Original subtitles

My name is Dennis Fagan. I run the security for World Wrestling, and one of

wrestlers that lives down there is missing.

Okay, and what's his name?

Chris Benoit.

Chris Benoit was considered by many of us in the business as being one of the

greatest workers in wrestling. He was nicknamed the rabid wolverine, the

Canadian crippler. They tried to reach his wife, Nancy. She doesn't answer.

tried to call his house. I plan on ruling the wrestling world.

She was in love, more in love than I'd ever, ever seen her in my life. This was

during Chris and Nancy's wedding. Daniel was the best man, of course.

All right, we'll go ahead and send somebody out there to check on it. While

wrestling world in shock today, former champion Chris Benoit found dead in his

Atlanta home along with his wife and young son. Police now treating the

discovery as a double murder -suicide.

On June 25, 2007, Chris Benoit's brutal murder of his wife and son dominated the

news cycle, leaving the world searching for answers.

Going over it in my mind, like, why did this happen? How did it happen? Could it

have been stopped?

Authorities say Benoit strangled his wife and suffocated his son before

himself in their home.

The term has been being thrown around everywhere, roid rage.

When you look at Christopher Benoit's brain, it is in fact shocking.

For over a decade, those closest to the killings have been left traumatized and

desperate for closure.

For the first time, friends and family have come together to tell the story in

their own words.

Chris was just this gentle giant, and I could never have imagined that he could

hurt someone.

He was probably the greatest wrestler that's ever lived.

And to have that same person who murdered your family, that's not an easy

statement for me to make.

That's not the Chris that I knew. There's so many details, it's so crazy

understand. I need to talk about this. If you don't want to hear it, if you're

going to give me shit about it later and say I'm glorifying a murderer, stop

listening now.

All right.

All right, you ready?

Let's rock.

All right.

So first, can you tell us who you are?

I'm David Benoit, son of Chris Benoit.

He's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, I believe.

That was just his job. As soon as he got

off the road, he was just dad.

That was it, no matter what.

My grandfather took him to his very first show in Edmonton.

And then he saw the Dynamite Kid.

Against the Dynamite Kid, also 214 from Liverpool.

And then he's like, yep, that's what I want to do.

My dad, he looked up to him. That was his idol.

He emulated him. His work ethic, nothing like it.

And then he would do his signature flying headbutt.

He would climb up to the top rope, jump off Spread Eagle, and connect.

Busted his ass in the ring every single night. Gave it 120 % no matter what.

I got my very first Nintendo, and I had WCW Mayhem, and I played as him.

Chris Van Wall is on the radar as a pro wrestler since, gosh, the 80s.

I'm Jim Ross, got into wrestling in 1974.

I'm now the senior advisor to AEW.

I'm a wrestling fan, so if you're a wrestling fan, how could you not be a

Chris Benoit's work?

He's always considered one of the best workers ever, even when he's young. He

was just a natural.

My name is Chris Jericho.

I've been wrestling for a long time, almost 30 years.

Watching Chris Benoit was one of the reasons why I really enjoyed Stampede

Wrestling and why I started really thinking, maybe I can do this.

Benoit's a rookie, but he does have the moves.

If you watch Stampede Wrestling, you can tell that the guys were...

The smaller guys, they were not as tall as the giants that you could find in the

WBF. I thought, wow, they're kind of my size. So in that aspect, someone like

Chris Bemel was kind of an early influence on me.

The most intense and believable performer I've ever been in the ring

with. He could see things that would happen before they happened.

His first job was wrestling, and his last job was wrestling. All he ever did

wrestle. The only thing he ever got a paycheck from was wrestling.

I was a huge fan of Chris right off the get -go.

He's the ultimate performer.

D -Maleka. I wrestled for ECW, WCW, and of course WWF slash WWE.

Chris was a very quiet, very reserved, you know, very serious guy, and kind of

like into his own.

Little world at times, but when the red light went on and that bell rang, Chris

Benoit was a whole other person.

