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tv   Eyewitness 11PM News  CBS  March 24, 2012 11:00pm-11:35pm EDT

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[ male announcer ] the united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. >> tonight's "48 hours mystery" will continue. >> how can you get "48 hours mystery" any time, any place? want a clue?
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>> reporter: the trip to europe in june of 2009 was not just a second honeymoon, says amanda; it was a second chance. how would you describe your relationship in late june of 2009? how would you describe your relationship... >> beautiful. >> perfect. >> reporter: perfect? well, maybe not. according to arturo's friend, tony rizzo, this phone message left by arturo during the trip tells the real story. >> he was just fed up. he knew it had to come to an end. ♪ >> reporter: but if arturo had misgivings about the marriage, it didn't stop him right after that trip in europe from picking up the baby and meeting amanda in brazil.
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on july 10, 2009, the gattis arrived at this resort in the beach town of porto de galinhas. this was the first time amanda gatti talked publicly about the night that so dramatically changed her life and forever put her under a cloud of suspicion. >> we decided to go to this pizzeria. >> reporter: it started as a family dinner out, amanda says, but ended as too many other nights had before, with arturo drunk and mean. >> i told him, "okay, you're going to stay, but i'm going to go," because i couldn't stay more. and that's when the fight started. >> reporter: when you say "fight," how serious was this fight? >> it was an ugly fight. >> reporter: a crowd soon gathered. according to police reports, arturo threw her to the ground. this police video shows the injuries to her arm and chin. did he hit you? >> he didn't hit me, but he threw me on the floor and i hurt my arms. >> reporter: how did he throw
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you? >> i don't want to talk about that. >> reporter: in a flash, arturo took their ten-month-old baby and took off. >> he took the stroller... >> reporter: right. >> ...and he went to another direction. >> reporter: so, they just left you? >> they just left me. >> reporter: when he returned minutes later to look for his wife, the angry crowd began throwing things at him. witnesses say he got hit in the head with a rock and even a bicycle. bleeding from his head and shoulder, and furious, arturo fought back. people described him as the incredible hulk. >> i believe it was around 2:00, 2:00 in the morning. >> reporter: amanda made her way back to the condo. when arturo and the baby caught up with her, she says she noticed a cut on the back of her husband's head. >> and he was like, "look what happened to me. i got in a fight with four people in the street, four guys." >> reporter: but by now, the storm had passed, and arturo saw for the first time what he had done to his wife.
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>> and he was not angry. it seems like the other arturo, my husband, was there. and he was like, "who did that to you?" and i was like, "you did that to me, arturo." >> reporter: according to amanda, she had finally had enough and took their son with her to bed. >> and before i got up the stairs, he looked at me. he was sad. he just say, "i guess it's over, huh?" and i looked at him and said, "it's over." i couldn't take it anymore. >> reporter: so what's the next thing you remember? >> all right, so i wake up. junior was already woke up. it was time for him to have his bottle, and i went downstairs and arturo was on the floor. >> reporter: amanda says she was not alarmed. >> i looked at him. he looked like he was sleeping. >> reporter: he often passed out on the floor, she said, so she just left arturo there. you never said anything to him. >> i never said anything. >> reporter: unaware that
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anything was wrong, she says, she came downstairs about two hours later, still so upset she was ready to say good-bye. >> when i touch him, he was cold. at that time, i knew there was something wrong. i wanted to believe that he... he was just passed out, so i start shaking him, and i was calling his name. i said, "arturo, i forgive you." like, "please, wake up." >> reporter: amanda says she began to panic. >> so i opened other door and started screaming, "my husband's dead. my husband's dead! someone help me!" i was going crazy. >> reporter: on the floor nearby was a broken strap from amanda's own purse. did you know what had happened to him at that point? >> yes, i know. i know my husband killed himself. oh, my god, my husband killed himself.
