Thaindian News

Sydney, Dec 5 (IANS) Peter Roebuck’s family has asked for a second post-mortem examination, claiming that the cricketer-turned-commentator would not have committed suicide.

They have already hired a British criminal lawyer who arrived in South Africa this weekend to look into Roebuck’s death.

Roebuck fell from a sixth-floor hotel room in Cape Town Nov 12.

The cricket commentator’s widowed mother and siblings reportedly said his final communication to them revealed no indications that he would take his own life.

“We need to obtain some facts,” Beatrice Roebuck, his sister, was quoted as saying in The Times.

“Peter was on record as saying that he would never commit suicide and all the information we have is being played out in the media.”

“We are not coming to any conclusion straight away, but we want our lawyer to look at the hotel room Peter was in and to find out where we stand with the investigations into his death.”

The newspaper claims it has seen Roebuck’s final e-mail to his mother in which he had expressed an interest in spending more time in England and wrote about looking ahead to Christmas.

“The window arrangements in his hotel are questionable. A window in this kind of air-conditioned building is not easy to open. If it was open and Peter was sitting on the sill, he could have fallen out. Was he in the bathroom? We heard straight away that his death was suicide, but conclusions were reached immediately and we do not have a coroner’s report. Some lovely things have been written about Peter, but also some vile things. We want Peter’s name to remain a good name,” she said.