Extremely focused, probably one of the most focused individuals I've ever seen

in any sport, for that matter.

Chris took nothing less than being perfect.

I did a few tours with Benoit over in Japan, and we had a match. I gave him a

spin kick, and I didn't hit him in the head with it, nor should you. It's

wrestling. You work together to put on a show. He felt like he took it the wrong

way. He felt that he exposed the business with his ineptitude. Meanwhile,

you nobody noticed anything because a quick kick goes by. You take a bump.

not on TV. Who cares?

He cared.

I found him in the back doing hack squats, like Hindu squats where you just

up and down. One, two.

And I go, what's wrong? He's like, I messed up that kick and I have to do

now. I'm like, why?

Who told you to do squats? Are you in trouble? No, I'm just doing them on my

own. I screwed up. I'm doing 500 squats.

That was him. It's like he had to purge himself and punish himself for making

this minor mistake that to him was everything.

And Eddie was like that too.

Wrestling fans, of course, all know who Eddie Guerrero is. To many in the

wrestling world, he's considered as one of the absolute best wrestlers of all

time.

I'm Chavo Guerrero Jr., third -generation professional wrestler from

legendary Guerrero family.

When Eddie was about 18, he started really training for wrestling, started

wrestling all over Mexico, and then transitioned into Japan and became one

their top stars and was called Black Tiger.

He was this tall Mexican guy with long hair and cowboy boots and pants that

tight, and I loved his ass, and I thought he was the most gorgeous guy.

My name is Vicky Guerrero. I am a former WWE superstar, and I fell

in love with Eddie.

He loved wrestling. He ate it. He dreamt it. He was always doing promos in the

bathroom mirror.

He was always showing me, hey, can I try this move on you and tell me if it

hurts. Those were kind of fun days in the bed. I mean, I'm not going to lie.

Those were good times.

Super nice, very friendly, would give you the shirt off his back, like

literally. Like you could just tell the sweetness just exuded from this guy.

A little bit crazy as any wrestler.

can be, especially from that generation. Very small, though. When we were in

Japan, the referee, Hattori, used to call him the Mexican Flamingo.

Big, big upper body, small leg.

I think Chris and Eddie first met in Japan, if I'm not mistaken.

They would beat the shit out of each other, almost like they owed each other

lot of money.

Eddie would call me and be like, yeah.

I can't stand this asshole. Like, he's such a prick, and, you know, I can't

believe I have to work with him for the next week or two.

I think even in today's world of wrestling, every company out there, they

back and watch those matches.

Those guys were, like, way ahead of the time.

I really wanted to be like those guys, you know? Like, that's why my name was

Lionheart for so long.

Because I wanted to be an animal like those guys.

Eddie was Black Tiger.

Chris was Pegasus Kid, Wild Pegasus.

Those two just saw things differently.

And that was part of what made them so great.

The more they fought, I think the more that they started, you know, respecting

each other, they hit it off. And they ended up just, you know, being the best

friends.

These particular earrings are a pair that my sister wore as a woman on WCW.

I decided that I would wear what she thought would look good on camera.

My name is Sandra Toffoloni, and I am the only sibling of Nancy Benoit.

My sister Nancy just married right out of high school.

Her first husband was a huge wrestling fan and got her to go into the matches,

and she really liked it.

There was a moment where I don't know if it was a promoter or another manager

that picked her out of the crowd.

You know, she's a beautiful woman.

The first time it was just kind of like a weekend thing, and then it turned into

something else.

She met Kevin Sullivan in Florida Championship Wrestling.

He's probably one of the greatest promoters and bookers that's ever worked

wrestling.

Kevin Sullivan, who was the Satanic character, and he was Satanic because he

shaved an X into his chest hair and put makeup on, you know.

That was about the extent of his Satanism, you know. He would wear a

And they had an instant connection as friends, and then not shortly after that

were falling in love. She was already in the process of divorcing her first

husband.