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>> reporter: but to the brazilian police, things just didn't look or sound quite right. arturo's body was on the floor face down in a pool of blood. how did he get a deep gash on the back of his head, and why was a knife lying nearby? more important, why didn't she call police the first time she saw arturo on the floor? but didn't you have to walk right past him to get to the refrigerator? >> no, no, no. here's the living room and here's the kitchen. so here's the stairs, and i walked through here. >> reporter: you didn't see any blood? >> no, there was no blood there at that time. >> reporter: but when security systems showed that no one else had entered the apartment during the night, the police reached one conclusion. amanda was arrested and jailed. >> i was going crazy.
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>> reporter: but almost three weeks later, she was suddenly freed. ( cheers and applause ) after an autopsy, brazilian investigators concluded arturo gatti hanged himself. his friends and family refused to accept it. ( cheers and applause ) >> coming out with these big glasses with a smile from ear to ear, like she's a movie star. >> grinning like a cheshire cat. >> reporter: she's been described as a black widow. is that the way you see her? >> yeah, i'd say so. >> reporter: the story doesn't make sense to arturo's former manager, pat lynch, or his brother, john, arturo's lawyer, so they're sending a pair of private detectives to brazil to investigate. >> she never sees any blood or anything wrong. she sees him and says, "oh, i thought he was sleeping on the floor."
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>> the total sum of the evidence is going to prove he was strangled. >> from what you've heard so far, do you believe amanda? chat now with correspondent erin moriarity on facebook. [ male announcer ] it seems like every company
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>> reporter: arturo gatti's final round is being fought in probate court in montreal, canada. sadly, it was gatti versus gatti. arturo left behind a fortune in cash, investments and real estate, all of it willed to his wife and son. >> i think his estate was $5
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million, $6 million. he bled for it. he bled for that money. >> reporter: gatti's younger brother, fabrizio, says the rest of the family was cut out when arturo signed the will just three weeks before he died. it looks bad. >> yeah, it does, but i don't have, like, an explanation for that because that's what happened, you know? i don't have an excuse for that because there is no excuse. >> she wants to go to court because she wants everything. >> reporter: the gattis say they offered to split the assets with amanda, but she refused, so they slugged it out in court. the gattis hoped that if they could connect amanda to her husband's death, the judge would throw the will out. >> i don't understand because, if they had any doubt, they would fly to brazil. they would do an investigation, you know, themselves, or hire somebody to do it. >> reporter: amanda didn't know
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it at the time, but that's exactly what the gatti family did. >> so how many people did he see come into the apartment himself? >> he's the one working the gate? >> yeah. >> reporter: they enlisted private investigators paul ciolino and joe moura. both have worked in the past for cbs news and "48 hours," but not in this case. >> i told them from the beginning when we hired them to prove it to everybody that my brother got murdered, you know. >> reporter: backing the investigation are john and pat lynch of new jersey. so what's the goal? what is... >> to clear his name. >> reporter: you want to make sure that amanda is proven to be involved in his death. >> this is not a witch-hunt against amanda, okay? we have our suspicions about what happened. >> reporter: when the private investigators arrived in brazil last may, they headed straight for the beachfront condominium where arturo, amanda and their son had vacationed in 2009.
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>> this is where arturo gatti spent his last moments alive. >> reporter: they're convinced brazilian police bungled the investigation. >> well, local authorities gave this thing about eight hours' worth total when they started. >> reporter: they've got tools brazilian police didn't have, like forensic specialist andre stuart's high-tech measuring stick. >> this is a 3d dimensional device. it measures three dimensionally points in space, three lines a second. >> reporter: and they want to say if evidence at the scene supports the authorities' official theory, which ciolino boils down to this: >> took his wife's purse strap, a cloth purse strap, tied it around this beam right here, pulled the chair underneath here, stood up on top of the chair, wrapped the cloth around his neck and hung himself. that's the theory.
