Scotland Yard is poised to send a team of murder detectives to Jamaica to review the investigation into the killing of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer.
Up to five detectives specialising in serious crime are waiting for the order to board a plane to Kingston to join the investigation.
The team is expected to arrive early next week to scrutinise an inquiry which entered its 12th day on Friday without having identified suspects or established the exact time of death.
Woolmer (58) was found dead in his room at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston by the chambermaid at 10.45am on March 18. He had gone to his room at 7.30pm the night before, hours after his team was unexpectedly knocked out of the cricket world cup by Ireland.
A Jamaican government pathologist concluded that the former England batsman was strangled, unleashing a torrent of speculation that he was possibly the victim of an enraged fan, or of a row within the team, or of a match-fixing conspiracy.
Investigators are viewing closed-circuit television footage of the corridor on the 12th floor where Woolmer was staying but no suspects have been identified and there is concern the trail has grown cold.
Jamaica’s national security ministry and police commissioner requested the Scotland Yard review, Mark Shields, the deputy police commissioner who is heading the investigation, said on Friday.
He expected the detectives to arrive early next week and to examine the main lines of inquiry, witness statements and forensic testing. Such a review was a routine procedure when an investigation continued beyond seven days, said Shields, himself a former Scotland Yard detective.
”Quite often when you are involved in a piece of work and you are right up against it you can miss the blindingly obvious so a review in the UK is always seen as a very positive aspect of the investigation. We don’t view it as something that’s inquisitional. It’s a very healthy practice.”
Shields has faced growing calls for tangible signs of progress but said the reinforcements did not reflect official impatience or anxiety. ”If we have missed something it’s an ideal opportunity to find it. I don’t think that we have. I’m confident that the investigation is going extremely well but I welcome the review. It’s a normal practice and therefore nothing that we should have any fear of.”
The review team, drawn from a pool of serving senior and some retired officers from the serious crimes squad, is expected to be headed by a superintendent.
Pakistan, stung by conjecture that its players or officials were involved in the killing, has asked to send a detective to monitor the inquiry, according to Jamaican media reports.
The victim’s widow, Gill Woolmer, has voiced frustration that there can be no funeral until forensic investigators release the body for burial near the family home in Cape Town, South Africa.
The 50-strong team in Kingston is awaiting the results of forensic tests which should pinpoint when the coach was killed and whether there was any substance in his system which might have incapacitated him before the attack.
It is believed Woolmer was strangled with a piece of fabric, possibly a towel, which would explain why he had no visible marks on his neck. There were towels near the body, which was naked. The bathroom was covered in blood and vomit but there appeared to be no signs of struggle.
”We’re still awaiting the toxicology report, which quite clearly is holding us up at the moment in that we need to establish exactly what time Bob Woolmer was attacked and murdered,” said Shields.
Once that is confirmed investigators will zero in on the relevant period of CCTV footage as well as records of the hotel’s electronic key cards. Vital clues in any murder inquiry are often found in what is known as ”the golden hour” following a killing, when clues are fresh and the killer’s movements more easily tracked. Before police reached Woolmer’s room and sealed it off as a crime scene, hotel staff had tried to resuscitate the body and moved it.
British and Pakistan cricket officials have floated the idea that the government pathologist, Ere Seshaiah, bungled the postmortem examination which concluded that asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation was the cause of death.
Garfield Blake, a past president of the Jamaican Association of Clinical Pathologists, has echoed concern over the postmortem examination. Shields said the case would remain a murder inquiry unless fresh evidence deemed it otherwise. – Guardian Unlimited Â