Bob Woolmer was murdered ... (confirmed)

[Romeo]

Just to keep you updated with the latest.


Nothing can be overlooked in Woolmer probe
March 27 2007 at 11:01PM [SIZE=+1][/SIZE]Kingston, Jamaica - Detectives probing the murder of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer made an international appeal on Tuesday in a bid to track down everyone who visited the victim's hotel in the days before his death.

Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields said investigators had set up a 24-hour international hotline for anyone with information about the murder of Woolmer, who was found strangled in his hotel room on March 18.

Shields said police had yet to make a significant breakthrough and were anxious to hear from anyone who had been at Kingston's Jamaica Pegasus hotel in the 72 hours before Woolmer's body was discovered there.



"What I need to do is to identify everybody in the hotel from Friday through to Sunday when Bob's body was found, in an effort to establish everybody's movements during that period of time," Shields told reporters.

'Nothing can be overlooked in a case like this'"Not just as suspects but as potential witnesses - people who may have heard something, seen something within the hotel that raised their suspicions, that so far they haven't come forward with.

"The important thing is that we get to those people and give them an opportunity to come forward and talk to us," Shields said. "Nothing can be overlooked in a case like this."

Woolmer's naked body was found in his room at the hotel after Pakistan had been sensationally dumped out of the World Cup after a shock defeat to Ireland.

The 58-year-old former England international's killing has been linked to match-fixing although Shields has repeatedly stressed investigators are keeping all lines of enquiry open.

Meanwhile Shields said police would not rush the result of toxicology tests carried out on Woolmer's body, which have been ongoing for over a week.

"I spoke to the leader of the forensic laboratory this morning," Shields said. "She assured me she will work as quickly as they can. I asked her how long will it take and she answered 'When it's ready'.

"I have to respect their professionalism and wait until they tell me they have the results."

 

[krisholio14]

apparently the authorities seem to think three paki fans are the culprits. read it in the paper this morning.

 

[Browney2006]

Apparantly the Paki's have scrapped their cricket team and are starting up a Bob Slay team instead.

Too early? I think not, that better not have been used already in this thread.

 

[Romeo]

apparently the authorities seem to think three paki fans are the culprits. read it in the paper this morning.

Yes I read that as well 3 gofers having around the team who checked out the hotel the day after the murder and who apparently had access to the 12th floor.

 

[apollo_creed]

shamelessly ripped from another forum:

That's pretty funny.

 

[apollo_creed]

Yes I read that as well 3 gofers having around the team who checked out the hotel the day after the murder and who apparently had access to the 12th floor.

alot of people including myself thought crazed, idiotic fans were responsible from the start.

this still seems the most likely scenario.

seeing as there has been no evidence of match-fixing, there was nothing in his book about it

AND THE MOST OBVIOUS

the timing suggests a crime of 'passion', if it was about match fixing the timing is incredibly coincedental.

 

[likka]

alot of people including myself thought crazed, idiotic fans were responsible from the start.

this still seems the most likely scenario.

seeing as there has been no evidence of match-fixing, there was nothing in his book about it

AND THE MOST OBVIOUS

the timing suggests a crime of 'passion', if it was about match fixing the timing is incredibly coincedental.

I also thought the same thing.

If I was a gambling underworld boss a cricket WC is the last place I'd organise a hit on an international coach.

 

[dont bowl there]

I also thought the same thing.

If I was a gambling underworld boss a cricket WC is the last place I'd organise a hit on an international coach.

Why? Its not like they have caught the people involved yet. Doubt they will to be honest.

 

[red+black]

Romeo, you should source your information so we can form an opinion about the veracity of the reports.

http://sport.scotsman.com/cricket.cfm?id=479732007

Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields ... said officers were not ready to name potential suspects and were keeping an open mind in an inquiry which may take several years.

WTF?

 

[Cooldude]

The matchfixing murder motive never made sense and still doesn't make sense, it's just papers and ****ing tv trying to get that angle in since it sounds a lot more dramatic and newsworthy if it is. The matter of fact is, if I'm one of those matchfixing bookies, I wouldn't have hired a hitman to kill Woolmer the night after they lost, it's like screaming for the cops to catch me.

