The latest theory regarding the murder of Bob Woolmer in a Jamaican hotel more than a month ago, is that snake venom may have been used to poison the Pakistan coach.
LONDON: An injection of snake venom may have been used to kill Bob Woolmer, a leading UK tabloid reported on Sunday, adding to the many theories floating around since the death of the Pakistan cricket team coach last month.
Daily Mail reported that Neil Manthorpe, a cricket commentator with the BBC, had spoken to Woolmer’s widow, Gill, and her sons, Russell and Dale, in Cape Town. The conversation took place after the Jamaican police provided an update on the probe to the family.
“The boys said the police told their mother that the toxicology results were inconclusive,” Manthorpe was quoted as saying.
“The detective told Gill they believe it must have been a natural poison, such as snake venom, which leaves the body soon afterwards.”
“The officer said the only way to prove this was to look for tissue damage, which was why they had sent the results to England for further testing,” Manthorpe is reported as saying. The newspaper said the police had ruled out the possibility of Woolmer being bitten by a snake; there are no venomous snakes in the part of the Caribbean where he had died. The police suspect that Woolmer was injected with venom, the report said.
David Warrell, professor of tropical medicine and infectious diseases at Oxford University, said vomit and faeces found near Woolmer’s body were consistent with the signs suggesting that a person had snake venom in his bloodstream.
“Snake venom cannot be slipped into a drink or food,” Warrell said. “It cannot be injected into any part of the body either. It has to go directly into a vein. That means this man would have had to be held down for the 20 minutes or so for the paralysis to set in.”
For her part, Gill is said to be losing patience with the non-stop speculation about her husband’s death. “Mark Shields (the detective in charge of the investigation) speaks to me most days and says I can have access to him 24/7,” she said.
“But I feel I don’t know what’s really going on. I’m fed up with all the speculation.”
With inputs from Agencies
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