Woolmer 'died of natural causes': Jamaica police

Kingston, Jun 12 (UNI) Bringing down the curtain on the Bob Woolmer mystery death saga, Jamaican police today made an embarrasing U-turn from their earlier murder theory and confirmed that the Pakistan World Cup coach died of natural causes.

The head of the Caribbean island's police force, Lucius Thomas, told a press conference here that Woolmer had died of natural causes and had not been murdered by strangulation, as the force initially said.

Woolmer was found dead in his Kingston hotel room on March 18, a day after his team's shock loss to Ireland and consequent exit from the World Cup. He was declared brought dead at a local hospital on the same day.

An initial postmortem examination proved inconclusive, but four days afterwards Thomas announced that a second pathologist had concluded Woolmer died from ''manual strangulation'' and the case was being treated as murder.

The crucial piece of evidence that pointed to murder was the verdict by Dr Ere Seshaiah, a Jamaican pathologist, that the hyoid bone in Woolmer's neck was broken, a sign of strangulation.

The announcement unleashed a torrent of speculation about possible poisoning or the involvement of criminal gangs and match fixing, largely overshadowing the World Cup itself.

Investigators had not found ''any evidence at all of impropriety'' involving players during the World Cup, Thomas said today.

Thomas said three expert opinions had concluded that the original pathologist report that death was by manual asphyxiation was wrong.

Expressing relief at the news, Woolmer's widow, Gill, said from Cape Town, ''My sons and I are relieved to be officially informed that Bob died of natural causes and that no foul play is suspected in his death.'' UNI