 Chris Bennewitt was on top of the world. He was widely regarded as one of the best in his professional field and even seemed to have a great home life with his wife Nancy and his son Daniel. But one day in 2007, Chris's world came crashing down around him and investigators are still at a loss about how this even happened. While many of the details of this haunting crime are still unknown, what we do know is that an average summer afternoon with his family turned into something much more sinister, ending with every member of the Bennewitt household losing their lives. Before we begin today's video, I wanted to let you know about today's sponsor, Sintbird. Sintbird is a fragrance subscription service that aims to empower each of their users to express themselves through their choice of fragrances. Sintbird is your fragrance destination, a place to explore, learn more, and discover new scents. 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It has subtle notes of Magnolia as well as Champagne and Bourbon. It's definitely a darker, earthy scent which I tend to prefer. With all that said, don't forget to use coupon code TINOTS at Sintbird.com for 55% off your first order. Thanks to Sintbird for sponsoring today's video. This is a case that's been covered many times before and I'm sure most of you are familiar with the story, but despite that it's been one of the most requested topics for quite some time now, so I figured now was as good of a time as any to cover it. If you know of any other cases you'd like to see me cover in the future, be sure to let me know in the comments or send me an email. Chris Bennewit was just 40 years old in 2007. He'd been born in Montreal back in 1967 and would grow up around Alberta, remaining here throughout most of his childhood and his adult life. Chris was regarded as your average young boy, but he always had a fascination with wrestling. From a young age, he knew that he wanted to become a professional wrestler one day. By the age of 12, he'd begun working towards making these dreams a reality. Chris had begun to train and weight lift in order to see his dreams come true. Chris's father says that Chris was a very obsessive young boy, thinking about nothing other than wrestling for the majority of his childhood. While most kids were out playing with their friends and climbing trees and getting into trouble, Chris stayed home to train, learn, and soak up every wrestling match that he could find on TV. Two of Chris's favorite wrestlers were Tom Billington and Bret Hart. He grew so infatuated by these two that he mimicked most of their training styles. And when he eventually joined the professionals in the ring, he began copying many of their signature moves and styles. He even adopted Bret Hart's finishing move known as Sharpshooter and would often use this when he ended a match. By the early 90s, Chris had fully dedicated his life to wrestling and training. He was on the cusp of something huge and he could feel it. It didn't take a genius to see that Chris had something special. There have been many great wrestlers over the years, but very few have the sheer determination that Chris expressed both in and out of the ring. It was likely this confidence that attracted Chris's wife, Martina. The two got married sometime in the late 80s and eventually had two children together, a boy named David and a girl named Megan. By 1997, Chris's marriage had begun to dissolve. We don't know any of the specifics. This was obviously long before the days of social media and people actually respected each other's privacy back then, at least a lot more so than we do today. But regardless, this marriage wouldn't end without a pretty big scandal. See, Chris didn't just take his wife aside and let her know that things weren't working out, nor did his wife do this for him. Instead, from what I can gather, they began sneaking around and lying to one another. Before long, Chris was caught in bed with another pro wrestler's wife, Nancy Sullivan. Nancy had been married to Keith Sullivan, a frequent opponent of Chris's. We don't really know how all of this played out or how it went down, but needless to say, both Chris and Nancy were soon destined for divorce. But for both of them, this wasn't really the end of the world. After all, they weren't just having a fling, they were in love. After both of their divorces were finalized, Chris and Nancy got married in 2000. And around this same time, Nancy announced that she was expecting the couple's first child together. A boy named Daniel. But just three years in, this marriage would also appear to have begun to dissolve. By 2003, Nancy had filed for divorce. Not only this, but she also filed for a restraining order against Chris. According to Nancy, Chris was prone to violent outbursts and would throw furniture and break things when he lost his temper. But rather strangely, after a while, the divorce petition was canceled and the restraining order was dropped, so it seems the two worked things out. While all of this was going on, Chris's career was only getting better and better. By this point, Chris had proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with, and he wasn't slowing down any day soon. Now, I could go on and on about Chris's wrestling history, but to tell you the truth, I couldn't care less about wrestling if I tried, and I'm sure most of you wouldn't even have the slightest interest in that either. All you really need to know is that Chris was one of the most decorated wrestlers of all time. He's a man who will not be soon forgotten. And he left behind a legacy that very few people will likely ever