Woolmer murder witness appeal as Pakistanis head home

KINGSTON: Police probing the murder of cricket coach Bob Woolmer made an international appeal for witnesses on Tuesday as Pakistan's squad headed for home declaring they were "not suspects" in the killing.

Deputy police commissioner Mark Shields said investigators wanted to track down anyone who visited or stayed at Kingston's Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in the days leading up to the discovery of Woolmer's body on March 18.   

The former senior Scotland Yard detective said police were yet to make a significant breakthrough in the case and were appealing for anyone at the Pegasus Hotel at the time of the killing to come forward.   

"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.    

"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."   

Shields urged any cricket fans or tourists who had since returned to their home countries to dial the international hotline (+1-876-927-5000) or contact their local police.   

Woolmer was last week declared to have been strangled in "evil and extraordinary" circumstances in the aftermath of Pakistan's shock defeat and World Cup exit at the hands of minnows Ireland.   

The murder has triggered frenzied conspiracy theories about illegal match-fixing in cricket, with several former players speculating Woolmer had been killed to prevent him from speaking out.   

However close friends and family say they have found nothing to suggest there is any truth to the claim that the respected former England international was set to blow the whistle on cricket corruption.   

Shields on Monday said all lines of enquiry were being kept open and described British reports saying that police were hunting three Pakistani fans who left Jamaica soon after the murder as premature.   

"The reality as I've said before is that there are many potential suspects and even more potential witnesses, and we are nowhere near the stage of being able to start naming names in terms of suspects," Shields said. He also said he did not "feel any frustration" at having allowed the Pakistani team to leave the island on Saturday.    

The Pakistanis were questioned by police and gave DNA and fingerprints. Shields said there were no grounds to have prevented them from leaving Jamaica.   

Pakistan's players headed for home on Tuesday after a two-day rest in London following their doomed World Cup campaign.   

Team spokesman Pervez Mir told reporters outside the team hotel near London Heathrow Airport that the Pakistani squad "was never a suspect" in the death.   

"We had nothing to do with it," Pervez Mir said. "We were part of the same inquiry as everybody else so of course we were questioned," he added, saying that Jamaican police had confirmed they were "not suspects."   

In a separate interview with Sky News television, Mir rejected reports of a major split between Woolmer and members of the team, including the captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq.   

"There were a lot of rumours that I had rowed with Inzamam and that was a joke. But at least I was here, thank God, to answer those questions. Mr Woolmer is not here," he said.