Second autopsy says Gatti died by hanging

The AFP reports that a second autopsy requested by the family of Arturo Gatti gave the same results that the Brazilian autopsy showed. The fighter apparently died by hanging, not strangling. There is still a bit more to be figured out, but it looks like this is the ruling we're going to get.

Police initially arrested his Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, on suspicion of strangling him with her handbag strap as he slept following a drunken row.

Rodrigues maintained her innocence, and was released when a judge ruled that Gatti likely committed suicide.

But Gatti's relatives claimed there was a coverup, and shipped his remains to Montreal in August for a second autopsy.

According to the new postmortem examination, there were no injuries showing one or more other people could have hung the boxer, La Presse reported, without citing sources.

There was no sign that Gatti was tied up or beaten, although investigators did not rule out the possibility that the boxer could have been drugged and then hung -- "a difficult but not impossible operation," La Presse said.

Toxicologists found in Gatti's body a substance that causes drowsiness that is sold in Brazil but not in Canada.

Canadian specialists still need to contact their Brazilian counterparts to determine whether the amount of the product Gatti had taken was powerful enough to put him to sleep, the paper reported.