The untimely passing of Pro bodybuilder Luke Sandoe hits even harder today, on the day that he would have turned 32 years old. Initially, his death was believed to be caused by suicide and his best friend Ben Chow made a video explaining why the promising bodybuilder likely took his own life not long after.
But then today, a family member, according to the details in the post, shared a message on Luke Sandoe’s Instagram which you can read below (scroll through Inst post to see the entire message).
This individual explained the suffering Sandoe’s family has been going through with all of the speculations and rumors about his death and they revealed the cause as heart failure and not suicide.
Read more: Family of Luke Sandoe Reveal More Information About Cause of Death
So in response to this post, Ben Chow and IFBB Pro Fouad Abiad (also a good friend of Luke Sandoe) had a discussion remotely where they shared their thoughts. So, seeing as Chow was Sandoe’s best friend who knew intimate details about the latter, spoke first. He wanted to discuss the situation in a way that is not disrespectful in any way, however, he wanted to share details he believed were important for everyone to know.
“I find the timing of it strange but that’s kind of irrelevant I guess,” he explained.
“I’m not retracting what I said originally, at all, and I never will. I stand by everything I’ve ever said about Luke.”
Chow explained how careful, conscious, and sensible Sandoe was about his career and that he never jeopardized his health for the sport. “One thing that Luke was passionate about was taking care of his health“.
“Luke was putting his body under stress but from other areas in his life. To say that the pressures of bodybuilding and the requirement to look a certain way is what led him down this path is insane. I promise you this, that is not Luke, that was never him.”
Chow allowed Abiad to speak after this point as it seemed to be a bit much for him at the moment.
“I think I’m pretty upset about what I saw today,” Abiad explained. He was also upset about the reactions of other people who were quick to say that Sandoe died from all the drug use, etc.
Abiad also said that he wanted to be sensitive to others’ feelings however he wanted to say what he felt needed to be said.
“The original story you heard is 100% true and his best friends knew it, and the story you heard today is also true.”
Abiad said that he and Luke’s other friends didn’t set out to mislead anybody.
“If it was something bodybuilding related that caused Luke’s death, I wouldn’t dance around it, and I wouldn’t run away from it.”
“We made the proper videos in accordance with what we knew took place. I’m not sure what motivations anybody has to put out the statement they did put out but whatever they are that’s their business. All I can say on my end and I’ve come to known Ben very well now is we have no reason to lie both of us are honest people”. “We don’t bullshit people.”
Abiad felt that it was an invasion of privacy to have access to Sandoe’s account. “We don’t even know who has the account, to begin with.” He suggested that people consider what he and Chow know based on their close relationship with Sandoe as opposed to immediately believing what someone unknown at the moment wrote on his page.
Chow wanted to add a few things in at this point of which he talked about protecting Sandoe and understanding that not everyone knows exactly what someone’s going through which can lead to assumptions.
“I’ll say this on my part, I’m OK if people don’t like me, I’m OK if people think I’m a liar, I’m OK if people think I’m a piece of shit. I’m not OK with people thinking ill of Luke, said Chow”.
“Take heart failure on paper in black and white looking through a keyhole, if you see heart failure on a post mortem or autopsy and you see a 300lb bodybuilder there’s a natural assumption, it’s very easy to connect those two dots. What’s happening here is that people are getting 2 + 2 and they’re getting 20. There’s a big difference in looking at it through the keyhole vs looking at the entire picture.”
“There’s a handful of people who know the whole picture and the people that know the whole picture aren’t actually probably the obvious people”. “Just realize that there’s a lot more to people’s lives than they’ll show you and that you’ll ever see”.
Abiad ended by explaining that people should really think about the fact that both stories could be true (referring to the other story). Chow added in that heart failure can occur intentionally or intentionally which should give everyone an idea of what may have likely happened.
Wait, I’m confused, so your saying that you can give your self heart failure in the form/manor of acute self injury? I’m not trying to hate here, I believed your story about what happened since you were his best friend and found Luke dead, but now what your saying is that you found him dead and knew it was suicide, and not health or drug related, but now it was somehow self induced heart failure?
Maybe you are incorrectly attributing the term heart failure, with heart attack? Please clarify, because how can you know someone killed them self and it wasn’t drugs or a health issue? How exactly do you see a dead body, with no drugs or foul play and conclude it was suicide, via self induced heart failure? You do know that heart failure is the result of a chronic illness, and heart attack is the result of an acute illness/incident? Since you ruled drugs out, please explain how one kills them selves by enlarging their heart and degenerating their heart valves to the point of failure in a single sitting for the purposes of suicide? I can understand giving ones self a heart attack via drug overdose, or electric shock which can both lead to an irregular heartbeat that causes the heart to stop, but since drugs are ruled out on your own account please for the love of God elaborate on the actual truth. The truth is not disrespectful to Luke, if it was suicide, than it was his last action on planet earth, and he certainly was not trying to hide it, he knew people would find him dead. Also, if it was suicide, than why the fuck do you think that it would be wrong or bother Luke, who is dead, to tell the actual truth about his death? The Luke you knew that was once alive could give a shit less about you telling the truth on what happened, know how I know? Because he killed him self…..duh, the act of suicide is the act of not giving a fuck about anyone or anything, but their own suffering coming to an end, irregardless of who it hurts.
If you want real clarity on the issue than just be straight with us and tell us the actual details of what happened and put to bed the endless speculation that will continue forever without the actual truth.
Stack, I pretty much agree with what you said. I am thinking his family labeled it heart failure because they may not be able to collect on his insurance policy if his death is labeled a suicide. I hope the truth one day does come out, if this indeed is an issue a lot of men deal with, as Chow says.