All language subtitles for The Last Hours Of Chris Benoit (2020)

Chris Benois, his wife, and

seven-year-old son were found dead in

their Georgia home on Monday. Former

World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion

Chris Benois was a living legend. In a

22-year career, the Canadian thrilled

audiences across the globe. One of the

10 best I've ever seen.

He just made sure to always give his

best in the ring. But outside the ring,

life was tough. It can take a heavy toll

both physically, mentally, emotionally.

It was a relentless 300 plus day a year.

A career threatened by injury. At his

side, glamorous ex-wrestling valet

Nancy. She was a performer known as

woman. His wife and manager. She was a

tough lady, but their relationship was a

volatile one. She started to show the

signs of an abused wife being

micromanaged, being controlled. On June

25th, 2007, the wrestling world was

stunned as the shocking news broke that

three bodies had been found in the

Benois Fagetville home.

Those bodies were Mr. Benois himself,

his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel.

There's only three people that actually

know what happened that weekend, and

they're gone.

The autopsy concluded that Chris

Benois's cause of death was hanging. His

wife Nancy died from ligature

strangulation and seven-year-old Daniel

was killed by cervical compression,

otherwise known as manual strangulation.

Forensic evidence clearly indicates that

Chris was

responsible. So my question is, what led

this elite 40-year-old wrestling

superstar to murder his family and then

to take his own life?

Worldrenowned medical examiner and

forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter

has performed over 5,000 autopsies,

collaborating closely with law

enforcement and other forensic

specialists. His pivotal role in

investigating suspicious cases has

revealed the truth behind unexplained

deaths for 20 years.

This is a particularly shocking and

tragic incident. I have access to Chris

Benwis's death certificate, autopsy

documents, police reports, and firsthand

accounts that I will use to discover any

underlying medical conditions that led

to a horrific murder suicide that his

co-workers have described as totally out

of character.

[Music]

June 19th, 2007, Charlotte, North

Carolina. 4 and a half days before his

death. Chris Benois has just beaten

29-year-old Elijah Burke in a televised

fight. But backstage, all is not well

with the man that is known as the

Crippler. At age 40, Chris has been

wrestling for over half his life.

[Music]

It's a career that has taken its toll.

Pro wrestling is a dangerous game.

There's injuries all the time. The thing

with pro wrestling is you're taught to

keep

going. It is sport, but it's also

entertainment. It can take a heavy toll

both physically, mentally, emotionally,

and sometimes spiritually on someone.

[Music]

Chris was at a particularly insecure and

vulnerable time in his career as a

professional wrestler because he was

aging, because his body was failing.

Just the week before, he had been

drafted from WWE to the lesser ECW

franchise.

I'm sure he was worried about his future

because there's always somebody snipping

at your heels, somebody that wants your

spot. He was coming to the end of his

professional wrestling career. His body

was falling apart and he realized the

thing that animated him that kept him

going was likely going to end soon.

Chris was clearly a supremely fit

individual. But by the age of 40, it

would take him much longer to recover

from such a physically demanding sport.

This is because as we age, bone and

muscle lose calcium and other minerals,

making them less dense and more

susceptible to injury. Was Chris's

natural physical decline in a sport he

loved a factor in the tragedy? I need to

investigate

further. Christopher Michael Benois was

born in Montreal, Canada to Michael and

Margaret on May 21st, 1967.

[Music]

He was known as a very quiet but

studious and well- behaved child. He was

a kid that people liked.

At age 12, the family moved to Big Sky

Country, just outside of Edmonton,

Alberta, where he first saw broadcasts

of a local TV show, Stampede Wrestling.

That's where he fell in love with pro

wrestling uh watching Stampede and

especially a guy named Dynamite Kid.