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>> reporter: the detectives don't buy it. for starters, they don't think arturo was hanged at all. >> i believe he was hit in the head in that apartment, rendered unconscious and then strangled. >> reporter: murdered. >> yes, without a doubt, he was murdered. >> reporter: after investigating for ten months, that's the conclusion they deliver in a 317-page report and press conference. >> arturo gatti was murdered. >> reporter: a panel of experts they've assembled strongly agrees. >> you simply cannot hang yourself in the way the brazilian authorities have identified. >> this is a homicide. >> and that blood tells us everything we need to know. >> the blunt-force injury to the back of his head was most likely inflicted in the apartment. and why do we know that? we know that because of the blood flow. >> reporter: that blood, say these experts, is evidence that gatti was attacked in the apartment. but they are ignoring the witnesses in brazil who said arturo was bleeding earlier in the evening.
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"48 hours" tracked down this taxi driver who saw arturo fighting in the street. >> ( translated ): yes, i could see the back of his head was bleeding. and the next day, i saw that the headrest in the back seat was stained with blood. >> reporter: and we spoke with two other people who also saw gatti bleeding from the street fight. but the detectives say what happened after gatti died is just as important. >> his head is under here. >> reporter: where his body was found, they say, rules out suicide. >> if he fell after hanging himself, he's going to fall straight onto that table. he's going to be up there. he's not going to be underneath here. >> reporter: the detectives took the measurements from the scene to dr. alfred bowles... >> this is the view from above. >> reporter: ...an expert on body movement brought in by ciolino to determine if arturo's body could have ended up where it's showed in police photos. >> he took a dummy that weighed the same as arturo, was the same height as arturo.
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they dropped that thing 1,000 times, and the same thing happened every time. no matter how you do it, he's not going to fall sideways with his head underneath the stairs and under the counter. it's not going to happen. >> reporter: but dr. bowles' tests were based on those death scene photos, photos the detectives themselves admit were taken after evidence was moved around. this stool wasn't found here. it was near arturo's feet, according to one of the first people on the scene. >> they say those schools were not in the places that... >> and that's not a piece of the puzzle that i worked with. >> reporter: dr. bowles concedes that could have affected his findings, but that possibility doesn't change anything for the detectives. >> arturo gatti was murdered. >> reporter: do you believe that amanda killed her husband? >> i think there's a distinct possibility she killed him. >> reporter: there's
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considerable medical evidence that supports suicide. and this question remains, and it's a tough one: how could a 100-pound woman singlehandedly knock out and then strangle a 160-pound world champion boxer? do you believe that she had an accomplice? >> i think it's distinctly possible. >> reporter: do you have any evidence... >> i have emails. >> reporter: ...of her in contact with someone planning the murder? >> oh, no, no, i don't have anything like that. >> reporter: this is just your idea? >> it's a feeling i have. >> reporter: in fact, there is no evidence of an accomplice. still... >> he was murdered because there's six-and-a-half million bucks sitting in a bank here in new jersey and somebody wants it. >> reporter: the investigators say they've left no stone unturned, but "48 hours" tracked down a pair of witnesses they never talked to, witnesses who could make you see this case in an entirely different way. >> he wanted to check out. >> reporter: when you say "check out," do you mean kill himself? >> he wanted to kill himself, yes.
