Woolmer may have been 'strangled with a towel'

14 April 2012

Police believe that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer may have been strangled with a piece of fabric.

A post-mortem examination found the former South African boss died as a result of strangulation.

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Jamaica's Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields said the absence of marks on Woolmer's neck suggest the killer did not strangle Woolmer with his or her bare hands.

Shields said: "Therefore, there may have been something between the hands of the assailant and the neck of the victim."

Newspaper reports have suggested that a hotel towel may have been used to strangle Woolmer. The lack of marks on Woolmer's neck led to speculation that the murder inquiry was unwarranted, especially as the first pathology report said the cause of death was inconclusive.

But Shields has said he remains convinced Woolmer was murdered although he has not dismissed other possibilities.

He added: "It's very clear from the pathologist's report that we're dealing with a murder investigation. But this is not a clear case where we have a body with six bullets or a knife in the back. If it was that clear, then obviously we would have known from day one that Bob Woolmer was murdered."

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his Kingston hotel room on March 18 and pronounced dead at hospital.

His death came the morning after his team's elimination from the cricket World Cup after a humiliating defeat to Ireland.

Shields' comments are at apparent odds with what he said 24 hours earlier.

He voiced his doubts to avoid being 'professionally embarrassed' if his initial assertion that Mr Woolmer was strangled proves incorrect.

Eight days ago, Shields stunned a press conference in Kingston, Jamaica, by announcing unequivocally that Mr Woolmer, 58, had died from asphyxiation after being throttled in his hotel room on March 17.

He later stated that he was '100 per cent certain' that Mr Woolmer had been murdered.

Fears that the post-mortem examination was flawed have been voiced by Dr Garfield Blake, past president of the Jamaican Association of Clinical Pathologists.

Pakistani cricket authorities have also questioned the report. They are concerned because there were no visible signs of strangulation, and pathologist Ere Sheshaiah's initial examination of the body was "inconclusive".

Previously, Mr Shields has spoken of clues at the murder scene, which he refuses to reveal publicly, that convinced him Mr Woolmer was murdered. But, for the first time, he appeared to wobble.

Asked whether there was a "smidgeon" of doubt, he replied: "I will keep an open mind because you never know. I can't close my mind to anything.

"I'm treating this as a murder investigation based on all the evidence I have both from the forensic pathologist and other information.

"But I must always keep an open mind because every investigator has found it embarrassing – professionally embarrassing – if at some stage in future something else comes up and he or she has closed their minds to it. That's always a danger.

"I'm not less certain but I have to be led by the science. But there are other factors in this case that lead me to believe that this is murder."

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