A senior local police officer close to the Bob Woolmer investigation has confirmed that the Pakistan cricket team coach was not murdered.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the police officer acknowledged to The Gleaner that Woolmer died of natural causes.

Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) investigators are hoping to receive a third pathology report next week, which is expected to concur with the second report conducted by British government pathologist Dr. Nat Carey.

"Certainly, in my view it was not murder," said the senior officer of the death of the former English Test cricketer, which overshadowed the Caribbean's hosting of Cricket World Cup 2007.

However, the JCF will not make an official comment until after the final toxicology results are in and, more important, the third pathology report has been received.

Dr. Carey had ruled that the 58-year-old Woolmer died of natural causes on March 18. The British pathologist had been called in by the Jamaican investigators to review the findings of local pathologist, Dr. Ere Sheshiah, who said Woolmer died of asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation.

Dr. Garfield Blake, president of the Jamaican Association of Clinical Pathologists, had earlier criticised the report by Dr. Sheshiah. However, Dr. Blake said yesterday that his colleague deserved to be judged only when all the facts are presented in public.

"The best of persons in any field can make an error, but on the other hand, if there is a pattern of wrong conclusions being drawn or sloppy post-mortems, then this would fit into that," he said.

He said ideally there should be a system in place where all pathology reports, no matter how clear-cut, should be reviewed by a colleague to ensure accurate findings.

Local detectives had sought outside assistance, including a report into the conduct of the investigation, by a review team from Scotland Yard, which they say has validated the efforts of the JCF.

ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com