It's just ****stirring ex-players and journos who are buying into that angle.

 

[mbuck]

sorry but this may be a stupid question, but the hotel cameras surely would have the suspects face and then we would know wether its pakistan player/fan, mafia or wahtever? what is taking so long

 

[Mr P@H]

sorry but this may be a stupid question, but the hotel cameras surely would have the suspects face and then we would know wether its pakistan player/fan, mafia or wahtever? what is taking so long

A lot of hours worth... Several hundred i'd have thought, have to be analysed by experts bit by bit. Takes time. According to the BBC apparently the killer/s made their escape through the fire escape which happened to be right next to his room, rather convniently placed. Another trouble is they don't know exactly when he was killed, has to be sometime between 3 and say 10 and that's 7 hours, take 10-15 camera's that's over 105 hours to search through.

 

[Romeo]

sorry but this may be a stupid question, but the hotel cameras surely would have the suspects face and then we would know wether its pakistan player/fan, mafia or wahtever? what is taking so long

They are transferring the images to digital for clarity.

If it was a crime of passion why the coach and not the players?

'Pakistan not ruled out in murder probe'
March 28 2007 at 07:22AM [SIZE=+1][/SIZE]By Rob Woollard

Kingston - Detectives investigating the murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer on Tuesday denied claims that Pakistan's squad had been ruled out of the inquiry as potential suspects.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields said comments made by Pakistan spokesperson Pervez Mir that detectives had cleared team members of any involvement in Woolmer's death were "inaccurate."

Speaking before Pakistan's players flew home after a stop-over in London on Tuesday, Mir told reporters that Jamaican police had confirmed the Pakistan team were "not suspects" in Woolmer's murder.

But Shields dismissed Mir's claims in an interview with the BBC later on Tuesday. "That's a pretty inaccurate statement, because nobody at this stage can be ruled out of the inquiry," Shields said.

 

[Blue Red and Gold]

they may of seen him as "indispensable" whereas the p[layers are the real assests.

 

[Armageddon]

Just looking back at the Ireland-Pakistan game, so many of those Pakistani players got out to extremely soft pull shots straight up in the air...

 

[Romeo]

Just looking back at the Ireland-Pakistan game, so many of those Pakistani players got out to extremely soft pull shots straight up in the air...

Agree with that with Inzi's the laziest shot of the day.

Could take months to unravel this mystery.

