The Benoit Tragedy: From Crippler to Killer

today's video is brought to you by fabulous more on them in a bit hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the casual criminalist as always hello there i'm simon your host here robin's here one of my writers in this case this is a new writer matt matt granza welcome welcome matt i don't know why i'm doing this i don't know why i'm doing this sorry sorry doesn't matter um thanks matt for this uh what happens i am going to read what matters written for me i've got it in front of me it's a script if you're new here the format is i've never read it before we're going to explore it together it's going to be it's not going to be fun look the script is called the benoit or benoit tragedy i looked it up i wasn't sure whether it was like you know one of those words where it's like the americans have taken a french word like uh saint louis uh or like sun louie or whatever and they've called it like st louis this isn't a great example there are other examples of this so i don't know i'm guessing it's benoit because that was the first thing in my pronunciation dictionary that came up it's from crippler to killer and that is why did i say we were going to enjoy this together so that's exactly true is it ah let's just get into it and uh yeah that's it let's go hey it's not quite it you enjoying this podcast leave a review you're enjoying this youtube show also goes out this video if you're just listening it goes out on youtube find it by searching the casual criminalist like it subscribe why don't you [Music] the day was the 24th of june 2007 and myself along with countless fans across the globe were waiting eagerly for the big event to begin the event in question was vengeance knight of the champions a professional wrestling pay-per-view under the banner of the wwe also known as world wrestling entertainment airing live from the toyota centers right airing live from the toyota center in houston whenever i see it i just want to read it out it's a voice uh in texas where it had been advertised that every championship would be defended on that night i know absolutely it's gonna come as a shock to absolutely nobody i know nothing about wwe all i know is that once upon a time it was called the wwf for world wrestling federation i believe and then the world wildlife fund were like yo what the man we had that first you'd and so i i think they're to change it to wwe i remember that happened when i was a kid and it was confusing and i was like these are clearly different things why do we need to do this we understand they're different it's not like anyone turns on the tv tunes into wwf and is disappointed there's not a panda i mean honestly there could be a panda wrestling because the wwe gets crazy also it's all fake right i actually made a video about that how's the puzzle why it's fake and all of this stuff is a surprisingly interesting history i think that was on my channel called today i found out you can check it out if you want to i'm not going to provide a link because i absolutely will forget and some people are listening as a podcast so they don't get to see those links brilliant simon thanks for that information let's carry on one of the main selling points of the show was that we could see the crowning of a new ecw world champion as the title had been vacant for weeks i have no idea what ecw means in one corner was cm punk young fang favorite and then the other was chris benoit a grizzled veteran who had the love and respect of fans the world over and if i'm okay look let me see if i can find this goddamn chris benoit dude caris it's got this you know this weird um pronunciation thing if i click on it will it play it no it just gives me the wikipedia guide on how to pronounce it but the pronunciation guide is forward slash b upside down e n apostrophe w a two arrow signs pointing to each other forwards i should learn how to read this but i'm pretty sure that means it's benoit so that's what we're going with rock and roll baby apm rolled around and the shirt begun the ecw did did matt tell me what ecw stood for [Music] no if he did i didn't pick up on it oh no he's like simon you don't know what ecw is everyone knows what ecw is simon it's okay we already know i really took care of it honey you don't like wrestling you small brain the ecw world title match was the third bout on the card and cm punk made his way into the ring we all awaited the familiar music signaling the arrival of the rabid wolverine but much to her bronze surprise benoit was nowhere to be seen being replaced at the last minute benoit missing an event let alone a large ppv oh pay-per-view like that big brain like night of the champions was almost unheard of as professional wrestling was quite literally the most important thing in his life pay-per-view stuff like the boxing stuff this is like it's super expensive it could be like 50 60 70 bucks and i'm like who the hell pays for that i even struggle to pay i mean i even struggle like i'll be watch i'll be like okay i've got that apple tv or whatever and you could just buy movies for like four bucks three pounds 100 crowns in my local currency or whatever and i'm always like no i'll watch something for free on netflix i'm not paying that so the idea that i pay like 50 pounds or 50 or however much it is it's a lot for wrestling i'm just like what's going no no i'd definitely definitely not pirate it never would do that cut to the next day of june the 25th and i'm getting on wwe.com looking for some information about what to expect for monday night