Wrestler’s wife filed for divorce in 2003, but dropped petition months later Famous professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his 7-year-old son over the weekend at a plush rural home near Peachtree City and then hanged himself Monday in the weight room at the home, according to multiple reports.



“I would not deny that,” said the lead investigator on the case, Lt. Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department in a Tuesday interview.

Authorities also were looking into whether steroid body-building drugs played a role in the double murders and suicide.

Two days before Benoit, his wife and child were found dead in their central Fayette home, one of his co-workers spoke with him on the phone, responding to a text message Benoit had sent, police said.

“That was the last time anybody had contact with him,” said Lt. Pope.

Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard said the evidence at the family’s home at 130 Green Meadow Lane showed that Benoit killed his wife Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel there. Ballard declined to say how they died, but he confirmed they were not shot.

“Every indication is that this is a murder-suicide,” Ballard said.

Reports on other media outlets say the wife was strangled on Saturday, the son was smothered on Sunday and Benoit hanged himself on Monday.

Autopsies were being conducted Tuesday morning, Pope said. Deputies are hoping the autopsies will provide at least a preliminary cause and time of death to determine in what order the family died, Pope said.

Court records from May 2003 indicated there was at least some martial strife during the Benoit’s relationship, as Nancy Benoit filed for divorce from Chris Benoit, alleging that he threatened to hit her. She dropped the petition months later, according to court records.

The family was found dead Monday afternoon after deputies were called to the scene by Benoit’s employer, who became concerned he had missed two scheduled events in Texas on Saturday and Sunday, Pope said.

When deputies got to the Benoit home, they had to enlist a neighbor to handle two dogs on the premises that were put in a kennel so deputies could enter the home, Pope said. The neighbor who helped had routinely taken care of the dogs while the Benoit family was out of town, Pope said.

When deputies arrived, they smelled the odor of decaying bodies, Ballard said.

The three bodies were found in different rooms of the house, Pope confirmed. He declined to provide further details on where and how the bodies were found.

“The case is being investigated as a double homicide and suicide,” Pope said.

Pope also declined to discuss the contents of the text message that led to Benoit’s last phone conversation, but he said detectives were executing a subpoena to confirm it.

It could take at least a week, if not more, for the toxicology reports to come back in the case, Pope said.

In May 2003, Chris and Nancy Benoit were separated as she filed for divorce in Fayette County Superior Court, according to court documents. In the divorce petition Nancy Benoit alleged that she was treated with cruelty by her husband; at the time the family lived in Peachtree City.

In a petition for a temporary protective order that was granted to Nancy Benoit, she claimed her husband “lost his temper” and threatened to hit her on April 26-27, also damaging their home and some furnishings.

Nancy Benoit dropped the divorce petition and protective order in August, according to court records.

In her divorce petition, Nancy Benoit claimed that her husband earned in excess of $500,000 a year and that the earnings were deposited in a corporation that she and her husband were officers of. In a response, Chris Benoit denied that allegation in a separate court filing.

The apparent double murder and suicide case has garnered a significant amount of media attention, not just in the United States but also from international news agencies, Pope said. Benoit was a popular wrestler with WWE, and was at one time world heavyweight champion, world tag team champion and intercontinental champion.

Heavy online traffic Monday evening and Tuesday slowed The Citizen’s website to a crawl.

-------------- Neighbors stricken by murders

By BEN NELMS bnelms@TheCitizen.com

“You never think something like this is going to happen in Fayette County.”

That’s a neighbor’s view after a double murder and suicide across the road at the home of Chris Benoit on Green Meadow Lane in the pastoral setting of rural Fayette County was revealed Monday.

Benoit, his wife Nancy and their 7-year-old son Daniel were found dead inside the family’s upscale home in what authorities are calling a double murder and suicide.

Lorre Jones and her family have lived across the street from the Benoit residence for five years. Jones late Tuesday morning described the events she had witnessed during the past 24 hours and spoke about her neighbors who had moved in a year earlier, neighbors she rarely ever saw.

Jones said she arrived home Monday at 4:30 p.m. to find cars at the Benoit residence as she approached her home. That was unusual, Jones said, because “you never see any other cars there. They have a Hummer or two. You’d see them driving back and forth and that’s all we’d ever see. I thought they were having a party until I got closer and saw the crime scene tape.”