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>> arturo gatti did not commit suicide. >> reporter: ...the investigators hired by their former manager sent their report to brazil asking authorities there to reconsider amanda as a murder suspect. >> this is a case that cries out for justice. >> reporter: did you have anything to do with the death of your husband? >> no, i would never do anything to harm my husband. >> reporter: did you hire anybody or anyone to kill your husband? >> of course not. i never had any doubt he killed himself. >> no one, nobody alive except amanda, will ever tell you arturo was suicidal at any time in his life. never, not one time. >> reporter: we uncovered information that points to a different conclusion. >> he wanted to kill himself. he wanted to die. >> reporter: we went to jersey
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city and found mario costa, a friend and mentor who first met arturo when the fighter was 17. >> his dream was to become champion. >> reporter: as the years went by, costa says, arturo struggled with debilitating injuries. >> his eyes, the phone rang, he put his phone like this, an inch away from the eye. he got addicted to pain killers: percoset, vicodin, oxy, coke. he was just not himself. the losses were like somebody stabbing him in the back and the knife going through his heart. >> reporter: after a particularly devastating loss in 2005, gatti was hospitalized for an overdose. medical records show the doctors suggested a psychiatric consult. in child support documents, the
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mother arturo's daughter called it a suicide attempt. >> i told him, i said, "you have to talk to a professional. you have to go to a psychiatrist." >> reporter: another time, costa remembers an inconsolable arturo showing up at his new jersey bar and demanding to borrow his gun. >> he took his finger, like this. he said, "this is what i'm going to do," he shoved it in his mouth. and i felt like if i gave him the gun that night, he would have blown his head off. >> reporter: do you think he was serious? >> he was very serious. >> reporter: costa hadn't seen arturo for three years before his death, but he has no question how he died. so you believe arturo gatti committed suicide? >> yes. >> reporter: then there's this man. >> my brother is me. we felt the same. we laughed. we joked the same. >> reporter: meet joe gatti, arturo's big brother. breaking with the rest of his family, he spoke out for the
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first time to us. >> i just hate to say it, but it came to this, that people need to know the truth. he was on drugs. he was on pain killers, and he was an alcoholic. >> reporter: it's a painful reality for joe, who fought pro himself and remembers always look out for his little brother. do you believe your brother took his own life? >> i... i believe it. i believe it. >> the night in brazil, he found himself in a dark place. he was something else. >> reporter: more than two years later... >> you're going to be good, okay. >> reporter: ...and a continent away in montreal, amanda was locked in battle with her husband's family over his estate. was it a suicide? you were there. >> i know i was not the perfect wife, but it is not fair what they're doing to me and my son. >> reporter: a month-long conflict had taken its toll.
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>> it's hard, you know. and when people look at me, sometimes they're not even looking at me. i don't know what they're going to think about me. >> reporter: and then, last november, a dramatic moment for amanda-- support coming from an unexpected source. >> i insist on reminding everyone this is the case of a person who died... >> reporter: the coroner in quebec, who conducted a second autopsy in 2009, finally issued his report. his conclusion: >> the autopsy performed here in montreal says there was no evidence of foul play. >> reporter: with no clear evidence of foul play, arturo gatti most likely took his own life. >> i was waiting for that result for, like, almost three years. and when it came out, it was just, like, oh, thank god.
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>> reporter: it was lividity, the pooling of blood in gatti's hands and feet, that most convinced the canadian coroner. it occurs most often with hanging. also in the report, the corner publicly criticized the american private detectives, ignoring evidence, he said, that raises doubts about their assessment of the cause of mr. gatti's death. and then, in december... >> the fight over arturo gatti's fortune is over. >> reporter: ...the estate court ruled. >> the written decision came down around 3:00 this afternoon. >> reporter: amanda's lawyer called to say it was a knockout. >> he not only gave the want news i won the case, but he was like, "amanda, you won 100%." >> reporter: the canadian judge ruled that arturo gatti's last will, made weeks before his death, was, in fact, valid and
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that amanda gets everything. how much of the estate is left? >> no more than $2 million. >> reporter: from an estate that was once worth $6 million before the legal battles began. has anyone in arturo's family apologized to you? >> no. that was one thing i always expected, to receive that phone call and someone would be like, "listen, i'm sorry." just, "i'm sorry." >> reporter: but amanda insists she is not bitter. >> you know, like, i really hope from the bottom of my heart that they can find happiness, and they can find god, and they can find something that they can be happy. >> reporter: amanda has fought to clear her name a lot like her husband fought, long and hard. >> arturo gatti refusing to go down! >> reporter: and yet, arturo gatti's family and fans may never accept that he took his own life.
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>> the ultimate blood-and-guts warrior! >> reporter: it may be just too hard to let go of a legend. >> gatti! gatti! gatti! gatti! captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> i heard the sound of an
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engine speeding out. i heard a thud. there was a teenaged girl, and she was face down in the dirt. >> this wasn't a whodunit. it never was. the mystery is why, why this would happen? and what would possess a father to do something like this to his daughter? [ male announcer ] for some reason those five food groups sound a whole lot better when you put them in a taco shell instead of a pyramid. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. fantastic! pro-gresso ] they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to?

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