Cops: Months to find murderer

28/03/2007 08:01



Kingston - The trail of Bob Woolmer's killer has not gone cold but it could take months to piece together a very complicated murder case with hundreds of potential witnesses, the policeman in charge said on Tuesday.
The strangling of the famous Pakistan coach could have been committed by an angry fan, a disgruntled player or someone with a personal grudge, or it could be related to gambling or match-fixing, said Jamaica deputy police commissioner Mark Shields.
Nothing has been ruled out.
"I'm not concerned about the passage of time here. Every crime investigation is unique and different and the uniqueness of this is that because it was conducted in a hotel room, there are records we have that we would not have benefit of if it was in somebody's house or indeed in the street," Shields said in an interview.
Nine days after the murder that rocked the sporting world, the former London Scotland Yard detective who is the number two official in the Jamaica police force said investigators have lots of evidence, including hotel surveillance video, hotel key card records and hundreds of potential witnesses.
"There are numerous avenues of inquiry that are open to us," he said.
They also have Woolmer's laptop, cellphone, credit cards, keys and passport, all left in the room by the killer - evidence that makes theft by a stranger an unlikely motive.
Woolmer was found by a chambermaid unconscious in his 12th-floor room at Kingston's Pegasus Hotel on Sunday, March 18, shortly after favoured Pakistan were ousted from the Cricket World Cup by expected pushovers Ireland.
Shields said in the interview that the police still did not know for sure if he were killed on the Saturday or Sunday.
"When he was found by the chambermaid she was joined by a doctor and a nurse who attempted to resuscitate him although I understand there were no visible signs of life."
Does that mean he is confident he was dead at the hotel?
"As confident as I can be as an amateur. I'm not a doctor.
"There were no visible signs of life. I'm not a doctor so I can't say but a doctor did try to revive him. When he got to the hospital he was pronounced dead."
Were there signs of a fight in the hotel room or any sort of a struggle? Broken lamps, perhaps?
"No. Nothing like that. If there were signs of a violent struggle it probably would have made my job easier because it was not clear at the time within that first 24 hours what had determined his death."
Is it unusual to have a manual strangulation with no marks on the neck as police say was the case with Woolmer? "It is unusual but there are circumstances surrounding this one which renders it not that unusual." Shields refused to elaborate on that point.
Investigators believe he probably knew his killer. There were no signs the door was forced open and Shields said entry by the balcony would have been nearly impossible.
Police are examining a surveillance video of the 12th floor, particularly the period between when Woolmer went to his room at about 19:30 on Saturday night until his body was found before 11:00 the next morning.
Just viewing the video, tracing key card records, examining a host of fingerprints and tracking down each one of the hotel guests and patrons, many of them foreigners, who might have evidence to assemble a picture of the crime is a huge task, Shields said.
"It could take months. I think it could take months," Shields said in the interview in his tiny office in a nondescript bank building in Kingston, the Jamaican capital.
"But my hope is that there will, before we have to go through that whole process, be some form of breakthrough whereby it will shorten that process."
Shields discounted the latest press reports indicating that Woolmer was involved in a row with a potential suspect shortly before he was killed. This report said an Indian bookmaker was thrown out of Woolmer's room.
He also played down complaints that the Pakistani delegation to the World Cup had not been kept informed on the investigation, saying they had been made aware of every development.
Shields, 49, who started in police work with the City of London police in 1976, said he felt no pressure from governments or the media to solve one of the highest-profile murders cases in the world. "I'm here to do a job. I'm not here to be put under pressure. I'm here to do a professional job with my colleagues in order that we can find the people who murdered Bob Woolmer, for his family and for everybody else."

 

[Romeo]

Pakistani fans weren't happy with the team's arrival back into the country.

Furious fans jeer Pakistan team
2007-3-28 12:25
Karachi - Angry fans told Pakistani cricketers to "go to hell" as they returned home on Wednesday, still reeling from the murder of coach Bob Woolmer and their humiliating World Cup exit.
All-rounder Shahid Afridi, spinner Danish Kaneria, wicketkeeper Kamran and Akmal and paceman Mohammad Sami were heckled by a crowd of around 100 people after they touched down at Karachi international airport.
"Why have you come back?" one fan shouted as the players were protected by dozens of uniformed police, while another supporter bellowed "Go to hell" at Afridi, a reporter said.
When Kaneria tried to leave the arrivals lounge the crowd shouted "Shame on you" and he went back inside, before asking for police protection to help him leave, witnesses said.
Speaking briefly to the media before being driven away, Afridi said that all the Pakistani players were feeling "disturbed" after the events of the past two weeks.
Pakistan were dumped out of the World Cup by minnows Ireland on March 18. A day later Woolmer's strangled body was found in his room on the 12th floor of the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
Asked about the inquiry into the murder of Woolmer, Afridi said: "The police did ask us a few questions but these were normal inquiries. We have been asked by the PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) not to speak much on the issue."
He added: "Just pray for us."
Akmal, who was going to take a connecting flight to Lahore, refused to talk specifically about Woolmer's murder but paid tribute to him.
"I don't want to say much on this issue but we all loved Bob. He was a nice coach and a nice person. He was like a father to all of us," he said.
Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and some squad members were expected to arrive in the eastern city of Lahore later on Wednesday.
All-rounder Yasir Arafat landed at Islamabad international airport early on Wednesday but refused to comment before being driven away.
Pakistani police had earlier pledged to protect the players if necessary.
"We are deploying police at the airport. We will not allow people to go near the players," Lahore police chief Malik Iqbal said. "The players will be provided with mobile police escorts as well."
Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi said: "Police will escort the players from the airport to their homes and will not allow any untoward incident."
Vice-captain Younis Khan and batsman Mohammad Yousuf returned to Karachi late on Monday.
The Pakistani players have come via Dubai and London, where they kept a low profile for two days following their ill-fated World Cup trip.
Team spokesperson Pervez Mir said the players had no safety fears about returning home, although he admitted that Pakistani fans would be disappointed with their performance.
Speaking outside the team's hotel near London's Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, Mir said the team were "never a suspect" in the murder of Woolmer.
However Jamaican Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields disputed Mir's "pretty inaccurate statement, because nobody at this stage can be ruled out of the inquiry."


