Teen missing from resort survived for seven days before dying of starvation
Malaysian police said Thursday there were no signs of foul play in the death of a 15-year-old London girl who mysteriously disappeared from a nature resort, with an autopsy showing she succumbed to intestinal bleeding due to starvation and stress.
Nora Anne Quoirin’s body was discovered Tuesday beside a small stream about 2.5 kilometres rom the Dusun eco-resort after she disappeared from her family’s resort cottage on Aug. 4.
Negeri Sembilan state police chief Mohamad Mat Yusop said the autopsy found no evidence the teenager had been abducted or raped.
She was estimated to have been dead two or three days when her naked body was found 10 days after she meant missing, he said.
This means she was still alive for seven days after disappearing from the resort.
“For the time being, there is no element of abduction or kidnapping,” he told a news conference at the hospital morgue.
“The cause of death was upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to duodenal ulcer, complicated with perforation... it could be due to a lack of food for a long period of time and due to prolonged stress,” he said.
Mohamad said there were also some bruises on the girl’s legs but wouldn’t cause her death. Samples taken from her body will be sent to the chemistry department for further analysis, he said.
The girl’s family can take her body back to their country if they wish, he added.
Quoirin’s family has said she wasn’t independent and wouldn’t wander off alone as she had learning and physical disabilities. Police believe she climbed out through an open window in the living room of the cottage, but said they were investigated all aspects including possible criminal elements.
Police from Ireland, France and the UK are in Malaysia to assist in the investigation. The girl’s mother is from Ireland and her father is French, but the family has lived in London for 20 years.
The Paris prosecutor’s office on Wednesday said it has opened a preliminary investigation into the girl’s death, on potential charges of kidnapping and sequestration. The prosecutor’s office wouldn’t elaborate. French authorities often open such investigations when French citizens are victims or otherwise involved in suspected crimes abroad.
Quoirin’s family arrived August 3 for a two-week stay at the Dusun, a small resort located in a durian orchard next to a forest reserve 63 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur.
Her family on Wednesday thanked the more than 350 people who helped search for the girl and said that their hearts were broken.
“Nora is at the heart of our family. She is the truest, most precious girl and we love her infinitely. The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable,” the family said in a brief statement issued by the Lucie Blackman Trust, a charity that helps families of Britons in crisis overseas.
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