Chris Benoit

Roid rage, a term associated with steroid use, is a quick, violent outburst. It leads to a punch, a kick, an assault, but not murder. The Benoit murders/suicide occurred over a two to three day period.

With the rampant use of steroids in sports and the number of high-profile wrestlers who have died at an early age, no one -- other than Benoit -- has been linked to murder.

The Sports Legacy Institute, an organization that advances health and wellness of athletes, coordinated the testing using samples of Benoit's brain tissue provided by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation — with the permission of Benoit's father.

Despite the results, Dr. Robert Cantu, a member of the institute and chief of neurosurgery service at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., said there was no way to know for sure if the concussions Benoit suffered caused the murder-suicide.

Cantu did say that the brain injury Benoit suffered can cause depression and irrational behavior.

That's because of a forfeiture statute that takes into account the fact that Benoit was the killer. As such, the law for purposes of estate distribution would consider Benoit to have died before his wife and son.

Pro wrestler Chris Benoit had more than 10 times the normal level of testosterone in his system when he hanged himself in his home after killing his wife and 7-year-old son last month. But did that have anything to do with the slayings?

"I think it's an unanswerable question," said Dr. Kris Sperry, Georgia's top medical examiner.

Test results released Tuesday neither bolstered nor entirely debunked speculation that anabolic steroids might have led Benoit, a wrestler with a family-man image, to commit the shocking crimes. Some experts believe steroids can cause paranoia, depression and violent outbursts known as "roid rage," but Sperry noted that there is no consensus on the issue.

Even the high levels of testosterone should not be overanalyzed, Sperry warned. They could indicate the wrestler was being treated for "testicular insufficiency," he said.

In the end, he said, authorities will never know whether the steroid could have caused the murderous outburst.

ATLANTA (FOX 5) – Investigators in the Benoit murder case reacted Thursday night to an internet report that Nancy Benoit feared for her life. The report also claimed that Chris Benoit had recently moved out of the family home because of trouble, but investigators said such reports proved to be frustrating.

Fayette County detectives said there was no truth to a report that was posted on the website, prowrestling.com that said that Nancy had written what the website called, "a strange note" before her death that stated that if something happened to her then Chris would be to blame.

Investigators said a safe deposit box, which the website reported contained the note, actually held typical documents and had no personal writings from Nancy Benoit in it.

Detectives say this kind of internet report is typical of what they call conspiracy theories that have been phoned into the Sheriff's office from as far away as California since the bodies were discovered.

An investigation by the National Enquirer's investigative team uncovered what they report as the "real" story of what happened on the tragic weekend that superstar wrestler Benoit snapped - killing his family and then himself. Many have blamed steroids but the report claims that there was booze involved.

The online item claims that Chris was guzzling beer and wine in agony and the popular grappler made sad, slurred phone calls to friends as he prepared to snuff out his life. "When he killed his wife, his life was over and he knew it," an insider told the weekly magazine. "But he still had his beloved son, and who would take care of him? That's why it all ended in the ultimate tragedy."

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter are reporting that Chris Benoit took out a new life insurance policy, which listed his ex-wife and oldest child David, 14, and Megan, 10, as the beneficiaries. Nancy apparently confronted Chris about it and he refused to change it. Nancy also found out that Chris Benoit set up a new bank account in the name of his ex-wife in Edmonton.

“She was into devil-worship stuff. It was part of her [wrestling] character, but [she was] somebody who gets so close to their character, someone who gets into their character too much. Sometimes these people believe their own publicity.”

Fayette County prosecutor Scott Ballard said in a news release Tuesday that some of the boy's medical records have been reviewed and "they do not mention any pre-existing mental or physical impairment."

Domestic violence experts downplay the possible role of steroids in the Chris Benoit killings, saying the tragedy was more about Benoit's anger over control issues at home.

Steroid usage has been linked to angry outbursts called "roid rage," and depression when usage stops.

But in the case of Benoit, who apparently killed his wife and 7-year-old son during the weekend of June 24 before committing suicide, "that was a premeditated act and that's not rage," said Dr. Gary Wadler of New York, who studies the use of drugs in sports.

"I would wonder whether there was some underlying psychiatric abnormality that was unmasked by being on steroids," he said.

"It's sort of counterintuitive that he's raging for three days straight," said Nancy Grigsby, executive director of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "Unfortunately, it looks like a garden variety domestic violence incident to me. It's a decision, and they're actually typically quite calm when they give themselves permission to do what they want to do."

The killings at the Benoit home occurred over an entire weekend, which does not point to rage, experts said.

Penn State University epidemiologist Charles Yesalis, who has studied steroids for 30 years, said "anabolic steroid rage is a spontaneous behavior. From what I've read, the death of Benoit and his family wasn't spontaneous. I don't see steroids had much, if anything, to do with this."

District Attorney Scott Ballard says, "A choke hold was used, rather than hands. There's no bruising consistent with strangulation by hands."

Wrestling writer Dave Meltzer adds, "There was bruising consistent with the Crippler Crossface on one arm and Daniel's face. There were no bruises on his neck.