To Kevin, he had this...

idea in his head to grow this gimmick of he's the prince of darkness and he has

this army of darkness behind him and nancy by his side as the fallen angel

welcome to polynesian pro wrestling i'm angel your co -host and here's my master

kevin sullivan no angel you've done a fine job the name fallen angel came from

your riot heap album and the cover of it had this Beautiful woman in a leather

-ish bikini with feathers and a sword. And she looked at that cover and said,

man, that's a gimmick.

She was good at what she did. Probably one of the first that really understood

the art of being a valet or second, so to speak.

She's the instrumental part in getting heat, as we like to say.

People would stop her. They recognized her. They believed she was possessed.

She'd be getting gas and they would come over and like, we're just going to lay

hands on you and pray, pray for your soul.

And she loved it because she knew if they hate me, I'm absolutely doing my

Because she wasn't a wrestler, but she was very valuable as a ringside

performer. And that's a lost art. Now there's no such thing, right? Every girl

in the business has to be a wrestler.

She wasn't that, but she probably knew the business better than most.

She did Kevin's makeup. She did her own makeup.

She did everything, the hair, the staging, the clothes.

Guys would break their tights. Nancy would be there with thread and needle.

We had duffel bags full of boa constrictors all around the house.

In the beginning, how would you describe their dynamic, like what they saw in

each other, do you think?

Nancy and Kevin's? Yeah. Oh, man.

You know, he worshipped her, and she was all in with him.

She was in love, and their dynamic was awesome.

So they moved to WCW.

It was a big step up, obviously, from what they were doing.

WCW, where the big boys play.

Dean Malenko, Crispin Waugh, and Eddie Guerrero were the three amigos.

All three of them came to WCW together.

What did they call this guy up north, the Canadian Crippler?

Did you see that? Kevin was a booker at the time, booking productions, booking

talent for storylines.

Everyone kept talking about this really great technical wrestler that was coming

out. I knew he was new to the company, and I know that my brother -in -law

wanted to book him.

I just knew Nancy is the fallen angel character.

Then getting to WCW, she was woman.

I am woman.

So men, look at it.

Wish you had it.

And eat your heart out. Woman was the one character she was attached to

it was most like her actual personality.

I'm going to watch your every move, Ric Flair.

I'll see you at the class, big boy.

She's independent. She takes nothing from anyone.

And got to help you if you get in her way.

This one's for you.

I know Kevin really, really liked Chris. Really enjoyed working with him.

And at that time, Kevin was booking Chris and himself into matches, and

kind of became a part of it. Things were kind of happening a little weird, but

nobody really knew what was going on. Kevin Sullivan, it started out as you

I, and then you brought Nancy into it. The joke in the business is always that

Kevin Sullivan booked his own divorce.

It's funny to a point, and then it's kind of not funny at all, because I'm

certain that it was not meant to happen.

Starting in WCW, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, who all came in

together, they loved it. They were happy when they were, you know, getting some

props because even them being smaller in a sense, they were the workhorses. You

could always count on them.

Benoit takes flight.

He is on tour with a swan dive.

So Kevin Sullivan, the booker, the story maker, writes the story and has this

idea to have...

Woman, who is Nancy, leave Kevin's side and start going with Kevin's arch rival,

who is Chris Benoit. What's it feel like losing the most important thing that

you ever had?

WCW would film vignettes with Chris and Nancy being intimate together.

I'll tell you what, it sure feels great gaming.

What they didn't plan for is that that really happened.

Nancy left Kevin Sullivan to go with Chris Benoit.

Kevin was used to her always being there and kind of being his right -hand

person. And with her focusing on her own career, I think there were strains

there. There were a couple of physical altercations in the house, fights that

escalated. Nancy would reach out to Chris whenever she would have a bad

with Kevin. And Chris was her safe haven, you know, where she would go

he was at.

Chris was going through problems with his wife at the time, so two people kind

of gravitating toward each other because they're, you know, having difficulties.

So I got a call from my husband telling me that Nancy had some problems and

could I help her.

I was working in a psychiatrist's office and Chris brought her in to see me and

she came in and removed her sunglasses and she had a huge black eye.