raw that evening as the homepage opened up and i saw the news headline my heart dropped into my stomach and my mouth hung in open shock chris benoit has died that night's episode of raw was turned into a tribute to the canadian crippler showing some of his best matches in his career from wwe and wcw all while the announcers and his fellow wrestlers would talk about how much they respected him and how amazing of a wrestler and person he was but this would be premature in the worst possible way the next day on june 26th ecw i've not what is ecw i don't know it's entertainment circus wrestling who knows acw was set to air and vince mcmahon appeared on a pre-recorded video with a message to the audience directly long quote here we go good evening ladies and gentlemen last night on monday night raw the wwe presented a special tribute show recognizing the career of chris benoit however some 26 hours later the facts of this horrific tragedy are now apparent therefore other than my comments there will be no mention of mr bernour's name tonight on the contrary tonight's show will be dedicated to everyone who has been affected by this terrible incident this evening marks the first step of the healing process tonight wwe performers will do what they do better than anyone else in the world entertain you and people might be thinking simon like thinking simon why didn't you pull the clip why didn't you show this guy speaking at the camera why do you have to read it when this is clearly a video clip that exists i'm like people who mention that in the comments on youtube let me introduce you to a little thing called copyright where this would absolutely be fair use which is this special thing in copyright where you get to use something that's copyrighted material because you're there's several different reasons you can use it and it's all kind of a bit of a sliding scale but using it in a true crime video would be totally fair but there is absolutely no way that youtuber like wwe is getting all your money so that's why that's why we don't pull clips like that i know this video would be a lot better this podcast would be a lot better if we did because no one wants to hear me read this when it exists as audio but alas the world we live in [Music] ever since that day wwe has not acknowledged chris menoir on their programming their websites their dvds modern or their video games outside of interviews with vince and other wrestlers on podcasts and different media platforms it's as if benoit never even existed that's because the details coming out of the benoit home from that fateful weekend would turn the whole wrestling world on its head and cast a dark shadow over the sport that benoit himself loved more than anything we now take the plunge once more into the darkness looking into the eyes of a man destroyed by his profession and his own choices in the search for success and the violent and demented end that consumed him and those he loved a small man in a world of giants to explain the events of that dark weekend we have to head to the very beginning born christopher michael benoit on may 21 1967 in montreal quebec canada to michael and margaret benoit chris became enraptured with professional wrestling from a very young age living with his family in edmonton amber he grew up idolizing legends such as the dynamite kid tom billington and brett the hitman heart even took to using the diving headbutt from the top rope as a finishing maneuver inspired by billington's use of the move this isn't like wrestling it's like in the real world you're in a fight it's like how are you going to finish that person in a street fight diving headbutt from the top of the ropes said nobody ever is a suplex a wrestling thing i feel like that that's the one of the only terms i know i don't even know what it is but it's like number of times that a suplex is probably used in real life rest in real life fighting it's probably zero because it's like what's people doing real life are they punchy in the face don't they they kick you in the groin they kick the out of your shins this is like uh uh god damn it what's the name of that super popular fighting sport um the one a mixed martial arts and it's like that is like properly intense i don't like it because i don't like seeing people beat the out of each other but it is like that's that's proper fighting isn't it upon coming of age benoit began traveling with stew heart the father of his idol brett at the world famous heart family dungeon and in 1985 would make his professional wrestling debut for stew hearts stampede wrestling while there chris married his first wife martina in 1988 siring two children david in 1993 and megan in 1997 i love the word siren you can't just say he had two children he sired them like an ancient king he stayed with stampede wrestling until the promotion closed in 1989 heading to japan from there it's worth noting that while technically masterful of his craft benoit was always a smaller man at least by pro wrestling standards billed at 511 and weighing 229 pounds hey hey i'm 511 and i am a tower of a man i am big a smaller man like himself would have been looked down on at the time they weren't taken seriously is 5 11 really short i feel like i'm just shy of six foot come on give me a break that's why even in his younger days chris indulged in a plethora of steroids in an attempt to measure up to the previous standard what a pro wrestler should look like yeah that's i also take a lot of step not really not really something he'd also do in order to stand out is take on a more