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KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian coroner will issue an investigative verdict on Monday (January 4) on the death of a French-Irish teenager whose body was found in the jungle after she disappeared during a family vacation.
The body of Nora Quoirin, a 15-year-old girl with learning difficulties, was discovered without clothes after a jungle hunt following her disappearance from a resort on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in 2019.
Police insist there was no foul play and an autopsy conducted in Malaysia found that he likely starved and died of internal bleeding after days in the jungle.
READ: Malaysian coroner ends investigation into French-Irish teenager Nora Quoirin’s death, verdict in weeks
But her parents believe that she was kidnapped, saying that the teenager would never have left through the window of the chalet where they were staying in the dead of night, as the police believe.
Authorities tried to close the case, but her parents lobbied for the investigation, which took place from late August to December and the proceedings were streamed online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Police reiterated their belief that the teenager had wandered away from the Dusun compound alone in August 2019, a day after checking in for a vacation with her London-based family.
Senior police official Mohamad Mat Yusop, among the more than 40 witnesses who testified, said in the investigation in Seremban city that “there was no indication that the victim was abducted” and insisted that authorities carry out a thorough search .
But her parents, who testified via video link from Britain, painted a different picture, strongly criticizing authorities for their response to their daughter’s disappearance.
Her mother, Meabh, said police were slow to launch a full-scale search and did not take her concerns about possible criminal involvement seriously.
LEE: Malaysia opens an investigation into the death of French-Irish teenager Nora Quoirin
Her father, Sebastien, also said he heard mysterious “muffled noises” coming from the chalet on the night of the schoolgirl’s disappearance, fueling the family’s belief that she was abducted.
The search lasted 10 days and expanded to include hundreds of rescuers, helicopters and sniffer dogs, before the body of the teenager was found in a ravine not far from the complex.
The 12-acre (5-hectare) site is adjacent to a thick patch of rainforest and in the foothills of a mountain range.
The teenager had a condition known as holoprosencephaly, where the brain does not develop normally. He had limited verbal communication and could only write a few words.
He attended a school for young people with learning difficulties.
