Professional wrestler Chris Benoit strangled his wife and smothered his 7-year-old son, placing bibles at their sides, before hanging himself from a pulley in his weight room, authorities said Tuesday.
Police ruled the death a double homicide-suicide and are investigating whether steroids may have been a factor in the deaths.
Authorities said they found prescription anabolic steroids in the home among other legal prescriptions. Steroid abuse has been linked to depression, paranoia, and aggressive behavior or angry outbursts known as "roid rage."
"There was a lot of prescription medication that he had received from doctors with what we believed to be at this time legal prescriptions," said Lt. Tommy Pope of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.
• Click here to view video report from MyFoxAtlanta.com.
Police said that Nancy Benoit died of asphyxiation on Friday, said Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard. She was found in an upstairs family room with her legs and wrists bound and blood under her head, perhaps indicating a struggle, he said.
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The Benoits' son, Daniel, died of asphyxiation sometime Saturday morning, Ballard said. He was found in his bed upstairs. Both mother and son had bibles placed at their sides.
Authorities found the pro wrestler dead in the basement, hanging from the pulley of a weight machine. He died sometime late Saturday or Sunday, Ballard said.
"In a community like this, it's bizarre just to have a murder suicide -- certainly involving the death of a 7-year-old child," Ballard said.
Nancy Benoit filed for a divorce in May 2003, saying their three-year union was irrevocably broken and alleging "cruel treatment." But she later dropped the complaint, as well as a request for a restraining order in which she charged that Benoit had threatened her and had broken furniture in their home.
In the divorce filing, she said Benoit made more than $500,000 a year as a professional wrestler and asked for permanent custody of Daniel and child support. In his response, Benoit sought joint custody.
"He was like the dad you always wanted to have," Bill Apter, a pro-wresting writer and friend of Benoit, told FOX News. "I just don't get this."
Apter called Benoit pensive and quiet, adding: "Chris Benoit was not the type of guy that you would profile to do anything of what is being alleged to have happened."
• Click here to view video report from MyFoxAtlanta.com.
The World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler canceled a pay-per-view appearance at the "Vengeance" event in Houston because of "personal reasons" a day before the trio were found dead.
The bodies were found Monday afternoon in three separate rooms of the house, off a gravel road about two miles from the Whitewater Country Club.
• Click here for full coverage on the WWE Web site.
Neighbors said the Benoits led a low-key lifestyle.
"We would see Chris walking in his yard from time to time. He wasn't rude, but he wasn't really outwardly warm," said Alaina Jones, who lives across the street.
Jimmy Baswell, who was Benoit's driver for more than five years, placed a white wreath at the Benoits' gate. "They always seemed like they were the happiest people," he said.
Whiteside said toxicology tests could take up to a week or longer to complete.
Text messages from the wrestler seem to have prompted the police to visit the home.
"The sheriff's department will only confirm that he sent one text message sometime around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, and I know that the WWE is saying that he sent several others, which is what prompted them to contact the sheriff's office to go do a welfare check at the house," Saeed Ahmed of the Journal-Constitution told FOX News.
World Wrestling Entertainment said on its Web site that it asked authorities to check on Benoit and his family after being alerted by friends who received "several curious text messages sent by Benoit early Sunday morning."
The WWE, based in Stamford, Conn., said it had been asked by authorities not to release further information on the deaths.
Benoit was born in Montreal. He was a former world heavyweight champion, Intercontinental champion and held several tag-team titles over his career. He was known by several names including "The Canadian Crippler."
"WWE extends its sincerest thoughts and prayers to the Benoit family's relatives and loved ones in this time of tragedy," the company said in a statement on its Web site.
Benoit had maintained a home in metro Atlanta from the time he wrestled for the defunct World Championship Wrestling. The Fayette County Tax Assessors Office lists the value of the house, situated on more than 8.5 acres, at nearly $900,000.
The WWE canceled its live "Monday Night RAW" card in Corpus Christi, Texas, and USA Network aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled wrestling telecast on June 25.
Benoit's wife managed several wrestlers and went by the stage name "Woman," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
They met when her then-husband, Kevin Sullivan, drew up a script that had them involved in a relationship as part of an ongoing story line on World Championship Wrestling.
Sullivan spoke to FOXNews.com late Tuesday and expressed shock and sadness over the death of his ex-wife, who he married in 1985.
From his home in Tavernier, Fla., Sullivan said he had not spoken to his ex-wife since their split.
“It’s surreal,” said Sullivan, who did not have children with Nancy Benoit. “She was a nice person. We just went our separate ways. She was nice and very loving and I’m sure she was a good mother.”
Sullivan said he did not know Benoit well outside the ring. “I never associated with him, so I really don’t know his personality,” he said. … “[But] I’m sad for all three, especially the child.”
Benoit, who has two other children from a prior relationship, became a standout at an early age among wrestling prospects who trained in the dungeon basement of the house where fellow Canadians and professional wrestlers Owen and Bret Hart trained. Owen Hart was killed during a wrestling event in 1999.
"He was like a family member to me, and everyone in my family is taking it real hard," said Bret Hart, a five-time champion with the now-defunct World Wrestling Federation.
Blane Bachelor and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Baghdad, Iraq.
''Wikinews'' has learned through an investigation that anonymous edits on the Wikipedia article Chris Benoit were added about the death of his wife Nancy Benoit 14 hours before police entered the Benoit home to find the former professional World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Canadian wrestler and his family dead.