She told me Kevin had done that to her, and I just told her that I'm going to

help you in any way we can. We need to document this.

I was really hoping to try to help her get out of that abusive relationship.

I just thought it was going to blow up.

Bash at the Beach was in Daytona Beach at the Ocean Center.

It was Kevin Sullivan going against Chris.

It was a great match.

I thought it looked super realistic.

And then at one point, Chris and Kevin really started exchanging blows.

Chris hit Kevin really hard on the side of the head, and it broke his eardrum.

The match ended, but the fight continued backstage.

And I was called out to go backstage.

I started to watch towards Kevin.

And Chris is like, no, no, don't do that.

And Kevin's yelling from the other end of the hallway, come on, come on, come

with me, come with me, we're leaving.

Chris handed me the phone, and it was my sister on the other end. She's like,

Sandra, get out of there.

Come home. Come to the condo.

Just go with Chris.

Do not go with Kevin.

And I always do what my sister says, so that's what I did. No explanation

needed.

I went to the condo, and my sister came out to talk to me, and she was visibly,

physically hurt.

She explained to me that her injuries were from Kevin and that Chris had

her and that she was leaving Kevin.

I told her she had to.

Chris was a nice person and all I knew about him was that he helped my sister

a time that she really needed it. So for that, he instantly had my thanks and my

admiration.

And she was...

More in love than I'd ever, ever seen her in my life.

The way they looked at each other, we're like, oh, yeah, it's going to work.

And Nancy and I became master friends.

Chris decided that he wanted to push his career forward a little bit, and then

she just really, really, really wanted to focus on building the house and

starting a family.

And then all of a sudden, Daniel was born.

I have never seen Chris so...

beyond himself, just excited.

This is my favorite page because this was during Chris and Nancy's wedding,

Daniel was the best man, of course.

This is the love that Chris and Nancy always had.

And then here's them feeding Daniel after they got married, and Nancy being

princess that she was.

And David was there, too, Chris's oldest.

David is the son of Chris Benoit from Chris' first marriage.

Nancy, she treated me like I was her own kid.

We didn't use the word step in our family, you know.

We were family. We went and had fun, went to Chuck E. Cheese with Daniel and

Nancy, and, you know, it was good times.

This is my very favorite photo of David and Daniel.

It's flippin' adorable.

I mean, that's what siblings are.

You hang on to one another and hope for the best for each other.

He'd look up to me, you know?

I loved him.

I protected him.

We wanted to be tag team champions.

That's what we wanted to do, be the tag team champions of the world together.

So in WCW, there was definitely a ceiling.

that you would reach.

The bigger guys were getting all the TV spotlights.

If you weren't like seven foot tall and huge muscles, you know, you didn't get

the main event.

Chris was getting a little irritated about the situation with happening at

at the time and never seeing herself in the main event spot because we kept

getting pushed down.

So we decided to take a walk.

I cannot believe this.

Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko on WWF Raw.

They walked out, WWF picked them up in one second, and the rest is history.

But all three of them got to WWE, then you really saw the strengths.

Their intelligence for the business and their view of the business and seeing,

like, we see this, they saw this.

Eddie became one of the best characters of all time as well as being one of the

best in -ring champions.

And Benoit became just this killer, you know, no -nonsense Clint Eastwood

performer. It was like Dirty Harry.

Go ahead, make my day. Benoit, he's a rabid wolverine.

Chris Benoit's been a main eventer for years.

It wasn't a matter that he was too short.

Perceived as too short.

Imagine that.

Benoit's a magnificent, extraordinary athlete.

I always thought, man, getting Benoit here, it's going to create these great

matchups. And it did.

It was a no -brainer.

But also, Chris was always very much a great father, you know, very much about

his family.

His kids were always high up on his list.

When Daniel got a little older, Chris would bring him to the ring.

And of course, any time when Chris brought the kids around, we'd all play

him.

It really pained him when he had to miss certain things. I remember at one

point... I said something along the lines of, like, I got to be home on

Halloween. He's like, oh, man, I wish I could go home for Halloween, but I got

to work.

