ARCHIVE 5/11/08: Benoit — The Scandal Wrestling Fans Wish Would Go Away

Benoit — The Scandal Wrestling Fans Wish Would Go Away

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

by Irvin Muchnick

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office’s last substantive response to questions posed by me was on April 8, 2008. The only subsequent responses have been from the attorney processing requests for open records. In March, Sheriff Randall Johnson’s public information officer, Lieutenant Belinda McCastle, had told me to direct all questions to Detective Ethon Harper, author of the sheriff’s report on the Benoit investigation. I exchanged email and spoke with Harper up until April 9, after which Harper stopped returning messages.

World Wrestling Entertainment’s last of two communications with me was an April 1 email from Gary Davis, vice president for corporation communication. Davis wrote, “[W]hy are you asking for this information, how do you intend to use this information, and what is it that you think this information, if provided, is going to prove?”

SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2007

3:53 – 3:58 a.m. Eastern time

Using both his own and his wife Nancy’s cell phones, Chris Benoit transmits to Chavo Guerrero and Scott James (Armstrong) a total of five messages containing two pieces of content. One piece is, “My physical address is 130 Green Meadow Lane, Fayetteville Georgia, 30215.” The other piece is, “The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open.”

9:26 a.m. Scott James sends a text message to Chris Benoit’s cell phone: “What time do u land?”

1:54 p.m. This is when the interpretive log of phone calls that would be provided in the sheriff’s report stops. The printout of phone call transactions given to the sheriff by Verizon Wireless shows scores of additional calls through Tuesday, June 26, which are not on the sheriff’s interpretive log. The primary-source phone data in the sheriff’s public investigative records originally would include only text messages. Later the records would add home answering machine audio, with the explanation that it had been inadvertently omitted. The sheriff’s report also explains how investigators worked around a technical problem to retrieve text messages. The report does not mention cell phone voicemail. In response to my questions – in the period before April 9, 2008, when Detective Harper stopped returning messages – the sheriff said a technical problem had prevented the retrieval of cell phone voicemail but did not explain why the issue was not addressed in the report.

8:00 p.m. WWE stages the “Vengeance: Night of Champions” pay-per-view in Houston. Benoit was scheduled to wrestle C.M. Punk for the vacated ECW championship. Instead, Punk wrestles John Morrison. On the pay-per-view broadcast, the audience is told that Benoit is tending to a family emergency. Benoit’s absence is not explained to the live crowd.

MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2007

12:30 p.m. Eastern time

According to WWE, this is when “WWE officials were notified of the text messages sent to the co-workers the previous day.”

12:45 p.m. According to WWE, this is when the company contacted the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office.

1:16 p.m. Dennis Fagan of Andrews International, WWE’s private security contractor, calls the Fayette County E911 Center and requests a welfare check at the Benoit home. Fagan says Benoit left “a message” with mysterious content for “another wrestler” “this morning.”

“Approximately 4:00 p.m.” According to WWE, this is when the company was contacted by the sheriff “advising that they had entered the house of Chris Benoit and found three deceased bodies.”

“Between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.” According to WWE, this is when the decision was made to cancel the scheduled live Raw in Corpus Christi and replace it with a Benoit tribute show.

4:24 p.m. WWE security consultant Fagan calls 911 again, asks what was found at the Benoit home, and is told he will be called back.

4:46 p.m. WWE vice president Rich Hering calls 911 and leaves a message for Lieutenant Tommy Pope of the Sheriff’s Office. Hering says he has information that he understands Pope is seeking from him.

6:11 p.m. This is the earliest wire service citation I can find of WWE’s website announcement: “World Wrestling Entertainment was informed today by authorities in Fayette County, Ga., that WWE Superstar Chris Benoit, his wife, Nancy, and his son were found dead in their home. Authorities are investigating, but no other details are available at this time. Instead of its announced programming for tonight on USA Network, WWE will air a three-hour tribute to Chris Benoit. Chris was beloved among his fellow Superstars, and was a favorite among WWE fans for his unbelievable athleticism and wrestling ability. 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. WWE extends its sincere condolences and prayers to the surviving members of the Benoit family and their loved ones in this time of tragedy.”

6:36 p.m. Eastern time (4:36 Mountain time) The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are dispatched to the home of Chris Benoit’s parents to assist Emergency Medical Services in “a complaint of a distraught female [who] was just informed that her son, who lives in the United States, had passed away.” Constable Rob Morris reports that he called Detective Bo Turner in Fayette County to confirm details: “The incident is being investigated as an alleged murder-suicide.”