Chris Benoit
01:07:13 Share

Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. Welcome to Theories of the Third Kind. My name is Aaron. The other host joining me is Daniel Sun. Hello. Now, before we start today's episode, we do have a quick announcement to make. If you would like to support the show, you can do so by joining our Patreon. For just $5 a month, enjoy weekly Patreon-exclusive episodes and access to our extensive back catalog of over 198 Patreon episodes that are all ad-free.

You can now sign up to our Patreon via Spotify by going to our podcast on the Spotify app and clicking on the banner that says exclusive episodes for subscribers.

Now, I know things are tough out there right now, so if you can't afford a Patreon membership, but you want to help us out, then you can leave us a written review on iTunes or Spotify. However, don't feel pressure to leave us one if you don't want to, then that's fine. We just want you guys, girls, aliens, reptilians, bigfoot, sasquatches, chupacabras, ghosts, Illuminati members, underground lizard people, whoever or whatever you are to enjoy the show.

Also, remember, our content is entirely human-made. No AI was involved or harmed in the process. And that is the end of the announcements. So with that being said, let's get into today's episode. In 2007, one of the top entertainers in professional wrestling descended into darkness, committing a horrifying act, leaving the world stunned. Some call it wrestling's darkest hour.

a perfect cover-up, or even the dark side of the ring. Was this world champion truly the master of his own fate? Or were there unseen forces at play that drove him to commit such heinous acts? In this exploration, we enter the squared circle, seeking to unravel the truth behind a tragedy that continues to haunt the world of professional wrestling.

This is The Crispin Wall Murders. So to better understand today's episode, we are first going to discuss the life and career of the individual this entire story revolves around, Crispin Wall. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

For

$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. All right. Welcome back. Christopher Michael Benoit was born on May 21st, 1967 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Growing up, Christopher was a quiet, soft-spoken child who preferred to play by himself. Oh, and by the way, from now on, we are going to call Christopher by the name he preferred, which is Chris.

So in 1979, at the age of 12 years old, Chris attended a local wrestling event.

And by the way, when we talk about wrestling on today's episode, we are talking about WWE or AKA WWF. Pretty much where individuals create personas such as Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, or Goldust. And these individuals then get into the wrestling ring and then wrestle one another, which the winner is usually predetermined. So pretty much it's athletic theater.

It's not fake. It's real. They're really doing these moves on one another. But the winner is predetermined. So when we talk about wrestling today, that is the type we are referring to, not the one where they get into leotards and wrestle one another. Anyway, so like I was previously saying, in 1979, at 12 years old, Chris attended a local wrestling event.

At this wrestling event, there were two professional wrestlers that caught his eye, Britt the Hitman Hart and the Dynamite Kid. It was after this event that Chris decided that he wanted to become a pro wrestler, so he began looking around for a training gym. Chris ended up coming across the Hart Family Wrestling Training Gym, also known as the Dungeon.

Now, this training dungeon was run by Stu Hart, a previous wrestling champion who was also the father of Bret the Hitman Hart and many other professional wrestlers at the time. Another thing, this training dungeon was located in the basement of the Hart family mansion and was notorious for being extremely difficult. For an example, one of Stu Hart's training techniques was called stretching, which

Oh boy. This consisted of Stu putting his trainees in painful submission holds and then holding on for a substantial amount of time. This was done to improve their pain endurance and prepare them for the life of professional wrestling. Now, even though this training was hard, Chris did not mind. For the next six or so years, Chris would train almost every weekend with the prominent wrestling family at the dungeon.

Eventually, in November of 1985, at the age of 18 years old, Chris would make his professional wrestling debut for the wrestling promotion called Stampede Wrestling. Which, by the way, Stu Hart owned that wrestling promotion. Oh. And then four years later, in 1989, Stampede Wrestling ended up closing, and Chris began working for a different wrestling promotion called New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Now, real quick, something important to mention here is that the year prior, in 1988, Chris would get married to a woman named Martina, who would eventually give birth to two of his children, David and Megan. Eventually, the couple would divorce in 1997. However, before we get into that, let's jump back to 1989.

Alright, so it's 1989, and like I mentioned earlier, Chris had joined New Japan Pro Wrestling. Upon arriving in New Japan Pro Wrestling, he spent about a year training in their New Japan Dojo with the younger wrestlers, and this was done to improve his abilities. Now, at this time, there were other Americans wrestling in New Japan, such as Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero.

Chris would eventually start chatting with them and eventually would begin tag teaming with them in various wrestling events. Over time, they eventually became best friends and very close, especially Eddie and Chris. Over the next few years, Chris would wrestle for various organizations, including WCW. In August of 1994, Chris would join the wrestling organization known as ECW and gained the nickname of The Crippler.

One of his most notable matches in ECW took place in November of that year during a live event known as November to Remember. At this wrestling event, Chris was wrestling an individual named Sabu. Within the opening seconds of the match, Chris picked Sabu up and threw him into the air with the intention of him, as in Sabu, landing face first on the wrestling mat. However, while in the air, Sabu attempted to turn and land on his back instead.

Sabu was unable to achieve full rotation to his back and landed almost directly on his neck. Now we do have a short 12 second video of that happening and we'll provide it on our website theoriesofthethirdkind.com for anyone that wants to take a look at it. But have you seen that? Click on that link right there and give it a watch Dan and tell me what you think.