Fans taunt Pakistani cricketers

March 28 2007 at 02:13PM

By Zarar Khan

Karachi, Pakistan- Jeering fans yelling "Go to hell!" gave a stormy welcome on Wednesday to Pakistani cricketers returning home from their humiliating early exit from the World Cup.

Four players, including the swashbuckling allrounder Shahid Afridi, landed at Karachi airport and were pilloried for the team's shock loss to Ireland - that was followed a day later by the unsolved murder in Jamaica of coach Bob Woolmer.

About 200 people who had gathered at the airport taunted the mercurial batsman with chants of "Afridi! Sell lentils!" and "Deserter, where are you going?" - and marched behind him as dozens of police escorted him to a waiting car.





"Go to hell!" some in the crowd yelled as Afridi, wearing dark sunglasses, got into the car and drove away. The allrounder, one of the most marketable stars in this cricket-crazy nation, made no response to the chants.

The poor showing of both Pakistan and India at the World Cup has prompted fans to exchange through the Internet photo montages of their cricket stars, recasting them in menial occupations such as fish sellers and chapati bakers. Afridi is pictured as a truck driver - a reference to his tribe's heavy involvement in road transportation in Pakistan.

Vice-captain Younis Khan was given a similarly derisive welcome on his return through Karachi on Monday, and took offense at one fan shouting that he should ride around the city on a donkey. More players were expected to arrive back in Pakistan later on Wednesday.

Afridi returned on a flight with leg-spinner Danish Kaneria, fast bowler Mohammed Sami and wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.

Akmal was waiting inside the airport to catch a connecting flight, but the crowd chanted "Shame! shame!" as Kaneria emerged, so police took him back inside. He and Sami were later spirited away from the airport through another exit.

Pakistan, which won the World Cup in 1992, suffered the worst upset in the tournament's 32-year history, when on March 17 they lost by three wickets to Ireland, a side of part-timers. That defeat sent Pakistan crashing out of the competition.

Speaking to an Associated Press reporter inside the airport terminal, Afridi and Akmal revealed their dismay at the loss, compounded by Woolmer's death a day later.

"We were very disturbed after losing in the World Cup and after the death of Bob Woolmer the next day we suffered mental tension," Akmal said. "Pray for us."

"It was a difficult time but God helped us endure it," said the usually flamboyant Afridi. "Bob Woolmer's death gave us a shock. Police asked us questions in that crisis but we were cleared."

"Thanks be to God that we have reached our country," he said.

Pakistani cricket officials have said the team members have been ruled out as suspects in the strangling death of Woolmer, a former England test player who had coached the side for nearly three years.

However, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields told the BBC's Radio Five, "That is a pretty inaccurate statement because nobody at this stage could be ruled out of the inquiry." But he added the Pakistani team members had been "completely cooperative."

 

[GhostofJimJess]

This is definitely not meant to be a sleight on the character of Bob Woolmer, and not for one minute am I intimating that I believe this actually occurred, but has there been any suggestion at all in any report that this might have been auto-erotic asphyxiation? As in the Michael Hutchence case?

Has this been totally ruled out by the Jamaican police, that Woolmer might have been 'entertaining' someone, things went a bit too far, and the other person duly hot-footed it out of there? He wouldn't be the first 58-year-old male to seek his kicks while in a foreign country.

If I don't ask, I won't know.

