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00:00Chris Benoit, his wife and seven-year-old son were found dead in their Georgia home on Monday.
00:06Former world heavyweight wrestling champion Chris Benoit was a living legend.
00:12In a 22-year career, the Canadian thrilled audiences across the globe.
00:18One of the 10 best I've ever seen.
00:22He just made sure to always give his best in the ring.
00:26But outside the ring, life was tough.
00:29It can take a heavy toll, both physically, mentally, emotionally.
00:33It was a relentless 300-plus day a year.
00:36A career threatened by injury.
00:39At his side, glamorous ex-wrestling valet Nancy.
00:43She was a performer known as Woman.
00:45His wife and manager.
00:46She was a tough lady.
00:48But their relationship was a volatile one.
00:50She started to show the signs of an abused wife.
00:53Being micromanaged, being controlled.
00:55On June 25, 2007, the wrestling world was stunned as the shocking news broke that three bodies had been found in the Benoit's Fayetteville home.
01:05Those bodies were Mr. Benoit himself, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel.
01:14There's only three people that actually know what happened that weekend, and they're gone.
01:18The autopsy concluded that Chris Benoit's cause of death was hanging.
01:23His wife Nancy died from ligature strangulation, and seven-year-old Daniel was killed by cervical compression, otherwise known as manual strangulation.
01:33Forensic evidence clearly indicates that Chris was responsible.
01:37So my question is, what led this elite 40-year-old wrestling superstar to murder his family, and then to take his own life?
01:52World-renowned medical examiner and forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter has performed over 5,000 autopsies, collaborating closely with law enforcement and other forensic specialists.
02:08His pivotal role in investigating suspicious cases has revealed the truth behind unexplained deaths for 20 years.
02:17This is a particularly shocking and tragic incident.
02:22I have access to Chris Benoit's death certificate, autopsy documents, police reports, and first-hand accounts that I will use to discover any underlying medical conditions that led to a horrific murder-suicide that his coworkers have described as totally out of character.
02:42June 19, 2007. Charlotte, North Carolina. Four and a half days before his death.
02:55Chris Benoit has just beaten 29-year-old Elijah Burke in a televised fight.
03:01But backstage, all is not well with the man that is known as the Crippler.
03:07At age 40, Chris has been wrestling for over half his life.
03:14It's a career that has taken its toll.
03:19Pro wrestling is a dangerous game. There's injuries all the time.
03:23The thing with pro wrestling is you're taught to keep going.
03:25It is sport, but it's also entertainment.
03:31It can take a heavy toll both physically, mentally, emotionally, and sometimes spiritually on someone.
03:42Chris was at a particularly insecure and vulnerable time in his career as a professional wrestler because he was aging, because his body was failing.
03:48Just the week before, he had been drafted from WWE to the lesser ECW franchise.
03:55I'm sure he was worried about his future because there's always somebody snipping at your heels, somebody that wants your spot.
04:04He was coming to the end of his professional wrestling career. His body was falling apart.
04:09And he realized the thing that animated him that kept him going was likely going to end soon.
04:16Chris was clearly a supremely fit individual.
04:20But by the age of 40, it would take him much longer to recover from such a physically demanding sport.
04:26This is because as we age, bone and muscle lose calcium and other minerals, making them less dense and more susceptible to injury.
04:34Was Chris's natural physical decline in a sport he loved a factor in the tragedy?
04:41I need to investigate further.
04:46Christopher Michael Benoit was born in Montreal, Canada, to Michael and Margaret on May 21, 1967.
04:57He was known as a very quiet but studious and well-behaved child.
05:01He was a kid that people liked.
05:02At age 12, the family moved to Big Sky Country, just outside of Edmonton, Alberta, where he first saw broadcasts of a local TV show, Stampede Wrestling.
05:15That's where he fell in love with pro wrestling, watching Stampede and especially a guy named Dynamite Kid.
05:21Yes, he is! Wham! Bam!
05:25Dynamite Kid was Chris Benoit's hero.
05:27He was not the biggest dog in the fight, but man, could he fight.
05:32Watch this now!
05:34He was the kind of guy that would jump off the top rope without a second thought.
