Canadian pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife, and son were found dead Monday and police said they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
Det. Bo Turner told television station WAGA in Atlanta that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide, but said that couldn't be confirmed until evidence was examined by a crime lab.
Chris Benoit and his family were found dead Monday at their Atlanta-area home.
(Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)
The station said that investigators believe the 40-year-old Benoit killed his wife, Nancy, and seven-year-old son, Daniel, over the weekend, then himself on Monday at their Fayetteville, Ga., home. A neighbour called police, and the bodies were found in three rooms.
Lead investigator Lieut. Tommy Pope, of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, told the Associated Press the deaths were being investigated as homicide, and that the causes of death awaited autopsy results on Tuesday. Pope said the bodies were discovered about 2:30 p.m., but refused to release details.
The house is in a secluded neighborhood set back more than 50 metres off a gravel road, surrounded by stacked stone wall and a double-iron gate.
Benoit wrestled for World Wrestling Entertainment, which cancelled its live Raw wrestling card Monday night in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Canadian television network The Score aired a three-hour tribute to Benoit in place of the scheduled telecast.
"I am deeply saddened over the loss of Chris Benoit," WWE Canada president Carl DeMarco said on the WWE website.
"My heartfelt thoughts and sympathy go out to his parents and family. My relationship with Chris has extended many years and I consider him a great friend.
"Chris was always first class — warm, friendly, caring and professional — one of the best in our business."
Benoit, 40, was born in Montreal and also lived in Edmonton.
He maintained a home in the Atlanta area from the time he wrestled for the defunct World Championship Wrestling.
Benoit was scheduled to wrestle at the Vengeance pay-per-view event Sunday night in Houston, but was replaced at the last minute because of what announcer Jim Ross called "personal reasons."
The Canadian Crippler
Benoit, a five-foot-11, 220-pounder, was often described as a rabid wolverine in the ring.
Known as "The Canadian Crippler," he had a chiseled physique and superior technical skills. The "Crippler Crossface" was one of his signature moves, along with a flying head butt from the top rope and triple German suplex.
"Chris was beloved among his fellow superstars and was a favourite among WWE fans for his unbelievable athleticism and wrestling ability," the WWE said on its website.
"He always took great pride in his performance and always showed respect for the business he loved, for his peers and towards his fans. This is a terrible tragedy and an unbearable loss."
Benoit began his career in 1985 after training with Stu Hart and family in Calgary.
Won championship in 2004
He competed for Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in the late 1980s and later wrestled in Japan and for the National Wrestling Alliance, WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling.
He joined WWE in 2000.
Benoit held several titles over his career but realized his dream at Wrestlemania 20 in 2004, defeating Shawn Michaels and champion Triple H in a triple threat match at Madison Square Garden to win the WWE world heavyweight championship for the first time.
"He was a man of few words, but his passion for the sports-entertainment business was almost unrivalled," the WWE said.
"Whether loved or hated, Benoit was always well-respected by our fans and his peers for his in-ring ability, his trademark toothless grin and his no-nonsense attitude.
"The sports-entertainment world has truly suffered a loss with his passing, as one of the all-time greats was taken well before his time."
With files from the Canadian Press
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.