Yes, he is. Wham! Bam! Dynamite Kid was

Chris Benois's

hero. He was not the biggest dog in the

fight, but man, could he fight. Watch

this now. He was the kind of guy that

would jump off the top rope without a

second thought. Chris Benois obviously

fell in love with that. Chris turned his

passion into a vocation. He started

training with the legendary Stu Hart,

founder of Stampede

Wrestling. At the age of 18, Chris made

his debut. And within months, he was

even sharing a stage with his hero, the

Dynamite Kid. Dad, I've been training

for this battle world for weeks and

weeks and weeks, spending hours and

hours in the gym, in the ring. Many

professionals felt he'd struggle because

of his height. You know, for years,

because of his size, his stature, he was

told, "You're too small. You're too

small. You're too small." But he

compensated for the lack of size with

his talent. Eventually, Chris joined

Extreme Championship Wrestling, ECW,

where he earned the nickname that would

stay with him for the rest of his

career.

ECW was an extreme wrestling promotion.

It was wild. It was crazy. Chris Benois

was not necessarily that style wrestler,

but he had to work with a lot of guys

that were. One of them was Sabu, who was

the homicidal genocidal maniac.

And during a match, Chris Benois

accidentally broke Saboo's neck. He felt

horrible about it. It had nothing to do

with Chris. It was actually Saboo's

fault. But the promoter of that event,

Paul Heymon, saw an opportunity in this

accident. He nicknamed Chris the

Crippler and gave him a new identity as

a sadistic wrestler who intentionally

crippled his opponents. Fortunately,

Sabu recovered from his injuries. But

Chris's nickname, the crippler, stuck.

But out of the ring, Chris was a very

different character.

In an industry full of extroverts and

freak show genetic specimens, he was a

shorter, slider, retiring guy.

He was always willing to sign an

autograph, shake a hand, talk to

somebody, but he was quiet. Thank you so

much. You're welcome.

He just made sure to always give his

best in the ring and become somebody

that the fans and the other wrestlers

really loved. Chris's determination to

succeed paid off when in 2004 he was

crowned WWE heavyweight champion of the

world. At Wrestlemania 20, Chris saw all

of his dreams come true. It was a magic

moment. There's streamers falling from

the sky and he gets a big hug from his

buddy Eddie

Guerrero. That absolutely was the

pinnacle of his

career. June 19th, 2007, Charlotte,

North Carolina, 4 days before Chris's

death. After Chris Benwis's last match,

he went out with old friends to go

drinking. And Chris Benwis was not a

drinker, but that night he was taking

shots of tequila in a way they had never

seen before.

indicating a change in his personality

and his personal outlook.

Chris appeared to be drinking large

quantities of alcohol just days before

his death. According to the police

report, there were many empty beer cans

found at the crime scene and a partially

empty bottle of wine was found near his

body. All of which might suggest that at

some stage during the days leading up to

his death, Chris had been drinking

heavily.

Alcohol is a known trigger for violence

and is a factor in 86% of all homicides

in the United States. Prolonged use can

also cause irreversible damage to the

brain and other organs. So, was alcohol

to blame for the murder of his wife

Nancy and son Daniel and his subsequent

suicide? I didn't know Chris to be a a

drinker of sorts. um maybe a beer he and

Nancy would have at dinner time, but

never never excessive drinking that I

had to my knowledge. Chris drank

sociably. I don't know that I ever saw

him where I thought he'd consume too

much. I don't think it's surprising at

all that Chris wasn't a big

drinker. I think he sees alcohol as

losing control. In fact, the only time

we see him kind of having alcohol is

towards the end of his life. I think

that becomes a means of escape and it

also signifies a loss of

control. Chris's postmortem examination

actually found no traces of alcohol in

his blood. His liver also showed none of

the signs of habitual alcohol abuse. But

there is evidence that there were much

more powerful drugs in Chris's system

when he died. drugs that could have

dangerously altered both his body and

his

mind. So, could Chris's substance abuse

have triggered an explosive and violent

act that ended not only his life, but

that of his wife and

child? Homicide within a relationship is

all too common in the United States.

Statistically, in

2007, 10 times as many females were

murdered by a male that they knew and

were killed by strangers. Of those, 62%

were either wives or intimate

acquaintances of their killers. So, was

there anything about Chris and NY's

relationship that may have led to this

terrible

tragedy? June 20th, 2007. the Benois

residence, Fagatville, Georgia. Chris is

due back from his match in Charlotte. He

made a point of getting home between

matches to be with his wife, ex-wrestler

Nancy, and son

Daniel. When Chris was home, he was

Chris. He wasn't the Canadian crippler.

