Chris Benoit’s former wife, Martina Benoit, said the wrestler “was the most loving person anyone could imagine. I love him.” Reached at her home in Ardrossan, Alberta, Canada, Benoit called reporting of the killings in Fayette County “crap.” She did not elaborate before ending the call. He had two other children with Martina Benoit, who has not remarried.
Nancy Benoit’s parents said through their attorney that they were unaware that their grandson had a rare medical condition called Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism. On Thursday, Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for Chris Benoit’s employer, World Wrestling Entertainment, said Daniel Benoit had the condition, and added that Chris and Nancy Benoit had argued over whether he should stay home more to take care of their son. But Atlanta-based lawyer Richard Decker, who represents Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, told ESPN.com’s Elizabeth Merrill that the grandparents babysat often for Daniel and noticed no medical issues.
“To them, he’s always been a normal, healthy, happy child with no signs of illness,” Decker said. “And that’s not from a distance. That’s from day-to-day contact. “There has been a lot of speculation and rumor in the media that is doing nothing to advance the investigation and doing everything to cause the Toffolonis intense pain.” The Toffolonis, Decker told Merrill, are “grieving and trying to keep a low profile.” They have asked Decker to investigate a possible civil lawsuit, and he is waiting for the investigation to conclude. “We’re trying to stay out of their way right now,” Decker said. “In the meantime, Maureen and Paul and Sandra [Nancy's sister] have asked me to ask members of the media and public to remember that this is an investigation of the death of their daughter and only grandchild. And even though Chris and Nancy led public lives, the family, specifically Daniel, did not lead a public life.”
Chris Benoit was a “delusional juice freak” who chased the dark side and had trouble distinguishing between his fictional character and reality, says the man who started him out in professional wrestling. “The last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape mentally,” said Bruce Hart, son of the legendary Stu Hart.
“I didn’t know all the details but I knew it wasn’t good. I was not at all shocked (by what happened). “If I could see and determine that in a few visits, how the hell could they (World Wrestling Entertainment) not have known something was wrong? (In my opinion) I think the WWE needs to re-evaluate what it is doing here.”
Hart will not simplify the shocking murder of Benoit’s wife and 7-year-old son or the eventual suicide of the wrestler by attributing it only to steroid usage. But he truly believes that steroid abuse, in combination with delusional behaviour, painkillers and failing health — “almost all the people we started out with (who did steroids) began breaking down around 40,” Hart said — is a deadly cocktail that needs to be further examined.
They hadn’t seen each other much over the past few years, with Hart still in Calgary and Benoit working the circuit. “We saw each other mostly at funerals,” Hart said. “At my brother’s (Owen), my dad’s, my brother-in-law’s (Davey Boy Smith). Not that long ago I was talking to Hillbilly Jim and we were reminiscing a little. I told him I was worried about Chris.”
While the WWE has a drug-testing policy, Hart believes they should bring in psychologists and physicians to evaluate not only their drug-testing procedures but how they treat their athletes, deal with them, and the toll their gimmicks take on the lives of their performers.
Hart was also deeply angered that the WWE aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit on Monday night. “I kept hearing ‘He was a nice guy, a great guy’ and I knew him when he was a kid. But all I know now is he’s a murderer,” Hart said. In my opinion, “for them to do a tribute show was disgraceful.”
Who knew Bruce Hart was such a class act. Bruce Hart is a piece of garbage. While I agree with him that the WWE needs to include mental health in their Wellness Plan, everything else he says is pure garbage. And if he knew something was wrong with Benoit, why didn’t he tell someone besides Hillbilly Jim? What a piece of crap. How about telling Benoit’s wife, someone in Talent Relations at the WWE or even his own brother Bret Hart, who I am sure would have helped Chris Benoit out. But no, this wrestling legend, well, wrestling star, well, wrestler, well Bret Hart’s brother, didn’t think it was important enough to tell anyone else but again, Hillbilly Jim. What is this world coming too. As if this whole Benoit tragedy wasn’t bad enough, here comes Bruce Hart on his high horse to kick a dead guy in the nuts – so to speak – and then tell everyone “hey I knew”. A fine example of a nobody trying to get some publicity out of a tragedy.