And I miss Father's Day, too. I'm like, as we do, we'll just get those days off.

And it's almost like he didn't want to ask for days off because, you know,

sacrificing for his art, I guess you would say.

And there's a similarity between Chris and Eddie in that both of them

a lot for their art.

Chris and Eddie basically gave their life for pro wrestling.

For Eddie, wrestling was everything. God was first, and then family and

wrestling were a close second.

You know, sometimes we'd be in the locker room, and Eddie's naked in the

room reading scripture to other wrestlers and telling them about God.

Chris wasn't religious at all.

And Eddie was the one that started introducing him about God.

And Chris was very receptive, and he always listened to Eddie. And Eddie had

even given him a Bible one Christmas.

And Chris always had that on him, and that was something that meant a lot to

Eddie, to always be a witness to Chris, you know, and to help him try and find

his higher power.

Chris was very quiet, very reserved, and it took a while for him to trust

somebody. Eddie would be his go -to guy. He'd go and talk to him about certain

things, whether it be marriage problems or family or professional problems.

They'd always confide in each other, and that's what their friendship was. And I

know that Chris didn't have that with a lot of people.

Chris, he was blowing up. He was getting bigger as a wrestler.

And to have Nancy behind him, he was really happy.

She was the driving force and motivation, sort of taking care of.

everything else that wasn't related to wrestling.

She wanted him to be happy and to be successful and to be with his best

Eddie was injured a lot. He had a lot of pain and a lot of injuries that he

couldn't get operations for.

And as a wrestler, you never say that you need time off because...

As soon as you're off TV for four or six months, you know, someone else is going

to come and replace you. And that was something that was always in Eddie's

You know, I was like, I can't stop now.

Everything he did was wrestling, even to the point where I know he was in a lot

of pain, but he still wanted to wrestle. That's what he does. That's what he

did. That's who he was.

And there was also a lot of, I mean, let's be honest, we're adults. We all

the same shit. There's a lot of drinking. There's a lot of drugs.

But the more that Eddie was trying to hide his injuries with the drugs and the

alcohol, it was just getting to a downward spiral.

You know, I thought Chris several different times to make sure that Eddie

tucked in bed okay, you know, and put on his side so he wouldn't throw up on

himself.

But then Eddie started getting DUIs and crashing his car and, you know, having

overdose problems.

There were three ODs that Eddie did in our house. The first two, I called the

ambulance. And all they did was release him the next afternoon.

They just sent him home.

The third time, I just let him lay there.

I actually left and took the girls to school and just told God, if you're

to take him, just take him now because it was a bad place in my life.

A lot of Russ's were dying from substance abuse issues. And in the back

mind, always you're like, man, is Eddie going to be one of those? Is he going to

be a statistic?

Eddie showed up to work high one day where he was in bad shape. And I think

when they saw that and Eddie couldn't perform, that's when he said, we're

to go ahead and let you go. He called me and said, well, I got fired.

I finally was like, well, thank God. I mean, because now the worst that could

ever be imagined.

is happening.

They sent him to rehab, lost everything, and had to go from the depths of hell

and work his way up the system again.

Little by little, he started changing his life to get clean.

After that, his wife came back, his family came back, his life came back.

And that's where Eddie got rehired from WWE, and things were great. He was in

the best shape.

WrestleMania 20, the fans knew the history of Eddie and Chris.

So the night in New York, it's the right time for both of these guys.

Me and Nancy were watching from the skybox.

We were jittery and we were nervous and we were excited and we were stressed too

because we didn't know, you know, if they were going to win or what the

was.

When Eddie won, it was pure joy.

See my dad in the ring?

He was my hero.

I remember it like yesterday, man.

Jumped up after he won the belt.

Nancy and I were crying, and the girls were excited.

And, of course, you see the confetti and, you know, all the fans just on

feet.

And then I got to see Eddie Guerrero go out there.

Best friend.

What a moment.

I'll never forget that.

