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Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 15:53 GMT 16:53 UK
Timeline: Bob Woolmer investigation
The key events surrounding the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer as they unfolded, the dramatic changes in the police investigation and how the story changed.

SATURDAY 17 MARCH

Pakistan lose to Ireland and exit the Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

Bob Woolmer
Woolmer's death has cast a long shadow over the World Cup

Afterwards, an upset Bob Woolmer says the result is one of his worst experiences.

"I'd like to sleep on my future as coach of Pakistan," he tells reporters.

The press conference is to be his last public appearance.

But he is seen by other team members later that evening, a Pakistan cricket spokesman says the next day.

SUNDAY 18 MARCH

Early in the morning Woolmer e-mails his wife, Gill, in Cape Town.

She says: "He was really depressed and could not believe how this could have happened."

1045: Woolmer is found unconscious in his room at the Pegasus hotel in Kingston and taken to hospital. He is pronounced dead at midday.

MONDAY 19 MARCH

Woolmer's family give consent for a post-mortem to be carried out.

They say he had been suffering from stress and that this may have brought on a heart attack.

TUESDAY 20 MARCH

The first post-mortem is inconclusive and further tests are ordered.

Police hold a news conference later in the day and announce they are treating the death as suspicious.

Asked if Woolmer was murdered, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner Mark Shields says: "No, we're not saying that."

Woolmer's body is thought to have been found in the bathroom.

There are no signs of a struggle or of forced entry to Woolmer's bedroom and his possessions appear undisturbed, police say.

WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH

Pakistan win their final World Cup group match against Zimbabwe. The game goes ahead after a minute's silence and is dedicated to Woolmer.

THURSDAY 22 MARCH

Gill Woolmer rejects suggestions her husband committed suicide but refuses to rule out the possibility he was murdered.

Jamaican police question and fingerprint every member of the Pakistan squad - although they stress there are no suspects and the team are free to leave.

As speculation mounts over the cause of death, police also deny a report in the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper which quotes a police source as saying a broken bone had been found in Woolmer's neck.

Later in the day, police say they are treating the death as murder.

Further post mortem tests had showed the cause of death to be asphyxia, as a result of strangulation, police commissioner Lucius Thomas said.

FRIDAY 23 MARCH
  Woolmer's family say they were unaware of any threats to him.

In a statement, the family also said they had no knowledge of whether Woolmer was involved in match-fixing, as some media have speculated.

SATURDAY 31 MARCH

Jamaican police accept an offer of help from UK police.

Officers from Scotland Yard will fly out next week, Mr Shields told the BBC.

SUNDAY 1 APRIL

Pakistani cricket officials hold a memorial service for Woolmer in Lahore, attended by the team.

TUESDAY 3 APRIL

A team of UK police officers arrive in Jamaica to help the murder inquiry.

SUNDAY 29 APRIL

Woolmer was poisoned as well as strangled, the BBC's Panorama reports.

A drug was found in his body that would have rendered him helpless, according to a Panorama investigation.

His remains are flown back to his home in Cape Town, South Africa.

FRIDAY 4 MAY

Bob Woolmer is cremated in a private ceremony in South Africa.

Only family members attended the service, which took place at a funeral parlour close to his home in Cape Town.

TUESDAY 15 MAY

A UK government pathologist has concluded that Bob Woolmer was not murdered, according to the Times newspaper. Dr Nat Carey said after studying autopsy material that death was not by asphyxiation from strangling, it said.

The Jamaica Gleaner newspaper has separately cited Scotland Yard sources as saying Mr Woolmer was not murdered.

SATURDAY 2 JUNE

Scotland Yard has told police in Jamaica that Woolmer was not murdered, the BBC understands.

The apparent verdict follows work by a UK Home Office pathologist, who flew to Jamaica to probe Mr Woolmer's death.

A UK newspaper has reported that Jamaican police are to announce that Mr Woolmer died of natural causes.

THURSDAY 7 JUNE

Jamaican police say they are studying "new material" regarding Bob Woolmer's death.

A police commissioner said a statement on the issue would be made "shortly".

TUESDAY 12 JUNE

Jamaican police announce that Bob Woolmer was not murdered but died of natural causes. Commissioner Lucius Thomas said three independent pathologists' reports had concluded that the original finding of death by manual asphyxiation was wrong.

Mr Thomas added that toxicology tests had ruled out any use of poison.

"The JCF [Jamaica Constabulary Force] accepts these findings and has now closed its investigation into the death of Mr Bob Woolmer," Mr Thomas told a news conference.




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