A Wikipedia posting about the death of pro wrestler Chris Benoit’s wife that preceded the discovery of the Benoit family’s bodies has become a major obstacle in the murder-suicide criminal investigation, authorities told ABC News. “It is unbelievable what a hindrance this has put on our investigation,” said Lt. Tommy Pope, a spokesman for the Fayette County, Ga., Sheriff’s Department. “We’ve got to put a lot of effort and time into working to prove or disprove that someone put up a hoax situation or that somebody was conceiving the death from out of state,” Pope said, adding that investigators have been flooded with tips regarding a Web posting that’s very likely a bizarre coincidence.
Police have traced the Wikipedia posting and subsequent anonymous confession and apology to an IP address in Connecticut. Pope said local authorities there are working with his department and have seized computer equipment from the person responsible for the postings. “We know who the person is,” Pope said, adding that police wouldn’t reveal his or her identity until early next week. By then they hope to have determined whether the person was implicated in what police earlier this week called a double murder-homicide. If the person had knowledge of the death before police discovered the body, he or she could face criminal charges.
Chris Benoit’s father said Friday that he was eager to see whether chemical tests can help explain why Benoit killed his wife and son and committed suicide, acts that the wrestler’s father said he had no clue were coming. Michael Benoit said by phone from his home in Alberta, Canada, that his family is shocked and in disbelief over the slayings. “We have no understanding of why it happened,” he said. “We need some time to gather our thoughts and wait and see. There’s still more information that’s going to come out from toxicology tests that will give us some understanding of why this happened.” Michael Benoit, who lives near Edmonton in Ardrossan, said the test results, which could take several weeks to be completed, “could give us closure.” He said his son had seemed fine when they spoke on Father’s Day, and had even said he regretted having to work instead of spending the day with his family. “That really wouldn’t give you an indication of someone who would do what he did a week later,” the father said.
Wikipedia has posted a statement from the person who posted on their online resource that Chris Benoit missed the Vengeance PPV due to the death of his wife Nancy, before the deaths were discovered. Wikipedia does not list the person’s name, which frankly they should at this point. I have been a big detractor of Wikipedia since its inception because it allows people to write whatever they want, whether it’s true or not, and a lot of people take what is written there as if it’s the gospel. Here is the Wiki confession, unedited:
“Hey everyone. I am here to talk about the wikipedia comment that was left by myself. I just want to say that it was an incredible coincidence. Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on wikipedia to spite there being no evidence. I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence. That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought. I was beyond wrong for posting wrongful information, and I am sorry to everyone for this. I just want everyone to know it was stupid of me, and I will never do anything like this again. I just posted something that was at that time a piece of wrong unsourced information that is typical on wikipedia, as it is done all the time.
Nonetheless, I feel incredibly bad for all the attention this got because of the fact that what I said turned out to be the truth. Like I said it was just a major coincidence, and I will never vandalize anything on wikipedia or post wrongful information. I’ve learned from this experience. I just can’t believe what I wrote was actually the case, I’ve remained stunned and saddened over it.
Continue reading Wikipedia Contributor Apologizes For Benoit Coincidence
Dan Abrams on MSNBC interviewed the D.A. Scott Ballard who said the information about the Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the tragic deaths came from WWE and he had no knowledge of it. Abrams asked if the steroids found in the house were in Chris’s name or from valid suppliers. Ballard said there was already an ongoing investigation and he didn’t want to see too much because it could compromise the investigation. He said the son had no bruises, but did have internal injuries in the throat area.
Later in the show, Abrams brought on Joe Laurinaitis, a/k/a Road Warrior Animal. Animal confirmed that his brother, John “Johnny Ace” Laurinaitis, V.P. of Operations for WWE was the other person to get the text messages from Benoit. Animal talked about how Chris was great father. Laurinaitis said “I’ve seen Chris with his son Daniel. Chris loved that little boy. There was something else psychological happening to have him flip out and blow his cork like that and do what he did.” Animal also said pro wrestling needs some kind of oversight as well as mandatory time off for the wrestlers. Abrams showed a graphic that said 65 wrestlers died between 1997 and 2004, 25 by heart attacks, five likely from steroid use, and 12 deaths from other drugs. No source was cited.
The most interested part of this interview is that all the information related to Chris and Nancy fighting in the days leading up to the murder-suicide came from the WWE and no other sources. It begs to question did the WWE float that information out there to take the focus off steroids and the WWE and on to making Chris Benoit out to be a monster who killed his family because his son had Fragile X Syndrome?
