticking time bomb. Nice.

Or, alternatively, the cops came in with a preconceived notion and are failing to investigate all the angles.

I'm not sure which of the above scenarios disturbs me more.

This case seems to get more tragic and bizarre. I mean, there've been many, many wrestlers who've publicly struggled with "personal demons", sometimes resulting in domestic violence, but I can't recall ever hearing anyone report anything like that about Chris Benoit. Other wrestlers have been arrested for domestic abuse; if this had happened to any of them, while still tragic, I could at least understand. But this happening to Chris Benoit and his family just confuses and distresses me. I certainly hope the investigation leads to a definitive answer so that Benoit's family, friends, and fans can have some sort of closure.

Last night when the police said they were treating it as a double murder/suicide, and that they were not lookng outside the house for suspects, suggested that Chris or his wife had killed their partner and son, then killed themselves.

I think the most logical thing on everyones mind is that Chris was the guilty one.

I must admit, that while is sounds plausible, its not something I wanted to believe, yet at the same time, I couldnt see what else it could be.

If Chris had had a history of this kind of behaviour, if indeed its true, then with the media and internet the way it is, we would have known, so you have to assume it was something that caused him to snap rather than something ingrained into his personality.
Maybe his wife had threatened to leave him and take his son, and being the totally devoted father he was, he couldnt handle it, and in an act of uncontrollable rage, he committed this horrible act as the only way he could keep them.

Chris was certainly not mentally ill, but something obviously would have pushed him over the edge to do this.

None of that makes any of this right, though, and until the reports come in, its all just speculation.
I really hope this is just a case of a frenzied media grasping to make a big story even bigger, but I really think the truth is gonna be something none of us want to hear or believe!

I got the news from this morning's edition of the Boston Herald. I wouldn't want to be in Bret Hart's shoes right now...can you imagine what it would feel like to find out one of your best friends was involved in a murder-suicide?

I'm in shock. This is truly sad.

I guess you never can tell what is in a person's mind, or their true mood until something like this happens.

Damn...

What the fuck does this specifically have to do with Bret?
Even in a subject like this, you are still a fucking idiot!

Yeah, the fact that he did this (if indeed he did) doesn't make him a bad or evil person or make him any less of a man. It is highly probable he was suffering from a mental condition or something, and because of his private nature no one may have seen the symptoms as anything out of the usual. the fact is that he had apparently been sending weird and cryptic texts to his closest friends which is why the police showed up in the first place--so his friends knew his character well and noticed the sudden change.

I won't speculate on the exact occurrences, but he was probably been stricken with a mental/psychological breakdown of some type in the last few months and something triggered the actions as devastating and horrible as they were/are.

And again, we still don't know exactly what happened--it would be the same as any of your close friends doing something completely off the radar as I'm sure it is for Benoit's friends and family. If it does turn out Benoit was responsible I can only imagine those closest to him saying the same thing most everyone says when a person they love does something horrifically unexpected..."we didn't see it coming, he was a good man, this isn't in his character, he was a family man, etc"...no one expects these things which is why mental and psychological problems are so hard to fathom...they happen and they are real, and it's hard to diagnose them.

And I highly doubt Bret Hart is worrying about Benoit somehow tarnishing his image, Oakley....idiot.

Of course, its still entirely possible that his wife and child were poisoned by someone else (ie the blood spitting call/text), and Chris took his own life after they died! (you have to assume that the son/wife died the same way but Chris didnt)

Its probably a bit less believable, but still a possibility I spose!