Oh, yeah. Oh, and he's he rolls out of the ring. Sabu does. Oh, my God. Yeah, that would paralyze me. Now, something else to add to this is that after that incident, Chris was found weeping uncontrollably in the locker room at the thought of him having permanently injured Sabu.

However, it turned out that Sabu was not paralyzed, but instead, he had just injured his spinal cord, resulting in nerve damage, and he only took two weeks off. So following his match with Sabu, Chris continued to wrestle at ECW under the nickname of the Canadian Crippler. Then in 1995, Chris ended up joining the wrestling organization WCW.

Now, real quick, there is an individual that we need to mention who plays a vital role in this story. A woman named Nancy. Now, Nancy was a wrestler herself, and she wrestled for WCW between 1989 to 1990. Now, during this period, she met another wrestler named Kevin Sullivan.

Nancy would end up leaving her high school sweetheart for Kevin, and the two would get married in 1992. After that, Nancy would become what is known as a valet for her husband, Kevin. So a valet is pretty much a pretty lady who walks a wrestler down to the ring, gets involved in the storylines, interferes in matches, talks shit, you know, etc. And Nancy was doing this for her husband, Kevin. So now that you know about Nancy, let's jump back to 1995.

So like we previously mentioned, Chris had joined WCW. During this period, Chris would become part of a storyline involving Kevin and his wife Nancy. The storyline was that Nancy would start having an affair with Chris, which of course would start a feud between Kevin and Chris. So the storyline started and Chris and Nancy were instructed to make the fake affair look real.

They were seen in public together, holding hands, taking pictures together, and even staying in hotel rooms together. Eventually, they developed real feelings for each other, but since Chris was married, he was hesitant on starting a real-life affair. However, Chris and Nancy both divorced their spouses and then began a real relationship with one another.

Now, Chris and Kevin, a.k.a. Nancy's ex, they still worked together at the wrestling organization and even had to wrestle one another. Of course, this made things really awkward and the two began to actually hate one another. Eventually, Kevin decided to work more behind the scenes, booking the matches instead of actually wrestling in them. So to make his transition easier, a retirement wrestling match was booked.

At the 1997 Bash at the Beach pay-per-view wrestling event, Chris beat Kevin in the retirement match and Kevin transitioned to his behind-the-scenes role, where he could focus on his job of booking the matches.

For the next few years, Chris would continue to wrestle for WCW. However, towards the end of 1999, he started to become unhappy with the company. In January of 2000, in an attempt to keep Chris Benoit signed with WCW, the organization booked him to beat Sid Vicious, ultimately winning the heavyweight championship belt.

However, due to a number of disagreements with management and the head booker at the time, Kevin Sullivan, Chris ended up leaving WCW the very next day, forfeiting his title in the process. Also, at the same time, his friends and fellow wrestlers, Dean Malenko, Harry Saturn, and Eddie Guerrero, all left WCW as well.

So shortly after leaving WCW, Chris spends the next few weeks wrestling in Japan and eventually signs with the rival wrestling organization of WCW, which is WWE, which at the time was called WWF. After joining WWE, aka WWF, Chris is catapulted into stardom.

For example, in April of 2000, he wrestles at WrestleMania 2000 in a triple threat match, beating Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle, winning the Intercontinental Championship. Then in July of 2000, Chris would challenge D-Rock for the WWF Championship. And then in September of that year, he would be part of a Fatal 4-Way Championship title match.

Now, something important to mention here is that Nancy, during this time, was no longer working with WCW. Also, in early 2000, she was pregnant with Chris's baby, and on February 25, 2000, she gave birth to their son, Daniel. Following that, on November 23, 2000, Chris and Nancy ended up getting married.

Everything seemed to be going good. However, this is where things would start to take a turn. So that following year in 2001, during a wrestling match, Chris did his signature flying headbutt through a table onto an opponent but landed badly and injured his neck. He was taken backstage but told the doctors that he did not feel much pain so he went back out and completed the match.

Which, by the way, I do want to note his signature move, also known as his finisher. He would get on the very top rope and then jump off of it doing pretty much a swan dive with his arms out and headbutting the person on the ground with his forehead. Talk about CTE to the max. I don't know why, but when you said swan move down, the first thing that came to mind was Nacho Libre. Pretty much exactly that, but with his forehead. So, yeah. Yeah, that's dangerous.

So later that year, during a match in 2001, Chris would land badly on his neck, injuring himself. Afterwards, Chris was examined by the doctor, who found that he had slipped a disc, which then herniated and required surgery to stabilize and repair it. Chris would be gone from wrestling for an entire year, finally returning and being a part of various storylines and pay-per-views.

During this time, he would often align with or sometimes wrestle against his real-life best friend, Eddie Guerrero. Then in May of 2003, Nancy ended up filing for divorce, citing cruel treatment stating that Chris would go into rages, breaking and destroying furniture. Also, on more than one occasion, Nancy, along with her son Daniel, fled the house due to Chris having an episode of anger.

Due to this, Nancy would file for a temporary protective order. A six-month protective order was granted to Nancy, and Chris was also ordered to pay $5,000 a month in child support. In August of 2003, the court held a hearing over whether or not to extend the six-month protective order for Nancy.

However, like an M. Night Shyamalan Ding Dong movie, there was a twist that no one saw coming. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

Crime Door TV is now a podcast. I'm your host, Sydney Schofield. Join us as we dive deeper into the world of true crime and go one-on-one with legal analysts. There is a presumption of innocence. There really does have to be some factual evidence. Your exclusive interviews with families of victims. When my daughter was kidnapped and we found out the truth, I couldn't imagine that anybody could feel as awful as I felt.

and get an inside perspective from the experts closest to the cases. I really appreciate platforms like this that are there for the victims and to give them a voice. Listen now to the Crime Door TV podcast, your home for true crime analysis. All right, welcome back. Like an M. Night Shyamalan Ding Dong movie, there was a twist that no one saw coming.