He was he was dad. He was husband.

The last time I sat down with Chris, we

hadn't been talking maybe two or three

minutes and he whipped out his phone to

show me pictures of Daniel and Nancy.

He loved that woman and he loved that

child.

But their relationship had always been

an unconventional one.

They met when Nancy was a wrestling diva

and they became the focus of a bizarre

storyline.

Pro wrestling is what we call a closed

business in that they like to protect it

and keep the secrets. The word that gets

thrown around a lot is called kayfabe

where they would say that oh keep

kayfabe which means don't tell the

secret. Nancy had previously been

married to wrestler Kevin Sullivan and

in 1996 Sullivan concocted a kayfabe

plot line around her. He decided to

write a story line where Chris Benois

was paired with uh his wife Nancy

Sullivan who was a performer known as

woman. Kevin Sullivan really believed in

this idea of kayfabe where you kept the

story line going regardless of

situations. He knew the story would leak

out and a grand feud would follow,

culminating in a huge staged grudge

match. To make the story seem real,

Kevin insisted Nancy and Chris be seen

in each other's company. They shared

hotel rooms. They traveled together.

They went overseas together. All in the

whole pretense of kayfabe.

But the scenario

backfired when Nancy left Kevin for

Chris. Kevin Sullivan booked his own

divorce.

The couple had a son, Daniel, born in

February 2000. Chris Benwa by all

accounts was a very passionate and

engaged father. He truly loved and doted

on his son, Daniel, and he was the light

of his life.

Well, they both loved Daniel a great

deal. I mean, he was clearly high on

their priority list.

The relationship with Chris and Daniel

was very special. One day, we went to uh

get into the Hummer to go to Chris's car

to go to a restaurant and it was covered

in toys all over the floor and all he

did was look at me and go, "It's a

family car."

June 21st, 2007. The Benois residence, 2

and 1/2 days before Chris's death. Two

outsiders, Nancy and Chris, seemed like

a happy family unit. But behind closed

doors, things are very different. I

don't care about the children. Why is a

home? There was some deep, deep problems

between Chris and Nancy. I can't fall

down.

The couple have recently sought

counseling from their pastor, George

Dillard.

They went through some very difficult

times in their relationship and marriage

and both of them felt like they could

have handled things differently. I asked

Nancy point blank, "Is there anything

that you're afraid of?" And she said,

"Absolutely not."

But Nancy had begun to notice changes in

Chris's

personality. Chris became much more

controlling with Nancy. He restricted

her

travel. He became really insecure and

nervous about her conversations with

friends. To those who knew Nancy, it was

inconceivable that she would put up with

that sort of behavior indefinitely.

When people think of an abusive

relationship um they think of of the

hurting the physical hurting and

certainly that's a part of it but the

other part the psychological part is

what we call course of control and that

usually takes uh the form of isolating

one's partner and making them very much

dependent on on you.

This police report mentions text

messages that Nancy sent during the

months before they died. And I can see

that she did have very real concerns

about Chris. Some of his tension could

be the result of Chris's worries about

his wrestling career. But in those

messages, Nancy highlights something

that I think could also explain his

behavior. Steroids.

Steroids have existed in pro wrestling

since at least the

1950s and for someone with his build, a

shorter guy who was not naturally very

muscular, uh it would have to be

basically a necessity for

him. Among the items of evidence police

found in the house after the tragedy

were bottles of human growth hormone,

similar to anabolic steroids. Anabolic

steroids are synthetic versions of the

naturally occurring hormone

testosterone, which helps build

increased muscle

mass. Testosterone is sometimes linked

with male aggression and changes in the

level of these chemicals in the system

of steroid abusers have been linked to

rapid mood swings and even mania.

