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Tonight's edition of "On The Record with Greta Van Susteren" covered the Benoit family tragedy.
The show opened with an appearance from Fayetteville District Attorney Scott Ballard.
He was asked how they set the timeline of the deaths. Ballard said that he knew Nancy Benoit was killed first because her body was in a greater state of decomposition and that her her face was turning black when they found the bodies. Daniel's body hadn't begun to change color yet. Ballard said that Nancy was found on the floor of an office on the right side of the upstairs of the house. Daniel was found in his bedroom on the other side of the upstairs of the house.
They mentioned the 2003 temporary protective order that Nancy filed against Chris and later removed. Ballard again mentioned that prescription drugs were found in the house. He mentioned steroids and said that they were found somewhere inside the house. He was asked who prescribed them and Ballard wouldn't name the doctor. He said he was investigating it and didn't want to compromise the investigation.
He said that there were several "older" needle marks on Daniel. He said that Daniel was undersized and mentioned that people referred to him as a dwarf. He said he was not an expert on the subject and didn't know much more than that.
He said that Nancy was bound and was found with a cord, possibly a cable TV cord, around her neck. He again said that Daniel was asphyxiated and that there were no hand marks or bruises on his neck so they are working on the theory that there he was killed with a choke hold. He said bibles were next to both bodies and he isn't sure whether the books were open or not.
The next part of the report focused on roid rage and the effects of steroids on wrestlers.
After that, WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt then talked about the Fragile X syndrome that appears to have afflicted Daniel. McDevitt said that the boy's condition had been a source of strife recently between his parents. He said that on Thursday, Nancy had called Dr. Astin who was treating Daniel (and prescribed steroids for Chris). She asked Astin for help pertaining to Astin's special school needs. Benoit went to Dr. Astin's office the following day and spoke with him. McDevitt intimated that they talked about Daniel's special education needs and that could have been a trigger issue between the parents. Chris then went home and killed Nancy shortly thereafter.
He was asked why Chris Benoit would need steroids. McDevitt said that you would have to ask Astin but mentioned the report from earlier today where Astin said he prescribed them due to Benoit having low testosterone levels, which McDevitt called a "perfectly legal transaction in America" since it was done to treat a medical condition. I was surprised no one asked why Benoit would have lowered levels to begin with. McDevitt said that he doesn't believe the theory of roid rage and said that the evidence does not support it. Van Susteren jumped in and said, "Not yet". She added that she knew WWE issued a statement downplaying the role of steroids and she said she found it "weird" that they jumped right into that and said she would have laid low on the subject for now.
McDevitt countered media outlets were jumping on the steroid angle and were "over the top" with the steroid connection in their coverage, which has not been proven at this time. He said that that the reason that WWE put out the statement "inject some sensibility" into it and have people look at the facts. He said that the killings occurred over days, intimating that they were not the result of a singular fit of rage. He said that they now know that after Benoit killed his wife, he was still alone in the house with Daniel, whose condition they had struggled with figuring out how to handle. Van Susteren jumped in saying she was out of time for him and said she agreed that conclusions about steroids and any potential role should not be jumped to at this time.
They then brought in two doctors to speculate about steroids and how they could possibly effect the case. I don't see the point in recapping blatant speculation here.
Bret Hart then came off to talk about Benoit. He said a lot of nice things about Benoit, as he has in other interviews lately. Bret did add that he had talked to Benoit's older son, from his first marriage. He said that the family is strong and they will get through this crisis. He was asked if he knew Chris used steroids. He said he was "sure that he used them through his career, I'm guessing" but he never saw him use them. He then said that after Eddie Guerrero died, WWE put in a strong policy against them and in talking to wrestlers he was under the impression that they were worried about having steroids in their system so he felt the policy was working. He said if Benoit had them in his house, maybe they were "stockpiled" or maybe he was planning on using them. He felt that if Benoit came up clean on his test in April, he was probably abiding by the Wellness Policy. He was then asked if he knew if there was anything wrong with Daniel. He said he never knew of anything to be wrong with him at all. He said he never thought of Daniel as a dwarf and said he never heard Chris refer to him as having anything wrong with him. He said that the child looked a little small but Chris was small too. He said he would have never noticed it if it hadn't come up in the reports.
That ended the segment. Unlike a lot of hatchet jobs I have seen on news channels the last few days, this was a very balanced and fair piece.
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