And that's why that's one of the best moments in not just wrestling history, I

think TV history.

It was the happy storybook ending of WrestleMania.

You know, thank God the office finally saw those guys for what they were.

It was my favorite time, my favorite match.

I wish those two just retired right after that, to be honest with you.

I have never, ever seen a closer relationship or friendship between

two wrestlers as I did between Chris and Eddie. It was an actual, real, no

bullshit, out of the ring, caring relationship.

So there's a super show in Minneapolis.

We got a flight to Minneapolis. It was a few hours, so Eddie's sitting there

talking to me, and then he kind of just, he kind of passes out, sleeps. And I'm

like, well, I didn't know that this had been happening to Eddie. He started

talking to people and passed out in the middle of the sentence.

So we get off the plane in Minneapolis, check into our hotel that we always go

to, and we had seen Chris in the lobby also.

Say, I'll see you down in the morning. Okay.

It's 7 o 'clock, and we're going to go work out. You know, three of us

This is the way it was.

Eddie goes to his room. I go to my room.

Next morning, I get a call about 5 .30.

It's the front desk.

Something's wrong with your uncle.

What do you mean something's wrong with my uncle? So I get a knock on my door.

Security guard.

He's taking me into Eddie's room. I go, what's going on?

He goes, well, your uncle didn't.

He didn't answer his wake -up call. So we came to his room and knocked.

No answer. With the latch on, that means someone's in here.

So they cut the latch off.

I walk in, and I look in the bathroom. I see Eddie face down.

He's in his underwear.

His toothbrush was in his hand.

I grab him. I kind of try to shake him, and he's moving, and I hear him

gurgling.

And I'm like, Eddie, Eddie, wiping his face and he's like,

he's still there, man. And we're trying and then all of a sudden

he's in my arms and he's not there anymore.

He passed in my arms, like literally.

I haven't been to this moment in a long time.

Then I get a call from Chris. And Chris goes, hey, man, I'm downstairs. Where

are you?

Hey, man, are you sitting down? He goes, yeah. And I go, Eddie passed away this

morning. And all you hear is from a guy with no emotion whatsoever.

You hear.

A whale.

Just this whale from deep down, like a heartbreak.

If you've ever heard one, this was heartbreaking.

Then Vince called me.

And he said, he goes, Vicki.

And he's just crying.

I'm just like, I go, is it true? And he's passed away.

He said, I'm sorry.

Chris went over there and kind of knelt down and just steady on the forehead. I

went over there and kind of like the same thing. It was hard. I mean, here's

buddy that you've been with for eight, ten years, every day pretty much.

And there wasn't really any sign that obviously he had relapsed. He didn't

relapse. The verdict was heart disease at 38.

I remember the day that my sister called me hysterical. I couldn't even

understand her. You take some breaths and you tell me what's going on. She

couldn't even get the words out. She told me I just burst into tears.

And I thought about the kids and Vicki really, you know, just a flash in my

head. And then my next thought was, oh, my God, Chris.

Eddie Guerrero has passed away.

The tribute that WWE did couldn't have been any better.

Yeah, the whole stage was filled with everyone from backstage.

But all I could remember was Chris.

He was just crying.

Now I know that I love you.

I miss you.

One by one, they took different talent. They wanted to talk about Eddie. Eddie's

passing, Eddie's life.

And Chris did it.

Probably really difficult to do.

Because I had a hard time getting through it.

I want to thank you from my heart and tell you that I love you and I'll never

forget you.

And that we'll see each other again.

I love you, Eddie.

I believe it was very hard for him, you know.

I even cried after for him.

Funerals are never good, but Eddie's funeral was very hard.

When I saw Benoit, he, man, he came and gave me a hug, but it was like the most

desperate, saddest, I'm hanging on for dear life hug that you could ever get.

Sobbing, deep, hitching sobs and leaving literally a patch of wetness on the

shoulder of my suit that soaked through to the shirt, went through the jacket

and shirt of tears.

I'd never seen Chris show emotion before.