Nancy texted some of her friends prior

to the murders, indicating she was

concerned about Chris's violent mood

swings and his depression and his

instability at home. She was considering

leaving at that point. Course of control

can be very dangerous in a relationship,

especially when the uh you know abusive

partner begins to feel like they're

losing

control. That's where you tend to see an

escalation.

[Music]

Autopsy records show that the steroid

testosterone was found in the samples of

Chris's urine taken after his death and

that it was at an elevated level

consistent with the administration or

injection of the

hormone. It also showed testicular

atrophy which is a symptom of long-term

steroid abuse where the male

reproductive organ the testes shrink

resulting in reduced sex drive and

eventually impotence.

So Chris had been a long-term anabolic

steroid abuser and this may have fueled

both his homicidal behavior and played a

part in his own death. However, I have

also discovered that alongside steroids,

he was abusing a cocktail of other

medications that could have seriously

damaged not only his body but his mind.

In 2001, 6 years before his death, Chris

ruptured a disc in his neck during a

fight, resulting in terrible pain and

numbness down one arm. Chris continued

to fight until the season was over,

risking further serious injury.

Pro wrestling is a ridiculous business.

It's pretty selfish in the sense that it

wants its performers to keep going out

there again and again, regardless of uh

personal cost. you got to keep

performing.

He knowingly risked his life every

single time he entered a ring because he

did not want to leave the World

Wrestling Entertainment until his

current story line had been finished and

he had fulfilled his duties before

getting surgery.

Only at the end of that season did Chris

succumb to the surgeon's knife. I can

see in his autopsy that Chris had a

titanium plate in his neck which held

two of his cervical vertebrae together.

This surgery would have undoubtedly put

him out of action for some considerable

amount of time, and the prognosis for a

successful return to the ring would not

have been

good. The surgeon advised Chris to take

3 months off before beginning any sort

of

exertion, but he started to train

immediately, overcoming the agony by

taking painkillers.

He's not the first guy that's done that,

you know. Uh would I recommend it?

Absolutely not.

He did not want to stay at home

recuperating. He wants to get back in

the ring no matter what the cost, no

matter what the risk.

The drug Chris was using, hydrocodone,

is an opioidbased painkiller which is

used to treat long-term

injury. Opioid narcotics bind with

receptors in the brain, blocking pain.

However, when taken in higher doses than

prescribed, the brain is flooded with

neurochemicals like dopamine and

serotonin, which trigger a response from

the pleasure and reward pathways of the

brain. And this is why opioids are

incredibly addictive. Recent studies

suggest that opioid abuse can induce

suicidal thoughts, and it's clear that

addicts attempt suicide in tremendous

numbers.

Chris spent a year at home recovering

from his injury. During this period, his

relationship with Nancy

deteriorated. Course of control and

domestic violence go hand in hand. One

of the things that that we know is sort

of leading up to this tragedy that you

know Nancy and Chris had been fighting,

they'd been arguing. We know of

instances where she had been physically

hurt. Um, we know that people were

noticing that, you know, she was

speaking up about not being happy, about

being anxious and

worried. Things got so bad she filed for

divorce and even took out a protection

order, citing his violent

moods. Maybe it was a threat to get him

to change his ways. Maybe it was a

complete cry for help on her half behalf

to to get out of there. I don't know.

Chris successfully persuaded Nancy to

take him back. And not long after his

return to the ring at Wrestlemania 20,

Chris achieved his lifelong

ambition by winning the World

Heavyweight title.

Chris rehabilitated himself enough to

get back into the ring and even win the

world title. People ask me, they say,

"How's your neck?" I said, "My neck's

fine. My knees hurt. My elbows hurt. You

know, my shoulder joints hurt. Neck's

fine, though. In order to perform at

such a high level and manage his pain,

he was using

hydrocodone. Long-term use of this drug

can cause depression, confusion,

anxiety, and mood changes. So, I can't

rule it out as playing a part in Chris's

death. And there was another drug

present in Chris's blood when he died.

Alprazilam commonly sold as

Xanax. This is a powerful

anti-anxiety, anti- panic medication. So

why was Chris taking it?

