Coroner's Corner : Chris Benoit (Professional Wrestler)

Christopher Michael Benoit was born in Montreal Canada on May 22, 1967. Benoit became a professional wrestler and debuted as a wrestler on November, 22, 1985. He is a two-time World Champion, winning the World Heavyweight Champion of the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) World Heavyweight Champion. He held 22 titles all within the WWF/E, WCW, NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) and ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling). He was also the 12th WWE Triple Crown Champion and 6th WCW Triple Crown Champion, thus becoming the only second of five men in Wrestling history to win both WWE and WCW Triple Crown Championship. He was bound to retain his WWE 3rd World Championship, the night of his death.

On June 25, 2007, the police discovered the dead bodies of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and seven-year old son Daniel in their house. Autopsy reports confirmed  that Nancy was murdered first, bound at the feet and wrist and that she died of asphyxiation on 22, June 2007. Daniel was also confirmed to have died of sedative asphyxia and murdered in bed some few hours before Benoit hung himself in the weight room. Also Bible copies were placed by the side of Nancy and Daniel. The reason for the murder and suicide sources say stemmed from Benoit's brain damage, steroid abuse and failing marriage with Nancy. There had been phone call exchange between Benoit and fellow wrestler Chavo Guerrero days before his death. The District Attorney Ballard and City Sheriff, confirmed that Benoit had committed suicide by handing himself after murdering his wife and son. Benoit used weight machine cord to hang himself. The bodies of the family were discovered after a text message was sent to Scot Armstrong and Chavo Guerrero on June 25. A suicide note was later discovered in a Bible saying "I'm preparing to leave this Earth," and the Bible belonged to Benoit but had been sent to his first wife after his death.

Tests conducted by Julian Bailies, head of neurosurgery at West Virginia University, showed that Benoit's brain had been so severally damaged that it looked like the brain of  a 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient. There was also severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and that the four lobes of his brain and stem were all severally damaged. Bailes and his team concluded that Benoit may have been struggling with repeated untreated concussions during his wrestling career which could lead to dementia and then severe behavioural problems explaining the double murder and suicide. Also Nancy Benoit had been repeatedly abused domestically by Chris Benoit and hence had filed for a divorce in May 2003 but withdrew it in August that same year.

Also Bob Holly in his autobiography "The Hardcore Truth" threw another light that Benoit's actions were down to alcohol rather than steroids . Holly said that during their travels while in WWE, Benoit drank much more than he could normally consume when he had problems with his wife Nancy.

Even as it is believed Benoit murdered his wife and son and committed suicide, certain facts show otherwise and these include ,

* The medical examiners said Benoit died on Saturday while the text message informing Guerrero of his death was sent on Sunday. So could a dead Benoit commit suicide and resurrect to send the SMS?

* Why would Benoit text Guerrero that he was going to commit suicide rather than simply calling him ? It shows that someone murdered Benoit and family and knew that Guerrero would find out it's not Benoit's voice if he called.

* Guerrero knew Benoit's address and had previously spent the weekend with him in his house. So why would Benoit send him an SMS , disclosing his address when he already knew Guerrero knows it ? It could be that someone just wanted Guerrero and the public to locate Benoit's corpse on time.

* Nancy Benoit was once married to Kelvin Sullivan (WWE Board of Directors Member). Retired Wrestler Dusty Roads once said "Benoit danced with the devil when he started working with Kelvin Sullivan," also Benoit and his family were murdered on the 10- year anniversary  of Nancy 's divorce from Kelvin.

*  Is it a coincidence that Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Brian Pillman all died on a night before they were set to win title belts ? Also Sherry Markel, who died on 15-06-07 had ties with Kelvin Sullivan and her death circumstances are yet to be released.

* Why was Nancy's death leaked on the internet 14 hours before the police discovered her body? If nobody knew she was dead or was around when she was murdered by Benoit so how did such a person get the images of her death?

* Chris and Nancy Benoit strongly believed someone was after their lives, hence the reason Chris Benoit started taking alternative routes to and fro to work?

* Why is it that they  Benoit's family died the  same week that the WWE were showing the storyline of "Who killed Vince McMahon."

* Why did the police keep changing the location of where Nancy's body was found, from family room to bedroom , to upstairs, to office?

* How on earth did Benoit not test negative for alcohol when 10 empty beer cans and an empty bottle of wine was found close to his dead body? Who consumed the alcohol or was it a ghost?

* How could Chris Benoit have killed his wife and son when toxicology showed he had Hydrocodone (Pain Killer) mixed with Xanex (Anti-anxiety drug) in his system which would sedate him and make him weak.

* Why could a wrestler as big and strong like Benoit tie up Nancy to kill her when he could just hit her once and she drops dead?

All these and many more questions without answers show that Chris Benoit might have been brutally murdered with his family. Like the death of many wrestlers it might never be resolved.