An anonymous user operating a computer traced to Stamford, Conn. – home to World Wrestling Entertainment – posted an entry to Chris Benoit’s biography on Wikipedia.org announcing the death of his wife Nancy about 14 hours before police in suburban Atlanta said they found her body along with her husband’s and that of their 7-year-old son, FOXNews.com has learned.
Employees at Wikipedia.com said the posting went live on their site on Monday at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Police, however, said they found the bodies Monday at 2:30 p.m. EDT. Wikipedia.org’s computers are set to record Standard and Universal Time.
The posting reads: “Chris Benoit was replaced by [[Johnny Nitro]] for the ECW Championship match at Vengeance, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues, stemming from the death of his wife Nancy.”
The posting was apparently made in reference to Benoit’s scheduled appearance on Sunday night at an Extreme Championship Wrestling event in Texas, with the last phrase noted in red to indicate an edit made to the original entry.
UPDATE: The IP in question, listed by wikipedia as 69.120.111.23, also made a series of other edits to different entries, including former WWE Diva Stacy Keibler, current WWE star Chavo Guerrero, basketball star Ron Artest and HBO series The Sopranos. Many of the edits were misspelled or explicit in nature, leading one to believe that the postings were made by a hoaxer. If you click the links listed as (diff) you will see the changes made by the user highlighted in red, even if they have been removed from the wikipedia entries as they currently stand. Although the IP address is traced back to the Stamford, CT area, it’s also possible that the user was concealing his true IP address.
This might just be a case of sick irony.
Fox Channel 5 in Atlanta is reporting that agents for the Drug Enforcement Agency raided the office of Chris Benoit’s physician Dr. Phil Astin last night, stemming from prescription medication found in the Benoit family home after the former WWE World champion murdered his wife and son before committing suicide. The Fox affiliate is reporting computers were confiscated from the office.
Astin commented yesterday to the media that he had seen Benoit the day of the killings where he showed no sign of rage or distress. He noted he had been treating Benoit for a lack of testosterone, which can be a side effect of steroid use. Benoit passed his most recent WWE Wellness policy test this past April. Steroids were found in his home, but were prescribed by Astin. Under the guidelines of the WWE’s policy, steroids are allowable by WWE as long as there is legitimate medical reason for a performer to be using them.
During the raid of the doctor’s office, investigators told FOX 5 News that Dr. Astin’s name was on prescription bottles found in Benoit’s home.
The National Fragile X Foundation Responds to Death of Wrestler Chris Benoit and His Family
WALNUT CREEK, Calif., June 28 /PRNewswire/ — The National Fragile X Foundation shares in the sorrow surrounding the death of wrestler Chris Benoit and his wife and son. Early reports indicate that the son had fragile X syndrome, the world’s leading cause of inherited intellectual disability, and that Mr. Benoit may have been depressed over that fact. While the parents and professionals who make up the National Fragile X Foundation fully understand and appreciate the difficulties associated with raising a child with fragile X syndrome, we urge all citizens to learn more about the condition and about how, with the proper diagnosis and intervention, those boys and girls, men and women, can be active participants and contributing members of their families, schools and communities.
The U.S. Congress has designated July 22 as “National Fragile X Awareness Day.” The National Fragile X Foundation uses this opportunity to help spread awareness about the condition as well as to educate professionals about the best forms of treatment and intervention. This year, on July 20, the National Fragile X Foundation has organized a three-hour, international audio/video webcast featuring many of the nation’s leading fragile X syndrome clinicians. This free event is an excellent opportunity to learn about what can be done to provide the maximum opportunities for children affected by the syndrome.
Throughout the world, scientists, doctors, teachers, therapists and counselors are working hard to provide better forms of treatment and intervention. The National Fragile X Foundation has been organizing those professionals and disseminating information to the worldwide Fragile X community since 1984. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a tragedy, such as that involving Chris Benoit and his family, to bring attention to so-called “rare” conditions.
To learn more about fragile X syndrome, as well as the upcoming webcast, please visit http://www.fragilex.org/. The National Fragile X Foundation
CONTACT: The National Fragile X Foundation, 1-800-688-8765
Web site: http://www.fragilex.org/