Police find nothing in Woolmer laptop, search for clues continues

Kingston, Mar 28 (UNI) Jamaican police are considering other methods of obtaining evidence on the Bob Woolmer murder case like investigators traveling to other islands to interview players and officials who were in the hotel at the time of murder as no solid clues emerging from any source so far.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields said his team were considering getting DNA samples from all persons who were in the hotel at the time of murder, including the West Indian and Ireland players.

For that investigators will have to travel abroad, including to other Caribbean islands and try to get useful bits of information by interviewing the players and officials.

It was not clear how many people were staying in thehotel when Woolmer was killed. Besides Pakistan team, players from the West Indies and Ireland squads were also staying there, as well as dozens of fans and international journalists.

Jamaica police have also analysed Woolmer's laptop and have found no evidence of match-fixing and betting.

Shields told a news conference at Pegasus Hotel here that all possible motives were being considered, including match-fixing.

''We have Bob Woolmer's computer. We are looking at what is on the hard drive. We're exploring the possibility of match-fixing, but that's only one line of inquiry,'' Shields said.

Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room a day after Pakistan's shock defeat to Ireland and Shields said the police will look into the betting odds for the match.

Investigators are also relying on the footage from the hotel surveillance camera, for which Shields pointed that it would be a very time consuming process, having to study the footage frame-by-frame.

''At the end of it, it might be that we might identify a suspect or suspects,'' Shields said.

Meanwhile, after eight days of speculations, Jamaican Police have finally excluded Pakistani players from their list of suspects in the high-profile murder case.

Shields, a former Scotland Yard detective, said that his department has collected enough evidence to rule out the Pakistani players as suspects in the murder of their coach.

''It's fair to say they (Pakistani players) are now being treated as witnesses,'' Shields said.

''We have got no evidence to suggest it was anybody in the squad,'' he added.

Pakistani players who were questioned, finger-printed and swabbed for DNA before being allowed to leave Jamaica on Saturday. The way Pakistani players were interrogated led to widespread rumours that the Police have placed some of them among the list of prime suspects.

The police's belief that Woolmer was killed by somebody he knew only added fuel to fire.

Shields said the authorities have the option of ordering back any Pakistani player or official during any stage of the investigations.

''The reality, as I've said before, is that there are many potential suspects in this investigation and even more potential witnesses, and we are nowhere near the stage of being able to start naming names in terms of suspects,''he added.

Shields also rejected a British newspaper report that Police were now looking for three Pakistani fans -- Hamid Malik, Jundie Khan and Efran Chaudhray -- who reportedly left Jamaica immediately after the murder.

The three were described as gofers who brought players halal food and drove them around Jamaica and believed to have had access to the 12th floor of Pegasus Hotel, where Woolmer's room was.

UNI