A private investigator hired by the manager of boxing legend Arturo Gatti’s has given his verdict after a thorough investigation into the boxer’s death in 2009.
PI Paul Ciolino was hired by Pat Lynch to investigate the circumstances of the two-weight world champion’s death in Brazil.
Gatti and his wife Amanda Rodrigues and his young son were on holidays and after an investigation by the Brazilian authorities death was ruled a suicide.
The police judged that the fighter was drunk and depressed and used his wife’s purse strap to hang himself whilst his wife and son slept upstairs, an assertion the investigator completely disagrees with.
“I think that when we get done with the press conference it will be pretty clear it was not a suicide,” Ciolino told New Jersey newspaper The Journal.
“It was not physically possible, given the circumstances and their (Brazilian police) theories.
Ciolino also added that the Brazilian police investigation was “half-assed” and “The autopsy was totally incomplete.”
“They did a lot of things that were not acceptable practice anywhere in the world. It was just totally inaccurate,” added Ciolino.
Gatti’s family and many boxing fans around the world, refused to believe that ‘Thunder’ would take his own life. Ciolino has suggested indirectly that if suicide is ruled out that leaves only Gatti’s wife as a person who could have murdered the fighter.
“We don’t have to (point any fingers); only one person was in the apartment that night.”
Ciolino claims that he has in his possession evidence, “which will conclusively lay to rest the mystery surrounding Gatti’s cause of death.”
A press conference is scheduled for today after the 10 month investigation, with the full report due at the end of the month.
[Main picture via Chamber of Fear via Wikimedia Commons]
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