Today, fans and wrestlers are mourning

the death Sunday of World Wrestling

Entertainment star Eddie Gory Guerrero,

also known as Eddie Guerrero was one of

Chris's closest friends.

They were soulmates from the first time

they really wrestled in Japan. It

shocked the wrestling world because he

was one of WWE's biggest stars. He'd

been one of their world champions. Uh

and just snuffed right out. Uh his heart

basically just gave out on him. The

wrestling world was crushed, but Benois

especially was really

[Music]

crushed. In order to help him overcome

his grief, Nancy bought Chris a

devotional

journal. In it, he expressed his

feelings of loss.

He was very upset about Eddie's death.

He also says at one point that I will be

with you soon. So, it appears as though

he was

um having some thoughts about his own

mortality. The death of Eddie Guerrero

was the most traumatic event in Crisen

Wall's life. It was a turning point. His

personality seemed to take a shift. He

became more humorless and more intense

and more introverted and of a darker

cast of mind. Chris Benois became a lot

more distant. He became a little bit

more paranoid and he wasn't quite the

same Chris Benois that that they'd known

for years on the wrestling circuit. The

drug Chris was taking, Alrazolam, is a

benzoazipene. It works by inhibiting a

neurotransmitter called GABA, which is

responsible for how calm we feel. The

drug slows brain activity, causing a

calming effect on the user. And Chris

may have used it to help him sleep

during his period of

grieving. Studies have shown that while

benzoazipines induce a sense of calm,

they can also trigger feelings of

depression.

Coupled with Eddie Guo's death were a

number of other deaths around the same

time.

During that generation of wrestlers, you

see a mortality rate that some have

estimated as higher than Marines in

combat zones or drug dealers in inner

cities. All these deaths contributed for

sure to um Chris's mental state. He saw

that there was maybe not a long future

in pro wrestling that somehow he needed

to get off the road and and do something

with his life. was probably walking

around in a constant state of who's

next? Am I next or is this guy next? It

it had to weigh heavily on him.

Ben Woah, as a man in his late 30s, had

undergone the death of dozens of people

he knew personally, colleagues of his

who died prematurely. Uh it's a very

unique workplace environment where you

have to suffer that much trauma, that

much grief that often. It's impossible

to state how bad an impact that had on

his psyche, but it's perfectly

reasonable to suggest that was a

traumatic and severely damaging thing

for his psyche to undergo. It would be

to anybody. Towards the end of Chris's

life, he begins to lose a lot of people

around him. And I think that would have

sensitized him to to his own

vulnerability, right? Um I think for

most people, whether they're in a sport

or an environment that that has that

kind of self by day, right? this is

never going to be a job he's going to do

into his, you know, 60s and 70s. Um,

what it does is it kind of starts this

almost this existential crisis.

It was reported that Chris was

experiencing what was described as a

perpetual state of grief and he

exhibited signs of depression.

Depression can result from chemical

imbalances in the brain. But it is also

possible that the drugs Chris was using

may have actually contributed to that

depression by reducing the levels of

crucial neurotransmitters like

serotonin, norepinephrine or dopamine.

And studies have linked depression to at

least 60% of all suicides in the United

States.

June 21st, 2007, the Benwis residence, 2

and 1/2 days before Chris's death. The

last time I spoke to Chris was Thursday

morning, called to say that he was

heading out for the weekend. When he got

back, we'd get together at the gym and

discuss about the 4th of

July. It was a typical conversation.

There was no hints

of closure, goodbye. It was just a

normal conversation.

June 22nd, 2007, 1 and a half days

before his

death, Chris heads to nearby Carolton to

see his

physician. Dr. Phil Aton was a doctor on

the outskirts of Atlanta who dealt with

a lot of athletes.

He later faced charges uh and lost his

medical license because of his overly

liberal prescription practices of

prescribing painkillers to his patients

in a way that was extremely dangerous.

It later emerged that Dr. Aston had been

prescribing for Nancy too.

I have here NY's autopsy and I can see

the presence of both hydrocodone and

alraise lamb in her system.