05:38Chris Benoit obviously fell in love with that.
05:40Chris turned his passion into a vocation.
05:43He started training with the legendary Stu Hart, founder of Stampede Wrestling.
05:50At the age of 18, Chris made his debut.
05:53And within months, he was even sharing a stage with his hero, the Dynamite Kid.
05:58I've been training for this battle war for weeks and weeks and weeks, spending hours and hours in the gym, in the ring.
06:05Many professionals felt he'd struggle because of his height.
06:08You know, for years, because of his size and stature, he was told, you're too small, you're too small, you're too small.
06:17But he compensated for the lack of size with his talent.
06:21Eventually, Chris joined Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW, where he earned the nickname that would stay with him for the rest of his career.
06:28ECW was an extreme wrestling promotion. It was wild. It was crazy.
06:36Chris Benoit was not necessarily that style wrestler, but he had to work with a lot of guys that were.
06:42One of them was Sabu, who was the homicidal, genocidal maniac.
06:47And during a match, Chris Benoit accidentally broke Sabu's neck.
06:52He felt horrible about it.
06:54It had nothing to do with Chris. It was actually Sabu's fault.
06:56But the promoter of that event, Paul Heyman, saw an opportunity in this accident.
07:01He nicknamed Chris the Crippler and gave him a new identity as a sadistic wrestler who intentionally crippled his opponents.
07:08Fortunately, Sabu recovered from his injuries.
07:12But Chris's nickname, the Crippler, stuck.
07:17But out of the ring, Chris was a very different character.
07:21In an industry full of extroverts and freak show genetic specimens, he was a shorter, slighter, retiring guy.
07:30He was always willing to sign an autograph, shake a hand, talk to somebody.
07:36But he was quiet.
07:39Thank you so much.
07:40You're welcome.
07:42He just made sure to always give his best in the ring and become somebody that the fans and the other wrestlers really loved.
07:50Chris's determination to succeed paid off when in 2004, he was crowned WWE Heavyweight Champion of the World.
08:01At WrestleMania 20, Chris saw all of his dreams come true.
08:04It was a magic moment.
08:07There's streamers falling from the sky and he gets a big hug from his buddy, Eddie Guerrero.
08:13That absolutely was the pinnacle of his career.
08:18June 19th, 2007.
08:21Charlotte, North Carolina.
08:23Four days before Chris's death.
08:26After Chris Benoit's last match, he went out with old friends to go drinking.
08:30And Chris Benoit was not a drinker, but that night he was taking shots of tequila in a way they had never seen before, indicating a change in his personality and his personal outlook.
08:45Chris appeared to be drinking large quantities of alcohol just days before his death.
08:50According to the police report, there were many empty beer cans found at the crime scene and a partially empty bottle of wine was found near his body.
08:58All of which might suggest that at some stage during the days leading up to his death, Chris had been drinking heavily.
09:06Alcohol is a known trigger for violence and is a factor in 86% of all homicides in the United States.
09:15Prolonged use can also cause irreversible damage to the brain and other organs.
09:20So was alcohol to blame for the murder of his wife Nancy and son Daniel and his subsequent suicide?
09:28I didn't know Chris to be a drinker of sorts.
09:31Maybe a beer he and Nancy would have at dinner time.
09:34But never, never excessive drinking that I had to my knowledge.
09:38Chris drank socially.
09:40I don't know that I ever saw him where I thought he'd consume too much.
09:45I don't think it's surprising at all that Chris wasn't a big drinker.
09:48I think he sees alcohol as losing control. In fact, the only time we see him kind of having alcohol is towards the end of his life.
09:59I think that becomes a means of escape and it also signifies a loss of control.
10:04Chris's post-mortem examination actually found no traces of alcohol in his blood.
10:16His liver also showed none of the signs of habitual alcohol abuse.
10:21There is evidence that there were much more powerful drugs in Chris's system when he died.
10:27Drugs that could have dangerously altered both his body and his mind.
10:31So could Chris's substance abuse have triggered an explosive and violent act that ended not only his life, but that of his wife and child?
10:47Homicide within a relationship is all too common in the United States.
10:52Statistically, in 2007, ten times as many females were murdered by a male that they knew than were killed by strangers.
