Grieving parents say girl's death in Malaysian jungle remains suspicious
The heartbroken parents of 15-year-old Nora Quoirin who was found dead nine days after she went missing in a Malaysian jungle have not ruled out foul play as a cause of death.
Speaking on behalf of her parents Sebastien, 47, and Meabh, 45, French lawyer Charles Morel told Irish radio station RTE the family refused to “exclude” criminal activity until they received results from a final autopsy report.
Nora’s body was identified by her family on Tuesday (local time) after her body was found 2.5km from the Dusun eco-resort in Seremban, 60km south of Kuala Lumpur, where her family arrived on August 3 for a two-week holiday.
The following day when her parents went to check on Nora, who has learning and physical difficulties, wasn’t in her room and her window was wide open.
A wide-scale search ensued in the following days, with local authorities and search teams scouring the dense jungle surrounding the resort.
While police believed the girl climbed out of the window herself, her family strongly refuted such claims, saying she wasn’t independent and wouldn’t wander off alone.
National deputy police chief Mazlan Mansor told a news conference her body "was not in any clothing", and was found by volunteers registered with the rescue team on Tuesday afternoon (local time) in an area that had previously been searched.
Nora’s family remain skeptical there weren’t more factors at play that led to her eventual death from an intestinal rupture caused by starvation.
“We have to be very cautious about the test results after the autopsy,” Mr Morel told the radio station.
“We don’t want the media to interpret the first result of the autopsy excluding the criminal hypothesis.
“She was very shy, dependent on her mother and it’s not in her temperament to go out in the night after a long trip in a place she doesn’t know, in the jungle”.
He added that Nora’s parents were so far “satisfied” with the quality of work that had been performed by the Malaysian Police.
The family was unsure when the final autopsy results would be released.
Nora's mother is from Ireland and her father is French, but the family has lived in London for 20 years.
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