Chris and Nancy showed up to the hearing together, holding hands and smiling. They ended up telling their attorneys that the protective order was no longer needed and that they had patched things up. So following that, in 2004, Chris continued to wrestle for WWE. Then on November 13th, 2005, tragedy would strike. Chris's best friend, Eddie Guerrero, was discovered by his nephew, Chavo, in a Minneapolis hotel room.

He had passed away at the age of 38 years old of acute heart failure due to cardiovascular disease. This, of course, was a huge loss for Chris. However, he was not given time to grieve properly because the day after, Chris was told to fly to Europe to join the WWE wrestling tour.

During this period, Chris would start becoming more and more withdrawn, deeply depressed, and would often write to Eddie in a journal he had. Also, during Eddie's funeral and during interviews about Eddie, Chris would become inconsolable. For example, during a WWE tribute show to Eddie, Chris gave an interview where he spoke

It is a short interview and gives you an idea of how Chris was mentally during this period, which we have that clip and we're going to listen to that right now. We never left each other without telling each other that we loved each other. I truly can say that I love Eddie Guerrero. He's a man that I can say I love and I love his family in my heart and my thoughts and my prayers forever.

go out to his wife Vicky, Cheryl and Kaylee. I can't imagine the sorrow that they're going through right now and the emotions that they're feeling, but I want them to know that my prayers and my thoughts are with them. And Eddie, I know that you're in a better place and I know that you're looking down on me right now. I want you to know that I love you. I miss you.

Eddie, you made... You made such a great impression on my life. And I want to thank you for everything you've ever given me. And I want to thank you from my heart and tell you that I love you and I'll never forget you. And I will see each other again. I love you, Eddie.

So that's the video. Kind of heartbreaking. That is heartbreaking. And I find it kind of weird that they played it with the live audience and the live audience was clapping while he was crying. It almost sounded like they were yelling like Jerry or something. Like they were cheering on somebody else. Eddie. Eddie. Oh.

Anyway, so shortly after that tribute in 2006, Chris ended up taking a break from wrestling and this was in order to heal a nagging shoulder injury. A few months later, Chris would return from his break filling and I quote recharged. However, this only lasted for a little while. Individuals started to report that Chris became paranoid around this time and

and he believed that he felt as though some unknown entity was stalking him and his family. Due to this, Chris would take multiple different routes in cars, avoiding main roads and habits that anyone could identify. For example, to drive to the gym or airport, he had over 30 different routes. Also, Chris would not allow Nancy to leave the house alone after 6 p.m.,

Also, around this time, the family ended up moving from Peachtree City, Georgia to Fayetteville, Georgia. And they also got two German Shepherd dogs as sort of like guard dogs. Good dogs. Then in June of 2007, Chris would join ECW as a wrestler slash coach. And this was for him to not only wrestle, but to also help train new talent at the same time.

Then on June 19th, 2007, Chris would wrestle against Elijah Burke. The winner of this match would compete for the ECW World Championship on June 24th, which was five days later. Chris ended up defeating Elijah and earned his spot to try and win the championship. However, the match against Elijah would be the last one that he would ever compete in. So that right there is a summary of the life and career of Chris Benoit.

Now, this next part that we are going to get into is a timeline of the murders slash suicide. Spoiler alert. Spoiler. So like we had mentioned, Chris had his last wrestling match on June 19th, 2007. He was scheduled to wrestle for the next following days and then wrestle for the ECW championship on June 24th.

Over the next few days, though, Chris ends up missing a few wrestling shows and then tells the WWE officials, hey, the reason why I missed them is because my wife and son were vomiting blood due to food poisoning. So that's kind of like an overview. But we're going to go over those days of June 22nd to June 24th and discuss what really happened.

So on that day of June 22nd, 2007, Chris drove his seven-year-old son, Daniel, to horse camp, which was hosted by his neighbor, Holly. Afterwards, he drove 40 minutes to see Dr. Phil Astin, who is Nancy's and his personal physician. While there at the doctor, Chris mentioned to him that Nancy's moodiness had increased and that he wondered if it's possible that she was going through maybe early-onset menopause.

Chris also mentioned to the doctor that he was a little more depressed and the doctor was like, well, okay, here you go, and prescribed him Zoloft. While leaving the doctor's office, Chris was reportedly in a good mood. He signed autographs and took pictures with various fans and staff. After leaving the doctor's, Chris began driving home and during the drive, he called a friend and fellow wrestler, Bob Holly.

Bob asked Chris how he and Nancy were doing, in which Chris stated that Nancy was acting like Hitler, but that they were trying to work on things. Also around this time, Chris called and spoke with various other wrestlers, including Eddie's brother Shavo and his wife Nancy. Shortly after that, Chris arrived home. Around 4.30 p.m., an employee of Aqua Pro, Patrick Sterling, ended up calling the Benoit residence and spoke with Nancy.

Patrick, who's the pool cleaner for Aqua Pro, told Nancy that he was going to come clean their pool. So after arriving back home, Chris begins grilling food outside near the pool with his son Daniel. His wife Nancy ends up leaving and heads to the grocery store Publix where she picks up some groceries. Around 30 minutes later at 5 p.m., the pool guys show up and clean the pool.