11:01Of those, 62% were either wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.
11:08So was there anything about Chris and Nancy's relationship that may have led to this terrible tragedy?
11:16June 20th, 2007. The Benoit residence, Fayetteville, Georgia.
11:22Chris is due back from his match in Charlotte.
11:24He made a point of getting home between matches to be with his wife, ex-wrestler Nancy, and son Daniel.
11:32When Chris was home, he was Chris. He wasn't the Canadian Crippler.
11:38He was dad. He was husband.
11:39The last time I sat down with Chris, we had been talking maybe two or three minutes and he whipped out his phone to show me pictures of Daniel and Nancy.
11:54He loved that woman and he loved that child.
11:57But their relationship had always been an unconventional one.
12:03They met when Nancy was a wrestling diva and they became the focus of a bizarre storyline.
12:11Pro wrestling is what we call a closed business in that they like to protect it and keep the secrets.
12:18The word that gets thrown around a lot is called kayfabe, where they would say that, oh, keep kayfabe, which means don't tell the secret.
12:29Nancy had previously been married to wrestler Kevin Sullivan.
12:33And in 1996, Sullivan concocted a kayfabe plot line around her.
12:38He decided to write a storyline where Chris Benoit was paired with his wife, Nancy Sullivan, who was a performer known as Woman.
12:47Kevin Sullivan really believed in this idea of kayfabe, where you kept the storyline going regardless of situations.
12:54He knew the story would leak out and a grand feud would follow, culminating in a huge staged grudge match.
13:02To make the story seem real, Kevin insisted Nancy and Chris be seen in each other's company.
13:09They shared hotel rooms, they traveled together, they went overseas together, all in the whole pretense of kayfabe.
13:17But the scenario backfired when Nancy left Kevin for Chris.
13:26Kevin Sullivan booked his own divorce.
13:32The couple had a son, Daniel, born in February 2000.
13:37Chris Benoit, by all accounts, was a very passionate and engaged father.
13:42He truly loved and doted on his son, Daniel, and he was the light of his life.
13:46Well, they both loved Daniel a great deal. I mean, he was clearly high on their priority list.
13:52The relationship with Chris and Daniel was very special. One day we went to get into the Hummer, to go to Chris's car, to go to a restaurant, and it was covered in toys all over the floor.
14:06And all he did was look at me and go, it's a family car.
14:10June 21st, 2007. The Benoit residence, two and a half days before Chris's death.
14:17To outsiders, Nancy and Chris seem like a happy family unit. But behind closed doors, things are very different.
14:24There was some deep, deep problems between Chris and Nancy.
14:33The couple have recently sought counseling from their pastor, George Dillard.
14:38They went through some very difficult times in their relationship and marriage, and both of them felt like they could have handled things differently.
14:48I asked Nancy point blank, is there anything that you're afraid of? And she said, absolutely not.
15:03But Nancy had begun to notice changes in Chris's personality.
15:11Chris became much more controlling with Nancy. He restricted her travel.
15:14He became really insecure and nervous about her conversations with friends.
15:20To those who knew Nancy, it was inconceivable that she would put up with that sort of behavior indefinitely.
15:25When people think of an abusive relationship, they think of the hurting, the physical hurting, and certainly that's a part of it.
15:33But the other part, the psychological part, is what we call coercive control.
15:36And that usually takes the form of isolating one's partner and making them very much dependent on you.
15:47This police report mentions text messages that Nancy sent during the months before they died.
15:53And I can see that she did have very real concerns about Chris.
15:56Some of his tension could be the result of Chris's worries about his wrestling career.
16:02But in those messages, Nancy highlights something that I think could also explain his behavior.
16:08Steroids.
16:13Steroids have existed in pro wrestling since at least the 1950s.
16:16And for someone with his build, a shorter guy who was not naturally very muscular, it would have to be basically a necessity for him.
16:27Among the items of evidence police found in the house after the tragedy were bottles of human growth hormone, similar to anabolic steroids.
16:36Anabolic steroids are synthetic versions of the naturally occurring hormone testosterone, which helps build increased muscle mass.