compete with. He's been regarded as one of the top five wrestlers in the world, and even today, children aspire to be just like him. But if many of his fans knew the dark secrets Chris had been hiding, they probably wouldn't be falling head over heels for this guy. In fact, they'd probably running head over heels to get away from him. See, Chris was known for being a pretty decent guy outside the ring. But he had more than a few demons on his shoulder that were always dragging him down. For the most part, these thoughts didn't affect him much in his younger years. But as Chris grew older, his mind began to slip away from him. And before he knew it, he'd be caught up in one of the darkest moments in wrestling history. It was June 24th, 2007. For most of us, it was a day like any other. But for the Bennewitt family, this would be a day that would live on an infamy for years to come. Normally, when covering this aspect of the story, I like to give a bit of background detailing everything that went on in the lead-up to the crime. But in this particular case, there isn't much of a background. That's because in the days leading up to the crime, nothing was unusual. The Bennewitt family went about their daily routines like they always did. Chris' son was out of school for the summer, and his wife Nancy was carrying on with business as usual. Chris followed all of his usual training routines, so on and so forth. For reasons that remain unclear, June 24th would be the day that Chris would reach a breaking point. The day before this revelation that took the entire wrestling community, Chris made a call to his friend Chavo, leaving a voicemail that explained that both Nancy and Daniel had food poisoning. He was explaining that he would be late for that night's show in Beaumont, Texas. When Chavo heard the message, he immediately called Chris back and noticed that Chris sounded extremely tired and groggy, almost as if he had just woken up, but it was the middle of the afternoon. Chavo did his best to write this off and carry on with his day, but he felt that something wasn't right. He called Chris back just 12 minutes later, but Chris didn't pick up. A few minutes went by and Chris returned Chavo's call, apologizing and saying that he was on the other line with Delta Airlines, changing his flight plans for the day, saying once again that he'd had a rough day with dealing with Nancy and Daniel's food poisoning. Chavo still wasn't buying this explanation, and he told Chris, if you need to talk, I'm here for you. Chris replied, Chavo, I love you, and hung up the phone. When Chris was scheduled to arrive at the airport later that day, he never showed. A friend reached out to him and Chris gave him the same story about his wife and son being sick. Chris then failed to show up for a scheduled match that evening, something that was incredibly bizarre, as Chris wouldn't have missed this match for the world. He told a friend that he planned on catching the flight around 8 a.m. the following day, suggesting that he may be rescheduling the match due to his wife's ill health. By June 24, Chris failed to appear for yet another scheduled flight. That morning, just before 4 a.m., Chris sent out text messages to several of his coworkers. The content of these messages seems to be a bit strange, because according to one source, the message is only contained Benoit's home address and dimension of the family's dogs being enclosed near the family pool, as well as a garage door being left open. It doesn't appear that anyone knew what to make of these texts, and a few of Nancy's coworkers would receive the same message. Chavo was woken up by these texts, but he put his phone down and went back to sleep, thinking nothing of it, expecting to meet Chris for his flight later on that morning. But Chris never showed. It would be the following day when a major wrestling event was scheduled to take place in Corpus Christi. Chris was scheduled to be one of the main competitors, but he never arrived at the event. The program coordinators were suspicious as the morning passed by without any sign of Chris. As the day progressed, several people became agitated by Chris's lack of attendance. By 3 p.m. that afternoon, this agitation turned into fear. As friends and coworkers began to realize that Chris hadn't been heard from in over two days, they decided it was time to call the police for a welfare check. Fayetteville, Georgia police officers received a call from one of the event coordinators, asking for them to check in on Chris and his family. By 4 p.m. that afternoon, their call was returned, but it wasn't good news. They had found Chris, his wife and his son, inside the house, but none of them were alive. When officers arrived at the Bennewitt home, it was immediately classified as a major crime scene. The details of the crime were a bit confusing at first as investigators had no idea who could have done such a thing. They found that Nancy had been restrained prior to losing her life. Her hands had been bound with a television cable and her feet had been taped together. As they continued to search the scene for clues, they found a sock and a trash can that had been covered in dried biological fluids, suggesting that it had been used as a gag prior to Nancy losing her life. But that's when they discovered something far worse if you can even imagine. As they searched the rest of the home, they found Chris's young son. He had also lost his life and was found lying on his bed. Soon after, that's when they found Chris. Chris had lost his life after being hanged from one of his pieces of gym equipment in the family's workout