hard-hitting style to that of his peers and take some unnecessary risks in the ring including taking chair shots directly to the head while it was commonplace for wrestlers to get their hands up in order to protect themselves partially from the damage benoit was the type to take the headshot on without any sort of precaution oh my god i feel like i know that we've probably known about this for a really long time but i feel like it's just become like in the news cycle and more relevant recently just how damaging repeated blows to the head can be like i know a mate who had to stop doing sports like proper like he used to love playing football like simple soccer football because he'd been concussed so many times the doctor was like yo you can't get concussed again you can't do any sports even if it's just a tiny risk of concussion you can't do it because your brain is already getting damaged and no more because the concussions apparently they like um accumulate or something and it's why like you know there's all these football helmets and stuff in american football all this stuff i'm like how about we just let's just not bash our heads around the place i've never had a concussion and i hope that i never will benoit wrestled for new japan pro wrestling as both pegasus kid and wild pegasus from 1986 to 1997 and in 1994 he would make his way stateside for extreme championship wrestling i'm not sure if i was a wrestler if i'd go for the name pegasus pegasus to me feels like a very and i'm sure there are female wrestlers but you know it feels like for a dude it's quite feminine isn't it you know the pegasus oh it's like a beautiful unicorn it's got that big horn sticking out of his head it's something the little girls like i'm just being sexist here but it's a it's a pegasus be like just call me the wild tiger baby wrestling under his real name it was an ecw that had gained his famous crippler moniker during a match on the november to remember sorry november to remember pay-per-view benoit accidentally botched a maneuver that ended with his opponent sabo landing directly on top of his head breaking his neck oh my god wait sar oh okay so osabu broke his neck he broke sabi's neck you know oh my god dude that's intense for like fake fighting sabo would eventually recover for a broken oh okay so you could break your neck without being like uh disabled right um where you you know his work visa expired in 1995 and he shortly afterwards got the phone call from wcw world championship wrestling now before we continue with today's video let me tell you about today's fantastic sponsor fabulous have you ever found it difficult to rewire your brain and adapt to a new routine i know that i absolutely have and that's where the fabulous app comes in it's essentially a 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will get 25 of a fabulous subscription check it out and uh yeah now back to today's video enter woman feels like head to wombat stage left it didn't take long for benoit to impress the higher-ups in wcw with his technical and hard-hitting style soon enough he was placed into higher profile programs and was even drafted into the newest incarnation of the four horsemen one of the greatest stables in wrestling history got no idea what any of this stuff is it was during his time with the horseman that he began a rivalry with kevin sullivan sullivan sorry leader of a rival stable the dungeon of doom as well as one of the bookers of wcw for clarification the booker is someone who decides the storylines and outcomes of matches on the programming this is basically a writer isn't it because it's all scripted right it's a lie this is where we meet woman real name nancy sullivan at the time kevin sullivan's on-screen valet and real-life wife while on television she was portrayed as cunning ruthless and vicious as a tough-as-nails lady who didn't need no man off-screen nancy sullivan was the closest thing to an angel as could possibly be imagined kind caring thoughtful nurturing she was a sweetheart in every sense of the word during benoit's feud with sullivan kevin believed it would make rather engaging television to book nancy to have an on-screen affair with chris they would be seen kissing and holding hands openly while on television playing it up for the cameras and even going so far as to spend more time together while off screen to play it up in public for the fans this is another weird thing about wrestling right because it is fake and it is scripted and they're like yeah yeah you have an affair with this person but then it's also it's it's this weird blending of the real world because they they're i think it off screen it'd be like two soap opera actors in real life also being seen together to make it seem more realistic it's like why we know it's fake why do we have to extend it to the real world i mean in a way it's very clever it's sort of this semi-reality reality tv show i mean even reality tv shows are heavily scripted but pushed towards certain storylines right to make it more entertaining it's it's clever it's clever but bizarre engaging television yes but this also ended up bringing chris and nancy closer together so much so that they started a real life affair with one another who could have guessed this soured the relationship between kevin and chris making things quite volatile backstage between the two this soon resulted in nancy moving out and divorcing giving citing physical abuse and benoit moving in with her soon after his own marriage to martine having fallen apart as well surprise surprise surprise come