The cleaners notice both Chris and Daniel grilling outside, but did not see Nancy while at the home. At 5.19 p.m., Nancy checks out at Publix and heads back home. Following that, not much is known about what happens. That is until 9.25 p.m. At this time, a call is made from the Benoit house requesting Fayetteville's police department's non-emergency phone number.

Seven minutes later, at 9.32 p.m., another call is made from the house. And this time, it is to their neighbor, Holly. Holly does not answer her phone. One minute later, at 9.33 p.m., another call was made again to Holly. No answer. At 10 p.m., another call was made to Holly. And again, no answer. And no voicemails were left on any of those three calls to Holly.

The following day, on June 23rd, at 8.30 a.m., Chris calls his neighbor Holly to tell her that Daniel would not be able to attend horse camp that day due to food poisoning. Also, he stated that Nancy had food poisoning as well and that he felt bad that he could do nothing to help them. Later that day, at 1.57 p.m., Chris called up fellow wrestler Michael Parker and left a voicemail.

In this voicemail, it is stated that Chris could be heard rambling and slurring his words. Two hours later at 4.02 p.m., someone at the Benoit house searches the computer for the Old Testament story of the prophet Elijah, who pleaded with God to restore life to a young boy who had died. A short time later, Chris ends up calling Chavo Guerrero, who was supposed to pick him up from the airport in Texas for a live wrestling show that he was booked for.

Chris ends up telling Chavo that he wouldn't be able to make the scheduled flight for that evening because Nancy and Daniel both have food poisoning and are getting worse. Chavo tells him that, hey, it's okay, but please don't miss attending the wrestling show the following night in Beaumont, Texas. Chris then tells Chavo that he loves him and they hang up.

And by the way, I listened to an interview with Chavo and he states that it was normal for Chris to tell Chavo that he loves him. But he stated that in that specific phone call at the end, Chris said, hey, Chavo, and like got his attention and made it a point to say, I love you, which was a little odd. Chavo said, hmm. And that was the last time he spoke with Chris.

So at 6.10pm, Chris calls WWE talent relations team and informs them that he would not be able to perform at that night's live wrestling show due to Nancy and Daniel being in the hospital vomiting blood. WWE tells him not to worry about missing the show, but to make sure that he got to Texas for the following night. After the call, Chris ends up booking a flight to Texas for the following morning, Sunday, June 24th.

That following morning on June 24th, between 3.51 a.m. and 3.58 a.m., Chavo Guerrero and WWE referee Scott Armstrong both received text messages from Chris and Nancy's phones. The first text message says,

My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville, Georgia, 30215. Following that, additional texts are sent to Chavo and Scott saying, and we quote, the dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open. Also, around this time, someone gets on the Benoit family computer and searches for

methods of breaking a person's neck. Of course, Chris did not board his flight that morning and did not show up to the live wrestling show. Throughout the day, WWE attempts to reach him, calling him constantly without him answering.

WWE then starts calling hospitals around the Georgia area to try to see if Chris is there with his wife and son. You know, since Chris had told WWE that they were in the hospital, but the organization quickly learns that Chris's wife and son are not in a hospital in Georgia.

That same night, at the live wrestling event in Texas, an announcer tells the audience that Chris Benoit would not be there for his title match due to an unspecified family emergency. The next morning on June 25, 2007, WWE officials decide to call the police and request a welfare check at the Benoit residence due to not hearing from either Chris or Nancy.

At around 2.30 p.m., officers with the Fayetteville PD arrived at the Benoit home and were confronted with two aggressive German shepherds and an electric gate at the front of the house. Due to this, the police were unable to contact anyone in the home. The officers on the scene were then instructed by dispatchers to contact the next-door neighbor, Holly. Now, how did the dispatcher know to contact Holly?

Well, when the WWE officials called the police for a wellness check, one of the officials told them that the neighbor Holly might know the gate entry code and would be able to put the dogs up to allow the police to enter the home. So the officers on the scene contacted Holly and she agreed to help. She got the dogs, put them into their kennel, and then noticed that the side door near the garage was open. Holly walked into the home while calling out to Nancy and Daniel.

Eventually, she went up to Daniel's room and found him on his bed, face down and deceased. Holly then went up to the bonus room over the garage, which is where Nancy would normally watch TV. This is where Holly found Nancy lying on the floor, dead. Now, as Holly was wandering around the home, the police were waiting outside.

Eventually, after discovering Daniel and Nancy's body, Holly ends up running out of the home while screaming, and we quote, the family is dead. After that, the police entered the residence and found Chris, Nancy, and Daniel all deceased. A few hours later, the owner of WWE, Vince McMahon, was notified of Chris' passing, along with his family.

That night, unaware of what actually happened, WWE gives a touching tribute to Crispin Wall and his wrestling legacy. However, one day later, it is revealed what truly happened. Now, before we get into that, we are going to take a quick break. This is our last one, so don't go nowhere. All right, welcome back.

The police state that on the night of June 22nd, shortly after the couple finished eating what Chris had grilled outside, Nancy and Chris began to argue.

The arguing evolved and Nancy tried to call their neighbor Holly. Chris went into a rage and ended up bounding Nancy's hands and feet with tape, putting an electrical cord in front of her neck, pressing his knee into her back while pulling on the cord until Nancy was dead. Chris then placed a Bible next to her body.