At first Jones did not know what had happened. She thought perhaps a burglary or some other crime had occurred. That thought evaporated after hearing from nearby neighbors what was believed to have happened.

Though she was clear that she could not confirm the statements, Jones had been told that the Benoit’s next-door neighbor had found the family dead inside the home after going next door to assist police by corralling the family’s two German shepherd guard dogs.

“We started hearing that a neighbor lady had been contacted by the police and had gone over to help get the dogs. She didn’t want the dogs to hurt the policemen so she went over the get the dogs, and, apparently, must have had a key to go inside,” Jones said. “That’s how we heard she found the bodies.”

Contacted at her home, the next-door neighbor politely said she would not make any comments.

Jones said the Benoit family had lived across the street for approximately a year. By all counts, they were a family that kept to themselves, with groundskeepers being the only people making infrequent trips to the residence. The last time Jones saw any of the family was a few days ago.

“We really hardly ever saw them. I’d see her walking up and down the road occasionally,” Jones explained. “When they first got their German shepherd she used to walk them more. The other day when I was coming out of my driveway and she was walking past, we waved. Sometimes their little boy would play up close to the road where we would see him. We really hardly ever saw them except in passing. We had minimal contact with them. And we never saw a lot of cars here except the people who did yard work.”

The initial concern over what might have been another type of crime so close to her home quickly gave way to another realization. Thefts and burglaries are bad enough, Jones said, but this was different.

“You never think something like this is going to happen in Fayette County,” she said.

-------------- Benoit a legend in the wrestling world

By MICHAEL BOYLAN mboylan@TheCitizen.com

Chris Benoit had been involved with wrestling since his early days growing up in Canada.

He has wrestled with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment and was enormously popular with fans around the world.

Known in the wrestling community as a consummate professional, Benoit — as both the “Rabid Wolverine” and “The Crippler” — either teamed up with or wrestled against some of the biggest names in wrestling over his career.

Numerous people in the area encountered Benoit at the World Gym on Ga. Highway 74 in Peachtree City.

“He was — maybe the wrong thing to say now — a nice guy. He would take the time to talk with fans at the gym,” said Michael Thompson. “He would spend three to four hours working out, doing intense lifting and cardiovascular sessions. For a guy who ruptured a disk that fragmented into his spinal column four years ago, it was amazing to see how he pushed and punished his body everyday.”

After studying under the legendary Hart family and competing in Canadian Stampede wrestling, his early career sent him to wrestle in Japan, where he won a junior heavyweight championship in 1990.

Benoit went from a brief stint in the WCW in 1992-1993 to the ECW in 1994 where he won a Tag Team Championship in 1995. Late in 1995, Benoit moved to the WCW and soon joined The Four Horsemen with wrestlers Ric Flar, Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman.

In 1999, teamed with Dean Malenko, Benoit won the WCW World Tag Team Championship. It was the same year that he won the WCW United States Championship. He left the WCW in 2000 and joined the World Wrestling Federation, soon to be known as World Wrestling Entertainment.

Benoit was known for his high-flying moves combined with an appreciation and understanding of the technical aspects of wrestling.

Benoit won his first title, the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 2000. He would win the same title three times between April 2000-January 2001. In 2001, teaming up with former rival Chris Jericho, Benoit defeated WWF Tag Team Champions Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H for their titles.

He sat out for most of 2002 due to a neck injury, but returned to win a WWE Tag Team Championship with Kurt Angle, a foe that Benoit would face, and lose to, for the WWE Championship in 2003.

The neck injury was one of many for Benoit, who had also had a number of concussions during his career, in addition to the minor injuries that occur during a schedule that has wrestlers on the road for over 280 days a year.

Benoit kicked off 2004 by winning the 2004 Royal Rumble and his popularity was at its peak. In March of that year, Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship by using his signature submission move, the Crippler Crossface. He retained his title later that year and then won the World Tag Team Title with his partner, Edge.

In 2005, Benoit won the WWE United States Championship over Orlando Jordan. Titles and feuds continued over the next two years for Benoit, who wrestled his final match on June 19, 2007.

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