An anonymous edit from IP address 69.120.111.23 using the Internet service provider ''Optimum Online'' was made at 04:01 UTC on  Chris Benoit's Wikipedia article. On a paragraph about an earlier fight: "However, Chris Benoit was replaced… due to personal issues,…", the anonymous editor added " ''stemming from the death of his wife Nancy.''" The edit was reversed just under one hour later with the comment: "Need a reliable source. Saying that his wife died is a pretty big statement, you need to back it up with something."

Then just one hour later after the first edit reversion, another anonymous edit by 125.63.148.173 using ''unwiredAustralia.com.au,'' a wireless Internet service provider, was made adding about the aforementioned personal issues: "''which according to several pro wrestling websites is attributed to the passing of Benoit's wife, Nancy.''" That edit was reverted just under 20 minutes later, with the comment: "Saying 'several pro wrestling websites' is still not reliable information."

Further investigation shows that the IP address used to make the first edit is located in Connecticut, but the IP address is not linked to any computers or servers used by the WWE, but according to Cary Bass, Volunteer Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation, the IP address matches a location in Stamford, Connecticut where the WWE headquarters is located. Bass also informed the local authorities in Atlanta about the unusual edits, but it is not known if the edits were investigated by the police. The second edit was made by a computer in Australia from a wireless network.

"It didn't become apparent until someone put the pieces together and realized that the comment was made by someone who apparently knew about the murders," added Bass.

Fayette County Sheriff deputy Lt. Tommy Pope stated that police found the family at about 2:30 p.m. ET, which is 18:30 UTC, on Monday when the WWE called police and asked them to do a "welfare check" after employees of WWE received calls and text messages from Chris Benoit. Early Sunday, Benoit sent repeated text messages that read "My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville Georgia. 30215." Another text message reportedly said "The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open." The messages were sent around 4:00 a.m. ET.

Earlier, on Saturday afternoon, Chris Benoit placed a series of calls that explained why he missed his flight to Houston. The stories he told were mostly about his wife and son being sick with food poisoning and vomiting. Although, in one call he said that he and Nancy were at the hospital to be with Daniel who was hospitalized. Throughout he insisted that he would attend that live event in Houston.

When he missed the live event on Sunday, and the WWE couldn't get hold of him, they contacted authorities. Police say that Benoit strangled his wife on Friday, smothered his son on late Friday or early Saturday, and then hanged himself inside his weight room on Sunday or Monday.

The Wikinews investigation is unable to conclude whether the anonymous editors had inside information about the death of Nancy Benoit.

This is not the first time Benoit's article has been edited to show false or unsourced information, as the article's edit history indicates a long history of promotional spam and vandalism. Around the time of the edits, the article contained a hidden warning to editors of the section mentioned, warning against adding rumours and speculations. For the time being, Benoit's article has been protected in an attempt to stop the addition of fraudulent information.