"But police don't believe, because of the size difference, that the hold was applied exactly as in a wrestling match."

A source having access to certain of Daniel's medical reports reviewed those reports, and they do not mention any pre-existing mental or physical impairment. Reports from Daniel's educators likewise contradict the claims that Daniel was physically undersized.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested a wrestling fan from South Carolina Thursday afternoon after she threw rocks at a neighbor near the home of pro wrestler Chris Benoit.

Teresa Ann Kimbrell, 45, of Inman, S.C. was charged with simple assault and disorderly conduct, police said. The neighbor called deputies to the home after the skirmish, saying that he was going out to get his mail when Kimbrell tried to strike up a conversation with him, said sheriff’s Lt. Tommy Pope.

The neighbor sensed that Kimbrell was intoxicated and tried to ignore her, Pope said. After getting his mail, he turned around and began to walk back to the house when Kimbrell threw several stones at him, Pope said, adding that some of the stones struck the neighbor.

Chris Benoit's former wife, Martina Benoit, said the star wrestler "was the most loving person anyone could imagine. I love him."

Reached at her home in Ardrossan, Alberta, Canada, Benoit called reporting of the killings in Fayette County "crap." She did not elaborate before ending the call.

But in the wake of the lurid events that played out in suburban Atlanta last weekend, the Daily News has learned that another drug may have been part of a deadly cocktail that could have caused Benoit to snap. According to sources familiar with his drug regimen, Benoit was a known abuser of the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate - or GHB, also known as the "date-rape drug."

Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles police detective who is president of the non-profit Project GHB, adds that it is not uncommon for GHB users to add methamphetamine into the mix, and that meth abuse often contributes to bizarre acts involving religion.

"The question everybody asks is, 'How in the hell could you kill your son?' Well, in a meth psychosis, your son could be the devil. That can happen quite easily," says Porrata.

US authorities have dropped an investigation into anonymous Wikipedia entries from America and Australia that posted news of wrestler Chris Benoit's wife's murder 14 hours before her body was discovered.

Fayette County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lieutenant Tommy Pope said he could no longer see "any relevance" in investigating the Wikipedia entries.

The parents of Nancy Benoit were contesting a widely-reported aspect of the case -- that Daniel Benoit had an inherted genetic developmental disability.

On Friday, Nancy Benoit's parents said through their attorney that they were unaware that their grandson had a rare medical condition called Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism.

Atlanta-based lawyer Richard Decker, who represents Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, told ESPN.com's Elizabeth Merrill that the grandparents babysat often for Daniel and noticed no medical issues.

"To them, he's always been a normal, healthy, happy child with no signs of illness," Decker said. "And that's not from a distance. That's from day-to-day contact.

Chris Benoit was a "delusional juice freak" who chased the dark side and had trouble distinguishing between his fictional character and reality, says the man who started him out in professional wrestling.

"The last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape mentally," said Bruce Hart, son of the legendary Stu Hart. "I didn't know all the details but I knew it wasn't good. I was not at all shocked (by what happened).

Hart will not simplify the shocking murder of Benoit's wife and 7-year-old son or the eventual suicide of the wrestler by attributing it only to steroid usage. But he truly believes that steroid abuse, in combination with delusional behaviour, painkillers and failing health -- "almost all the people we started out with (who did steroids) began breaking down around 40," Hart said -- is a deadly cocktail that needs to be further examined.

"I've known too many wrestlers who couldn't separate the character they play on television from their real life," said Hart, who has wrestled professionally, promoted wrestling and trained wrestlers all his life.

"Wrestlers start believing their press clippings and what is said on television. It's like an actor leaving the set but still playing the part. There's a delusional element to this. I've seen it over and over again. Some people can't separate the character from real life, and Chris was one of those people.

"From my experience, that has been quite prevalent with wrestlers and that becomes exacerbated by steroids, drugs, painkillers and failing health."

Hart did wonder if Benoit had been given an unfavourable medical report, which may been another factor in his violent behaviour. "A lot of the steroid users start getting liver and kidney problems around the age of 40," Hart said. "There are a lot of wrestlers out there who are dead that you never heard about whose bodies broke down. I've known others who had looming health issues and went a little crazy. Maybe this caused him to go off."

Hey everyone. I am here to talk about the wikipedia comment that was left by myself. I just want to say that it was an incredible coincidence. Last weekend, I had heard about Chris Benoit no showing Vengeance because of a family emergency, and I had heard rumors about why that was. I was reading rumors and speculation about this matter online, and one of them included that his wife may have passed away, and I did the wrong thing by posting it on wikipedia to spite there being no evidence. I posted my speculation on the situation at the time and I am deeply sorry about this, and I was just as shocked as everyone when I heard that this actually would happen in real life. It is one of those things that just turned into a huge coincidence. That night I found out that what I posted, ended up actually happening, a 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, or so I thought. I was beyond wrong for posting wrongful information, and I am sorry to everyone for this. I just want everyone to know it was stupid of me, and I will never do anything like this again. I just posted something that was at that time a piece of wrong unsourced information that is typical on wikipedia, as it is done all the time.