Famous pro wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife Friday, smothered his 7-year-old son Saturday and then hanged himself in his weight room

First, famed professional wrestler Chris Benoit placed one Bible beside the bound body of his wife, Nancy, and another beside the lifeless body of his 7-year-old son, Daniel.

Then sometime Saturday Benoit looped a weight machine cable around his neck and hanged himself in the basement weight room of his secluded mansion off rural Quarters Road, according to Lt. Tommy Pope, lead investigator for the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

The professional wrestling world was aghast at the developments, as details were revealed throughout the Internet blogosphere: Chris Benoit had strangled his wife, Nancy, and smothered his 7-year-old son, Daniel, over the weekend at a plush rural home near Peachtree City and then hanged himself, according to multiple reports.

Nancy Benoit’s body was found on the floor in an office/living room area upstairs and there were signs of a struggle with blood on the floor behind her head, according to Fayette District Attorney Scott Ballard. Her feet and wrists had been bound, Ballard said, and her body was wrapped in a blanket. It appears she was strangled with a cord, Ballard said, and she had brusing on her back “that appeared to be consistent with a knee having been placed on her back.”

He said there were also brusies on the front of her body, suggesting she was pressed to the floor while her hands and ankles were bound.

Daniel Benoit’s body was found face-down on the bed in his upstairs bedroom, and there were no signs of a struggle there, Pope said. Pope declined to say whether Daniel was killed in his sleep, and he refused to say specifically how Chris Benoit killed his wife and son.

No suicide note has been discovered at the home, Pope said.

Based on the preliminary autopsies conducted Tuesday morning, police believe Nancy Benoit was killed sometime Friday and that Daniel Benoit was killed sometime Saturday, perhaps in the morning, and Chris Benoit killed himself sometime late Saturday, Ballard said.

“A cable on a weight machine had been tied around his neck,” Ballard said. “When the weights were dropped, the cable tightened and strangled him.”

The autopsy showed that “no more than a day” elapsed between Daniel Benoit’s and Chris Benoit’s deaths, Pope said.

Pope confirmed that deputies found numerous prescription medication inside the family’s home at 130 Green Meadow Lane, including some for anabolic steroids, but the prescriptions appeared to be legitimate.

“We believe them to be, at this time, legal prescriptions,” Pope said.

Ballard said there was no attempt to hide the bodies, and he was stunned by the appearance that Benoit stayed inside the home after killing his wife and son.

While the evidence points to Chris Benoit committing the killings, authorities will review the case again once the toxicology reports come back from each victim, Ballard said.

“The toxicology report will be very interesting to us,” Ballard said. “... Although we all pretty much think it’s a murder-suicide, we will be open to any evidence to the contrary.”

Pope and Ballard declined to speculate on what might have motivated Chris Benoit to kill his wife and son.

“I don’t think we’ll ever be able to wrap our minds around that completely,” Ballard said.

As the press conference concluded, Sheriff’s Sgt. Keith Whiteside cautioned that the investigation into the deaths is ongoing and information could change as it continues.

More than 30 members of the media were present at Tuesday afternoon’s press conference, armed with 10 video cameras and numerous microphones — an indication of how newsworthy the story was, if only based on Benoit’s popularity and success as a pro wrestler.

Pope said Chris Benoit had been arrested before, but for a DUI that happened in another jurisdiction. Deputies have never been called out to the Benoit’s home, Pope added.

Ballard said he was taken aback after learning that a child’s life had been taken. Feet away from where he stood were a wreath, several bouquets of flowers and a blue plush bunny rabbit, all propped on the stone gated entrance to the property.

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.

Court records from May 2003 indicated there was at least some marital 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 about 2:30 p.m. 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.

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.

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Neighbors stricken by discovery of bodies Monday

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.

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Benoit a legend in wrestling

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.

Revered in the wrestling community as a consummate professional, Benoit — known 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 local resident 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.

Benoit met his wife, Nancy Daus, a professional wrestling valet and manager, while wrestling for the WCW. Daus, known as "Woman" and "Fallen Angel," had an on-screen relationship with Benoit that developed into a real-life love affair. Daus divorced former wrestler and booker Kevin Sullivan in 1997. She and Benoit welcomed their son, Daniel, in 2000.

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