Police to test Woolmer's last meal for drugs

Leaving no stone unturned in the probe of Pakistani cricket coach Bob Woolmer's murder, Jamaican police is investigating if his last room-service dinner was laced with drugs to subdue him.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields, who is leading the investigation, said a man of Woolmer's build and stature could not have been manually strangulated unless he was impaired.

"He was 6ft 1in (185cm) and a big man, and unless he was drugged or impaired it would perhaps have been difficult to restrain him. We are looking at whether his food was drugged," he said.

"The meal was thrown away after he put the tray outside his room, but we are conducting toxicology and tissue tests," Shields was quoted as saying by 'The New Zealand Herald' today.

Police, who are treating the CCTV cameras as "critical" piece of evidence, said the investigation process was taking a little longer because "the CCTV was in a particular format and we have to preserve the original cassettes and I had to have them converted into a digital format so we can begin the process of reviewing them methodically."

"That does not happen in five minutes. We have got it now, and my officers are starting to go through it." Cameras were at either end of the corridor on the floor and near the lifts.

Fifty-eight-year-old Woolmer was found dead in his Jamaica Pegasus hotel room on March 18, less than 24 hours after Pakistan was defeated by Ireland in a World Cup match.

Jamaican police, who're probing the murder, are analysing the hard drive of his computer and looking at the possibility that Woolmer's killing may be connected to match-fixing.

"We have Bob Woolmer's computer. We are looking at what is on the hard drive,"Shields, said yesterday at a press conference in Kingston's Pegasus hotel, where Woolmer was found dead.

Shields said they were looking at the possibility if the murder was connected to match-fixing, but added police have kept all lines of inquiry open.

"We're exploring the possibility of match-fixing, but that's only one line of inquiry," he said adding investigators had not found any mention about it in the computer.

The 58-year-old coach was found dead a day after Pakistan team's shock defeat to Ireland.