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Title: Doctor of Science Joined: Jun 11 2007 Posts: 188

I'm not a wrestling fan, but I've noticed that many of you are, and I remember watching Chris Benoit as a kid.... really sad.
http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/benoitdead

Posted: Jun 25 2007 10:08 pm

His whole family? Thats terrible. =(

Posted: Jun 25 2007 10:14 pm

Posted: Jun 25 2007 10:30 pm

did you know he used to be known as the white pegasus? i have a tape of him in the super juniors cup in japan. that really sucks.

Posted: Jun 25 2007 10:44 pm

It's actually not his whole family that died.

It was him, his wife Nancy (former WCW valet Woman), and their seven year old son Daniel.

He has at least two other children. During the RAW broadcast, various wrestlers mentioned that a daughter Meg and a son whose name I forget, both presumably from a past relationship.

So the Benoit legacy will live on.

Title: Doctor of Science Joined: Jun 11 2007 Posts: 188

I hate saying this, but when they release close to nothing concerning the manner of death, it's usually bad. I think that it was a murder suicide. This is really sad but I know this because my dad's friend was a cop and he died at the police station alone in a room and they wouldn't release any info.... turns out he shot himself.

Posted: Jun 25 2007 11:08 pm

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, police are saying no guns were used in the murders.

Still no details on what happened.

Posted: Jun 25 2007 11:08 pm

I guess it's possible. They said he couldn't be at Vengance bcause of family problems. We'll have to find out through word of mouth, I guess.

Posted: Jun 25 2007 11:14 pm

Coulda been a ransom attempt gonna awry too.

It's possible it played out like this:

1. Chris gets a call saying that if he ever wants to see his wife and kid again, he'll come home with a briefcase full of money and keep the whole thing to himself.

2. Chris bails on Vengeance to make the drop.

3. Chris comes home, gets knifed to death, then the bad guys off his wife and kid.

I'd really like to believe it wasn't murder/suicide. Benoit was a great wrestler and I don't want to believe he had any sort of dark side.

Anyway, RAW ended with Benoit's Wrestlemania 20 win where he becomes heavyweight champion, then Eddie comes out and they hug. I gotta say, that had the old Sydster tearing up a little bit.

Posted: Jun 25 2007 11:16 pm

Yeah, I shed a tear or two as well.

Edit: Fuck, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirms the police are investigating it as a murder-suicide. I feel sick.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/fayette/stories/2007/06/25/0625benoit.html

Posted: Jun 25 2007 11:31 pm

I seriously can't believe this. I thought this was another fake, like Vince's, but... damn.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 12:28 am

It was officially just released by WWE.com that it has been ruled a double-murder/suicide...

Posted: Jun 26 2007 12:49 am

According to insiders, Benoit left for home just prior to the Vengence PPV, because his wife called, telling him that her and their son were sick, and were spitting up blood.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:02 am

Reports are stating that Nancy and their son were dead since the weekend, and Chris only as of Monday... it appears that no one died from gunshots... Chris contacted the WWE to cancel his appearance to a house show Saturday, and when he couldn't be reached for the PPV, was replaced at the last minute... police were dispatched Monday afternoon, when WWE officials had not yet heard from him...

EDIT: And Knyte, you're report is semi-wrong since he was "gone" since Friday, as he did not appear at the home show he was scheduled for... as well as other work-related appointments all weekend...

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:17 am

The report I read said, "Just prior." If that meant Sunday or a day or two before, who knows.

Futher update:

(This from FOX 5 in Atlanta, 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.

Detective Bo Turner told television station WAGA that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide, but 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 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.

Lead investigator Lt. Tommy Pope, of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, told The Associated Press the deaths were being investigated as homicide, and that the causes of death awaited autopsy results on Tuesday. Pope said the bodies were discovered about 2:30 p.m., but refused to release details.

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 and Intercontinental champion. He also held several tag-team titles during 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."

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:18 am

Alright, seriously, WHAT THE FUCK!?!? This is the fourth or fifth mass murder-suicide this month. While I know homicides are nothing new (as someone is killed like every seven seconds), this is yet another one that seems completely senseless and out of nowhere! Something like the Vaughn Murder Case was equally shocking as there was never any reports of Christopher Vaughn being unhappy (and, yes, Vaughn only shot himself in the leg, he did not kill himself like with the others).

This is the most high profile of this month's cases by far. Sad

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:22 am

For the record, if the final results do show that Benoit himself was responsible, then I shall remove the memorial signature I added to my sig, as I will not mourn a murderer. However, it is still my belief that he not guilty, and I shall stand by the belief until proven wrong.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:59 am

No kidding. The thought of him offing himself after killing his wife and child completely overshadows anything he did as an active wrestler in my eyes.

Joined: Jun 01 2006 Posts: 70

I'm done with wrestling, all my heroes are either dead or in wheelchairs and now this, it's not worth it anymore.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 08:55 am

One of my friends thinks Benoit came home only to see his wife and child dead and killed himself out of grief, but I'm not sure.

I didn't realize he lived here in Georgia.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 09:41 am

Notice that the FOX 5 story, which was taken from the AP wire, says it's being investigated both as a homocide and a murder-suicide.

Now, obviously the story went through several re-writes as the news was breaking and the conflicting information could just be the result of poor journalism, but maybe there's still a chance that it wasn't a murder-suicide.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:02 pm

Knyte wrote:

For the record, if the final results do show that Benoit himself was responsible, then I shall remove the memorial signature I added to my sig, as I will not mourn a murderer. However, it is still my belief that he not guilty, and I shall stand by the belief until proven wrong.

I would still be in mourning for him either way. Because if he did murder his family then kill himself, he likely did so because he felt that they would be better dead. It sounds crazy, but "family annihilators " usually feel that there's something so horrible going on in their family life (i.e., bankruptcy, criminal conviction, shunned by community, etc.) that the only way for them to regain happiness is to be dead. He's obviously not a sociopath, if he killed himself, it was out of remorse. This is all speculation of course. But, if he did kill his family and then himself, it was out of desperation.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:11 pm

UPDATE: It's being claimed by the associated press that an officer close to the investigation has disclosed that Benoit strangled his wife, smothered their son, then hung himself in the weight room... the officer would not allow them to disclose his name, so who knows if that's reliable.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WRESTLER_DEAD?SITE=WSPATV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-06-26-12-52-43

UPDATE #2: WWE.com has removed all tribute videos and merchandise from the store that pertain to Chris Benoit, and are now just listing the story as a "tragedy"... it appears that the WWE may have been informed of the murders and are now making sure that the world doesn't think they're supporting a murderer. It's sad to think that people who really cared about Chris, like Chavo, Edge, etc., who probably still feel the same as they did when they recorded the tributes, won't be heard on the site, in order for the WWE to keep a good image to the public.

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:21 pm

Tish beat me to it, but ESPN is reporting the same thing:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2917133

Posted: Jun 26 2007 01:24 pm

They're also suggesting the possibility of steroids, but from what I've known of Chris Benoit, he wasn't a user. But, who knows...