If both Chris and Nancy were taking

these medications on a regular basis, it

is possible this may have led to poor

decisionm in the relationship, mood

swings, and even exacerbated existing

tensions. And Dr. Hunter has uncovered

shocking forensic evidence that may

allow him to piece together the last

days and hours of this chilling murder

suicide.

Yesterday afternoon, approximately

around 2:30, uh the sheriff's department

received a call for a welfare check here

at the Benois

residence. Once searching the house,

they were able to locate three bodies

inside of the home here. Those bodies

were Mr. Benois himself, his wife Nancy,

and their son Daniel.

June 22nd, 2007, one day before Chris's

[Music]

death. There's only three people that

actually know what happened that weekend

and they're

gone. I mean, we're

talking a thousand different

angles. And there's just many

possibilities.

We'll never know what went down that

weekend exactly the the path that led

Chris Beno to killing his wife and his

son and himself.

At 9:25 p.m., a call was made from the

Benois residents to the information

service asking for the number of the

local police

department, but no call was received by

law

enforcement. Shortly thereafter, another

call was made to a neighbor of the

Benois who didn't pick up either. So,

there's a lot of speculation that there

was some strife already happening that

evening at the household that may have

led Nancy to want to seek police help,

though not call 911.

I think on that horrible day, something

must have come out, whether it was an

argument, whether it was him feeling he

was losing control, maybe she was, you

know, going to leave.

Don't forget Chris has had a lifetime of

being very comfortable with violence.

Chris bound Nancy's hands and then her

feet before gagging and strangling her.

Nancy was an ex-wrestler and yet her

body showed few of the injuries

traditionally associated with a violent

altercation between two

people. I can't rule out that it was due

to the fact that she had painkillers,

alrazism, and a level of alcohol in her

system when she died, rendering her too

heavily sedated to fight back.

or that Chris planned and executed this

murder in a cold premeditated fashion.

Sometime later, Chris enters Daniel's

bedroom. He knows his son won't

awaken. He smothers the boy.

[Music]

I

cannot know what's in somebody's mind or

heart, no matter how good I know

them. I know he loved Daniel more than

anything, and it's just

inexplicable. Postmortem toxicology

revealed the presence of the

anti-anxiety drug Alprazelam in Daniel's

system. to a level of 0.11 mg per liter.

And this indicates that he'd been

drugged. 11:30 a.m. June 23rd,

2007. Chris is due to wrestle in

Bowmont, Texas that evening, but leaves

a message for his colleagues to say he's

missed his flight as Nancy and Daniel

are unwell.

He continues to make calls throughout

the day.

It was extremely out of character for

Chris Benwa to miss a planned pro

wrestling match. And it was something

that in retrospect multiple wrestlers

pointed to as something they should have

known was a sign that something was

profoundly wrong.

One of the things that speaks to Chris's

state of mind after uh the murders is

that he looks up on Wikipedia a passage

from the Bible about

Elijah. In this passage, there's

reference to bringing back a child from

the dead.

So this speaks to his realization of the

enormity of what he's done, to his

remorse, wanting to go back and

literally seeing no way

out. When somebody gets to that

point, they are not processing

thoughts appropriately.

why he

did the things that he did, including

looking up a passage of scripture. I

don't know that you can ever make sense

of

it. 6:05 p.m. 10 hours before Chris's

death,

Chris made phone calls to discuss travel

plans and to try to arrange flights for

Sunday. I'll have to let you know. He

sincerely was considering going to

perform on international

television knowing that he had left his

murdered family at

home. Strange. Oh, very strange. He was

going to go to

work and then

what? Training for this battle wall for

weeks and weeks and weeks.

I love you. I miss you.

He's clearly contemplating what his next

move is. He's booking airline tickets.

He's sending texts saying he'll be

something or he'll be late or he'll, you

know, clearly he hasn't decided until

the very end.

4:53 a.m. June 24th,

2007. Chris goes to his gym in the

basement. He loads extra weight onto his

pull down

machine and messages friends.

Chris Benois, his wife, and

seven-year-old son were found dead in

their Georgia home on Monday. Police are

investigating the wrestller's death as

an apparent murder suicide.

