Two days after saying that they treated the death in the hotel room of the 58-year-old Englishman as 'suspicious', the Jamaican Police issued a statement saying, "The official report from the pathologist states that Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation. In these circumstances, the matter of Woolmer's death is now being treated by the Jamaican police as murder."
Addressing a press conference flanked by ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed and Pakistan media manager Pervez Mir, Deputy Commissioner of Jamaican Police Mark Shields said, "Bob was a large man and it would have taken some significant force to subdue him. At this stage, we don't know how many people were there in the room. It could be one or more people involved in the murder."
He also made it clear that the Pakistani players were not being stopped from leaving Jamaica and said both the ICC and Pakistan cricket team had given given an assurance that the cricketers would fully co-operate in the investigation whether they are in Pakistan or in the Caribbean.
Police yesterday took fingerprints of the Pakistani players apart from questioning them.
Jamaican Police have also set up two hotlines for anyone to give information that could lead to cracking of the murder.