A Jamaican analyst said genetic evidence found in a hotel room where Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was discovered unconscious matched the coach’s DNA profile.
Sharon Brydson, an analyst at the Forensics Science Laboratory in Kingston, said on Tuesday at the inquest into Woolmer’s death that the 22 swabs of genetic evidence from Woolmer’s room did not match other DNA samples taken during the murder probe, including those from Pakistan team members staying on the same floor of the hotel.
Woolmer (58) was found on the floor of his room’s bathroom on March 18, a day after Pakistan was eliminated from the Cricket World Cup.
Days after he was pronounced dead, Jamaica’s government pathologist ruled he had been strangled, launching an international homicide probe.
Pakistan team members, including captain Inzamam ul-Haq, were fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA as part of the murder investigation, though police said they were never suspects.
On Monday, Coroner Patrick Murphy, presiding over the inquest, said toxicology samples from the coach’s stomach will be re-examined because experts disagree on whether poisoning was a factor in his death.
A British expert who analysed toxicology tests testified at the inquest last week that no traces of a potentially deadly pesticide were found in the samples, contradicting Jamaica pathologist Dr Ere Sheshiah, who has insisted the coach was poisoned by the pesticide cypermethrin and strangled.
Sheshiah’s findings have been criticised by foreign doctors who concluded Woolmer died from natural causes, most likely heart disease.
The additional testing was requested by the lead investigator, police Deputy Commissioner Mark Shields, who said arrangements are being made for the samples to be retrieved from London as well as Jamaica’s forensic lab.
The re-examination and further analysis of the samples, which Murphy ordered to be completed by November 12, is to be done at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. – Sapa-AP