 

[Romeo]

This is definitely not meant to be a sleight on the character of Bob Woolmer, and not for one minute am I intimating that I believe this actually occurred, but has there been any suggestion at all in any report that this might have been auto-erotic asphyxiation? As in the Michael Hutchence case?

Has this been totally ruled out by the Jamaican police, that Woolmer might have been 'entertaining' someone, things went a bit too far, and the other person duly hot-footed it out of there? He wouldn't be the first 58-year-old male to seek his kicks while in a foreign country.

If I don't ask, I won't know.

I don't think he would have been in the mood after the events of the day, and that's not meant to be in poor taste. Plus he had emailed his wife and had room service sent up with no record of anyone else being in the room.

 

[apollo_creed]

The way this is going it's not long before this case is filed under X....

Fox.... step up.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

The way this is going it's not long before this case is filed under X....

Fox.... step up.

Shane Warne could be the "Smoking Man"?

 

[Romeo]

Woolmer cops probe al-Qaeda link - report
March 30 2007 at 09:21AM [SIZE=+1][/SIZE]By Sapa-AFP and Selene Brophy

Links between the murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer and an al-Qaeda fundraiser are being investigated, according to Sky News reports.

The international news broadcaster claims reports in The Sun stated that the Pakistan coach had had a heated row with Indian Kamal Chaddha.

Chaddha, believed to be a bookie, is also reported to be an associate of Dawood Ibrahim - allegedly wanted for al-Qaeda funding and a series of bomb attacks which killed 250 people in Bombay in 1993.

The paper, quoting sources, said the Chaddha was at the World Cup in Jamaica with Anees Ibrahim, Dawood's brother.The report stated that police deputy commissioner Mark Shields said the investigation team had been unable to substantiate the issue, which "has come up before".

But they would definitely consider the claim in light of the new information, according to Shields.

In earlier reports on Thursday the Pakistan Cricket Board called on Jamaican authorities to complete the probe into Woolmer's murder as quickly as possible following reports that it might take months to resolve the mystery.

"The PCB is perturbed to know that the ongoing investigations regarding Bob Woolmer's death in Jamaica will take several months as stated by the Jamaican authorities," the board's chairperson Nasim Ashraf said.

Woolmer was found strangled in his room at the Pegasus Hotel on March 18, one day after Pakistan were dramatically dumped out of the World Cup in a shock defeat to minnows Ireland.

The killing has sparked one of the most complex murder investigations in Jamaican history and has continued to trigger speculation about possible links to match-fixing and illegal betting in cricket.

 

[mbuck]

al queda now? haha what!

 

[GhostofJimJess]

al queda now? haha what!

That's it. Invade Jamaica.

(Or have we already?)

 

[Romeo]

And the news keeps coming.

Police Probe Woolmer Towel Theory

March 30 2007

Bob Woolmer - strangled with a towel?




Police believe that Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer may have been strangled with a piece of fabric.
A post-mortem examination found Woolmer died as a result of strangulation and 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.
Mr Shields told the Sun and the Times: "Therefore there may have been something between the hands of the assailant and the neck of the victim."
Newspaper reports on Friday suggest 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 Mr Shields has said he remains convinced Woolmer was murdered although he has not dismissed other possibilities.
He said: "It's very clear from the pathologist's report that we're dealing with a murder investigation."
But he added: "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 due to a humiliating defeat to Ireland.
On Wednesday, police handed a preliminary report to Kingston coroner Patrick Murphy who will hold his own investigation.
Woolmer's body will remain in Jamaica pending the coroner's investigation.
Police are still waiting for the results of toxicology and blood tests.
Officers have also been examining the hotel's CCTV footage and speaking to the maid who discovered Woolmer unconscious in his hotel bathroom.
The maid has reportedly returned to room 374 with police officers to see if it refreshed her memory.
Police have also been looking into reports that Woolmer argued with an Indian bookmaker in his hotel room, although Mr Shields said they have no evidence the claim is true.
Pakistani players and team officials were questioned, fingerprinted and swabbed for DNA before being allowed to leave Jamaica.