Police get new details in inquest into death of Pakistan cricket coach

A Jamaican hotel maid described finding Bob Woolmer's body in a disheveled, blood-spattered room.

Photo: Police get new details in inquest into death of Pakistan cricket coach

The maid, Bernice Robinson, told an 11-member jury she noticed a chair was overturned, there was blood on the pillow and there was a smell like a mix of alcohol and vomit when she entered the room to clean it on the morning of March 18.

Then Robinson noticed a man's leg sticking out of a bathroom door, which she could not open because the body of the 58-year-old coach was blocking it from the inside. The maid called for help, setting off one of the largest investigations in modern Jamaican history as authorities tried to determine how the coach died a day after his team was eliminated from the World Cup.

Within days of his death, Jamaican police said Woolmer had been strangled and began a globe-spanning homicide probe. Later, the Caribbean nation's police commissioner closed the case after pathologists in Britain, South Africa and Canada concluded he died from natural causes.

Robinson was the first of about 50 witnesses expected to testify at the inquest, which could last through the first week of November and determine the official cause of death.

The maid said she knocked on Woolmer's door earlier in the morning but got no response and heard what she thought was snoring. She said she decided to return later after cleaning other rooms.

The second person on the scene was another maid, who was too afraid to even look into the bathroom, where Robinson said she could see blood in the sink and on the floor. Even together, they could not open the door and had to call for help.