As I said, hopefully the investigation is conducted in a prompt and proper manner, allowing everyone to know what exactly happened and to move on.

reading what little is available now, and the little i know about benoit ... i'd guess that he had some sorta argument with his wife that turned physical, and maybe even snapped and killed her. maybe killed his son to prevent him growing up without a mother and a father in jail. then, after coming to, and through intense guilt, killed himself afterward.

still, its definitely odd to hear that its benoit involved in this mess. you'd almost expect (or not "expect", but be less shocked by) hearing news like this out of randy savage's camp or whatever. benoit always seemed so straight laced and, if anything, square. typically very even tempered, never reported with backstage problems, etc.

i also feel pretty bad for chavo, having gone through so much in the past 2 year period. tho, at least benoit didn't have any family in the business to exploit with a death storyline of sorts.

Preliminary findings..if true...are that it looks like Benoit strangled his wife then smothered his son...then hung himself..if true..

Nobody truly knows what happened.

For all we know Nancy/Woman killed thier son then Benoit killed her than himself.

We will probably never know the real truth.

The only thing we know for certain is that this was a terrible tragedy.

Released less than an hour ago...dammit. God dammit...

News hits Harts hard
By TODD SAELHOF and DAVE DORMER

• Members of the Hart family wrestled with the sudden, tragic death of Chris Benoit yesterday.
  
  Legendary wrestler Bret Hart had to stop and compose himself often when talking fondly of a man considered his brother and friend.
  
  "I don't know the details, and I'm not sure I even want to know," said Hart, just hours after learning of the discovery of Benoit's body - along with those of his wife and son - in his suburban Atlanta home.
  
  "He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard.
  
  "It's almost like reliving the whole Owen (Hart) death over again."
  
  At a young age, Benoit, an Edmonton native, became a standout among many wrestling prospects who trained in the famed "dungeon" basement of the Hart family home in Calgary.
  
  "Chris was always one of the good guys - a straight guy and a hard-working guy," Hart said.
  
  "When you list off all the qualities of someone like Benoit, he had a lot of integrity and was a good, family man. "He was really respected and really loved by everybody."
  
  Bret's older brother, Ross Hart, a producer and former part-time wrestler, further described the onetime "Canadian Crippler" as respectful, polite and very humble.
  
  "We kind of adopted him when he first broke into the business in 1986," said Ross, adding Benoit was a huge fan of Stampede Wrestling and idolized the Dynamite Kid.
  
  "He was a quick learner, fast on his feet and had natural strength and agility.
  
  "We learned right away he'd be a natural talent."
  
  And he's been an outstanding mentor to the next generation of Hart family wrestlers, said Ross and Bret's sister, Diana.
  
  That's especially true of the last six months in Atlanta, where Harry Smith (son of the late Davey Boy Smith), Nattie Neidhart (daughter of Jim Neidhart), T.J. Wilson (Nattie Neidhart's fiance) and Ted Hart (Ross's nephew) had been training close to Benoit.
  
  "My son Harry and the others have all been talking about all the great plans that were to come with Chris mentoring them," said an emotionally shaken Diana, the former wife of Davey Boy Smith.
  
  "And they were all hoping of Bret coming back to have a Hart Foundation wrestling reunion.
  
  "This is all really hard to believe."

Thats the main thing.
Even if it is confirmed (which it still isnt), how all three died, unless there is some kind of note or something, then any reasons or exactly who did what, will never truly be known.

Had it simply been a case of Benoit killing his wife by accident or in a moment of rage then losing his sanity through grief?

Or, as Jaburg said, had it been Nancy who killed their son, and Chris then killed her in anger, before killing himself because he cannot live without his family?

Was someone else involved?

Whatever the outcome, and whatever details will remain unknown, all I know is that nobody, not even his closest friends, saw this coming, and nobody would ever believe Chris had this in him, but the mind is a fragile thing, and its all to easy to judge people.
I am not gonna say anything will ever justify what happened, or make excuses for him, but I'm not gonna start hating him, and I still mourn his passing.

absolutly.

Benoit could may have had issues that were undealt with for a long time and it all came our in one final explosisve episode.

Maybe he should have been in therapy; there is no shame in admitting one has problems, but, sadly, many are reluctant to do so for fear of the stigma of having to ask for help.