16:44Testosterone is sometimes linked with male aggression and changes in the level of these chemicals in the system of steroid abusers have been linked to rapid mood swings and even mania.
17:01Nancy texted some of her friends prior to the murders, indicating she was concerned about Chris's violent mood swings and his depression and his instability at home.
17:09She was considering leaving at that point.
17:10Coercive control can be very dangerous in a relationship, especially when the abusive partner begins to feel like they're losing control.
17:19That's where you tend to see an escalation.
17:22Autopsy records show that the steroid testosterone was found in the samples of Chris's urine taken after his death and that it was at an elevated level consistent with the administration or injection of the hormone.
17:40It also showed testicular atrophy, which is a symptom of long term steroid abuse where the male reproductive organ, the testes, shrink resulting in reduced sex drive and eventually impotence.
17:54So Chris had been a long term anabolic steroid abuser and this may have fueled both his homicidal behavior and played a part in his own death.
18:05However, I have also discovered that alongside steroids, he was abusing a cocktail of other medications that could have seriously damaged not only his body, but his mind.
18:16In 2001, six years before his death, Chris ruptured a disc in his neck during a fight, resulting in terrible pain and numbness down one arm.
18:28Chris continued to fight until the season was over, risking further serious injury.
18:33Pro wrestling is a ridiculous business. It's pretty selfish in the sense that it wants its performers to keep going out there again and again, regardless of personal cost. You got to keep performing.
18:50He knowingly risked his life every single time he entered a ring because he did not want to leave the world wrestling entertainment until his current storyline had been finished and he had fulfilled his duties before getting surgery.
19:01Only at the end of that season did Chris succumb to the surgeon's knife.
19:07I can see in his autopsy that Chris had a titanium plate in his neck which held two of his cervical vertebrae together.
19:14This surgery would have undoubtedly put him out of action for some considerable amount of time and the prognosis for successful return to the ring would not have been good.
19:25The surgeon advised Chris to take three months off before beginning any sort of exertion, but he started to train immediately, overcoming the agony by taking painkillers.
19:41He's not the first guy that's done that, you know, would I recommend it? Absolutely not.
19:49He did not want to stay at home recuperating. He wanted to get back in the ring, no matter what the cost, no matter what the risk.
19:55The drug Chris was using, hydrocodone, is an opioid based painkiller which is used to treat long term injury.
20:02Opioid narcotics bind with receptors in the brain blocking pain. However, when taken in higher doses than prescribed, the brain is flooded with neurochemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which trigger response from the pleasure and reward pathways of the brain.
20:20And this is why opioids are incredibly addictive. Recent studies suggest that opioid abuse can induce suicidal thoughts. And it's clear that addicts attempt suicide in tremendous numbers.
20:35Chris spent a year at home recovering from his injury. During this period, his relationship with Nancy deteriorated.
20:42Coercive control and domestic violence go hand in hand. One of the things that we know is sort of leading up to this tragedy that, you know, Nancy and Chris had been fighting, they'd been arguing, we know of instances where she had been physically hurt.
21:00We know that people were noticing that, you know, she was speaking up about not being happy, about being anxious and worried.
21:08Things got so bad, she filed for divorce and even took out a protection order, citing his violent moods.
21:20Maybe it was a threat to get him to change his ways. Maybe it was a complete cry for help on her behalf to get out of there. I don't know.
21:30Chris successfully persuaded Nancy to take him back.
21:33And not long after his return to the ring, at WrestleMania 20, Chris achieved his lifelong ambition.
21:42By winning the world heavyweight title.
21:48Chris rehabilitated himself enough to get back into the ring and even win the world title.
21:54People ask me, they say, how's your neck?
21:55I say, my neck's fine. My knees hurt. My elbows hurt. My shoulder joints hurt. My neck's fine, though.
22:00In order to perform at such a high level and manage his pain, he was using hydrocodone.
22:08Long-term use of this drug can cause depression, confusion, anxiety, and mood changes.
22:16So I can't rule it out as playing a part in Chris's death.
22:19And there was another drug present in Chris's blood when he died.
22:25Alprazolam, commonly sold as Xanax.
22:29This is a powerful anti-anxiety, anti-panic medication.
