29 June 2007

Benoit thing gets weirder still

This mysterious tale of the double homicide-suicide of Chris Benoit, his wife and son gets even more strange.

On Wednesday County's district attorney Scott Ballard explained that Benoit may have killed his son with a chokehold. He said the boy had internal injuries to the throat area, but showed no bruises, indicating he may have been locked in the crook of his father's arm.

Nancy Benoit had bruises on her back and stomach consistent with someone pressing a knee into the small of the back while pulling on a cord around the neck. Benoit killed himself by wrapping a cord around his neck that was attached to a weight machine, and when Benoit released the weights about 240 pounds caused his strangulation. Ballard said the pull-down bar had been removed and Benoit was found seated against the machine.

Saturday, 23 June at 3:30 PM a co-worker received a voice message from Benoit stating he missed his flight and overslept and would be late for that night's Beaumont, Texas, house show.

According to the WWE Web site, the co-worker called Benoit back and Benoit sounded tired and groggy as he confirmed everything he had said in his voice message. A 3:42 PM, the same co-worker, "concerned about Benoit's tone and demeanor," called him back again. Benoit did not answer the call and the co-worker left a message stating, "just call me back."

Two minutes later, Benoit called the co-worker back, stating he didn't answer the call because he was on the phone with Delta Air Lines changing his flight. "Benoit stated he had a real stressful day due to Nancy and Daniel being sick with food poisoning."

Was Benoit planning on pulling an OJ? Was he setting up an alibi with the food poisoning story?

At 4:30 PM, according to the Web site, a co-worker who often travels with Benoit called him from outside the Houston airport and Benoit answered. "Benoit told the co-worker that Nancy was throwing up blood and that Daniel was also throwing up."

At 5:35 PM, Benoit called WWE's "Talent Relations" office, stating that his son was throwing up and that he and Nancy were in the hospital with their son, and that he would be taking a later flight into Houston, but would make the live event in Beaumont which we now know he never did.

Nearly 12 hours later, during the wee hours of June 24, Benoit sent those cryptic text messages to some his friends telling them his address over and over and the location of his attack dogs.

Yesterday the DEA raided the office of Dr. Phil Astin, Benoit's doctor and the dude who's name was on most of the pill bottles found in Benoit's medicine cabinet and now the authorities are trying to figure out who logged on and edited Benoit's wikipedia page with news of Nancy Benoit's death 14 hours before the police discovered the bodies.

The Wiki page has since been locked but the original posting read:

“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.”
The line "stemming from the death of his wife Nancy" was added to the Wikipedia's Chris Benoit page at 12 AM on June 25, whereas the Fayette County police reportedly discovered the bodies of the Benoit family at 2:30 PM some 14 and a half hours later.

The IP address of the editor was traced to Stamford, Connecticut, which also happens to be the location of WWE headquarters. Weird.

After news of the early death notice reached mainstream media, the anonymous poster accessed Wikinews to explain his seemingly prescient comments:

"Hey everyone. I am here to talk about the wikipedia comment that was left by myself. I just want to say that it was an incredible coincidence. Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on wikipedia to spite there being no evidence. I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence. That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought."


More as it develops...

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