KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – A Malaysian coroner decided on Monday that the death of a French-Irish teenager whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort, where she disappeared while on vacation, was probably a misfortune that it didn’t involve other people.
Coroner Maimoonah Aid ruled out homicide, natural death and suicide and said Nora Anne Quoirin was probably lost after leaving her family home alone.
The 15-year-old disappeared at the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state on August 4, 2019, the day after the family arrived on vacation. After a massive search, his naked body was found on August 13 beside a stream on a palm oil estate about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) from the resort.
The police believe she left the cottage window on her own, with no evidence of any crime. But the teenager’s parents said she was probably kidnapped because she had physical and mental disabilities and would not have gone out alone. They said in the investigation that a third party could have thrown his body into the area after the search operation for her.
The coroner described the family’s suggestions as “nothing more than likely theory”, with no evidence.
Nora Anne was dressed only in underwear when she disappeared, but her body was found naked. The coroner noted the family’s claim that this credited the possibility of sexual assault, but said an extensive autopsy found no such evidence, nor evidence of marks of struggle or suffocation.
Maimoonah also said there were no suspicious circumstances before the teenager’s disappearance, no ransom demand and no sign of intrusion into the family home.
“I decided that no one was involved in the death of Nora Anne. It is more likely than not that she died by misfortune, that is, that she left the (country house) on her own and later lost herself in the abundant palm oil plantation ”, said the coroner.
Nora Anne’s parents were listening to the online verdict from her London home, but did not make any immediate statements.
A British pathologist who performed a second autopsy on Nora Anne’s body in the United Kingdom testified that he agreed with Malaysia’s findings that she died of intestinal bleeding due to hunger and stress. However, he said he could not rule out sexual assault entirely due to the serious decomposition of the body.
Maimoonah said that Nora Anne, who was sleeping in the attic with her brothers, could have been woken by the heat or the noise of a party in another nearby cottage and went down to meet her parents.
But the coroner said the teenager may not have been able to open the heavy sliding door in her parents’ room and could have left the cottage. Her mother testified that a cabin window, with a broken lock, was found open the morning Nora Anne disappeared, but the coroner said she could have pushed it by accident.
Rescuers may have forgotten Nora’s body due to the dense jungle terrain, Maimoonah added. The autopsy estimated that she died between two and four days before her body was discovered.
A total of 49 witnesses have testified in 24 days since August last year by videoconference due to the coronavirus pandemic.