One senior cop has said that yesterday’s announcement by the constabulary that former Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer had died of natural causes instead of being strangled as was first concluded in March, spoiled a 140-year record of the Jamaican police never being overturned on the cause of death in a murder investigation.

“It has never happened before. It is the first time in the 140 years of the JCF that the cause of death in a murder investigation has been overturned. Never,” the senior cop told the Observer after yesterday’s press conference where the police announced that they had now closed their probe into Woolmer’s death.

“The police will have to live with this for years to come,” said the clearly embarrassed police officer, who asked not to be named.

Since March 18 when Woolmer was found dead in his hotel room, the case has gone through a number of dramatic twists and turns and was the subject of speculation after Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields told journalists that the coach’s death was being treated as “suspicious” a mere three hours after announcing that the cause of death was “inconclusive”.

A few days later, the police announced that the report from government pathologist Dr Ere Seshaiah had determined that Woolmer died from asphyxia due to manual strangulation, and therefore his death was being treated as a case of murder.

Theories emerged in the overseas media that Woolmer was poisoned and that he was killed by a cricket mafia with deep involvement in match fixing.

However, after reviewing evidence in the high-profile case, three independent pathologists – Professor Lorna Martin of South Africa, Dr Nat Carey of the United Kingdom, and Dr Michael Pollenan of Canada – all concluded that Woolmer died from a heart attack brought on by a combination of illnesses.

Yesterday, while not overtly blaming Seshaiah, Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas said the local police had nothing to be embarrassed about.

“I don’t know what is embarrassing really, as you put it, for the JCF,” Thomas responded to a question. “Having yes. an incident occur of which we seek the professional help of others, forensics and otherwise, we are so advised, and we act on that, and we are very professional in what we do. That is why we are here this morning to share with you in a very transparent and professional way what took place, and where we go.”

However, he admitted that the JCF will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the way the investigation was conducted.

“Normally we must conduct a review to see if we did anything wrong. It is normal after any incident for us to look back and make this review and make recommendations where we go from here in the future, which will be done.,” Thomas said.