The detectives probing Bob Woolmer’s death were facing mounting pressure to deliver results on Saturday, amid signs of disarray at the heart of the murder investigation — and mounting speculation that it might have been due to a tragic accident.
A breakdown in communication with Scotland Yard and delays in the Jamaican coroner’s office were revealed as the inquiry entered its 14th day with no suspects.
Pakistan officials and Woolmer’s widow expressed thinly veiled impatience that the Pakistan cricket coach’s killing remained such a mystery two weeks after he was found naked, bloodied and apparently strangled in his Kingston hotel room.
Mark Shields, one of Jamaica’s deputy police commissioners, who is leading the investigation, announced on Friday that reinforcements from Scotland Yard would soon arrive, following a request from his department and the Ministry of National Security.
But more than 24 hours later, Scotland Yard said it had received no such request and that the confusion had left its serious crime directorate ”in limbo”.
However, on Saturday afternoon the Yard issued a hurried statement saying the request had arrived and that a team of four would travel to Jamaica next week to review the investigation.
On Saturday night, reports from a witness at the hotel in which Woolmer was staying claimed he had been seen drinking a whole bottle of whisky in the bar just hours before his body was discovered. The account would lend weight to the suggestion that he might later have fallen and broken a bone in his neck, rather than being strangled. The first medical reports had suggested he could have suffered a seizure, possibly brought on by food poisoning or a fit.
But in a further complication, another report said on Saturday night that a blood-soaked pillow had been found in his room and been sent off for forensic examination. In what has been deemed routine practice, the Yard team will review clues that the Jamaican police may have overlooked.
It emerged on Saturday that the coroner, Patrick Murphy, had not yet read the police file. The document, containing witness statements and preliminary forensic results, was delivered to the one-room office on Thursday. There had not been time to read it, Dean Jones, a coroner’s assistant, told Kingston’s Daily Observer. There is believed to be a backlog of 4 000 cases.
Until the coroner has completed an inquest, Woolmer’s body cannot be returned to his family in Cape Town, South Africa. Last week his widow, Gill, hinted at frustration: ‘It’s been a hard time for us. But it can’t be released because that’s Jamaican law. I just hope this thing [the investigation] can be done so we can find out who committed this terrible act.’
The Pakistan Cricket Board, stung by speculation that its players and officials may be implicated, urged the Jamaican police to expedite the inquiry and asked that a Pakistan official be allowed to join the inquiry.
The Pakistan captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, and cricket board chairperson, Nasim Ashraf, are due to give a press conference in Lahore today after a memorial service.
Police believe Woolmer was dead when first found. His room was covered in blood and vomit. The chambermaid who discovered him is said to have been traumatised by what she saw. – Guardian Unlimited Â