FORMER assistant commissioner of Police, Rodwell Murray, was found dead inside an hourly-rented hotel room on Tuesday night.

Murray, 72, was found on the floor of one of the rented rooms at Mariana’s Hotel in Petit Bourg around 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

Police officers went to the hotel after a frantic phone call was received from a 49-year-old female, who was sharing the room with Murray.

When officers arrived at the scene, Murray was discovered dressed only in a vest lying dead on the hotel room’s floor. Murray allegedly took three tablets of the erectile dysfunction drug, Cialis, before he died, his female friend told investigating officers on Tuesday night.

An autopsy performed at the mortuary of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) in Mt Hope yesterday, revealed that Murray died as a result of heart failure, a police source said. The autopsy was witnessed by Murray’s nieces.

When the Express called the phone number for Murray’s home at Grace Gardens in Santa Cruz, a female who identified herself as his wife said she was ’too distraught’ to talk.

In 1992, Murray was thrown into the national spotlight after he alleged that there was a drug cartel operating within this country’s police service.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning was at the time in his first term in office, and Scotland Yard detectives were called in to investigate Murray’s claims.

Police Commissioner Jules Bernard was this country’s top cop at the time of Murray’s allegations.

Murray was labelled a whistle blower by his colleagues and treated as an outcast, but nothing substantial came out of the visit by the Scotland Yard detectives to this country.