Arturo Gatti: Second Autopsy a Go; Police Details
By Mark Vester
A second autopsy of deceased former champion Arturo Gatti will be under way. The Canadian Press report that the Quebec coroner's office has approved the exhumation of the Gatti's body and a second autopsy at at the request of the family. The family has retained an American pathologist who assist with the autopsy over the weekend. The second autopsy was requested after Brazilian police ruled that Gatti committed suicide on July 11 while vacationing with his wife and 10-month-old son. Gatti's 23-year-old Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, was the prime suspect and was held in custody by Brazilian authorties since July 12. A judge ordered her release after police determined that Gatti was not murdered based on an autopsy that suggested the fighter hanged himself.
The original theory by detectives was that Gatti passed out in their rented apartment after drinking all night and his wife strangled him with her purse strap and caused injury to the back of his head with a table knife. A blood stained purse strap was recovered at the scene. Police believe that Gatti was dead for eight to ten hours before his wife alerted them. The couple had been involved in a violent fight prior to returning back to the resort.
Under heavy fire, Brazilian police released more details about Gatti's death. Gatti is alleged to have hanged himself with the purse strap that he tied around a wooden staircase column about seven feet off the ground. Police say he looping it around his neck and then kicking the stool from underneath his body.
Gatti was said to have been found on the floor several hours by his wife, who assumed the fighter passed out from drinking. A crime scene analysis found markings on the staircase column. Gatti's wife claims to have went downstairs at 6am, saw Gatti laying on the floor and went back upstairs to tend to their son. When she returned back down at 9am, she realized the fighter was dead.
No suicide note was found.
Police interviewed 17 witnesses about the fighting between Gatti and Rodrigues on the night before his death. Police reports state the couple had a loud verbal dispute on the street after Gatti drank about seven beers and two bottles of wine. Gatti tossed his wife during the fight and caused injury to her chin and left arm. A security guard for a local hotel tried to intervene and was alleged to have been punched in the face by Gatti.
As the violence broke out, witnesses told police that a small crowd gathered at the scene and started throwing rocks at Gatti. One of the rocks hit Gatti to the back of the head. Police now believe that was cause of the wound behind Gatti's head, and not the small table knife that was found near his dead body. The fight was broken up and the couple left in separate taxis back to their apartment.
After she was released from prison, Rodrigues told the AP that she fought often with Gatti and blamed his fear of divorce as the motivation for the suicide.
"I believe that when we got home and he saw that he hurt me, he thought I would leave him, that I would tell him to just let me go, that I would separate from him,'' she said. "He did that in a moment of weakness. He was drunk, maybe he didn't know what he was doing, maybe he thought I would leave him the next day.''
Gatti's family will await the results of the second autopsy.
