KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – A Malaysian lawyer ruled on Monday that the death of a French-Irish teenager whose body was found near a Malaysian jungle resort where he disappeared while on holiday was most likely an unhappiness which did not involve other people.
Forensic scientist Maimoonah Aid ruled out homicide, natural death and suicide and said Nora Anne Quoirin was probably lost after leaving her family’s cabin alone.
The 15-year-old man disappeared in the ecological resort Dusun in the south of Negeri Sembilan state on August 4, 2019, a day after the family arrived for a vacation. After a massive search, her naked body was found on August 13 near a creek on a palm oil property about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) from the resort.
Police thought she went out the window of the cabin alone, without any evidence of a bad game. But the teenager’s parents said she was probably abducted because she had mental and physical disabilities and would not have wandered alone. They told the investigation that a third party could have thrown his body in the area following the search operation for her.
The coroner described the family’s suggestions as “nothing more than a probable theory,” without any evidence.
Nora Anne was only wearing underwear when she disappeared, but her body was found naked. The coroner noted the family’s claim that this gave credence to the possibility of sexual assault, but said an extensive autopsy could find no evidence or evidence of signs of fighting or suffocation.
Maimoonah also said that there were no suspicious circumstances before the teenager’s disappearance, no ransom request and no sign of intrusion into the family’s cottage.
“I have decided that no one is involved in Nora Anne’s death. It is more likely that she died unfortunately, that is, that she came out of the (hut) alone and later got lost in the abundant palm oil plantation “, said the coroner.
Nora Anne’s parents listened to the verdict online from their home in London, but did not give an immediate statement.
A British pathologist who performed a second autopsy on Nora Anne’s body in Great Britain confessed that she agrees with the findings in Malaysia that she died of intestinal bleeding due to hunger and stress. However, he said he could not fully rule out sexual assault because of severe body breakdown.
Maimoonah said Nora Anne, who was sleeping in the attic with her siblings, could have been awakened by the heat or loud noises from a party at another nearby cottage and would have gone upstairs to find her parents. .
But the coroner said the teenager may not have been able to open the heavy sliding door in her parents’ bedroom and could then leave the cottage. Her mother had testified that a broken window in the cabin was found open the morning Nora Anne disappeared, but the coroner said she may have accidentally opened it.
Rescuers could have overlooked Nora’s body because of the dense jungle terrain, Maimoonah added. The autopsy estimated that she died two to four days before her body was discovered.
A total of 49 witnesses testified in 24 days since August last year by videoconference due to the coronavirus pandemic.