You know, of course it affected all of us, but I just think it affected Chris

just like so much more.

It affected Chris like a spouse or something.

When Eddie passed away, not only did it end Chris and Eddie's relationship, in a

lot of ways it kind of ended mine with him too.

I think he just became more and more of a hermit and didn't want to see people

that he knew.

I remember seeing him at Eddie's funeral, and the WWE guys had to leave

after the funeral to fly to Europe.

You have Chris who has this horrible damage done to him where he's crying,

sobbing, the lowest point of his life, and as soon as the funeral's done, he

goes on a plane and flies to Europe to wrestle.

I didn't get that.

You know, I thought if there's ever a time to take some time off.

or to give someone some time off. I think Chris needed to be away from stuff

a while, but I think he just continued on because he didn't know what else to

do. He didn't handle it well.

Let me just say it like that.

I was in bed, like, for the first week after we buried Eddie, and Nancy was the

first one at the house, and she helped me with everything. I mean, she was the

one who was making sure that the kids were fed.

Finally, she just walked in my room and she's like, enough.

She goes, enough.

Get up and shower.

Get up because you have two girls that still love you and they need you.

And I didn't want to do anything.

And she threw me in the shower.

She got the girls dressed.

And she goes, we're going to lunch.

She was my angel in so many ways.

She just immediately went into planning mode. I'm going to help with this, and

I'm going to do that. I mean, that was her knee -jerk reaction to grief and

heartache. But Chris locked down.

And Nancy stayed with me for a month after Eddie passed away, and Chris would

come in when they were off, and I would find Chris on Eddie's side of his bed,

and Chris would just be laying there crying, holding Eddie's pillow.

Eddie had a beautiful gym upstairs, and I would go upstairs, and the girls would

come down, and they would say, Mom, Chris is crying again.

And I would go to the gym, and Chris would just be sitting on the bench just

crying. He goes, I'm lost without Eddie being here.

To see him just crying in my arms, it was very emotional.

He was this big, strong man who was tough and quiet and strong.

He broke my heart.

You know, but then you see Chris, you know, around the other wrestlers or in a

meeting and he had his face on.

So professional, like you wouldn't even think that anything was bothering him.

But Chris was getting more and more distant where he was not being seen as

backstage, you know, where I couldn't find him. Like Nancy would call me and

like, how's Chris doing today? And I said, well, I haven't seen him.

She talked to me about it several times. She was like, there's something going

on and I don't know what it is.

You got to tell me if you notice something.

And I was like, yeah, there's something up.

He just seemed different. He was talking more about other wrestlers that had had

children kidnapped and fans that went sideways and were violent.

He used to take different cars and different ways to the gym that we had

going to for years.

It was super random.

He just didn't want to be places and be seen.

There was a level of... Paranoia we had never, ever seen before.

Nancy started getting really worried. She's like, I'm really worried for

This is really affecting him in so many ways.

He was just sad all the time and depressed.

He was impatient.

There was a lot of fighting going on for reasons that she didn't understand why

he would be upset.

And she would just be like, life is just really hard right now. Like, Chris is

just irritable and he doesn't want to talk to me.

He's mad all the time. You know, he was just mad at life in general.

There were a few months where he completely closed off, not really even

to Nancy, not really talking to anyone.

So we got Chris a journal so that he could write to Eddie.

I think that after we got him that journal is when he started opening up a

little bit more.

Because writing to him, he started feeling like maybe Eddie was with him in

spirit or in heart by just being able to talk to him every day.

Was there any point when Nancy wanted Chris to maybe step away from wrestling

all? That last year.

She didn't think that it was healthy physically or mentally for him to be on

road and doing so much work in the same places that he and his best friend used

to be and do things together.

I remember talking to him and he's like, every building I go to.

All I can do is think of Eddie. Okay, we're in Kansas City. Last time I was

here, Eddie was here. And now we're in New Mexico. Last time I was here, Eddie

was here. And I think all of those things were kind of signs that something

really serious was going on with him.

