November 30, 2007	Friday	Ziqa’ad 19, 1428

KINGSTON (Jamaica), Nov 29: Police closed their investigation into the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer on Wednesday after an 11-member inquest jury handed down an open verdict in the case.

A jury that began deliberations last week after 26 days of testimony from 57 witnesses found insufficient evidence of either murder or a death by natural causes, in effect ruling they were unable to decide an outcome.

In something akin to a five-day draw to conclude a cricket tour, the verdict does not rule out the controversial strangulation finding of government pathologist Ere Sheshiah but does not force Jamaica police to continue a probe.

“We do not intend to go any further with these investigations,” Jamaican Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields stated, saying the probe has already been shelved.

Shields added that the Jamaican police had already “conducted a thorough and one of the largest investigations in recent years and had always been confident that Mr. Woolmer died of natural causes.”

That confidence was grounded upon the depth of the investigation already conducted by Jamaican police, who interviewed more than 400 people, collected statements from 250 witnesses and pursued 500 lines of inquiry in the matter.

Wednesday’s verdict, barring a shock move by the local director of public prosecution, was the final wicket for a case that stunned the cricket world.

It began when Woolmer was found in his room at the Pegasus Hotel on March 18, one day after a humbling loss to Ireland ousted Pakistan from cricket’s World Cup.

Former England star Woolmer was later pronounced dead at the University of the West Indies Hospital. He was 58.A post mortem conducted by Sheshiah led him to conclude that Woolmer was killed by asphyxiation due to manual strangulation.

Jamaican police decided they had a homicide case but later abandoned the investigations after consulting with other experts who determined Woolmer’s death was due to natural causes.

Pathologists Nathaniel Cary of Britain, Michael Pollanen of Canada and South African professor Lorna Jean Martin questioned Sheshiah’s technique and said that Woolmer, a diabetic with an enlarged heart, might have died from a heart attack.

An inquest was ordered on March 23. Sheshiah maintained that Woolmer was murdered, saying the toxic cypermethrin was used to incapacitate the coach.

The jury foreman, who refused to give his name to reporters for safety concerns, said the jury saw no other possible answer because neither side could support their claims.

“We had no choice,” the foreman said. “We came to an open verdict because the evidence was too weak. There were too many what-ifs and loopholes.

“There were certain instances that a conclusion wasn’t drawn and we had to speculate and that forced us to come to a conclusion for ourselves.”

Shields had testified that he found no evidence of match fixing in the connection with Woolmer’s death and neither did a probe by the International Cricket Council.

Woolmer had been in the process of writing a book that some said would reveal corruption in cricket, a potential motive for a slaying, in a case that had cricket followers pondering conspiracy theories following Woolmer’s death.

“I found nothing that Mr. Woolmer was writing about, or had written about, match fixing or dirty side of cricket,” Shields said. —AFP