The couple's seven-year-old son, Daniel, had been sedated with Xanax and was likely unconscious. Daniel was then strangled to death by his father, Chris. He was found face down with a Bible across his body. To make things even worse, the police state that Chris didn't strangle Daniel normally. They suspect that Chris used his signature move, the cross-faced chokehold, on his son. This is due to the odd bruising found around Daniel's face and neck.

So the police then stated that two days after killing his wife and son, Crispin Waugh had hung himself.

What occurred is that Chris ended up going to his lat pull-down machine, set the weight to the maximum amount, added additional weights on top of it, ended up wrapping the cord of the machine around his neck, and then released the weight, which hoisted him almost off the ground, but he had to lean forward to fully strangle himself to death. And that's how he died.

Of course, after this statement was released by the police, WWE was in a panic. The day prior, they had praised Chris and his wrestling legacy. Now they just learned that he had killed his family and committed suicide. Due to this, WWE issued a second statement that said they would no longer comment on the matter and have removed the majority of history of Chris Benoit and his time spent with WWE.

So that right there is the story of the Crispin Waugh murder slash suicide. However, just like every week, the story does not stop here because now we are going to get into the strange facts and findings that we came across while researching this topic. So our first strange fact and finding is about an additional investigation conducted by the local police.

So after the local police's initial findings and their announcement of it being a double murder and suicide, the police made an additional announcement stating that they had opened up an investigation into the case. A little while later, on February 12th, the sheriff's office announced that they had closed their investigation and that they stand by their official findings of it being a double murder slash suicide.

They also stated that there was no evidence that indicates the presence of any other individual or individuals who contributed to the deaths of the three members of the Benoit family. However, many individuals point to the autopsy records as evidence of something fishy happening, which is our next strange fact in finding.

So, just like Erin stated, our next strange fact I'm finding is about the autopsies that were performed. During Nancy's autopsy, it was discovered that her blood alcohol level was at 0.184 and might have been affected by decomposition. Also, it was discovered that she had Xanax, hydrocodone, and an anti-anxiety medication all found in her body, but they were all at therapeutic levels.

During Chris's autopsy, it was discovered that he also had hydrocodone in his body. But just like Nancy, it was at a therapeutic level. However, Chris's testosterone levels were extremely elevated. They were 10 times higher than the normal amount. And when you look at his body, you could tell that motherf***er is jacked.

Also, during his autopsy, there was no alcohol in Chris's system. But what is odd is that 10 empty beer cans were found in the home and an empty wine bottle was found only a few feet away from Chris's body. And I want you to keep that strange fact in the back of your mind because we are going to circle back around to it here in a little bit.

Anyway, let's continue on. Now, when Chris's brain was looked at, it was bad. The head of neurosurgery at West Virginia University stated that Chris's brain was similar to that of an 85-year-old person with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Multiple areas of Chris's brain had an extensive amount of damage. It was one of the worst cases of CTE. That's from doing all those diving headbutts. Yeah.

Another finding during the autopsy was that Chris's heart was dangerously enlarged and that he would have likely had a heart attack or major cardiac event within the next one to two years. Now, this enlarging of the heart was due to his extremely elevated testosterone levels, which is our next strange fact and finding.

All right, so just like Aaron said, this next strange fact I'm finding is about testosterone. In Chris's autopsy, they found that his testosterone levels were extremely elevated, 10 times of the normal amount. Well, the investigators began to look into how Chris was getting this testosterone. It was discovered that Chris had been ordering steroids online and used multiple addresses across multiple states to receive them.

Due to his years of steroid abuse, he had damaged his endocrine system to the point that he could no longer produce testosterone naturally. Also, at this point, Nancy started complaining to her friends about her and Chris's sex life, saying that Chris could not perform as normal. This led Chris to start seeking out testosterone replacement therapy.

Eventually, his doctor, Dr. Phil Astin, not Dr. Phil on the show, started prescribing Chris testosterone. After the investigators looked into this, they discovered that from May of 2006 to May of 2007, Dr. Astin prescribed Chris an assload of testosterone. The amount prescribed exceeded any standard dose for treating a medical condition.

Investigators also discovered that shortly after that, in April of 2007, WWE had drug tested Chris Benoit and he ended up coming up negative for anything, including steroids. Also, it was discovered that around this time, in April of 2007, Nancy had sent a text message to Chris saying, and we quote,

I will not accept this steroid-induced rollercoaster ride of emotional abuse. Ignoring the problem or running away isn't going to help you face it. You need professional help, and only if you're fully honest about all of it. Get off the stuff. I'm probably not the only one who can see, and we both know the wellness program is a joke.

By the way, when she mentioned wellness program, she's talking about the WWE wellness program. They had a program that they called the wellness program that randomly drug tested their wrestlers. But as you can see, they didn't do that good of job because they tested Chris and he was balls deep in steroid usage and he came up negative. Came up clean. Yep.

So due to all of this evidence, a criminal case was opened up into Dr. Astin and multiple raids were conducted on various offices that he owned. Dr. Astin was convicted of over-prescribing and illegally distributing steroids to not only Chris Benoit, but several other professional wrestlers.

Following this, WWE conducted major changes to their wellness program with a more thorough drug testing, and they also made changes to their matches so that concussions could be avoided. So that right there is that strange fact and finding. You know, that's what I don't like about private doctors. You see a lot of these wrestlers, actors and stuff like that. They're prescribed a bunch of stuff by these private doctors.