february 25th 2000 chris and nancy welcomed little daniel benoir into the world and on november 23rd of the same year the loving couple were officially married rise to the top benoit remained with wcw until january 16 2000 he'd been outspoken for quite a while about how unhappy he was with the company particularly with kevin sullivan being promoted to head booker only weeks later on january 31st benoit made his debut for the wwe then wwf on monday night raw chris would go on to win multiple championships and have many classic matches and rivalries with the likes of triple h booker t edge wait booker t edge or booker t and dead i've never even heard of any of these people brock lesnar and kurt angle the apex of his career came in 2004 when in the main event of wrestlemania 20 in madison square garden chris benoit would win the world heavyweight championship nancy was in attendance with daniel and david and they were brought down to the ring to celebrate his fireworks went off and confetti poured down from the rafters as the crowd cheered and chanted his name in this sort of situation is the winner predetermined and all i think he is right so it's like he won the world championship it's like yeah in in the in the fictional world wwe the booker decided he was going to win this guy's in second place it's on his wikipedia page they don't have like world heavyweight championship wwe do they because he didn't he's just a character in a show it would be like i don't know a tv show your world is not real where one of the main characters is like a scientist and he win the nobel prize and they put it on his wikipedia pages winning the nobel prize no you didn't no not all was sunshine and rainbows though in the benoit household in may 2003 nancy bernour filed for abuse divorce citing domestic abuse benoit having gone so far as to throw furniture through the house well he's probably used to it you know he's having to throw furniture thrown against his head he's right this is normal there's no this is what people do at one point nancy called the marriage irrevocably broken and even took out a restraining order against chris in which it stated that benoit had quote lost his temper and threatened to strike the petitioner and cause extensive damage to the home of personal belongings of the parties including furniture and furnishings petitioner is in reasonable fear for petitioner's own safety and that of the minor child this is very legalese isn't it petitioner's response is in reasonable fear of petitioner's own safety petitioner yes one of their biggest argument points was nancy wanting chris to take a lighter schedule so that he could spend more time at home with his family and get some much needed rest chris on the other hand saw wrestling as his life and refused to step away if he felt he was needed another theorized struggle for the family was that daniel was rumored to have fragile x syndrome a form of autism that has been repeatedly denied nancy's sister sandra toffeloni states that benoit never hit nancy though he did push her into a shelf once it was that's still pretty intense dude that is still domestic violence i was like no i know he never hit her he just shoved her really hard with his fists into the wall it was sandra that chris reached out to while under the restraining order asking her to talk to nancy for him she did so and after convincing her to speak with her husband nancy and chris were able to reconcile calling off the divorce not so irrevocably broken after all was it outside of the marital issues things were still great for benoit he was the consummate professional even after losing the world championship working hard and doing as he was asked he continued to wrestle continue to win championships and entertain people across the globe everything was moving forward as normal until november of 2005 that was when the world of chris benoit and pro wrestling as a whole changed forever eddie guerrero the tale of chris benoit would be incomplete without the mention of one very important person eddie guerrero was a fellow professional wrestler and perhaps the most important person in chris benoit's life born on october 9th 1967 he was the youngest son of corey guerrero a mess mexican wrestling legend that helped bring the lucha libre style of wrestling to the united states that's the one where they wear the masks right i've actually i just realized oh here i am talking about i know nothing about wrestling i was in mexico and i went to see this it was really bizarre and i didn't really like it i'm like this is just silly i feel like i'm watching something for children why am i here like i also feel wwe is also i mean i'm sure people are going to hate me for this one but it's it kind of feels a bit like it's for children to me doesn't it a little bit just it come up just a little and then throw some masks on them and it's like i gained this is for children and he was born to be a professional wrestler and it also helped that he was extremely good at it he's known today as a wrestling legend in his own right not for just his technical and high flying style but for his boundless charisma his career also mirrored benoit's in almost every aspect beginning down in mexico eddie moved to new japan pro wrestling in 1992 and it was there that he first met chris they soon became close traveling the world together and supporting each other however they could they were the best of friends practically brothers they even shared their world title wins together eddie had won the wwe world championship in february 2004 and then a