TheSpread.com

Woolmer strangled to death, say police
Associated Press

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Pakistan's cricket coach Bob Woolmer was murdered in his hotel room after the team's shocking World Cup loss to Ireland, Jamaican police said Thursday.

"The official report from the pathologist states that Mr. Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation. In these circumstances, the matter of Mr. Woolmer's death is now being treated by the Jamaican police as murder," Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said in a statement that was read by a police spokesman at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel - where Woolmer was killed on Sunday.

"There is an ongoing murder investigation into the death of Robert Woolmer and as a result the security arrangements at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel are a part of those investigations," Owen Ellington, assistant commissioner of police, said in a statement also read by a police spokesman. He declined to elaborate.

Police were calling for witnesses.

Pakistan cricketers were finger printed and interviewed on Thursday by police investigating the death. They were allowed to leave the hotel in the afternoon and travel to Montego Bay.

Assistant Police Commissioner Les Green, formerly of Scotland Yard, confirmed that members of the Pakistan cricket team were fingerprinted.

"It's standard to take fingerprints to eliminate persons from fingerprints which would be found in the room," Green told The Associated Press. "After a thorough investigation, fingerprints not belonging to Mr. Woolmer were found in the room."

Armed police were stationed inside and outside the Kingston hotel where the team was staying all day.

Amid local media reports that Woolmer was strangled, investigators called in an American pathologist to help determine the cause of death. An initial autopsy was inconclusive.