Look at Michael Jackson's doctor. Mm-hmm. He was overprescribing him everything, and then when Michael Jackson died, he ended up getting prosecuted and sentenced. Same thing happened to this Dr. Astin. Good. Yeah. Anyways, so our next strange fact in finding is called odd behavior. So if you all remember, in the six months leading up to the murders, Chris began exhibiting odd behaviors.

According to many of his friends, his personality began to change. He exhibited signs of extreme paranoia, including always thinking that his son would be kidnapped. Also, he began to think that he was being followed and like we mentioned, he began taking different routes and cars to and from his home and airport. 30 different routes.

Just at a wrestling place. Nancy's sister, Sandra, actually went on record and is quoted saying, what really became noticeable was a little bit more of like a sense of unsafeness and paranoia for the family. He, as in Chris, would be constantly checking the alarm at night, just constantly checking things.

He used to be fairly laid back about stuff like that. There were never any issues. So when it did start happening, I noticed immediately. I still kind of look back on it. Was it a precursor to everything that happened? I don't know. End quote. Hmm. Which, speaking of odd, this next strange fact I'm finding is pretty weird. Well, this next strange fact I'm finding is about Wikipedia.

So after Chris had passed away, it was noticed that his Wikipedia page was edited just after midnight on June 25th, 2007. Someone had gone onto Wikipedia and added, and we quote, Chris Benoit was replaced by Johnny Nitro for the ECW Championship match, as Benoit was not there due to personal issues stemming from the death of his wife, Nancy. Now, this entry was made before the Benoit family was found dead.

which is very odd because no one knew about it. So the investigators tracked the IP address of the individual who created this entry on Wikipedia, and the IP address originated from Stanford, Connecticut, which is where the WWE headquarters is located. How odd is that? Theory is coming to mind. Oh, yeah. Now, before we get into theories, we've got a couple more strange facts and findings. Let's get into the next one.

Alright, so the next strange fact I'm finding is about a safety deposit box. So during the investigation, the police interviewed Pam Clark, who was a friend of Nancy's. During the interview, the officials learned that Nancy had told Pam that she kept a record of everything that Chris had ever done to her, just like she had done with her past husband, Kevin Sullivan. Nancy also told Pam that these records were kept in a safe place.

Pam believed that Nancy stored them in a safety deposit box. The officials ended up discovering that Nancy did indeed have a safety deposit box, and they ended up getting a search warrant for it. In this safety deposit box, the investigators discovered three photo envelopes containing photos of an injury to Nancy's eye.

However, after further investigation, police determined that the photographs were taken during her previous relationship with Kevin and did not have anything to do with Chris. Shortly after this, officials discovered that in 2007, Chris took out a new life insurance policy which listed his ex-wife and his oldest children David and Megan as beneficiaries. Also, Chris set up a new bank account in the name of his ex-wife and deposited money into it.

Officials also learned that Nancy found out about this and confronted Chris, who refused to change it. That is weird. Let's get into our last strange fact and finding, which is about alcohol. So if you all remember, during our timeline on June 22nd, while Chris and his son were grilling outside, Nancy went to get groceries at Publix. So the police were able to get a copy of the receipt from Publix of what Nancy had purchased.

That receipt shows that Nancy purchased a bottle of wine and a nine pack of Coors Light beers. Also, Nancy signed the receipt proving that she was the one that purchased it. Now, another thing that we want to mention is that the police discovered 10 empty beer cans in the home and an empty wine bottle was found only a few feet away from Chris's body. Now, why do we mention this?

If you remember, during the autopsy, no alcohol was found in Chris's body or Daniel's body. However, post-mortem blood alcohol results show that Nancy had alcohol in her system at the time of death, which was at the level of 0.184.

This means that Nancy was the only person in the home who had consumed the beers and wine. So let's do some math and see if Nancy was the only one who consumed that, what was her blood alcohol concentration? So according to Nancy's autopsy report, she stood 5'5 and weighed 138 pounds. In the state of Georgia, the current legal blood alcohol limit is .08 for adult drivers.

Nancy was 0.184 over double the limit. So what we know is that Nancy checked out at Publix at 5.19 p.m., which was on her receipt, which would probably put her back at home around 6 p.m., which we can safely assume that that is the time she started drinking. That night is when she would be murdered, and it would be roughly around 10 p.m.,

So in the span of four hours, she consumed nine to 10 beers and a bottle of wine. Now we know the beers were Coors Light 16 ounces, which contained 4.9% alcohol by volume. We also know that the wine she purchased was Dynamite Merlot 750 milliliters, which contains 13.9% alcohol by volume.

Now, if Nancy really did consume all of that alcohol in the short four-hour window, that would put her blood alcohol concentration around 0.53%, which it wasn't. It was 0.184%. So that means one of two things. Either Nancy drank a few beers and a little bit of wine,

Her or Chris poured out the rest and then placed the beer cans in the trash can. And then somehow the wine bottle ended up at the feet of Chris whenever he died. Or option two, someone else helped Nancy consume that alcohol and was there the night Nancy was murdered. However, that is just a theory.

And it is the perfect time for us to transition into our theories section and discuss what happened that night. All right. So the first theory that we have is called Chris did it. Now, this theory is pretty much the basic overall accepted one. It is that Crispin Wall really did murder his wife and son, then killed himself.

At the time this occurred, Chris was suffering from advanced CTE, his brain was all jacked up, which caused him to become paranoid, and he just snapped, killing his wife, son, and eventually himself. Also, his paranoid behavior is consistent with late-onset schizophrenia. However, it should be noted that the diagnostic criteria for late-onset schizophrenia is still a subject of some debate, and paranoid behavior does not necessarily indicate that someone has schizophrenia, but it is worth mentioning.