22:33So why was Chris taking it?
22:36Today, fans and wrestlers are mourning the death Sunday of World Wrestling Entertainment star Eddie Gorey Guerrero, also known as Eddie.
22:48Eddie Guerrero was one of Chris's closest friends.
22:51They were soul mates from the first time they really wrestled in Japan.
22:56It shocked the wrestling world because he was one of WWE's biggest stars.
23:00He'd been one of their world champions.
23:03And just snuffed right out.
23:06His heart basically just gave out on him.
23:08The wrestling world was crushed, but Benoit especially was really crushed.
23:11In order to help him overcome his grief, Nancy bought Chris a devotional journal.
23:20In it, he expressed his feelings of loss.
23:26He was very upset about Eddie's death.
23:30He also says at one point that I will be with you soon.
23:33So it appears as though he was having some thoughts about his own mortality.
23:45The death of Eddie Guerrero was the most traumatic event in Chris Benoit's life.
23:49It was a turning point.
23:50His personality seemed to take a shift.
23:53He became more humorless and more intense and more introverted and of a darker cast of mind.
23:59Chris Benoit became a lot more distant.
24:01He became a little bit more paranoid.
24:03And he wasn't quite the same Chris Benoit that they'd known for years on the wrestling circuit.
24:08The drug Chris was taking, Alprazolam, is a benzodiazepine.
24:13It works by inhibiting a neurotransmitter called GABA, which is responsible for how calm we feel.
24:19The drug slows brain activity, causing a calming effect on the user.
24:24And Chris may have used it to help him sleep during his period of grieving.
24:28Studies have shown that while benzodiazepines induce a sense of calm, they can also trigger feelings of depression.
24:37Coupled with Eddie Guerrero's death were a number of other deaths around the same time.
24:43During that generation of wrestlers, you see a mortality rate that some have estimated as higher than Marines in combat zones or drug dealers in inner cities.
24:53All these deaths contributed, for sure, to Chris's mental state.
24:58He saw that there was maybe not a long future in pro wrestling.
25:02That somehow he needed to get off the road and do something with his life.
25:06He was probably walking around in a constant state of, who's next? Am I next? Or is this guy next?
25:11It had to weight heavily on him.
25:15Benoit, as a man in his late 30s, had undergone the death of dozens of people he knew personally, colleagues of his who died prematurely.
25:25It's a very unique workplace environment where you have to suffer that much trauma, that much grief, that often.
25:30It's impossible to state how bad an impact that had on his psyche, but it's perfectly reasonable to suggest that was a traumatic and severely damaging thing for his psyche to undergo.
25:40It would beat anybody.
25:42Towards the end of Chris's life, he begins to lose a lot of people around him.
25:46And I think that would have sensitized him to his own vulnerability, right?
25:52I think for most people, whether they're in a sport or an environment that has that kind of sell-by date, right?
25:58This is never going to be a job he's going to do into his, you know, 60s and 70s.
26:03What it does is it kind of starts as almost this existential crisis.
26:07It was reported that Chris was experiencing what was described as a perpetual state of grief.
26:14And he exhibited signs of depression.
26:17Depression can result from chemical imbalances in the brain.
26:20But it is also possible that the drugs Chris was using may have actually contributed to that depression by reducing the levels of crucial neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine.
26:35And studies have linked depression to at least 60% of all suicides in the United States.
26:41The last time I spoke to Chris was Thursday morning, called to say that he was heading out for the weekend.
27:01When he got back, we'd get together at the gym and discuss about the 4th of July.
27:07It was a typical conversation.
27:09There was no hints of closure, goodbye.
27:15It was just a normal conversation.
27:18June 22nd, 2007.
27:21One and a half days before his death.
27:24Chris heads to nearby Carrollton to see his physician.
27:28Dr. Phil Astin was a doctor on the outskirts of Atlanta who dealt with a lot of athletes.
27:36He later faced charges and lost his medical license because of his overly liberal prescription practices of prescribing painkillers to his patients in a way that was extremely dangerous.
27:49It later emerged that Dr. Astin had been prescribing for Nancy, too.
27:57I have here Nancy's autopsy, and I can see the presence of both hydrocodone and Alprazlam in her system.
