Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide
| Chris Benoit | |
|---|---|
Benoit in 2006
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| Location | Fayetteville, Georgia, United States |
| Date | June 22–25, 2007 (EST) |
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Attack type
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Murder–suicide |
| Deaths | 3 (including Benoit) |
| Perpetrator | Chris Benoit |
Over a three-day period between June 22 and June 25, 2007, Chris Benoit, a 40-year-old veteran professional wrestler employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), killed his wife Nancy Benoit and strangled their 7-year-old son Daniel before hanging himself. Autopsy results showed that Benoit's wife was murdered first as she was bound at the feet and wrists and died of asphyxiation on Friday. Nancy was found wrapped in a towel and with blood under her head, although Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard reported no other signs of a struggle.
The couple's son, Daniel Christopher Benoit, also died of asphyxia, apparently killed as he lay in bed on Saturday morning. Then on Sunday evening Benoit committed suicide in his weight room, when he used a weight lifting machine to break his own neck. He placed copies of the Bible alongside the bodies of his wife and son, as well as a third Bible on his weight lifting machine. Since Benoit's suicide, numerous explanations for his actions have been proposed, including brain damage,steroid abuse, and a failing marriage. The murder led to numerous media accounts, and a federal investigation into steroid abuse in professional wrestling.
On Friday, June 22, Chris Benoit killed his wife Nancy in an upstairs bedroom. Her limbs were bound, and her body was wrapped in a towel. A copy of the Bible was left by her body. Injuries indicated that Benoit had pressed a knee into her back while pulling on a cord around her neck, causing strangulation. Blood was also found under her head, suggesting that she may have tried to fend off Benoit. Officials said that there were no signs of immediate struggle. Toxicologists were unable to determine whether alcohol found in her body was there before death or a decomposition product. Decomposition also made it difficult to estimate pre-death levels of hydrocodone and alprazolam, found in "therapeutic levels" in her corpse. In any case, her medical examiner saw no evidence that she was sedated like her son.
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