Wrestler and Wife Argued Over Child Care (Son had Fragile X Syndrome)

In the days before pro wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and child and hanged himself, the couple argued over whether he should stay home more to take care of their mentally retarded 7-year-old son, an attorney for the wrestling league said Wednesday.

``I think it's fair to say that the subject of caring for that child was part of what made their relationship complicated and difficult, and it's something they were both constantly struggling with,'' said Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for World Wrestling Entertainment. ``We do know it was a source of stress and consternation.''

McDevitt said the wrestling organization learned from the couple's friends and relatives that the Benoits were struggling with where to send the boy to school since he had recently finished kindergarten.

He also said Benoit's wife didn't want him to quit wrestling, but she ``wanted him to be at home more to care for the kid. She'd say she can't take care of him by herself when he was on the road.''

The child suffered from a rare medical condition called Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism, McDevitt said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6741160,00.html

Fragile X is a family of genetic conditions, which can impact individuals and families in various ways. These genetic conditions are related in that they are all caused by gene changes in the same gene, called the FMR1 gene.

Fragile X includes:

fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common cause of inherited mental impairment. This impairment can range from learning disabilities to more severe cognitive or intellectual disabilities. (Sometimes referred to as mental retardation.) FXS is the most common known cause of autism or "autistic-like" behaviors. Symptoms also can include characteristic physical and behavioral features and delays in speech and language development.

http://www.fragilex.org/html/what.htm

He made plenty of money to hire a caregiver for the child....to help the mother....


Why didn't they ask for help?

but it sounds as if they were ashamed of their kid.

I'd be willing to lay that one at the father's feet (since he murdered his son and his wife).

The child did go to Kindergarten, so he wasn't completely sheltered.

Sad all the way around.

Agreed and agreed.

to be more involved in the decisions, or the responsibility.

Sometimes just the burden of being the only parent around can be terrible, even for the short term.

I feel the same way. Shoot, if I were making that kind of money? Words fail me as to what happened here. This is awful. Not because I'm a pro-wrestling fan, but because I am not. Peace to the families left behind. :-(

Didn't the Texas belltower killer turn out to be afflicted with a brain tumor?

That's a new one for me. Interesting.

It's what killed him, if I recall correctly.

On edit: It was Lyle Alzado. He didn't kill anyone during a so-called 'roid rage but I suppose that, depending on the location of brain lesions, such behavior could occur.

From Wikipedia: Steroids
Alzado is probably most remembered today for being one of the first major U.S. sports figures to admit to abuse of steroids. In the last years of his life, as he battled against the brain cancer that eventually caused his death at the age of 43, Alzado asserted that his steroid abuse directly led to his final illness. Alzado was using natural growth hormone, harvested from human corpses, as opposed to synthetic growth hormones. Alzado is buried at River View Cemetery in Portland.<1>

He took hgh for 16 weeks, I believe. The source is not only creepy, but probably lacking in medical credibility. I don't think that the medical examiner suggested in was hgh that killed him, nor what caused his brain cancer.

In any case, it's what he believed, and I recall him saying so. I do not recall whether he provided any information regarding the basis for his belief. Nor do I know the results of of his autopsy, if, indeed, one was conducted.

As for the length of time he took steroids, here's what he said, not long before his 1992 death:

"I started taking anabolic steroids in 1969 and never stopped. It was addicting, mentally addicting. Now I'm sick, and I'm scared. Ninety per cent of the athletes I know are on the stuff. We're not born to be 300 lbs or jump 30ft. But all the time I was taking steroids, I knew they were making me play better. I became very violent on the field and off it. I did things only crazy people do. Once a guy sideswiped my car and I beat the hell out of him. Now look at me. My hair's gone, I wobble when I walk and have to hold on to someone for support, and I have trouble remembering things. My last wish? That no one else ever dies this way."

http://www.usefultrivia.com/celebrity_trivia/sports_celebrity_trivia_008a.html

(My most humble apology, if I've provided another "creepy" source. :eyes: )

So, by his own admission, he took steroids for more than twenty years. Further, he acknowledged that doing so caused terrible and violent personality changes in him. If that didn't happen at the neurological level, I'm not sure where it did happen. And, while that may not be the same thing as a tumor, it's not hard to imagine that taking such a filthy, side-effect laden drug for long periods might generate physical changes in brain tissue, including lesions.

"Alzado was using natural growth hormone, harvested from human corpses...."

DUer WinkyDink is correct. I meant the "dead people" source of it is creepy.

In addition, when this comes up there should be a line drawn between performance enhancers. Anabolics, hgh, IGF...could all to easily be bled into someone taking creatine in a stretch.

Anyway, I was just speculating out loud. I'm no expert. I just know that dirty drugs can do bad things. And steroids do affect behavior, the origin of which is in the brain. Regarding creatine supplements, I never knew that they were considered by anyone to be in the same class as anabolic steroids. :)

There are so many weird things about this case, too. The fact that his doctor had seen him that Friday and noted nothing out of the ordinary. The Bibles. The length of time between each murder and, then, the murders and the suicide. The carefully articulated messages he sent out on Sunday. Again, I'm no expert but, to my knowledge, these acts don't fit comfortably into generally understood profiles of murderers.

It will be extremely interesting to learn the results of the full investigation into this sad event.

<snip>
during the autopsy it was found that Whitman had a cancerous glioblastoma tumor in the hypothalamus region of his brain. Some theorised that it may have been pressed against the nearby amygdala, which can affect emotive passion
<snip>

The steroid brain damage is something different...if that is what caused these crimes..

you know that but for the benefit of those who just scan the subject lines, charles whitman was not on steroids

sometimes mother nature can be cruel

The point I was trying to make is that brain lesions can have a devastating effect on behavior.

the childes mental retardation. It's a good question, to which I have no answer to.
Sad story, from all angles. May they all RIP.

a father contributes the Y chromosone, the mother contributes the X. Unless mom was on them, steroids could not be a factor.


Furthermore, on edit, since the egg exists (it is thought) before the birth of the mother, it is a genetic defect of tragic proportions.

Boys get their X from their mom, the Y from dad.

I'm feeling no charity toward Benoit. But since I can't say anything nice, I won't say anything further.

:cry:

The stress must have gotten too high, I guess.


Even pro-wrestlers can snap and break is the moral here, I think. Too bad he didn't get any help coping with his stress before it broke him and had him kill his wife, son and self.