28:05If both Chris and Nancy were taking these medications on a regular basis, it is possible this may have led to poor decision-making in the relationship.
28:15mood swings, and even exacerbated existing tensions.
28:21And Dr. Hunter has uncovered shocking forensic evidence that may allow him to piece together the last days and hours of this chilling murder-suicide.
28:33Yesterday afternoon, approximately around 2.30, the Sheriff's Department received a call for a welfare check here at the Benoit residence.
28:39Once searching the house, they were able to locate three bodies inside of the home here.
28:47Those bodies were Mr. Benoit himself, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel.
28:53June 22, 2007, one day before Chris's death.
29:10There's only three people that actually know what happened that weekend, and they're gone.
29:13I mean, we're talking a thousand different angles, and there's just many possibilities.
29:28We'll never know what went down that weekend, exactly the path that led Chris Benoit to killing his wife and his son and himself.
29:36At 9.25 PM, a call was made from the Benoit residence to the information service, asking for the number of the local police department.
29:58But no call was received by law enforcement.
30:06Shortly thereafter, another call was made to a neighbor of the Benoits, who didn't pick up either.
30:12So there's a lot of speculation that there was some strife already happening that evening at the household that may have led Nancy to want to seek police help, though not call 911.
30:21I think on that horrible day, something must have come out, whether it was an argument, whether it was him feeling he was losing control, maybe she was, you know, going to leave.
30:32Don't forget, Chris has had a lifetime of being very comfortable with violence.
30:42Chris bound Nancy's hands, and then her feet.
30:47Before gagging and strangling her.
30:54Nancy was an ex-wrestler, and yet her body showed few of the injuries traditionally associated with a violent altercation between two people.
31:05I can't rule out that it was due to the fact that she had painkillers, and a level of alcohol in her system when she died, rendering her too heavily sedated to fight back, or that Chris planned and executed this murder in a cold, premeditated fashion.
31:26Some time later, Chris enters Daniel's bedroom.
31:32He knows his son won't awaken.
31:37He smothers the boy.
31:38I cannot know what's in somebody's mind or heart, no matter how good I know them.
31:57I know he loved Daniel more than anything, and it's just inexplicable.
32:06Post-mortem toxicology revealed the presence of the anti-anxiety drug Alprazolam in Daniel's system to a level of 0.11 milligrams per liter.
32:18And this indicates that he'd been drugged.
32:2411.30 a.m., June 23, 2007.
32:29Chris is due to wrestle in Beaumont, Texas that evening, but leaves a message for his colleagues to say he's missed his flight, as Nancy and Daniel are unwell.
32:42He continues to make calls throughout the day.
32:45It was extremely out of character for Chris Benoit to miss a planned pro wrestling match.
32:52And it was something that, in retrospect, multiple wrestlers pointed to as something they should have known was a sign that something was profoundly wrong.
32:58One of the things that speaks to Chris's state of mind after the murders is that he looks up on Wikipedia, a passage from the Bible about Elijah.
33:15In this passage, there's reference to bringing back a child from the dead.
33:22So this speaks to his realization of the enormity of what he's done, to his remorse, wanting to go back and literally seeing no way out.
33:35When somebody gets to that point, they are not processing thoughts appropriately.
33:45Why he did the things that he did, including looking up a passage of scripture, I don't know that you can ever make sense of it.
33:596.05 p.m., 10 hours before Chris's death.
34:07Chris made phone calls to discuss travel plans and to try to arrange flights for Sunday.
34:12He sincerely was considering going to perform on international television, knowing that he had left his murdered family at home.
34:22Strange. Oh, very strange. He was going to go to work? And then what?
34:30Training for this battle war for weeks and weeks and weeks.
34:40I love you. I miss you.
34:45He's clearly contemplating what his next move is. He's booking airline tickets.
34:53He's sending texts saying he'll be something or he'll be late or he'll, you know, clearly he hasn't decided until the very end.
35:024.53 a.m., June 24th, 2007.
35:07Chris goes to his gym in the basement. He loads extra weight onto his pull-down machine and messages friends.
35:175.5 p.m.
35:196 p.m.
