Brazilian newspaper says autopsy indicates Arturo Gatti may have committed suicide

Report: Boxing champ may have committed suicide

SAO PAULO — A Brazilian newspaper says that an autopsy performed on former boxing champ Arturo Gatti indicates he may have committed suicide.

Gatti was found dead in the apartment he was renting with wife Amanda Rodrigues in the Brazilian seaside resort of Porto de Galinhas last Saturday. A bloody purse strap was found near his body and police have arrested Rodrigues on suspicion of strangling him.

Rodrigues, who is being held in a jail in the northeastern Brazil city of Recife, proclaimed her innocence and love for her husband in a letter given to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Jornal do Comercio newspaper reported in its Saturday edition that the autopsy performed on the former two-division champ shows that Gatti’s body was “suspended and hanged, indicating he may have committed suicide.”

Paula Cysneiros, a spokeswoman for the medical examiners’ office, would not confirm the newspaper’s report.

A visitation for Gatti is scheduled for Sunday at Maison Funeraire Magnus Poirier in his adopted hometown of Montreal, with a funeral on Monday at Notre Dame De La Defense.

Investigators have said Rodrigues was the only suspect and they were certain she killed Gatti in the apartment where they and their 10-month-old son arrived for a second honeymoon last week. The boy was unhurt and was in the care of Rodrigues’ family.

“This is a pain that has become inexplicable and intolerable, this loss and this malicious accusation,” Rodrigues wrote in the letter to the AP. “I’m innocent and I know that this will be proven in a few days.”