month later at wrestlemania chris won the world heavyweight title eddie who had retained his title earlier in the night made his way to the ring and celebrated with his best friend shedding tears of joy together as they embraced lovingly for the whole world to see the two friends were on the highest of highs but every high must come down and this one crashed and burned in the worst possible way it's a proven fact that many wrestlers whether from the wear and tear of the sport or from drug related issues usually meet an untimely end and sadly this case is no different i didn't know that wrestlers particularly met bad fates i mean i know there's the famous ones but i always assume that though i know about those because they're famous like um what's his name the the the guy the blonde hulk hogan um he had some troubles with some stuff didn't he and then there was something where did he get didn't he sue someone and then peter till was it was that hot hogan or is that something else i love that story i'm gonna get it wrong it's not hogan but i i just assume most wrestlers just retired and went to go live on a farm somewhere and you know drink beer on the porch and enjoy relaxing retirement this is just what i assume american retirement is like for some reason just people living on farms and drinking beer on porches on november 12 2005 eddie and the rest of the roster stayed the night at the marriott hotel city center in minneapolis minnesota earlier the next morning eddie's nephew and fellow wrestler charvo guerrero was informed by hotel workers that his uncle hadn't answered his scheduled wake-up call making their way to eddie's room and receiving no answer they entered inside where they found eddie passed out on the floor of the bathroom toothbrush in hand he was barely clinging to life and before an ambulance could arrive eddie guerrero passed away in his nephew's arms only 38 years of age even though eddie's past had been riddled with severe drug problems he'd been clean for several years up to that point and while a relapse was initially suspected an autopsy revealed that eddie had passed away from acute heart failure due to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease oh my god at 38 i once went to the doctor as a recorder yesterday and he was like yeah yeah your cholesterol was pretty high last year whistle boy he was he said mr whistler i feel like such an adult now like mr whistler so okay and they're like we're gonna do your blood work again and if it comes back hi well you're gonna have to make some adjustments aren't you and if that doesn't work you're gonna have to take some pills and i'm like i'm 35 why am i taking pills for this jesus and then i looked it up and the the google were like yeah people take pills for this i'm like oh no i'm like just for privacy i won't mention who it is but someone else in my family also takes pills they're a lot older than me for uh high cholesterol i felt like oh my god i felt really old and then the doctor was like you put a bit of weight haven't you i have put on a bit of weight why can't i eat whatever i want to anymore doctor and he's like well as you get all these proteins in your blood or something and he explained the science thing to me and i'm like dude i don't need to know why i just know it's happening and so now i'm like my years and decades of just eating whatever the i want and drinking whatever i want all the time have finally come crashing to an end as my mid-thirties have arrived it's very sad i'm even drinking diet coke which i've drunk forever but um i haven't eaten today i'm doing this fasting thing it's ten minutes past three every weekday i have one meal a day i don't eat anything until dinner time it's uh it's i just find it better than than doing the not you know the eating specific food this is not a show about my diet just let's get on with the bloody episode simon although please tell me in the comments please tell me there are other people feeling this pain the decades of fun have gone crashing down now the reason i bring up eddie so prevalently here is that his death was perhaps the single most devastating moment of chris benoit's life up until that point on the documentary series the dark side of the ring charbot spoke about the day that he died and now benoit reacted to the news quote then i get a call from chris and chris goes hey man i'm downstairs where are you hey man are you sitting down he says yes and i go eddie passed away this morning and all you hear from a guy with no emotion whatsoever you're a whale just this whale from deep down like a heartbreak if you ever heard one this was heartbreak during the raw tribute show to eddie benoir could be seen weeping openly on television as the 10 bell salute rang out throughout the arena in his tribute video chris sobbed openly and said how much he loved and missed guerrero and they would meet again this is one of those things like the dudes who have you know like it's always a tv show so you got that character he's just like no emotions always just making fun super stoic and then something sad happens and that character like has a tear rolled down his cheek and you're like oh my god you've destroyed me it's uh what's that famous it's um in scrubs right that episode where uh like that the characters like dr cox always like super serious making fun and then like his best friend dies and it's just like he loses his and you're like oh no no it's so sad fellow wrestler chris jericho recounted on the dark side of the ring benoit's behavior at eddie's funeral where he was practically