RIO DE JANEIRO — Police investigating the death of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti are working on the assumption his wife strangled him with her purse strap while he drunkenly slept.
The woman’s lawyer, however, insists she is innocent and was too “fragile” to kill a boxer.
Lead investigator Moises Teixeira on Monday said nothing is being ruled out, but he is certain the woman acted by herself.
“It was technically impossible for a third person to have been in the flat,” where Gatti was found dead early Saturday, Teixeira said. “The investigation isn’t finished, but we continue to think she did this alone.”
Gatti’s 23-year-old Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, told investigators she awoke Saturday about 6 a.m. to find her husband’s body in the apartment they rented in Porto de Galinhas.
Teixeira said police do not think anyone else entered the apartment and killed Gatti — he said there were no signs of forced entry and electronic locks indicated nobody else had entered the room aside from Rodrigues and Gatti. The investigator said Rodrigues told them she thought her husband had committed suicide or that someone had entered the apartment and killed him. Teixeira ruled out both scenarios.
Gatti retired in 2007 with a career record of 40-9 and 31 knockouts. He was 37.
