Reminiscing, Bob Woolmer’s death
ON 18 March 2007, Bob Woolmer, the coach of Pakistan cricket team was found dead under mysterious circumstances.
Bob’s conscience pricked gravely as he breathed his last at Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.
His heart confessed that it could take no more.If his demise wasn’t enough for his loved ones to mourn, an autopsy error must had shaken his departed soul’s final flight.
The report was he had died due to manual strangulation.The moment news was broken, everyone in the game and in the city became suspect.
The DG FIA on behalf of the government sent me under Mir Zubair to investigate what had occurred in this part of the world.
For us, it was exhilarating to travel to the Caribbean during the World Cup and to have the opportunity to work alongside investigators from other countries.
To unravel the truth behind the untimely death of the game’s most famous figure was our challenge.
A closer look revealed that the central figure in the plot was the Indian-born Dr Ere Seshaiah, a forensic pathologist and a graduate from India who moved to Jamaica in 1995.
Despite holding this office, he did not obtain a postgraduate degree nor had taken any forensic pathology exam.
The combination of incompetence and unprofessionalism with obstinance, bias and prejudice could be disastrous. When left unbridled, the sleeping zealotry thump in at every opportunity.
Weirdly, the autopsy pathologist diagnosed Woolmer’s death as asphyxia caused by manual strangulation.
He asserted that the hyoid bone had been damaged and any possible capitulation due to inherent anxieties in a challenging position was excluded.
When we arrived there, as part of the Jamaican Police Task Force, the ‘Kingfish’ team gave us a brief, took us to the crime scene and shared interviews recorded and the autopsy report.
Upon questioning the pathologist, he bungled, and jumbled up his response.Most of his answers were illogical or based on suppositions.
When we disputed the point on his autopsy report where he wrote that human livers weigh 1.5 grams, he defended the mistake as a typo error.So that was it, and the case then swung to panoramic analysis.
Along with Scotlandyard, we asked the local police and doctor to link the autopsy reports to the crime scene.
Our question was why chaos and violence were not evident at the scene.Video footage showed no entry or exit from the Bob’s room.
How was it possible for a six-foot-tall, eighty-kilogram man to be easily overpowered by anybody.
What action had been taken against hotel management to shift a dead body as living and not preserving scene of crime? What was Bob health history, and had any motive emerged?
Interestingly, the health reports indicated that Bob suffered from diabetes, sleep apnea, and would cease to breathe unless a mask was worn connected to a machine that kept his air passages open.A day earlier, as the team left the stadium defeated, the atmosphere was disheartening.
He had a drink in the bar, followed by his meal in his hotel’s room.The waitress who delivered Woolmer’s last meal, said he looked desperate and had red eyes.
His half-eaten Lasagne was found outside on a tray.Bob was still sleeping when the make-up maid arrived early in the morning.Around 10 am, she came back to find the bed unoccupied.Opening the curtains, she observed light in the bathroom.
The body of Woolmer was found slumped against the bathroom door with his back to the door, making it nearly impossible for someone to have strangled him and then gotten out. Having no success in opening, she called others to locate Bob on the ground.
It was likely that he had already passed.His body was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.There was evidence of foul play in the autopsy.
It was not at all matching with the crime scene.In the room, nothing was amiss.There was no way out of the washroom, as only a lean maid had managed to get in.
Considering that Bob was a large man, it would have taken a lot of force to subdue him and cause him to strangle, had it been a murder.
The Deputy Commissioner of the Jamaican police, privately, admitted that their pathologist was wrong: “Don’t think it’s related to match-fixing or betting mafia”.
A toxicology test found no substance to indicate that he had been poisoned.Finally, Jamaica Constabulary Force certified Woolmer’s death as natural.During our investigations, some more interesting facts emerged.
As we started our journey, a friendly air hostess asked us our purpose for our visit and suggested places to see, unexpectedly mentioning, “why you frequently wash your feet”.
It turned out that she was part of the crew that flew the defeated Pakistani cricket team back to its homeland.
Amazingly, players were regularly doing ablutions, saying azan in the plane, and performing congregational prayers unimpeded by the inconvenience they caused to other passengers.She complained the floor of the plane was soaked.
As we interacted in terms of team behaviour, what we witnessed was not very promising.The intense following of rituals on and off the field negatively affected their performances.
No disrespect to any belief but the urge to focus, plan, perform, and fight and work out intensely took second place.
It was more about seeking divine assistance than working hard to find good luck.
In the months that followed, Bob’s family was finally able to bring the body back to South Africa, where he was cremated in a private ceremony near Cape Town.
Having studied all the evidence, Gill Woolmer and her two sons were satisfied that Bob died of natural causes.
—The writer is Federal Secretary Ministry of Narcotics Control.