inconsolable funerals are never good but eddie's funeral was very hard when i saw benoit he came and gave me a hug but it was the most desperate saddest i'm hanging on for dear life hug chris benoit never seemed to get over eddie's death cutting off contact with many of his other friends and practically becoming a hermit there were times that benoit would go to visit eddie's family where he would go up to the master bedroom and simply hug at his pillow and cry as he laid on eddie's side of the bed his family eventually got him a journal to have him cope where he could write down a talk to eddie as much as he wanted and it seemed to help but noir was very much a broken man and combined with everything else he was on a road to destruction a ticking time bomb that would explode less than two years later the horror in fire though and that brings us up to date mere days before the weekend of june the 24th for some time benoit had been acting strange he seemed paranoid on edge as if he believed he would soon be fired from wwe even when that wasn't the case he started taking different routes to the airport into the gym as if he believed he was being followed paranoia paranoia and on june 19 2007 chris benoit wrestled his last match a qualifying bout against elijah burke for a spot in the ecw world title match that sunday during the match benoit seemed off he seemed tired sluggish unfocused something he'd never allowed himself to be while in the ring nancy seemed to sense that something was wrong benoit had become more aggressive at home more so than usual and combined with his rapidly growing paranoia she was rightly frightened nancy told a friend on june the 19th quote i'm scared to death if anything happens to me look at chris holy sh fancy if you're if you're listening to this episode and you've if you've had a conversation with someone and you said if anything happens to me it's that person you need to like go to the police you need to leave that situation you need to do something because that i get we this is a true crime show we know what's happening next nancy is getting killed isn't she so if you've had that conversation where you've said like if someone kills me it's that guy then you know change it up do something about that because that's very very worrying or just kill them first just joking don't kill anyone on june 22nd benoit made the 40-mile drive down to carrollton georgia to visit dr phil aston iii dr astin was a well-known physician in the sports and wrestling community having taken on many pro wrestling patients who'd been prescribing benoit with many different painkillers and steroids for years and that day was no different uh oh while at the office benoit had his picture taken by dr astin a practice the doctor liked to do with some of his more famous patients no no when i'm at the doctor i don't want pictures taken it's supposed to be anonymous i don't even want people knowing who my doctor is i know there's confidentiality but still like no dude that's so weird in the picture benoit can be seen giving the doctor a soft smile but his eyes look vacant distant as if he's not all there on that day a pool cleaner had just finished up at the bernour residence when he saw chris and little daniel outside barbecuing for dinner he was the last person to see the whole family alive whatever exactly triggered the horrid events of the next two days is almost anyone's guess but we do know the grim results that night the rabid wolverine lived up to his nickname in the upstairs bedroom of the home chris benoit pounced on nancy easily overpowering the smaller woman blood surrounding the body and the wounds to her face and head suggest that chris beat her viciously in a fit of rage binding her hands and feet knee planted firmly into her back benoit wrapped her television cable around her neck drew it tight and pulled as hard as he could in what was surely minutes of terror in agony nancy benoit left this world at the hands of the man who had sworn to love her and keep her safe wrapping the body in a blanket benoit placed a bible next to his dead wife a sign of his newly found faith undoubtedly another piece of influence from eddie who himself was a born-again christian next was daniel benoit the child probably had no idea of the furocity that had just befallen his mother that he loved so dearly his bedroom being on the other side of the house from his parents room hours later after murdering his wife benoit entered the room of his sleeping son it's believed that benoit wrote daniel up and tried to give him a xanax the drug being found in his system after the fact daniel idolized his daddy posted chris lovingly on the walls and action figures stood proudly on the shelves the man who daniel loved more than anything in the world then proceeded to strangle the little boy to death the use of xanax proud showing that he hadn't wanted his son to suffer as his wife had then like nancy he wrapped daniel in a blanket placing another bible next to his body at least 10 hours later after daniel left this world charlo guerrero received an odd voicemail on his phone it was from chris and it said that nancy and daniel were suffering from food poisoning and that he was home looking after them shavu recounted how odd benoit sounded while on the phone when he called him back that night that a lot what he said sounded groggy and forced especially the emphasis benoit put on the end of the call when he said shabo i love you in the early morning of june the 24th the day of the pay-per-view in houston a series of text messages were sent