Not a one of us knows the whole truth regarding Mr. Benoit, and it is likely that we never will.

The true tragedy of this event is, like all acts of violence, it did not have to happen.

And now, we will have to live with this and move on.

HOwever much we are shocked and saddened, this is all a million times
worse for friends and family of Benoit.

Actually, if he killed a seven year old kid and his wife, it would make him all three.

I don't want to get into this here, but I was talking about if he was not in control of his mental faculties...if someone has an actual disorder or mental illness it isn't the same as killing someone for their purse. I think there is more to it...that is all. I'm not excusing the act-if it is true, I'm just saying there is probably more to it...a stable, rational and sane person does not kill their child that they treasure, unless they are evil...I think Benoit was not that man.IMO.

I'll (especially now) never know Chris Benoit as a person. All I know of him is his wrestling.

As a wrestler he will always be one of the greatest of all time. That is how I will choose to remember him.

http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publish/article_20640.shtml

WWE News
WWE News: Press Conference on Benoit - Nancy tied up, Bibles placed next to bodies
By Wade Keller, Torch editor
Jun 26, 2007, 14:35
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-Shepherd Smith on Fox News, when introducing the press conference, referred to Chris Benoit as "this Chris Benoit character," ran down the ways each died, and said now steroids are suspected as having triggered his actions.

-Lt. Pope said after a call for a "welfare check" prompted by WWE, they found all three bodies in the home mid-afternoon. He said autopsies have been performed and it is being considered a homicide-homicide-suicide. They said he murdered his wife by affixiation as far back as Friday, then his son Daniel the next day, then hanged himself likely on Sunday. He said toxicology reports can take up to several weeks to obtain. During questioning, he said there was no suicide note. He stuck with the term "asphyxiation" for the way both Nancy and Daniels died. He said Benoit was arrested for DUI in the past. He said there were no calls to his current residence for domestic abuse. A reporter asked if steroids or illegal substances were found. He said a lot of prescription medication he received from doctors with what they believed were legal prescriptions. When again pressed on whether steroids were found, he said he can't give them a list yet. He then said there were anabolic steroids when asked a third time. Regarding motive, he said they would not go into that at this time. Regarding the text message, he said he text messaged a friend and the friend saw it several hours after it was received by his phone. He would not go into the content of it. According to the doctor, several hours passed, no more than a day, between the son's death and Benoit's suicide by hanging. The wife's body was found in the office area, Daniel in his bedroom, and Benoit in the basement home gym. He estimated close to a full day between killing his wife and son. He said there was no evidence of Nancy resisting. The doctor from the crime lab estimates Nancy died some time on Friday. He turned questioing over to Fayetteville County D.A. Scott Ballard.

-Ballard said he is struck by the fact that a seven year old boy is dead. "I don't think we'll ever be able to wrap our minds around it completely," he said. He said the timing was bizarre because of the time that elapsed between the deaths of the two victims and the suicide. "It struck me as somewhat bizarre that he would even be in the home with their deceased bodies for some time, but we don't know that; we haven't verified it." He said there was a Bible placed next to the bodies of each of the victims. He said Nancy was bound by her feet and wrists and there was some blood under her head in what he felt was a family room upstairs. She was wrapped in a towel. There were no such body treatments of the son, who was found in his upstairs bedroom. He said he had no idea about the motive. "I'm baffled why anyone would kill a seven year old baby. I have no idea about a motive." He said there was no evidence he was trying to hide the bodies. No 9-1-1 calls came from the house. He said he didn't know anything about Chris telling WWE he had a family emegency to deal with. He said at this point they are all pretty confidence it was a murder-suicide, they will "alert to any evidence to the contrary." He said they will reexamine everything when the toxicology reports comes back. He said it would probably more than two weeks, though. He reconfirmed steroids were found in the residence. He said he didn't know if there were firearms in the house.

