Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide

Between June 22 and June 24, 2007, Chris Benoit, a 40-year-old Canadian professional wrestler employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), killed his wife Nancy Benoit and their seven-year-old son Daniel before taking his own life at their home in Fayetteville, Georgia, about 22 miles south of Atlanta. According to the police report and autopsy findings, Nancy was killed first, on the night of June 22, dying of asphyxiation. Her limbs had been bound with coaxial cables and duct tape, and injuries indicated Benoit pressed a knee into her back while pulling a cord around her neck. Daniel was suffocated in his bedroom on the morning of June 23; toxicology found he had been sedated with Xanax and was likely unconscious at the time. Bibles were placed near both bodies. On the evening of June 24, Benoit hanged himself in his home weight room using a lat pulldown machine.

In the days between the killings and the discovery of the bodies, Benoit exchanged calls and text messages with WWE colleagues, including wrestler Chavo Guerrero and referee Scott Armstrong, offering shifting explanations for his and his family's absence from scheduled events, including claims of food poisoning. Benoit failed to appear for a WWE pay-per-view event on June 24. WWE requested a welfare check, and Fayetteville police discovered the three bodies on June 25, 2007, subsequently classifying the home as a "major crime scene."

Toxicology results presented by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found therapeutic (not abuse-level) drug findings in Nancy's system, alcohol at a level of 0.184, and Xanax in Daniel's system. Chris Benoit tested negative for blood alcohol but had elevated levels of testosterone cypionate and no evidence of GHB despite speculation. Various explanations for Benoit's actions have been publicly proposed, including postmortem findings of severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in his brain examined by neurosurgeon Julian Bailes, as well as hypotheses involving steroid use, alcohol, and marital difficulties; WWE publicly disputed the "roid rage" hypothesis, citing evidence of premeditation. Nancy had filed for divorce from Benoit in May 2003 alleging domestic abuse, later withdrawing the filing.

The case prompted a United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform inquiry into WWE's wellness policy and steroid use in professional wrestling, though Congress took no formal action against WWE. Benoit's physician, Phil Astin, was separately charged in February 2008 with overprescribing medication in a case not connected to Benoit, later pleading guilty to 175 counts and receiving a ten-year prison sentence. WWE removed most references to Benoit from its media platforms following the killings. Nancy and Daniel were memorialized in Daytona Beach, Florida, in July 2007; Benoit was cremated following a private service in Alberta, Canada, in August 2007.