Chris, Nancy, & Daniel Benoit found dead

[El-P]

In many ways, it was the same thing I loved about Foley.

Funny how things work. Foley was always thought of as some sort of sick fuck to some extent, especially with the "get bashed 10 times with a chair before my childrens" incident. Yet...

[Marty]

I bought my copy when it did come out. I think I watched the documentary only once since 6/25/07. The thing that stuck out the most for me was Benoit's mom worrying, from his intense ring style, of him dying by age 40.

[Kronos]

In many ways, it was the same thing I loved about Foley.

Funny how things work. Foley was always thought of as some sort of sick fuck to some extent, especially with the "get bashed 10 times with a chair before my childrens" incident. Yet...

 

I know, right? Funny how things work out.

 

I came to rasslin late, and my introduction to Foley may well have been his first book in 2006 -- believe it or not. So when I did go back and watch Cactus Jack, KOTR, FMW, etc etc it was colored by my feelings about him as a loveable, cuddly dork who was kind of crazy but meant well. These impressions came from reading his first and second books. He's made some dumb decisions over the years, but on the whole I still more or less think of him that way.

 

I never would have imagined Benoit to be cuddly, of course. But my markish impression was of a guy who wasn't the asshole that a Shawn or Flair or Bret or Warrior might have been at one time.

[NintendoLogic]

So how about Cena busting out the crossface in Edmonton, huh?

[sek69]

I was wondering if anyone would mention that, and I was kind of surprised that didn't lead to some sort of Benoit chant.

 

Or perhaps since Punk went for the Savage elbow, Cena just thought they were having a contest over dead wrestler's finishers.

[Marty]

I was wondering if anyone would mention that, and I was kind of surprised that didn't lead to some sort of Benoit chant.

I can't speak for Western Canada, but I think the fandom for Benoit up here in the Great White North is a thing of the past, even if it took a while for some people.

 

At the same time, Cena isn't exactly the most popular guy up here, either, probably stemming from the Jericho and Christian feuds back in the day.

[flyonthewall2983]

How did the whole carbon monoxide angle to this come up?

[Johnny Sorrow]

How did the whole carbon monoxide angle to this come up?

When it was only revealed that the whole family was dead, a lot of folks, myself included, first thought CO poisoning, as that was the sane rational thing to think.

[Dylan Waco]

I actually think the sane rational thing to think was "Benoit murdered his family," but no one wanted to say it before confirmation and were "hoping" for something else. I was at work when I heard via a deluge of texts and a phone call from my wife and I pretty much instantaneously told her "well he killed them."

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I actually think the sane rational thing to think was "Benoit murdered his family," but no one wanted to say it before confirmation and were "hoping" for something else. I was at work when I heard via a deluge of texts and a phone call from my wife and I pretty much instantaneously told her "well he killed them."

How was it not just as likely that a robbery ended up in mass execution? What surprises me, however, is that only a handful of guys in WWE instantaneously thought it was murder, and Regal was one of them, though he was more familiar with Benoit's diminishing psychiatric state.

[Jingus]

Watching the Tribute show, it's pretty obvious that some of the wrestlers hadn't even imagined the murder-suicide possibility. Most of these guys aren't very good actors, and it several dudes were still clearly reacting in the "mourning the unexpected passing of a beloved friend" manner, rather than the "just found out your friend died in the most fucked-up manner possible, and it's all his own damn fault". If the office really was aware that Chris was the killer before the show went on the air, then they did a pretty good job of hiding that fact from many of their employees at the time.

[Bix]

I actually think the sane rational thing to think was "Benoit murdered his family," but no one wanted to say it before confirmation and were "hoping" for something else. I was at work when I heard via a deluge of texts and a phone call from my wife and I pretty much instantaneously told her "well he killed them."

How was it not just as likely that a robbery ended up in mass execution?

Because that's incredibly unlikely?

 

Once you hear the whole family was dead, these are the options:

 

- Execution of THE ENTIRE FAMILY in a home invasion, because...why exactly? How often does that even happen. especially in affluent suburbs? It's not like they were running drugs for the cartels.

- Carbon monoxide poisoning (which, while not 100% , would have a high likelihood of being a murder-suicide anyway).

- Murder-suicide.

 

(Some people said "gas leak" at the time, as well, but it's not the gas that kills you, it's an explosion setting off the gas, so the headline would've been the whole family perishing in a fire, not just them being dead.)

 

Of those scenarios, what's the most likely?

[blueminister]

Kudos to those who were able to skip to the end of the Encyclopedia Brown story but I think family annihilation was by no means the most likely scenario outside the handful of living people who realized just how strange he was.

[Johnny Sorrow]

I actually think the sane rational thing to think was "Benoit murdered his family," but no one wanted to say it before confirmation and were "hoping" for something else. I was at work when I heard via a deluge of texts and a phone call from my wife and I pretty much instantaneously told her "well he killed them."

How was it not just as likely that a robbery ended up in mass execution?

Because that's incredibly unlikely?

 

Once you hear the whole family was dead, these are the options:

 

- Execution of THE ENTIRE FAMILY in a home invasion, because...why exactly? How often does that even happen. especially in affluent suburbs? It's not like they were running drugs for the cartels.

- Carbon monoxide poisoning (which, while not 100% , would have a high likelihood of being a murder-suicide anyway).

- Murder-suicide.

 

(Some people said "gas leak" at the time, as well, but it's not the gas that kills you, it's an explosion setting off the gas, so the headline would've been the whole family perishing in a fire, not just them being dead.)

