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Parents to claim body of Irish teen Nora Quoirin found dead in Malaysia


Nora Anne Quoirin, a 15-year-old girl who went missing from a Malaysian resort and was later found dead. (Photo: The Lucie Blackman Trust/Quoirin family via AP)

KUALA LUMPUR: The grief-stricken parents of a Franco-Irish teen found dead in Malaysia after she disappeared from a rainforest resort said on Friday (Aug 16) they would bring her body home, following an autopsy that showed no signs of foul play.

Mohamad Mat Yusop, the police chief of Negeri Sembilan state where Nora died, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that her remains would be repatriated to London where she had lived with her family.

An autopsy showed the 15-year-old Nora Quoirin likely starved and died of internal bleeding after about a week in the jungle, with no immediate signs of foul play, police said.

There was also no indication that the teenager, who had learning difficulties, was abducted or sexually assaulted, they said.

READ: Volunteer hikers describe moment they found missing Irish teen's body lying by a stream

The police chief later clarified that Nora's body was still in the mortuary since the documentation process for it to be repatriated was ongoing.

Claiming the body is the first step in the process to send the remains back for burial or cremation, he explained.

Nora’s parents said in a statement on Friday that although initial post-mortem results have given some information about the cause of death, her family is still struggling to understand the events of the last 10 days.

“Our beautiful innocent girl died in extremely complex circumstances and we are hoping that soon we will have more answers to our many questions," they said.

“We will be bringing Nora home where she will finally be laid to rest, close to her loving families in France and Ireland," the statement added.

They did not mention when Nora's body will be repatriated.

READ: Nora Quoirin: A timeline of events

Nora had gone missing from Dusun Resort, about 70km from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, on Aug 4, a day after checking in for a holiday with her family.

Her disappearance sparked a massive 10-day search in the jungle that involved hundreds of people, helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs.

The search came to a tragic end Tuesday when the teenager's unclothed body was discovered in a ravine beside a stream not far from the resort.

Police had classified her disappearance as a missing persons case.

But the lawyer of her family, who believe she may have been abducted, said it was too early to rule out a criminal element in the case.

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail met with the girl's family Friday at the resort.

"It is very sad. Her death was tragic and I wish to extend my condolences to the family," Wan Azizah told reporters.

READ: Locals worry no one will visit Malaysian village after death of Irish

The schoolgirl is believed to have died two to three days before her body was found.

Her family had said it was extremely unlikely the reserved youngster would have wandered off on her own.

She had a condition known as holoprosencephaly, where the brain fails to develop normally. She had limited verbal communication and could only write a few words.

Source: AGENCIES/cna/nr/ec


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