Yes, I'm kind of leaning more towards this theory because he did have CTE and knowing the history of individuals with CTE and what they have done, it makes the person very unstable emotionally. I think that was part of it right there. Yeah. All right. So let's get on to our next theory, which is called Kevin did it. So if you remember, Nancy used to be married to a previous wrestler named Kevin Sullivan.

Chris Benoit and Nancy had an affair. She left Kevin for Chris and the rest was history. Well, there is a theory that Chris did not kill his wife and his kid and himself. Instead, it was Kevin. This theory states that for years, Kevin planned out his entire revenge, eventually waiting for the right opportunity to conduct it. However,

You figured with the police investigating this, they would find something that would link Kevin to this if he had actually done it, which they did not. Now, some individuals point to the beer cans and wine, saying that there's no way Nancy consumed all of that by herself, which is true. There's no way she physically consumed nine to ten beers and one bottle of wine in four hours that night.

And this leads people to assume that there had to have been someone else there drinking with her. Maybe it was Kevin, which makes zero sense at all for me. Why would he be there drinking? I don't know. But to add to this, during an interview, former wrestler Hulk Hogan stated that Chris Benoit's deceased wife, Nancy, was into devil-worshipping stuff.

Also, other individuals stated that Kevin was a high-ranking Satanist and maybe he conjured up demons to possess Chris into killing his family. And that is a popular theory, believe it or not. Damn. That Kevin is a Satanist and that he conjured up a demon that possessed Chris and caused him to commit the acts that he did.

And once he killed his wife and his son, the demon left. And which is why for a few days afterwards, he, you know, was around the home still making phone calls thinking, oh my God, what am I going to do? You know?

Now, something else to add is that a pro wrestling journalist named Bill Apter stated that he did not believe that Chris would kill his own son. And he believes what happened was is that it was a professional hit against Chris and his family. There was a professional hit man hired who came and set the whole thing up. Kind of find that one hard to believe.

That one's a little hard to believe. Speaking of hard to believe, this next one is pretty far out there. So our next theory is called Vince. This theory states that the owner of the WWE, Vince McMahon, was secretly sleeping with Nancy during the time that she became pregnant with Daniel. Seven years later, Chris heard a rumor that Daniel might not be his child, took a DNA test, and learned that he was not the father of Daniel, and instead, it was Vince.

This sent Chris into a rage in which he murdered both of them and then himself. Which, by the way, this theory was first introduced by a professional wrestler named Jack Haynes. But no one took this seriously. And by the way, I ended up looking into this wrestler, Jack Haynes, and a week ago he was in a standoff with the police. The police were able to actually get into his home and

arrest him and in his home they had discovered that he had killed his wife the hell that happened a week ago crazy cte's out there it's serious oh it is

All right, so that right there is our theories. And now we are going to transition into our own personal thoughts and theories. And I'm going to ask you, Dan, do you think that Chris really did commit these murders and committed suicide on himself? Do you believe it was a professional hit? Do you believe he was possessed by a demon? Do you believe it was Kevin Sullivan? What do you think really happened? It's a tough one because we were going through and the first thing that was coming to mind was

When Chris called WWE saying that he couldn't show up to his championship match because his wife and son had food poisoning, they were vomiting up blood. They're just like, all right, don't worry about coming in tonight for it. But hey, make sure you're in Texas tomorrow. And he's like, all right, I'll get the ticket and everything. It's like he had to follow like what they said. I mean, that's his job. I was starting to think that maybe WWE had something on him and was forcing him.

I know it's starting to sound weird, but when he kept missing matches and stuff like that, I wouldn't say Vince McMahon, but maybe the WWE did take him out. So maybe it was a professional hit. What do you mean missing matches? I mean, he missed only a few house shows. The house shows are just like shows that are not aired. They'd be like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like in between. They go to these smaller cities and they have these what's called house shows.

And he only missed a few, like two or three, because his last match on June 19th, he beat Elijah and was set for June 26th, which was only a few days away, to be in a match for the ECW championship. We know how wrestling is. There's a script to it all. You keep missing stuff like that, you end up messing the flow of things.

I mean, it could have pissed somebody off. And honestly, like you said, Nancy's blood alcohol would have been like 0.6%. It would have taken over 40 hours for her to go back to having all that alcohol out of her system. But at 0.6%, that was a high possibility of death. There was no point of strangling her. I don't know. I feel like they were trying to make it look like a suicide. Who's they?

I was going with the WWE with this one. You think they did it? I think they did it. Oh boy. But then again, it's like, why would they really do it? Cause they have so many wrestlers and such and,

Why would they do a tribute and then all of a sudden be like, oh, shit, let's take this down. But then, like, they wiped everything clean, even the Wikipedia page. They edited it before the news got out. Can't really say they did, but the location is of the WWE headquarters. So it's like they knew something. I feel like they had a hand in it. All right. The same. I mean, that's what I was thinking at first, but right now, I don't know.

I'm starting to think it was just like a domestic dispute gone wrong. Yeah, that's what I'm going to go with. My whole thing with this is I'm looking at the history here. Okay. So Chris was known for his diving headbutt, right? Years. I'm talking years. He would jump off of the top rope in headbutt people with the front of his head for years.

concussions, concussions, minor concussions, repetitive over and over and over. So you had CTE. Chris was dealing with that, dealing with his best friend, Eddie Guerrero, passing away and not fully being able to grieve. And then he was also dealing with Nancy, who I believe was an alcoholic.