I heard on the TV what had happened and

uh wow I just remember repeating no it

it can't be. He said the Benwis family

was found dead.

I just uh had a profound

sadness. It broke my heart.

This was a terrible event by any

standards. But after Chris's death,

crucial evidence emerged about something

which may have been the cause of this

horrific

tragedy. After Chris's death, his brain

was examined by a specialist from the

Sports Legacy Institute. They discovered

Chris had suffered a traumatic brain

injury.

As a boy, Chris idolized Tom the

Dynamite Kid

Billington. When he started wrestling,

Chris copied one of his heroes signature

moves. One which is considered to be

among the most dangerous in the sport.

It was called a flying headbutt, which

required him to climb to the top rope of

a pro wrestling ring and basically do a

swan dive from the top and simulate

headbutting his opponent from high up in

the air. This exact maneuver was a

maneuver that many people speculated had

crippled his mentor and idol, the

Dynamite Kid. Chris used this move

thousands of times over the course of

his career.

The diving headbutts were part of the

reason he had to have neck surgery later

in his career. And as a matter of fact,

when he went back to work full-time and

went back to the diving headbutts, I

questioned that myself. I said, "Are you

just crazy? Why would you go back to

doing the headbutt?" Well, it's who I

am.

I can see evidence that the repeated

impacts to Chris's head and neck took a

terrible toll. The Sports Legacy

Institute's examination of Chris's brain

discovered evidence of chronic traumatic

encphylopathy or

CTE. CTE is a progressive

neurodeenerative disease found commonly

in athletes who have suffered repeated

concussive blows to the head. It is

associated with dementia, sudden mood

changes, and

depression. Other notable sufferers have

exhibited delusional behavior or

committed catastrophic acts of violence.

But Chris exhibited few external signs

of this serious brain damage.

There were a few times where, let's say,

we were supposed to meet at

4:00. 4:30, quarter to 5 would roll

around. and I'd call him up and he'd

say, "Oh my gosh, I completely forgot

about that. Here I here I'll be I'll be

there in a minute." And I would be like,

"Chris, I'm I'm done. I'm about to head

home." And that happened on more than

one occasion where he had he had

forgotten that we had were supposed to

meet that

day. Testimony from friends and family

suggests other than mood swings, he

seemed to be functioning on a day-to-day

level.

However, CTE has been associated with

emotional volatility and rage, behaviors

which may have been contributo factors

in NY's

murder. But I think brain damage is only

one of the factors in this complex set

of

circumstances. In his press conference,

the medical examiner felt that the

levels of both alprazilam and

hydrocodone in Chris's system were

normal. With Chris Minois, we found his

blood to be positive for alpraisalam or

Xanax at a level of 50 micrograms per

liter and also the hydrocodone at 45

micrograms per liter. Both of these

levels are within therapeutic

range. It's recognized that bzzoazipines

like alpraisalam combined with opioid

painkillers like hydrocodone can be

deadly because bzzoazipines enhance the

effects from opioid

painkillers. Added to that, Chris was

taking anabolic steroids and he'd also

been drinking alcohol in the leadup to

this tragedy. From all the evidence I've

examined, Chris had various reasons to

be volatile and unpredictable.

I therefore believe Nancy was ultimately

a victim of domestic

violence. We will never know why Chris

took his son's life. While there is

evidence that his mind was severely

disordered at the

time, it is clear from the fact his son

was drugged that there was a high level

of premeditation involved in Daniel's

murder.

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Ultimately, it's possible Chris felt he

was left with no choice but to take his

own

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life. Everything Chris had worked so

hard for was coming to an end.

Everything he believed he was would be

no more. He had given his all to reach

the top of his chosen sport. And how

could he live without that?

For me, Chris's suicide most likely

resulted from a catastrophic cocktail of

prescription drugs, CTE, and physical

and psychological

factors. Perfect storm that culminated

in his

suicide. Ultimately, no one will ever

know why he murdered his wife Nancy and

his son Daniel, who he clearly adored.

They are the innocent victims. And

Chris's suicide brought the curtains

down on the reason for their deaths.

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