 

Of those scenarios, what's the most likely?

 

Considering that radio and Tv are constantly trying to sell Carbon Monoxide detectors with stories about families dying, that seemed most likely. Maybe I'm crazy, but when something awful like that happens my mind doesn't immediately jump to murder/ suicide.

 

Oh, and if you watch Regal on that show, it's clear he suspected something.

[Loss]

I didn't think about what happened at all. I was too in shock that the whole family was dead. I figured we would all find out at some point. And we did.

[Slasher]

Kudos to those who were able to skip to the end of the Encyclopedia Brown story but I think family annihilation was by no means the most likely scenario outside the handful of living people who realized just how strange he was.

Yeah. Seems weird people coming out with the "I knew it all along!" angle. Chris Benoit to most people outside the wrestling community was a guy who was hyper driven to be the best wrestler but was also by some accounts a guy who loved being a father to Daniel. I knew Benoit was a bit weird, but I did not immediately jump to family annihilator when I first heard about it. Although I do admit I found the theory that floated around of a home invasion turned deadly to be a bit unlikely, as I would imagine Benoit german suplexing the intruders multiple times on his kitchen floor rendering them useless.

[jackwebb]

Murder suicide was what I thought right away. I was shocked they did the tribute show since it seemed like such a likely outcome. It at least was likely enough to warrant holding off until more facts were known. Murder suicide is more common than carbon monoxide deaths.

 

http://www.vpc.org/studies/amroul2006.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5402a2.htm

[PeteF3]

I'll say off the bat that I had work that day until 11pm and by the time I got home the full story was out. So personally, I had absolutely no period where I knew the whole family was dead but didn't know the cause.

 

That being said...it was already known that Benoit had backed out of the Night of Champions PPV because of a "family emergency." To me advance notice like that would rule out carbon monoxide. It would have taken out Nancy & Daniel, maybe, but it wouldn't account for Chris.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

Kudos to those who were able to skip to the end of the Encyclopedia Brown story but I think family annihilation was by no means the most likely scenario outside the handful of living people who realized just how strange he was.

Yeah. Seems weird people coming out with the "I knew it all along!" angle. Chris Benoit to most people outside the wrestling community was a guy who was hyper driven to be the best wrestler but was also by some accounts a guy who loved being a father to Daniel. I knew Benoit was a bit weird, but I did not immediately jump to family annihilator when I first heard about it. Although I do admit I found the theory that floated around of a home invasion turned deadly to be a bit unlikely, as I would imagine Benoit german suplexing the intruders multiple times on his kitchen floor rendering them useless.

 

At the risk of sounding contentious, it's amazing people are saying this now. I was on many forums in 2007 and remember no one making mention of the murder-suicide angle. That said, I think the top-tier elite of WWE had knowledge of it by early afternoon on Monday, decided to keep quiet about it and play dumb, and some of Benoit's closer friends, like William Regal, knew he did because he knew Benoit had gone nuts. But listening to McMahon's speech that night, you can sense a legitimate disappointment as he had to have admired Benoit for his work ethic and didn't expect anything like that.

[jackwebb]

I remember people discussing the possibility since I was one. I also remember people debating whether or not it was a work. Wrestling Classics forum has it archived. You can go back and read it in real time. You'll see most angles covered in that thread. I am just curious how long it took for someone to blame Kevin Sullivan.

[Dylan Waco]

Virtually every major forum disallowed ANY conjecture on the cause of death with banning threatened across the board for those who speculated. The reason of course is that a large number of people were privately assuming the worst...and they were right.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

Virtually every major forum disallowed ANY conjecture on the cause of death with banning threatened across the board for those who speculated. The reason of course is that a large number of people were privately assuming the worst...and they were right.

I remember that too, but I also felt like the threats were around because Benoit was sacrosanct.

[blueminister]

Virtually every major forum disallowed ANY conjecture on the cause of death with banning threatened across the board for those who speculated. The reason of course is that a large number of people were privately assuming the worst...and they were right.

The reason is because before the police reports and Ring of Hell the theory was regarded as tacky and baseless conjecture. Most of the people with any insight to offer into Benoit's character were dead wrestlers and -- with the exception of Bradshaw and probably Reagal -- the coworkers he'd traveled alongside for years were sending farewell texts to his phone about wrestling Eddy in heaven and whatnot.

[Matt D]

That it was Benoit mattered.

 

If it had been Glen Jacobs who did it, the situation would have been different.

 

The internet is a terrible wretched place, and wrestling sites all the more so, but 97% of us were very positive about Benoit.

[Bix]

That being said...it was already known that Benoit had backed out of the Night of Champions PPV because of a "family emergency." To me advance notice like that would rule out carbon monoxide. It would have taken out Nancy & Daniel, maybe, but it wouldn't account for Chris.

Thanks for bringing that up, I totally blanked on it earlier for some reason. Benoit no-showing the PPV the night before due to a "family emergency" was weird before we knew anything else. Knowing that he mysteriously no-showed the PPV when we found out the entire family was found dead was a HUGE factor in thinking the most horrifying possible scenario had happened.

 

I don't remember exactly when it became clear that he had never flown out to that weekend's swing in Texas, but I can see why someone would be be less likely to think it was a murder-suicide if they thought he flew from GA to TX and back. Flying back home specifically to kill his family and himself is pretty out there even by the fucked up standards of what actually happened.