35:238.2000 p.m., Peter,
35:34Jason has called B,,,
35:385.13 p.m.
35:418. inseminator patients
35:42Chris Benoit his wife and seven-year-old son were found dead in their Georgia home on one day
35:55police are investigating the wrestler's death as an apparent murder-suicide
36:00I heard on the TV what had happened and uh wow I just remember repeating no it can't be
36:11he said the Benoit family was found dead I just uh had a profound sadness it broke my heart
36:21this was a terrible event by any standards but after Chris's death crucial evidence emerged
36:30about something which may have been the cause of this horrific tragedy
36:34after Chris's death his brain was examined by a specialist from the sports legacy institute
36:45they discovered Chris had suffered a traumatic brain injury as a boy Chris idolized Tom the
36:52dynamite kid Billington when he started wrestling Chris copied one of his hero's signature moves
37:00one which is considered to be among the most dangerous in the sport it was called a flying
37:05headbutt which required him to climb to the top rope of a pro wrestling ring and basically do a
37:11swan dive from the top and simulate headbutting his opponent from high up in the air this exact
37:18maneuver was a maneuver that many people speculated had crippled his mentor and idol the dynamite kid
37:23Chris used this move thousands of times over the course of his career
37:28the diving headbutts were part of the reason he had to have neck surgery later in his career
37:35and as a matter of fact when he went back to work full-time and went back to the diving headbutts
37:42I questioned that myself I said are you just crazy why would you go back to doing the headbutt
37:48well it's who I am I can see evidence that the repeated impacts to Chris's head and neck took a
37:58terrible toll the Sports Legacy Institute's examination of Chris's brain discovered evidence
38:04of chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease found
38:13commonly in athletes who have suffered repeated concussive blows to the head it is associated with
38:20dementia sudden mood changes and depression other notable sufferers have exhibited delusional behavior
38:28or committed catastrophic acts of violence but Chris exhibited few external signs of this serious brain
38:37damage there were a few times where let's say we were supposed to meet at 4 o'clock 4 30 quarter to
38:445 would roll around I'd call him up and he'd say oh my gosh I completely forgot about that here right here
38:50I'll be there I'll be there in a minute and I'll be like Chris I'm done I'm about to head home and
38:54that happened on more than one occasion where he had he had forgotten that we had we're supposed to meet
39:00that day testimony from friends and family suggests other than mood swings he seemed to be functioning
39:07on a day-to-day level however CTE has been associated with emotional volatility and rage behaviors which
39:17may have been contributory factors in Nancy's murder but I think brain damage is only one of the factors in
39:25in this complex set of circumstances in his press conference the medical examiner felt that the
39:34levels of both alprazolam and hydrocodone in Chris's system were normal with Chris Benoit we found his
39:41blood to be positive for alprazolam or Xanax at a level of 50 micrograms per liter and also the
39:48hydrocodone at 45 micrograms per liter both of these levels are within therapeutic rate it's
39:57recognized that benzodiazepines like alprazolam combined with opioid painkillers like hydrocodone
40:03can be deadly because benzodiazepines enhance the effects from opioid painkillers added to that Chris
40:11was taking anabolic steroids and he'd also been drinking alcohol in the lead up to this tragedy
40:17from all the evidence I've examined Chris had various reasons to be volatile and unpredictable
40:23I therefore believe Nancy was ultimately a victim of domestic violence
40:30we will never know why Chris took his son's life while there is evidence that his mind was severely
40:43disordered at the time it is clear from the fact his son was drugged that there was a high level of
40:52premeditation involved in Daniel's murder ultimately it's possible Chris felt he was left with no choice but to
41:07take his own life everything Chris had worked so hard for was coming to an end everything he believed he
41:16was would be no more he had given his all to reach the top of his chosen sport and how could he live without
41:24that for me Chris's suicide most likely resulted from a catastrophic cocktail of prescription drugs CTE and
41:35physical and psychological factors perfect storm that culminated in his suicide ultimately no one will ever
41:45know why he murdered his wife Nancy and his son Daniel who he clearly adored they are the innocent victims
41:53and Chris's suicide brought the curtains down on the reason for their deaths
42:15you
42:25you
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