RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Former world champion  Arturo Gatti committed suicide and was not murdered as  initially suspected, a Brazilian police spokesman said on  Thursday.

The 37-year-old Canadian was found dead in a holiday flat  in north-eastern Brazil earlier this month and his wife Amanda  Rodrigues, who was primarily charged with his murder, has now  been released.

“The police inquiry concluded that he committed suicide  using the strap of a rucksack on a staircase in the early hours  of the morning,” a police spokesman from Pernambuco state told  Reuters by telephone.

Italian-born Gatti was found dead on July 11 in the flat  the couple had rented in the seaside resort of Porto de  Galinhas.

Rodrigues, 23, had been held in the city of Recife after  Gatti died while the couple were on holiday in her native  Brazil with their one-year-old son.

Nicknamed “Thunder”, Gatti was IBF super featherweight  champion in 1995 and WBC super-lightweight champion in 2004. He  retired in 2007 with a 40-9 record.