Parents claim body of Franco-Irish teen found dead in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The grief-stricken parents of a Franco-Irish teen found dead in Malaysia after she disappeared from a rainforest resort claimed her body Friday, August 16, police said, following an autopsy that showed no signs of foul play.

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

An autopsy showed the 15-year-old 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.

Mohamad, however, said 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, the police chief explained.

In a statement issued through their Malaysian lawyer, the girl’s family said the initial autopsy results “have given some information that help us to understand Nora’s cause of death.”

But they said their daughter “died in extremely complex circumstances” and they were still hoping to have “more answers to our many questions.”

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

The girl had gone missing from Dusun Resort, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, on August 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, August 13, 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.

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.

The schoolgirl is believed to have died two to 3 days before her body was found.

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.

The Lucie Blackman Trust, a charity that supports relatives of British people missing overseas, said ongoing investigations in France will remain underway and urged an end to public speculation on the cause of death. – Rappler.com