Murder, suspense and videotape

KINGSTON: A week after the murder of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer and with no clear suspects in sight, Jamaican police said on Sunday they have video that could contain a clue to the killer.

Investigators were transferring images from an old videotape surveillance system at the Pegasus Hotel, where Woolmer was found last Sunday, to a digital format to preserve the pictures before examining them thoroughly, said deputy police commissioner Mark Shields.

Of particular interest is a video of the 12th floor where Woolmer’s room is located. The tape facing the lifts, however, shows only the ends of a corridor and not the door to Woolmer’s room. “It’s critically important because it may give us an image of the killer or killers of Bob Woolmer,” he said.

A curious aspect that the investigators believe is that it would have been difficult for someone who did not have a room on the 12th floor of the Hotel Jamaica Pegasus to get to this floor on his own.

It is impossible for anybody without a keycard to use the lift to reach any of the floors. Security guards accompany a newcomer under strict supervision to the lift, upon which the guest must produce his card.

Inside the lift the card is slipped through an electronic lock, and then the number of the floor is pressed. If the wrong number is pressed, the lift stops or goes back to the floor where the person had entered.

These strict security measures were in place before Woolmer’s death.

Among the occupants on that fateful day of March 18 on the floor were the entire Pakistan team and West Indies skipper Brian Lara whose room was almost bang opposite Woolmer’s.

Shields did not say whether police had looked at the 12th floor video before Pakistan’s Cricket World Cup contingent was allowed to leave Jamaica late Saturday. The players were fingerprinted and gave DNA samples before their departure.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s media manager complained that the police were not updating them on the details about the cause of Woolmer’s death even as the team was in transit on its way back home.

Woolmer, 58, was found unconscious in his room at the hotel last Sunday after the team’s stunning loss to World Cup debutants Ireland that knocked heavily favoured Pakistan out of the tournament. He was declared dead at a hospital.

Police say he was strangled and the killer could have been someone he knew well because the door to his room was not forced open. On Saturday, Shields said there were no clear suspects and investigators were keeping an open mind.

Team ‘traumatised’

Speculation was rampant that gambling and match-fixing were the motives in the killing. The International Cricket Council sent its top anti-corruption investigator, Jeff Rees, to Kingston, where he had twice met Shields.

Pakistani diplomat Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, who flew with a colleague to the Jamaican capital Saturday, pleaded for an end to the speculation surrounding Woolmer’s death and the Pakistani players. “The team is traumatised,” he said. “There is no suspect or suspects.” (see story below)

Police intended to take the diplomats on a tour of the crime scene. The cricket team flew out of Kingston on Saturday night and landed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Sunday morning en route home.

Shields defended his decision to let the team leave Jamaica. He told The Times of London that to hold them “would have caused a significant diplomatic incident and have an extremely adverse effect on the World Cup”.

Investigators faced another obstacle besides the painstaking search of hours of video tape. Possible witnesses were leaving the country in droves as the World Cup action shifted to other Caribbean venues. It returns for the first semi-final on April 24.

“Of course, it makes it more difficult. This is an extraordinary investigation because many of the potential witnesses are leaving the island,” he said, adding that he did not believe it would become a major issue.

Police hoped to have toxicology and other forensic test results this week.