What happened to Nora Quoirin in Malaysia? The unanswered questions over the missing schoolgirl’s death
COPS found the body of missing Brit Nora Quoirin, ten days after the 15-year-old mysteriously disappeared from a holiday resort in Malaysia.
A rescue mission team of 300 worked around the clock to locate the vulnerable teenager. Here's the latest.
Nora Quoirin - a timeline of events
Local police said a body had been found of a white skinned female by a jungle waterfall.
Nora's family later confirmed that the body was hers - and cops said there was no foul play involved.
Here's what's happened so far:
- Cops probed a sighting of a "white woman" swimming in a river
- Police check fingerprints as they admit Nora may have been taken
- Family make emotional plea for missing teenager
- A recording of Nora's mum's voice saying "I love you, mum’s here" is played on loudspeaker in the jungle
- Police release pictures of a large window found propped open
- Footprints believed to belong to the 15-year-old found by a specialist dog unit
- More than 300 people are hunting for the missing teenager
- Cops compile dossier of local paedophiles and quiz hotel staff and taxi driver
- Scotland Yard "joins search" in Malaysia
- A body was found by hikers in the Betembum mountains in an "inaccessible" place on August 13, before being identified as Nora's by her grieving parents
- A postmortem examination of the body, which was completely naked, on August 14, proved inconclusive
- Cops said Nora was alive for a WEEK before dying from hunger and stress - and claimed she WASN'T kidnapped
When was Nora Quoirin's funeral?
Nora was laid to rest on September 10 in an emotional in her mother Meabh's native Belfast.
The church is where Nora was baptised as a baby and it is understood she will be buried among her relatives.
Father Eddie O’Donnell today referred to Nora's "gentleness and her innocence".
He told mourners: "She, as we all know, depended greatly on others but, Nora in turn, gifted others with immeasurable love and joy; before such an ability we can only feel gratitude.”
The priest continued: "I ask myself, as surely you must do, ‘What is the meaning of this terrible pain that has been inflicted on Nora’s family?’
"We have, have we not, found ourselves wondering if God is good and has for us the love that no human love can match, why then is there such suffering in our world?
“We do not understand, and our stumbling words are so terribly inadequate.”
When did Nora go missing?
Nora was staying at The Dusun Resort near the Berembun Forest Reserve in Malaysia when she went missing on Sunday, August 4.
The teen, who has special needs, arrived in Malaysia for a two-week "trip of a lifetime" in a nature reserve near Seremban, 39 miles south of the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, August 3.
Nora’s family - who live in London - say they discovered she was missing on Sunday morning.
Cops said that a window in the living room downstairs was left open.
Nora and her siblings were asleep in rooms upstairs.
The hotel is set within a 12-acre orchard resort close to the Berembun Forest.
What did the post-mortem results show?
The post-mortem ruled the teen had died from internal bleeding in her intestine after a stomach ulcer burst, following a period of prolonged hunger and stress.
Both the Irish and French police who observed the postmortem were satisfied with the work of the local pathology team led by Siew Sheue Feng from the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.
“We will continue to investigate and find out what really happened,” he said.
Prior to the post-mortem findings, French prosecutors had joined the probe - as Nora's father is French - to investigate whether the teen was kidnapped before her death.
They ruled the teen had died from internal bleeding in her intestine after a stomach ulcer burst, following a period of prolonged hunger and stress.
Why did Nora leave the resort?
Detectives believe Nora left through the accommodation's ground-floor aluminium framed window, before her dad alerted cops of her disappearance the next day at 8am.
The family's lawyer Charles Morel said the teen’s disability made it very unlikely that she left the lodge at night and walked to the bottom of a ravine by herself.
"Vulnerable" Nora - who was born with the brain defect holoprosencephaly - is believed to have been dead for up to three days before being found in a spot search crews had already examined.
The condition left her struggling to complete everyday tasks and with limited speech, walking ability and co-ordination.
Morel said: "One of the effects of her condition is that she was very dependent on her parents.
"She was shy, she was quickly scared, she had travelled for 18 hours and she was exhausted.
"So there is no reason why she would leave the lodge in the night, almost naked.
"There is no previous episode in her life to suggest she might do something like this."
Why was her body not spotted earlier?
The teen's unclothed body was found on Tuesday, August 13, about 1.6 miles away from the resort where she had stayed.
Witnesses said she was in "plain sight" and looked like she was sleeping with her head resting on her hands.
The post-mortem examination revealed she died between two and four days earlier.
The ravine where she was found was also repeatedly searched by rescue teams during the first seven days of her disappearance.
Police were unable to explain why she was missed.
What have cops said?
After the discovery of Nora's body, cops said she succumbed to "intestinal bleeding" after wandering through the Malaysian jungle as emergency crews desperately searched for her.
Negeri Sembilan Police Chief, Mohamad Mat Yusop, said authorities had found no evidence of foul play despite fears the teen had been abducted and her body dumped.
He said: "For the time being there is no element of abduction or kidnapping."
He also confirmed that Nora had not been dead for more than three days and that there was no sexual contact.
He added: "There were some abrasions and bruises on her leg but they were not likely to have led to her death."
He said: "The main reason for her death was intestinal damage.
"The intestine was punctured, which could be due to starvation for a long period of time and could also be due to prolonged stress."
What have Nora's family said?
Meabh and Sebastian Quoirin sobbed while they thanked search teams on August 10.
In a video broadcast on local media, she said: "We want to say thank you to each and every one of you. We know you're searching night and day for Nora."
In an emotional video statement, Nora's aunt said: "We are completely overwhelmed by the support we have received from all over the world."
She added: "This is extremely traumatic for the whole family.
"[Nora's parents] Meabh and Sebastien are devastated and too upset to speak themselves at this time."
After the teen's body was found, the family paid an emotional tribute to the teenager who "truly touched the world".
A family spokesman said: "The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable. Our hearts are broken."
But they are also wanting clarity on unanswered questions.
Her grandad Sylvain Quoirin, 67, has claimed that “someone tampered with her body” believing she was dumped at the waterfall by sinister forces in an attempt to “get rid of her” and called for a fresh criminal investigation.
Charles Morel, the family’s lawyer, said: The family is just concerned to find out the truth. There are many unanswered questions and we cannot exclude criminal involvement.
“Nora was found where people have already searched. If she was alive for that long, then it is possible that she met somebody.
“We cannot exclude anything at this stage. In view of the importance of Malaysia’s image for tourism, the authorities may tend to favour the theory of a disappearance over the criminal hypothesis.”
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