Chris Benoit, Famous Wrestler & Family Annihilator

Fayetteville, Georgia-
40 year old Chris Benoit was a very famous WWE wrestler and family annihilator. The “Canadian Crippler”, as he was known in the wrestling world, murdered his wife, Nancy, their 7 year old son, Daniel, then committed suicide during the 3 day weekend of June 22nd through the 25th of 2007.

On Friday, June 22nd of 2007, Nancy lost her life. She was killed in a second story room; her limbs had been bound, a cord wrapped around her throat, and she was strangled. There were bruises on her stomach and back from where Chris had pressed his knee into her, and at some point Nancy had suffered a blow to the head. When she was deceased, Nancy was covered with a towel and a Bible was place near her body. Toxicology later proved that Vicodin and Xanax had been in her system, but sources claim that these were her everyday medications.

It’s believed that sometime during Saturday night little Daniel was murdered in his bed. It’s thought that Chris drugged his son with Xanax ahead of time, then suffocated him; many believe that Chris used his famous signature wrestling move, the Crippler Crossface, to end his child’s life. As with his mother, a Bible was discovered in very close proximity to Daniel’s corpse.

Throughout this weekend Chris had been in contact with his close friend and fellow wrestler, Chavo Guerrero. Chris had missed a big event, a pay per view show, which was very much out of character for him; Chris explained that both Nancy and Daniel both had a nasty case of food poisoning, and that a trip to the emergency room may be required.

On Sunday, Chavo and a few other wrestlers received text messages from Chris’s phone. These messages named the Benoit family’s full street address, stated that the garage door was open, and the dogs were chained up in the back yard.
Since I really do try to be as factually correct as possible, I’m not gonna pretend to know for sure who exactly discovered the crime scene first. Most sources state that the police were called to conduct a wellness check, but others say that the Benoit’s neighbor, Holly Schrepfer, was sent to the home to check on the dogs thereby stumbling upon the crime scene. Chris had passed away from apparent suicide just after those texts were sent to his buddies. The wrestler had gone into his workout room, stacked on 240 pounds, and rigged the weight machine to hang himself; his neck had been broken. The home computer’s search history showed that someone had recently researched “the quickest and easiest way to break a neck”.

As for motive, some think that Chris murdered Daniel because he suffered from “Fragile X Syndrome”, but doctors say that the boy did not have this condition. It’s said that Daniel had needle track marks on his arms at the time of his death, that Chris had deemed Daniel small for his age so he’d been treating the 7 year old with growth hormone injections (Nancy’s sister claimed that there were no needle marks on Daniel at the time of his death). It’s also said that Daniel had been having a hard time in school, and was being held back a grade; it must be mentioned that the boy’s teachers say this is absolutely not true. As for Nancy, it’s rumored that there had been some recent problems in the Benoit marriage. The relationship had been a passionate one; at one time the couple had separated and Nancy had filed for divorce, but according to friends those troubled times seemed to be behind them.

The condition of Chris’s brain definitely needs mentioning. The man had been a superb wrestler, more than willing to perform stunts in which few others would dare attempt. Due to this, Chris’s brain had been severely damaged; he’d suffered multiple untreated concussions, a broken neck in 2001, and the steroid abuse certainly hadn’t helped. During autopsy the athlete had ten times the level of testosterone in his system, and his brain was comparable to that of an 85 year old Alzheimer’s patient. Matter of fact, had this tragedy not occurred, doctors say that Chris would’ve had maybe 10 months left to live.

Those close to the wrestler say that Chris had been acting increasingly strange before that tragic weekend. He’d been quoting scripture and seen with a rosary around his neck. The wrestler had not been a religious man, yet Bibles were found next to all 3 corpses; a note which read, “I’m preparing to leave this Earth” was discovered inside one Bible. Chris had been having strange nightmares, and kept a diary in which he wrote to his recently deceased best friend, Eddie Guerrero. He had become paranoid, thought people were following him, he wouldn’t even take his trash out to the curb for fear that someone would rifle through it. Chris had refused to allow his son to play in the yard, he had begun taking detours on his way home, and was adamant that Nancy not stay out late after dark. It’s safe to say that the man had been terrified that someone was watching him, planning something sinister against him and those he loved.