He was so grief -stricken on a monumental level that she thought that

the company and staying in the business was going to eventually harm his well

-being.

It's Saturday night. We're going to go into Laredo, Texas.

We're doing the Texas Loop.

I get to Laredo, and Chris, myself, and Scott Armstrong are going to ride

together.

And then later, I get a call from Chris, and he goes, oh, man, I'm not going to

make it.

I go, what's wrong?

He goes, oh, Daniel and Nancy have food poisoning, and I'm just trying to take

care of them.

And I'm like, oh, man, are you good? You all right?

And he's like, yeah, I'm all right.

I'm okay, I'm okay.

I said, well, tomorrow we're in Houston for the pay -per -view.

So he goes, okay, okay, great.

I said, okay, man. And he goes, chavo.

Chavo.

I go, yeah?

And he goes, I love you.

And I'm like, okay, brother, I love you too, man.

Hmm.

That was weird.

And I go, are you okay?

He's like, yeah, I'm okay, man. Just, you know, just, I'm just really tired.

I said, okay, man. Okay, well, you can call me if you need to get any problem.

Okay, well, I will.

So then...

That's it.

About 5 .30 in the morning, I get a text, and it was from Chris's phone. And

said, the dogs are in the enclosed pool area, and the back door is open.

So I'm half asleep, and I see this text, and I'm like, the heck is that?

All of a sudden, 30 seconds later, I get another text from Nancy's phone, and it

says the exact same thing.

I was like, that's weird.

I get another text right afterwards. It tells me his physical address.

What is that?

So I disregard it, thinking I'm picking Chris up in three hours at the airport.

So then I meet Scott downstairs. We go get breakfast, and I talk to him. I go,

hey, did you get a weird text from Chris? He goes, yeah, I did.

I said, what did it say?

And he said the exact same thing.

We drive to Corpus Christi for the next show.

Still no word from Chris.

So the head of talent relations, Johnny Ace, asked me, hey, Chavo, have you

heard from Chris? And I said, no.

I said, but look, Johnny, and I break out my phone and I show him. These are

texts that I got from Chris yesterday.

And Johnny, in his raspy voice, is like, Chavo, why didn't you show us these

yesterday? And I'm like, look, man, we were covering for Chris.

We didn't know where he was. You didn't know where he was.

The office is starting to get concerned because it was getting to be like 1, 2,

3 o 'clock in the afternoon.

So Vince McMahon had sent a wellness check to his house.

My name is Dennis Fagan. I run the security for World Wrestling, and one of

wrestlers that lives down there is missing. We need a welfare check done.

And what's his name?

Chris Benoit. It's spelled B -E -N -O -I -T.

Okay, and he's a wrestler?

So this man calls a meeting at the ring.

Dean Malenko's sitting next to me. I just had this really bad feeling.

Dean's like, there's something wrong.

Something is not right.

That's when Vince McMahon stands up at the ring and says, we just got word that

Chris Benoit, Nancy, and Daniel have all passed away.

And the gasps, of course, around the ring.

I remember Vicky just let out this hurling scream.

I freaked out and I started crying and Dean kind of stood up and he grabbed my

hand and he took me off to the back.

So then Vince is backstage and I walk up to Vince and I said, what happened?

What happened? And I'm a little frantic.

And he says, they're gone. I said, what do you mean they're gone? And he hugs me

super tight.

And my head's on his shoulder, like crying to Vince. Like, no, no, no. Like,

what happened? I don't understand.

I don't understand.

Nobody understood because no one knew the details yet.

I didn't know what was going on.

But I'd heard enough to know that something's not right.

If you would have lined up 100 people against the wall, I said, name one

going to kill his family.

How can this be?

Like, how could he have done this? He fooled us all.

I went from just being a regular welfare chick.

Okay, we've got something more serious here.

I came out of the theater and I turned my phone on and I had like 22 missed

calls from my parents.

The cop told me that they all passed away over the weekend.

You didn't want to believe it. Can't believe it. Can't be true.

But it was.

The act of what he did is unthinkable, unforgivable.