from benoir's phone to several people within the wwe including charvo guerrero the first message was the dogs are in the enclosed pool area garage side door is open the second message was my physical address is 130 green meadow lane fayetteville georgia 30215 minutes later the same exact message was sent to nancy's phone charvin the others didn't think anything of it when the next day rolled around and chris wasn't at the airport to be picked up they simply thought it was weird but they decided to cover for him anyway it wasn't until monday that they told some of the officials within wwe of the messages the higher-ups then called the fireball county sheriff's office to provide a wellness check on benoir and his family arriving at the house officers had difficulty entering the houses both of benoit's german shepherds were outside barking and growling a neighbor soon came outside and knowing the dogs was able to put them aside and take a look in the house herself within moments the officers heard a terrible scream as the neighbor came bolting out a look of sheer sadness and panic on her face she's crying out that little daniel was dead entering the still silent house the officer's search room by room soon came to discover the bodies of nancy and daniel benoit it didn't take long for them to find the man of the house chris benoit aged 40 was found in his basement gym hanging lifeless by the lap pull-down machine the steel cord wrapped around his neck it's believed that after sending the text to shavo and the other recipients benoit went downstairs placed a cloth over his neck wrapped the cord around his throat adjusted the weights and let it drop a tragedy in every meaning of the word a family utterly annihilated leaving one question to be answered it's so st he i feel like he must have just snapped like it feels like such a bizarre crime even though he did have a bit of a history of violence to escalate that to murder when he's he doesn't see he's not a psycho like he had this like super emotions and all of this stuff it just seems like he totally snapped just lost his mind it's crazy like if you want to kill yourself why would you kill your family first that makes no sense the question of what [Music] as the world was adjusting to the shocking news of benoit's death and what he did to his family theories popped up over the media as well as with fans the first was of course the idea of steroids that this act of evil was caused by roid rage toxicology reports on benoit after his death showed that he had over 10 times the normal amount of testosterone in his body at the time of death now this was surprising benoit had been a known steroid user for almost all of his career trying to make up for his short stature this was a fact regardless of whether wwe tried to dissuade it or not particularly since just two months earlier chris had passed one of the company's random drug tests which apparently also tested for steroids sounds like he cheated that then doesn't it this painted wwe in quite the negative light even when they did their best to distance themselves from benoit especially after a massive drug bust and uncovered receipts for 14 wwe wrestlers that purchased steroids recently java guerrera being one after the death of the benoit family the office of doctor asked and was raided by the authorities and evidence was found at the good doctor having written illegal prescriptions to his patients benoir included he was taken to trial and his lawyer attempted to get evidence thrown out stating that the police had exceeded their authority when it came to their search warrant and seized other patient records along with three years of bank records and computers it was all for naught though as in 2008 dr aston was charged with overprescribing medication and in january 2009 he pled guilty to all 175 charges against him including illegally prescribing drugs sometimes without even examining his patients he was given 10 years behind bars good that's crazy i mean it's a heavy sentence but the amount of damage you're calling you're a drug dealer you're doing you're just a drug dealer at that point aren't you and it's like anyone who's being prescribed prescription painkillers for years that's just not right that's not what prescription painkillers are for they're for like acute pain or like for end-of-life care like post-surgery or like serious pain but if people are on like opioids and stuff long term that's why there's the opioid crisis because everyone's addicted to these things even though they shouldn't be they should be used short term don't be prescribing there should be an absolute limit on this stuff it's crazy the second and most prevalent theory for benoit's actions is brain damage namely chronic traumatic encephalopathy or cte a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head and brain trauma talking about earlier symptoms include behavioral problems mood problems and difficulty thinking which could lead to a patient delivering developing dementia over time chris nowinski founder and ceo of the concussion legacy foundation and co-founder of the boston university cte center is also a former wwe wrestler one whose career was ended due to multiple untreated concussions talking about chris menoir nowinski has been quoted as saying benoit is one of the only guys who would take a chair shot to the back of the head which is stupid he also recalled speaking with benoit only months before the tragedy and he asked benoit how many concussions he had received in his life were not answered more than i can remember i'm