A subject of great sensitivity — yet one I remain convinced is another of those contributory factors in the full story of the Chris Benoit double murder/suicide — is the medical condition of Chris and Nancy’s seven-year-old son Daniel.
In no way do I believe stress over Daniel was the primary cause of this family tragedy. On the list of suspicions, it ranks behind the effects of steroids, human growth hormone, and other drugs found in the Benoit home; behind the Chris Nowinski research on long-term brain trauma from repeated concussions (which Michael Benoit, Chris Benoit’s father, emphatically cites); behind even the tempestuous, at times violent nature of the Chris and Nancy relationship, independent of any tensions around child-rearing.
But Daniel was out there in the public domain, and how he fits into all this should be resolved. The sheriff’s report closing the case is unhelpfully silent. The autopsy of Daniel by the medical examiner for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation seems to confirm, in technical language, the existence of needle marks on Daniel’s arm. The toxicology report shows only a high but non-toxic dose of Xanax, probably administered by his father in a last twisted act of mercy to make sure Daniel wouldn’t feel any pain when Chris killed him by cervical compression.
In an exhaustive post last September headlined “Crossing the T’s on Fragile X” (http://muchnick.net/babylon/2007/09/28/crossing-the-ts-on-fragile-x), I tentatively concluded that Daniel did have the medical condition called Fragile X. I’ll add only one thing I’ve learned since then, which supports that speculation. Daniel was seven years old, yet enrolled in a “bridge kindergarten” program at a preschool. Bridge K’s are for kids whose fifth birthdays are right on the bubble of normal kindergarten enrollment cutoff dates (typically September or October); they allow the parents of these children to hedge their bets for a year on whether they should progress to first grade the next year or should go to a conventional kindergarten class at age six. Since Daniel was in a bridge K at seven, he probably had developmental issues.
One reason I’m revisiting Daniel’s role is that — like all the Benot subplots — it provides possible insights into WWE’s spin and damage control. On that point, I think the company most likely was just opportunistic with a sympathetic diversion that got out into the news marketplace spontaneously, though, as always, I’m open to learning more about that.
The other reason we still have to talk about Daniel is that Griffin Judicial District (Fayette County) District Attorney Scott Ballard himself talked about him at the time, and in the most sensationalistic terms.
On June 26, 2007, Ballard told the media that Daniel had needle marks on his arm and said he believed his parents had given him growth hormone because they considered him undersized. “The boy was very small, even dwarfed,” Ballard said.
Later, in the frenzy of the Fragile X report, which started on a Vancouver radio interview with a Fragile X parent and activist, Ballard backed off. And as I said, the sheriff’s final report doesn’t amend or correct this point, but simply (and typically) ignores it.
I’ve asked Ballard to close this loop. So far he hasn’t responded.
Irv Muchnick