Page QQQ Daily Mail, Friday, August 16, 2019
teams during the first seven days of her
disappearance. Police have been unable to
adequately explain why she was missed.
To compound their agony, Nora’s family
were told that she was still alive during the
search. A post-mortem examination found
that she died from intestinal bleeding
caused by hunger and stress – ‘two or three
days’ before her body was found.
Police have also been unable to explain
why Nora was not wearing the underwear
she had on when she was last seen by
her parents, Meabh and Sebastien
Quoirin, at bedtime on August 3.
Mr Morel said the Malaysian authorities
must not rule out a ‘criminal hypothesis’
just because of the importance of tourism
in the region.
He added: ‘The family are just concerned
to find out the truth. There are many
unanswered questions and we cannot
exclude criminal involvement.
‘Nora was found where people have
already searched. If she was alive for that
long, then it is possible that she met some-
‘No reason why she
would leave the lodge’having been born with Patau’s
syndrome, or holoprosencephaly.
The condition left her struggling
to complete everyday tasks and
with limited speech, walking ability
and co-ordination.
‘One of the effects of her condi-
tion is that she was very dependent
on her parents,’ said Mr Morel, who
is based in Paris.
‘She was shy, she was quickly
scared, she had travelled for 18
hours and she was exhausted.
‘So there is no reason why she
would leave the lodge in the night,
almost naked. There is no previous
episode in her life to suggest she
might do something like this.’
Sylvain Quoirin, the mayor of a
small town in Burgundy, believes
someone put Nora’s body there ‘to
get rid of her’, adding: ‘She wasn’t
there yet [during previous
searches]. Someone put her there.’
He dismissed theories that Nora
could have wandered outside on
her own. He said: ‘Can you imagine
her walking 2.5km, naked and bare-
foot, over rocks, in the middle of
the night? For me, that’s absurd.’
Nora’s uncle Pacome Quoirin, a
graphic designer, added: ‘How
could she have survived for five
days in the jungle without food or
water, if you believe the theory that
she left the hotel on her own? We
remain very dubious.
‘The findings that were announced
in no way discredit a criminal act.
She could have been kidnapped
and fed at the beginning. There is
insufficient evidence to jump to
definitive conclusions.’
Nora’s body was found in a sleep-
ing position close to a stream at the
foot of a ravine on Berembun moun-
tain, 1.6 miles from an eco-resort
where her family were staying.
Nora, from south London, had
travelled to the Dunsun resort,
about 39 miles south of Kuala
Lumpur, on August 3 with her par-
ents, sister Innes, 12, and brother
Maurice, eight. After going to sleep
with her siblings in an upstairs bed-
room, she was discovered missing
by her French father shortly after
8am the next day.
Police were left with no clues
apart from a large downstairs win-
dow that had been left ajar. Detec-
tives believe she climbed through
the window and then got lost.
State police chief Mohamad Mat
Yusop said the results of the post-mortem examination reinforced his
belief that Nora was not abducted,
and instead died of starvation after
getting lost.
‘For the time being, there is no
element of abduction or kidnap-
ping,’ he said. ‘The cause of death
was upper gastro-intestinal bleed-
ing. It could be due to a lack of food
for a long period of time and due to
prolonged stress.’
He also confirmed that the searchTen agonising days: Searchers in the Malaysian jungle. Above right: Nora’s grandfather Sylvain
‘We remain very
dubious’Continued from Page One
Did Nora leave the
holiday lodge alone,
given her family insist
she was incapable of
doing so – physically
and mentally – and was
highly dependent on
her parents?Did local police take
seriously enough
the Quoirins’ insistence
that abduction was the
most likely explanation
for her disappearance?How many times did
the search party
visit the ravine where
Nora’s body was found?When did these
searches take place,
and could the timings
have allowed her body
to have been put there
later, as suggested by
her grandfather?Why was Nora found
naked given that
she was wearing
underwear when
she went to bed the
night before
she disappeared?Have police found
any of her clothes in
the jungle?If Nora was alive and
lost in the forest for
a week, why did she
not respond to
recorded messages
from her mother which
were played over
loudhailers from the
fifth day of the search?Why were thermal
imaging drones
only deployed on
August 9 – the sixth day
after the alarm
was raised?body. We cannot exclude anything at this
stage. In view of the importance of Malay-
sia’s image for tourism, the authorities
may tend to favour the theory of a disap-
pearance over the criminal hypothesis.’
Mr Morel said Nora’s disability made it
highly unlikely that she left the lodge at
night and walked to the bottom of a ravine
via ‘an extremely steep path through the
jungle’ by herself.
The teenager had a smaller than average
brain and struggled to act independently,
and rescue team did cover the area
where Nora’s body was found dur-
ing the first seven days of the search
and suggested she could have been
on the move at the time.
In an attempt to reassure Nora’s
family, Mr Yusop added: ‘We will
continue to investigate and find out
what really happened.’
Mr and Mrs Quoirin, a data analy-
sis firm salesman and market
research company director, met in
Northern Ireland and the family
live in Streatham, south London.
[email protected] Starved to death: London schoolgirl Nora Quoirin1
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KEY QUESTIONS THAT
STILL NEED ANSWERS