He didn't want his wife to drink, but she started drinking. And I think that night that he murdered her is what happened was, is she went to Publix, bought a nine pack, bought a wine, started hitting the bottle a little bit. It pissed Chris off. Chris ended up pouring out all of her beer, throwing it away, poured out her wine, threw it away. She got mad. She retaliated and started to get physical with him. They started to get physical with each other as in fighting one another. And then, uh,

She began calling Holly to try to get her to help. And then Chris ended up strangling her to death. And then afterwards, he's like, well, I got to strangle my son. So he did that to him. And then he ended up, you know, killing himself a few days later. I think it was a fit of rage caused by him seeing his wife drinking and not wanting her to drink anymore. Poured all of her stuff out. She goes into a rage, starts hitting him. She ends up calling up her friend Holly. She doesn't answer. Kills her.

and then says oh my god what am i gonna do i gotta kill my son too goes and kills his son but somebody on their computer family computer searched up how to break somebody's neck that was him trying to search up how can i break my neck oh how to break his neck his neck oh the whole purpose of him trying to wrap the cord around his neck for his lat pull down machine him trying to break his own neck yeah i think that's what happened it was just cte and

alcohol and on his wife's part and just everything was just all mess up and just a whirlwind of emotions that took a horrible turn. I'm starting to think that somebody else was there. Why do you say that? All right. So there was 10 beer cans, one empty bottle of wine. Chris had no alcohol in his system. Daniel obviously didn't have no alcohol in the system. Only one that was there at the scene that had alcohol in the system was

was Nancy. She was at .184. Now, using the blood alcohol calculator, for a 138-pound woman, drinking all of that, it would have been about .6%. But one bottle of wine at 13.9 and then one beer would put her at .19, which is pretty much .184. So that means I think someone else was out there drinking the other nine beers. That could have instigated an argument, then left,

Or she drank the bottle of wine, drank one beer. Chris was like, you're not having any more. Poured out the rest, pissed her off. She attacked him. Or it was the next door neighbor, Holly. That's who I was just thinking because Nancy tried calling her. Multiple times. And I think she f***ing instigated. She instigated it. She drank the beer, instigated it, left. Left. And I don't think Nancy attacked Chris physically.

Remember the text message? She's tired of this rage, the steroid rage and all that shit. She probably went on another rant like that. And then Chris was just like, went on his steroid rage. Wrapped the cord around her neck, put his foot in her back and strangled her. Yeah. Damn. Her death wasn't warranted, right? But I think they both had issues. I honestly think that someone else had to be there.

I don't know. I want to believe that. But you look at him becoming paranoid over the years. He thought someone was following him. I'm thinking maybe he thought that Nancy was having someone follow him due to the fact that he did get a life insurance policy and listed his ex-wife and other children on it and set up a new bank account in his ex-wife's name and deposited money into it.

And then Nancy confronted him about it. And he's like, no, I'm not going to change it. I'm keeping it that way. And this was during his paranoid phase, which was towards the end of his life. Maybe he thought Nancy was after him. And that's why it caused him to do what he did to her. The only thing that makes me question is the fact that

He had to lean forward when he was attempting suicide. He was leaning forward and then afterwards, then I guess it would suffocate him after he passed out. I don't know why I have a hard time believing that he would wrap the cable around his neck with all the weights on there and then like lean forward and

And do it until he passes out. Man, you got to think his brain was all jacked up. He wasn't thinking right. He had just killed his wife. He'd killed his son and then come to the realization of what he did. He had nothing to live for anymore. You know, he just committed the worst thing he could ever do. So he's like, screw it. Motivated to kill himself.

Like, I just don't see why he would use his own signature move on his son. Oh, Jesus Christ. I feel like that's too obvious of a thing. Are you really going to use a signature move on your own son to kill him? Then again, I mean, if he did have CTE, he probably thought he was in a wrestling match or something. I don't know. Oh, something else I found that was very odd. When I was looking over the crime scene photos, the police discovered a giant butcher knife under Daniel's bed.

You know, I could see that. If his parents fought all the time. And his dad always went into like a steroid rage fit or whatever. And they had to leave the house quite a bit. Maybe he had it there to protect himself. And that night he probably had it there with them and then fell asleep.

I know someone who was, when they were young, they kept a knife under their bed due to somebody that was living in the house with them. They had a butter knife under the bed. The hell was that going to do? Spread some cheese? Spread some butter? It had knife in the name, so I was like, this will do it. I was young.

Alright, well, if you or a loved one have your own theory about what happened, please send us an email to Aaron, A-A-R-O-N, or Dan, D-A-N, at Theories of the Third Kind. We would love to hear from you.

With that being said, that is the end of our episode today. I hope you all enjoyed it. And I want to thank you all for joining us. And again, thank you for your support. You are all amazing. Every single one of you. And if for some odd reason you can't get enough of us and you aren't a Patreon member,

You can go on Spotify and click on our Patreon exclusive episodes and become a member for only $5 a month and listen to our Patreon episode that we released today over the AT&T towers. Not only AT&T, but multiple other cell phone companies. The outage. The outage. What happened and the theories all behind it, as well as our 197 extra episodes. For your listening pleasure. Yep.

So with that being said, Dan, you want to roll this out? Sure will. It's okay to be out of this world with your thoughts. Because you are not alone.