The embalmed body lies in a zipped black bag in the basement cold room of a Kingston funeral home, the temperature fixed at 4,4 degrees Celsius, impervious to the tropical heat outside. Almost three weeks after he died, apparently strangled, Bob Woolmer is not going anywhere.
The body is to stay in Jamaica until released by the coroner to the family in South Africa. A satin-lined steel casket painted mahogany brown has been set aside for the journey.
And just as the body has been preserved, so has the mystery. Was the Pakistan cricket coach the victim of a match-fixing conspiracy? Or throttled by a fan in revenge for Pakistan’s exit from the World Cup? Was he poisoned before being strangled? Was it really murder, or death by natural causes? We do not know.
Despite febrile media speculation, nothing of substance has emerged since police first announced they were treating the former England batsman’s death as murder. Police have not named any suspects, cited a motive or significantly elaborated on the circumstances.
His final emails betrayed no hint of fear or concern about match-fixing or bookies, according to his widow, Gill, who has been briefed by police.
Complex
The investigation, one of the most complex in the island’s history, has widened further with the arrival of a team from Scotland Yard and an Interpol forensics expert.
Incongruous in dark three-piece suits, the British detectives spent an hour combing the 12th-floor room of Kingston’s Pegasus hotel where a chambermaid discovered Woolmer’s slumped form on March 18. Later they viewed witness statements, physical evidence and closed-circuit television footage of the corridor outside. Asked how the work was progressing, John Sweeney, the superintendent leading the four-strong Scotland Yard team, declined to comment.
Such reviews are routine in investigations that last more than two weeks, but seldom do they involve traversing the Atlantic. Combined with Interpol’s involvement, the impression is that the trail has gone cold.
”Everybody wants the same thing. We want to find out who killed Bob Woolmer, how and why,” said Mark Shields, the Jamaican police Deputy Commissioner leading the inquiry.
Much hinges on toxicology and blood tests, but the results could be weeks away, said Shields. Once the exact time of death is established, the CCTV footage and witness statements will be re-examined.
The tall, burly Pakistan coach was last seen at 7.30pm on March 17 a few hours after Ireland ousted his team from the World Cup. He retired to his room and between 8pm and 9pm ordered room service and from his laptop sent an email, possibly to his wife.
At 10.45am the next day, he was found naked and unconscious. The bathroom was covered in blood and vomit. He was pronounced dead at a hospital at 12.14pm, but police believe he was dead when first discovered.
A Kingston pathologist, Ere Seshaiah, concluded that he was killed by manual strangulation. A small bone in his neck was broken, but there were no external marks, prompting police to say the killer or killers used a type of fabric — possibly a towel — to throttle the victim.
The absence of signs of struggle in the room has fuelled speculation that the coach was first poisoned. ”It’s possible that he was in some way incapacitated apart from the manual strangulation and asphyxiation,” said Shields.
At a memorial service in Lahore this week, Pakistan players and officials again denied involvement in the death of their beloved ”shepherd”.
Differences
Woolmer’s wife has disclosed that police had returned her husband’s cellphone and personal possessions, but still had his laptop.
”They have looked at the emails he sent me and others, but there is not a hint in them of his being scared, or of anything to do with match-fixing.” She said her husband ”had his differences with one or two players, but that would be the same in any dressing room”.
She also said a book her murdered husband was planning to write should never be published. She told the Times: ”I was aware Bob was planning to write an account of his time with Pakistan, but that was intended to be after he had finished coaching them. It is better if that book never appears now. If it is going to cause upset, it is not worth publishing.”
In Pakistan, former pace-bowler Sarfraz Nawaz, who now works for the Pakistan Sports Ministry, insisted the death was linked to match-fixing and claimed that five Pakistani bookies were in the West Indies at the time.
Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, the arrival of an Interpol forensics expert, Susan Hitchin, renewed conjecture that the post-mortem examination was bungled and that the 58-year-old diabetic died from natural causes. Woolmer’s blood-testing kit was reportedly found on the floor and his body was said to have been leaning against the bathroom door, obliging the chambermaid to heave it open. When asked how a killer could have left the bathroom, Shields merely said: ”Good question.”
Media reports that Woolmer drank a bottle of whisky before retiring, and that he had had an argument with team members, have not been substantiated.
With the mystery hanging over them, Jamaica and the World Cup have slowly recovered from the shock. The competition, which ends on April 28, has continued. It feels like a lull before the storm when scientists finish analysing tissue samples that should supply crucial answers. Separately, the Kingston coroner will conduct an inquest.
Theories
Bob Woolmer was murdered by a match-fixing syndicate involving the Pakistan team. A towel and possibly a pillow, reportedly drenched in blood, were used to strangle him, breaking a bone in the neck but leaving no external marks.
Before the assault he was poisoned, explaining why such a big man appeared not to have put up a struggle. A substance such as aconite, featured in the Harry Potter series, slows breathing and kills by asphyxiation.
Diabetes and/or alcohol made Woolmer sick and caused him to stumble and fall. Attempts by hotel staff and doctors to revive him, or possibly his removal to hospital, broke the neck bone, leading to a flawed post-mortem conclusion.
— Guardian Unlimited Â