-Fox News anchor Smith then summarized the press conference and what it reconfirmed or revealed. He said he missed "one of those PPV things the WWE folks do." He added: "We have reason to believe he was a steroid user." He said steroids were present in the home. "With a doctor's prescription - you bet - but they were there." He discussed the situation with reporter Trace Gallagher regarding "roid rage." He wondered how long it can go on and how long it can last. "We're look at three separate incidents of roid rage over the course of three days," said the reporter. Dr. Steven Garner was interviewed. He said roid rage can cause such incidents. He said there are very few documented cases, but there are strange stories related to steroids. He said, "There people develop psychosis and that's a total break with reality. They don't know what they're doing. They halucinate. They don't know what they're doing. They hear voices in their heads telling them to kill people." He explained that once a user get off steroids, his testicles cannot return to producing testosterone at a normal level and depression can result - leading to suicide with teenagers. A former homicide investigator was interviewed next. He said he has been on scenes where he's seen people trip out due to steroids. "They get this unbearable strength and they seem to lose their mind," he said. "If they drink alcohol at the same time, it adds to it. It's taken about six or seven officers at scenes I've been at to hold a guy down who was flipping out from roid rage." Smith said: "Think about this guy. This guy's sitting in his hosue with a dead wife, then he's got a dead kid, then he's dropping Bibles all over the place. Then he's killing himself. You can't even process that." The doctor said steroids mixed with other prescription drugs make it much worse. They went on to note that "60 wrestlers" have died under the age of 45. "It's astounding. Astroniomically astounding. Nobody really focuses on it because wrestling is kind of a circus, an athletic soap opera. We don't really care about the players, apparently, because this is a continual cycle or drugs, road shows, alcohol, and they're travelling 250 days a year. The more wild your show is, the more money you make. That in the end turns out to haunt you. The doctor said typically wrestlers take more steroids than their should. Reporter Trace Gallagher and Shep Smith agreed that WWE is "under the fence." They brought up the HBO Real Sports interview where Vince McMahon got mad at the subject being brought up. "I know it's entertainment and it's not regulated the same way professional athletics are, but somebody is going to pay hell if this turns out the way we think it is."

This is just fucking horrible.

Well, I hope something positive comes out of this terrible event.

If this is indeed a case of roid rage, WWE is really gonna come under the spotlight this time.
They copped some serious flak after Eddie died, which lead to them instigating their "Wellness policy", and if Benoits actions are the product of steroid/drug abuse, then it shows firstly that the policy isnt worth shit, and secondly that turning a blind eye to their use is a danger unto itself.


I think theres still a lot more to this story though as some of the facts seem to be highly contradictory, the main one being that Nancy didnt struggle, yet she was bound up and there were traces of blood.
How could she not struggle if she was being tied up?
And if she was hit to the point she was unconcious or semi-unconcious before she was tied up, why would she need to be tied up in the first place?

just wanted to post a collection of the tribute pieces as i find them, incase you missed them. they appear to be off wwe.com already

Cena:



Chavo:



Stephanie McMahon:



Stone Cold:



Edge:



Dean Malenko:



William Regal:



CM Punk:

I think WWE has decided that they dont want to be seen to be honouring a potential murderer.

The toxicology reports are going to be the key. If Benoit was abusing steroids (or had in the past), that causes a deadly mix when you consider what kind of medications he had to of been on after his surgery as well as the fact that he's known to consume alcohol. That text message could also shed some light onto everything.

More info that might put this into more perspective.

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-wrestlerdead&prov=ap&type=lgns

• 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 the pulley of a weight machine, authorities said Tuesday.
  
  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.

Steroids are dangerous even if they are used legally.
I was offered steroids to help fix my shoulder, but I declined them.
My sisters husband and their son, both have kidney problems and underwent steroid treatment.
Even under medical supervision, a person then has to be weaned off of them, you cant just stop the treatment cold turkey.

With his neck injuries etc, it would be quite normal for him to have steroid treatment anyway!