WWE legend Chris Benoit brutally killed his wife and son before taking his own life in a sick triple homicide in 2007
Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX on March 14, 2004(Image: Getty Images)
In the often bizarre and intense world of WWE, one horrifying crime has left a chilling mark, its perpetrator committing an unthinkable act before annihilating his family.
Back in 2007, Chris Benoit etched a violent legacy in what is arguably one of wrestling’s most shocking incidents. The Canadian grappler murdered his wife and son before ending his own life at the age of 40.
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The ex-world champion was discovered dead in his Georgia residence, alongside the bodies of his wife and seven year old son. In a gruesome finale, Benoit strangled his 43 year old wife Nancy, smothered their son Daniel, and then hanged himself in their mansion, leaving a bible next to each of their bodies in a macabre final gesture.
After friends received peculiar text messages from him, authorities were alerted and descended on the former World Wrestling Federation star’s Atlanta home. Autopsy reports suggested that Benoit had kneeled on his wife’s back while strangling her with a cord.
Chris Benoit and Nancy Benoit circa 1996(Image: FilmMagic)
Her body was found swaddled in a blanket, a Bible placed beside her. Officials reported no signs of immediate resistance, reports the Mirror.
Toxicology reports revealed alcohol in Nancy’s system, though it remained unclear whether it was consumed prior to death or a result of decomposition. Daniel was Benoit’s third child, following David and Megan from his first marriage to Martina, and was Nancy’s only child.
In a horrifying detail, another Bible was found next to Daniel’s body after he was suffocated in his bedroom.
He sustained internal injuries to the throat area, with no visible bruising. An autopsy revealed that Daniel had been drugged with Xanax prior to his murder and was unconscious when he died.
Chris Benoit walking through the Tampa International Airport(Image: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The timing of each victim’s death remained unclear, but Daniel’s body had only begun showing early signs of decomposition, while Nancy’s body was in a more advanced stage of decay.
Later claims emerged that Daniel suffered from the genetic disorder fragile X syndrome, allegedly causing domestic turmoil within the Benoit household.
It was also claimed Benoit had been giving Daniel human growth hormone (HGH) as evidenced by needle marks on his arms because his father believed he was too small.
Benoit’s colleague and close friend, wrestler Chris Jericho, stated from his own research on the condition, the symptoms “fit Daniel to a tee, all across the board.”
What troubled him most was that those who publicly denied knowing about Daniel having the condition, with Jericho saying, “If Chris had decided that he wanted to keep it to himself, you wouldn’t have been able to pry that out of him with anything.”
Jericho later wrote in his 2011 book Undisputed: “It turned out that Daniel didn’t have fragile X, but at the time it made sense because I was grasping at straws.”