Police have confirmed a body found in a Surrey, B.C. home is that of Paul Cheema, whose wife was slain just five days after their July wedding.

Cheema, 34, was found Monday night in the home's basement by a family member, RCMP Integrated Homicide Investigation Team spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr confirmed Tuesday.

Police have ruled out homicide, calling it a "sudden death."

Carr wouldn't say whether a note was found.

Cheema had been living at the home with his parents after his wife's death.

Police were first called to the home around 7:15 p.m. on Monday night. An ambulance was also at the home but left a short time later, CTV British Columbia's Julia Foy reported.

Not long after, the coroner was on the scene.

Family members also began to arrive at the home but police would not let most people inside, Foy reported.

On July 5, Cheema called 911 to report a home invasion and told police that his wife, elementary school principal Shemina Hirji, was murdered after three men burst into the couple's Burnaby townhouse.

Cheema was questioned and released without charge.

Bob Cheema, Paul's brother, said in a July radio interview the couple loved one another very much and that his brother was distraught about Hirji's death.

Cheema, a Sikh, and Hirji, an Ismaili Muslim, met two years before they married.

There has been scrutiny of Cheema's past since his wife's death.

In 1995, Cheema was convicted of forcible confinement, uttering threats and attempted kidnapping in two separate incidents involving his former fiancee in Winnipeg. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

At a Nov. 22, 1996 hearing of the National Parole Board, the board found Cheema did not take responsibility for his offences.

"You have a controlling attitude in that you demand to have control over the women in your life,'' the board found."You attribute much of the blame for your offences on the victim and her family.''

But the board also found Cheema completed jailhouse programs, including one for anger and emotions management, The Canadian Press reported.

He appeared to show "a very good motivation for change throughout the program."

Cheema won an appeal to stay in Canada on Oct. 14, 1997. He had been scheduled to be deported to England, where he was born.

According to a document from the appeal division of the Immigration and Refugee Board, Cheema attempted to commit suicide in the mid 1990s.

The document, according to CP, says Cheema tried to kill himself at a Winnipeg hotel after trying to fire a pellet gun at his ex-fiancee's mother.

He consulted a doctor after his attempted suicide and was prescribed medication for depression and anxiety.

Carr said Cheema's death does not mean the investigation into Hirji's murder is over.

"We will carry on with the investigation," he told CTV.

"We still have a lot of evidence to view, a lot of evidence coming in, and once we've looked at the totality of all the evidence, we'll sit down and make a determination on who we feel may or may not have been responsible, and we'll make an arrest or make an announcement of our results."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Julia Foy