For many, these are little signs that all was not well in Chris’s mind; for others, it’s proof that he truly had been in trouble. Maybe someone really had been following him, meant to do him harm. Some believe that Chris and his family were murdered, and yes it does sound preposterous, but some of the things I read while researching this makes me question it. Whether it amounts to a hill of beans or not, you can decide for yourself.

The most popular theory is that fellow wrestler Kevin Sullivan murdered the family, and he did have some pretty serious motive! So, back in the day Kevin and Chris had been very close friends who’d played adversaries in the ring; during this time, Kevin and Nancy Benoit had been married. You know how the wrestlers all have their own individual storylines? Well, the Chris/Kevin story eventually lead to Nancy, who played a character known simply as “Woman” in the wrestling industry, having an affair with Chris. Kevin, Nancy’s then husband, had not only been cool with this fantasy, but he helped to write the story. In order to make it more realistic, Nancy and Chris were seen hanging out alone, they were often purposely discovered out in public on romantic dates, etc. Well, eventually this pretend affair turned into the real deal; the pair fell in love. Nancy divorced Kevin, she married Chris and had a son, understandably creating a rift between the three. Kevin always blamed his former friend for the disillusion of his marriage.

First, and this is chalked up to coincidence, but at 12:01 am on Sunday morning, before anyone was aware of the murders, Nancy’s death was announced on a wiki page. This has been explained away as a silly fan prank, but it’s still really odd. More worrisome are the supposed statements made Chavo (I can find no proof that this conversation took place) which have made many people question the whole thing. We’ve already discussed that he had been in contact with Chris throughout the weekend. The wrestler has stated that during an early weekend call with Chris, someone had come to the door; Chavo listened to what he would later describe as a scuffle, then the call disconnected. (Again, I can find no proof that that Chavo said there was a scuffle at the door, so I can not personally confirm nor debunk this.)

Later that evening, Chris contacted his good buddy to say that all was well, and he ended the conversation with “I love you Chavo”. This unnerved Chavo; he said that Chris sounded tired, and he was concerned for his friend. Again, Chavo and Chris had been very close, they hung out all the time. One of Chris’s final texts to Chavo read, “My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville Georgia. 30215”. Why would Chris send his best buddy his address when Chavo knew exactly where he lived?

Another bothersome fact, there were empty beer cans found near Chris’s corpse, but autopsy concluded that the wrestler had not been drinking. So, who drank all of that beer? And do you remember the neighbor lady, Holly Schrepfer? It’s said that she witnessed another wrestler near the Benoit home during this weekend, a wrestler who had absolutely no reason to be there. It’s also been claimed that these murders took place on the 10th anniversary of Kevin and Nancy’s divorce.

Now I’m not giving my opinion on this case, just telling you some of what I found during my research. Frustratingly, the police never really conducted a thorough investigation of the case. It was automatically deemed a family annihilator situation, and that was that. Nancy’s family claims that the police had left behind suitcases of steroids; these definitely should’ve been seized during the a search of the home. If they missed mounds of illegal substances, what else didn’t they pick up on?

Out of this entire case, one fact truly unsettled me. You’ll find very little mention of it, but young Daniel had a large kitchen knife tucked under his pillow at the time of his death. Why would a 7 year old child be sleeping with a knife? Was he afraid, and if he was, of who? What did that boy know, what had he witnessed during this weekend of hell? Had he been aware of his mama’s murder, had Daniel been aware that he was next?

*There’s much, much more to this, I could be here writing for a few more days but I wanna go ahead and post this. If you’d like to jump down this vast rabbit hole with me, here’s a link to get you started. You gotta check the facts with links like these, weed out the truth from speculation, but this one will get you started. Let me know what you think! http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/24-reasons-that-will-prove-that-chris-benoit-is-innocent.453787849/

*CORRECTION! Chavo is still alive; his father, Chavo Senior, is the one who passed away in 2017. Shout out to Crystal Mills Barefoot for letting me know.