room. This is what helped investigators piece together what had taken place here, as it didn't appear as though Chris had been placed here against his will. All of the evidence suggested that Chris had done this to himself. It wouldn't be until several days later that the clues from the investigation would all fit together. Chris's first wife received a package in the mail and inside were several of Chris's belongings, including a Bible with a note that had been placed inside. The contents of this note haven't been made public, but investigators did release one key detail. Chris had witnessed the homicide of his family and he knew exactly who the killer was. That's because it was him. Police noted that as they were collecting evidence, they found a Bible place next to each of the family members. It seems that Chris had shown some sort of remorse for his actions or at the very least, he was doing the best he could to make sure his family made it to heaven. After all, it does seem that the family were religious to a certain extent, but haven't been able to confirm what religion they were a part of, nor could I confirm whether they were actively attending church services, but either way, the family did their best. The only thing that the detective said was missing from the evidence and from the scene of the crime was any indication of a motive. As far as the evidence took them, there was truly no reason to commit such a heinous and senseless crime. Chris had everything going for him, an incredible career, a wife that he loved and a son that he adored. So why would he do such a thing? Well, to be straight, we don't know, but investigators have a few guesses and one theory seems to make a lot of sense, but it makes this case much more tragic if you could even imagine. When detectives collected all of the evidence from the scene of the crime, they'd begun to hear rumors of Chris suffering from frequent bouts of so-called roid rage. They wondered whether he could have been raging when he took his family's lives out of anger or even by mistake. This led police to take things one step further and an investigator suggested to Chris's father that they should send his brain in for further analysis so that they could better determine what led to such a dramatic breakdown. Chris's father agreed to having his son's brain tested and the results of this test were shocking to save a least. After a careful analysis of Chris's brain, a neurosurgeon found that Chris had severe damage to all four loaves, meaning that his mind and body would have been impaired in every way possible. Even his brainstem had notable signs of damage. According to the surgeon, Chris, who is just 40 years old, had the brain of an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient. Other tests revealed extensive damage to the tissue of the brain in several other areas and it didn't take the surgeon very long to put two and two together and determine what had taken place here. According to one of Chris's friends, a former professional wrestler, Chris was the only man in the industry who was willing to take a chair to the back of the head, a stunt which he described as stupid. It was theorized that Chris's wrestling career resulted in countless concussions day after day, year after year. I remember reading one report that claimed Chris had at least 30 documented concussions, but these are only the cases that were made public. In reality, this number is likely much, much larger. Because of this, investigators came to the conclusion that Chris was just as much a victim as his wife and son were. He had been the victim of his career and he had no idea the extent of the damage that he'd been inflicting on himself. The neurosurgeon says that Chris would have likely been prone to major emotional outbursts, angry tantrums likely being the most common. His critical thinking skills would have been highly restricted and he may have not even realized what he was doing a lot of the time and may have even been suffering from bouts of amnesia every once in a while. All in all, Chris was hanging on by a thread for months, maybe even years before this terrible disaster was uncovered by detectives. This begs the question, can Chris really be held responsible for his actions? Now, I know that knee-jerk response here is, well, yes, he tied his wife up and purposefully took her life. That certainly seems to suggest that he had plenty of time to think about what he was doing but he went through with the crime anyway. Another argument pointing the blame at Chris could be that Chris chose his career path. He chose a career that constantly placed him in danger. Thus by choosing his career, he technically chose to put his family at risk. But the truth is there's no evidence to suggest that Chris had any idea the amount of danger his career put him in. All he knew was that he was putting on shows for thousands of fans by portraying this larger than life character who was known worldwide for being the toughest of the tough guys. He had no idea that he was damaging his own brain day after day. The science and research surrounding repeated concussions like this simply didn't exist back then and the few studies that had been carried out weren't nearly as widely recognized as they are today. So at the end of it all, was Chris a monster or a victim? Well, that's a question that unfortunately will remain unanswered. Thank you guys for tuning in to another episode of True Crime Stories. If you wanna see more true crime documentaries like this, be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. 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