going to say it's a combination of all of these things right he's had the multiple head traumas he's on steroids he seems to be going through this intense period of grief also the paranoia and stuff possibly caused by the former things but it's a crazy combination it's not going to end well and doesn't end well julian bales head of neurosurgery at west virginia university at the assistance of owinski and benoit's father michael ran scans and tests of crispinois brain the results were shocking benoit's brain was so severely damaged it resembled the brain of an 85 year old alzheimer's patient severe cte was found while examining his brain tissue along with damage the brain stem and all four lobes all those diving head butts and chair shots to the head are finally caught up to the rabid wolverine resulting in a skull full of almost nothing but brown dead brain cells a strict no chair shots to the head policy was soon enacted by wwe in the wake of the revelation and and more promotions quickly followed their lead in an attempt to prevent further cases such as that of benoit conspiracy theories have popped up over the years such as while suggesting that kevin sullivan in an act of revenge from years ago killed the family or that perhaps the deaths were the result of a professional hit each one is more ridiculous than the last and they only work to highlight what is accepted to this day as truth chris benoit in a state of rage and brain damage delirium brutally beat and strangled his wife nancy and then drugged and strangled his youngest son then whether from the guilt of it all or just in an act to end his long-standing suffering he hanged himself taking any concrete answer to all of the lingering questions to the grave on july the 14th 2007 nancy and daniel benoit received a memorial service attended by their friends and family along with several employees from wwe their bodies were cremated and were given to nancy's family and starfish shaped hands chris bernour was cremated in private the fate of his ashes are unknown to this day wrap up so that brings us to the end of this dark journey i had to admit that this was a hard one chris benoit was one of my favorite wrestlers at the time and sometimes i wonder what have happened had the horror of that weekend not come to pass would he have died soon anyway from his brain damage as some say would he have retired a god of the help that he needed would he have trained others in his craft and eventually made into the hall of fame himself in the end we'll never know i could still watch his matches to this day and enjoy them for what they are but the darkness of what he did will always be there whenever i or anyone else looks back at his work yeah you gotta be watching some of those early matches and see him taking a chair to there and being like we don't know where this ends up and then you think about him murdering his family i don't know if i could watch those not that i'd enjoy them anyway because it'd be disgusting i really like wrestling but if i did i don't know his name is stricken from all but the history books but only when it comes to his title victories matches that were promoted with him now solely promote his opponents and any pasture event that features him on the card now comes with parental warnings his show his tribute show on raw is not available on the wwe network and vince's address of him on ecw has been removed from that episode they're doing their best to distance himself from the man and honestly you can blame them i believe paul heyman one of the great wrestling managers and personalities of all time said it best when he was interviewed live for inside the ropes in 2019 and was faced with a hector in the crowd in regards to benoit and here's a quote you can admire his work all you want but i'll give you my take on it since you want to keep yelling out my boy three people died in that house that night i didn't care about cte three people died in that house that night only one person had the choice behind it the other two didn't have the choice die so if that's your boy q as a performer amongst the five greatest i've ever seen in my life as a talent remarkable as a human being i don't care about cte i don't care about what the reasons are nancy and daniel had no option he did as we finish up this tale of tragedy there's one person i feel for more than anyone else david benoit now almost 30 years old he's still plagued by the events of that weekend in one fell swoop he lost his father his stepmother his little brother all of whom he loved so very much it's been a hard road for him and he still idolizes his father knowing the man who shattered his world wasn't truly the man who loved and raised him but all the damage to his brain and the years of steroid abuse had taken that man away over the last several years he's been training to be a wrestler himself but with the darkness surrounding his last name and his striking resemblance to his dad i can only hope he's given the chance to live his dream he more than deserves to forge his own destiny outside of his father's looming shadow yeah well said well said this has been an episode of the casual criminalist i hope you find it interesting if you did if you're watching on youtube please like and subscribe if you're watching as a podcast hey leave a review it's greatly appreciated thank you so much and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Casual Criminalist

Views: 278,382

Keywords: true crime

Id: DvEXVr4oFnA

Length: 44min 48sec (2688 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2022